CGMiner setup and parameters for mining on Nvidia and AMD video cards

Console client for mining. Designed for an experienced user, it supports video card overclocking and many settings for pools and other things, it allows you to get a higher MH/S value using the CryptoNight algorithm than other programs.

CGMiner is a program that is rightfully considered one of the most effective GPU miners. It uses a special NeoScrypt algorithm, which helps to significantly increase the volume of mined cryptocurrency.

The most serious disadvantage of CGMiner is the lack of a graphical shell. Yes, this is a console miner, which will not be easy for beginners to set up. All data for connecting to the pool, as well as the load level and other mining parameters will have to be entered “by hand” in the configuration file.

Note that the best option for cryptocurrency mining in 2021 is cloud mining. There are quite a large number of services that are ready to provide computing power for rent, but be careful, against the backdrop of the growing popularity of digital currency and mining, many scammers have appeared, so you need to use only reliable and proven services. We have prepared for you a rating of the best cloud mining services relevant for 2022.

Hive OS , a Linux operating system based on the Ubuntu distribution, optimized for cryptocurrency mining, is well-deservedly popular among miners Linux miner hive OS is both a set of programs and a service for monitoring your rigs. This review describes what Hive OS is, how to install, configure and use it for mining.

The long-awaited release of Hive OS 2.0 has been released with a new system interface. Everything has changed, not just visually, but the functional part has also undergone major changes. Many useful features have been added to simplify the work of ordinary users with the system.

• Hive OS official website: https://hiveos.farm
• Promotional code for crediting 10 USD to your Hive OS balance: MINING-CRYPTO (specify during registration)

Mining program CGMiner

CGMiner is the most effective software for mining cryptocurrencies on a video card. This software uses the NeoScrypt algorithm, which allows you to significantly increase your mining income. The only disadvantage of CGMiner is the lack of a graphical interface, so its configuration is carried out through the console.

Because of this feature, CGMiner is called a program for experienced miners. In this article we will show you how to use this software. We hope that this information will be useful to you. We would like to immediately note that the CGM Miner program is more suitable for mining farms consisting of video cards from the manufacturer AMD.

If you are the owner of a farm of NVIDIA video cards, then it is better to use Claumore's Dual Mining program. Features of CGMiner include:

• overclocking of the video card is possible;
• works through a proxy server;
• uses balancing algorithms;
• it is possible to regulate the cooler power;
• mining of Bitcoin, Ethereum and others is possible;
• disables idle workers.

Setting up xmrig for Monero mining

To mine coins using the randomx algorithm, you need to create or edit a ready-made batch file for the coin you need. These are the basic settings, which are enough for mining.

1. xmrig this key will indicate which program will be launched. Let's leave it as is. For Nvidia we specify xmrig-nvidia
2. -a randomx specify the algorithm. For Monero we leave this one. For coins based on the cryptonight-lite algorithm, indicate it
3. -o pool.supportxmr.com indicate the address of your pool. In this example we have supportxmr, because at the time of writing, it received the largest number of positive reviews
4. 5555 after the pool address we indicate the pool port separated by a colon. dwarfpool has 8050
5. -u “your wallet address”
6. —donate-level=1 configure the miner’s commission. By default it is 5%. level=1 means 1%

Key features of CGMiner

The CGMiner miner is designed to work with AMD video cards. Since he does not know how to extract currency using CUDA technology. If you own a PC or farm with NVIDIA video cards, then it is more advisable to use Claymore's Dual Miner.

Among the interesting features of this program, it is worth noting the presence of tools for overclocking the GPU and even for controlling the rotation speed of coolers. It is recommended to use them very carefully.

CGMiner can also provide debugging information, automatically disable “problematic” workers, work through a proxy, and use the Load Balance and Round Robin strategies. The user is given the opportunity to independently specify the width of the vectors, waiting periods for reconnection, create artificial delays for routers, and configure separate message output.

• lack of a graphical shell (console application);
• use of the NeoScrypt algorithm, which helps to achieve maximum MH/s values;
• availability of tools for overclocking the graphics adapter;
• changing operating parameters through a configuration file;
• displaying a detailed log;
• To simplify working with the program, you can use the CGWatcher graphical shell.

CGMiner setup and parameters

you can from the official developer page on the Bitcointalk forum. The latest version of the miner is always available there, where you can ask a question and take part in a discussion of the program.

CGMiner is controlled via the command line. To avoid having to configure all the parameters again every time you start or change cryptocurrency, it’s easier to create a .bat

file and enter the settings there. This file is created in the folder with the miner as a text document (notepad), with the extension .bat. The main setting for the miner to work looks like this:

cgminer --scrypt -o stratum+tcp://east1.us.stratum.dedicatedpool.com:3351 -u user.1 -px

• cgminer
  - points to the launch file
• —scrypt
  — indicates to the miner the algorithm of the mined cryptocurrency
• -o
  - after this the pool address
  tratum+tcp://east1.us.stratum.dedicatedpool.com is indicated:
  and port
  3351
  . This data is indicated on all pools, in the “Getting Started” section.
• -u user.1
  - indicating the login on the pool and the name of the worker created there
• -px
  — specifying the password for the created worker

Advanced settings to improve miner performance:

--auto-fan Automatically adjusts the GPU fan speed to maintain the specified temperature (value: none); —auto-gpu Automatically adjusts the GPU clock speed to maintain the specified temperature (value: no); —device (-d) Allows you to select the desired device to work with, by default all work (example: —device 0); --disable-gpu (-G) Disable GPU (value: none); —gpu-threads (-g) Number of threads on the GPU (values: 1 — 10, default is 2, example: —gpu-threads 2); --gpu-dyninterval Set the refresh interval in ms for GPUs using dynamic intensity (default: 7); —gpu-engine Sets the frequency for the graphics core, it is possible to set the range (example: —gpu-engine 900 or 800-900); —gpu-fan Sets the fan speed as a percentage, fixed or range (example: —gpu-fan 25 or 25-65); —gpu-map Map OpenCL to ADL device order manually, paired CSV (eg 1:0,2:1 maps OpenCL 1 to ADL 0, 2 to 1); —gpu-memclock Sets the frequency for memory (for BTC it is better to lower the frequency, for LTC it is better to raise it, example: —gpu-memclock 1800); —gpu-memdiff Set a fixed difference in MHz between the core and memory (example: —gpu-memdiff ???); --gpu-powertune Set GPU powertune as a percentage; --gpu-reorder Reorder video cards; —gpu-vddc Change core voltage, in volts (example: —gpu-vddc 1.125); -intensity (-I) Aggression (intensity) (values: 10 - 14, d - dynamic, example -intensity 13 or d); —kernel (-k) Specifies the kernel for the device to operate (kernels: diablo, poclbm, phatk, diakgcn, example: —kernel diakgcn) (need help in selecting kernels for card families); —ndevs (-n) List all devices with their numbers and exit; —temp-hysteresis How much the temperature in degrees can differ from the target (default: 3, example: —temp-hysteresis 15); —temp-overheat Temperature in degrees for resetting core frequencies and increasing fan speed (default: 85, example: --temp-overheat 90) —temp-target Setting the target temperature in degrees (default: 75, example: --temp-target 80 ); --vectors (-v) Set the width of vectors, default to auto (values: 1, 2 and 4, example: --vectors 2); —worksize (-w) Set the memory size, has virtually no effect on performance (default: auto, value must be a multiple of 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, recommended 256, example: —worksize 256).

A more complete version is given in the form of a table image:

Intensity

the main indicator that affects the speed of the miner; its value is set from 0 to 20. It is worth considering that too high an intensity can negatively affect the mining speed, because it CAN exhaust all available memory and in fact, will reduce mining speed at best. At worst, a large number of incorrect calculations and HW errors will appear. Please note that if the intensity is not specified, CGMiner itself will adjust it dynamically, taking into account the possibility of comfortable work on a PC.

Thread-concurrency

controls the optimal volume of calculations that the scrypt algorithm can perform. Initially configured to maximize the use of multiple threads of all shader units of the video card that it has. The value must be a multiple of the number of shader units on the video card. Accordingly, if “thread-concurrency” is specified, then “shaders” can be removed. It is recommended that you spend some time finding the best value for your graphics card in order to get the best performance.

Example of setting up a bat file under Windows

The so-called batch file is needed to set several necessary parameters for the CGMiner program.

The basic configuration of the executable file looks like this:

setx GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT 100 setx GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS 1 cgminer.exe —scrypt —worksize 256 —intensity 20 —auto-fan —lookup-gap 2 —thread-concurrency 25614 —gpu-engine 1050 — gpu-memclock 1600 —gpu-powertune 20 -o pool address :port -u worker -p password

Algorithms that CCminer runs on

(on which you can mine):

CGMiner for Decred mining on Nvidia and AMD video cards

There is a new version of CGMiner 5.3.1 git-tpruvot for Decred mining using AMD and NVIDIA GPU. This new version of the miner should work better than the previously available official CGMiner fork for DCR.

This fork comes with support for both sharing protocols, such as the official getwork protocol and the more advanced getwork via stratum. As mentioned above, the miner will work with both AMD and NVIDIA GPU video cards (using OpenCL, not CUDA).

Please note that NVML monitoring only works on the 64-bit version. When testing this version of the miner, we were able to achieve a higher hashrate on NVIDIA video cards than when using the tpruvot fork of ccMiner for DCR mining. Those who mine using AMD video cards should not have any problems switching to this version of the miner. You can certainly get better results when mining Decred using Gatework-enabled pools through Stratum.

Cryptonight algorithm for mining Monero and Bytecoin tokens

The main concept of the Kryptonite software algorithm is to destroy the barrier that has arisen between users using traditional farms based on video cards and users mining crypto using advanced and expensive ASIC devices. This algorithm is sensitive to the use of a particular RAM.

The main concept of this crypto-algorithm is based on the allocation of a large information block into the RAM with a resulting unexpected result in this information block. To ensure a more convenient principle for storing information rather than calculating it upon new access, the block must be relatively large. In this case, the operation of the algorithm should automatically prevent the occurrence of internal parallelism. This means that the N-number of crypto-threads working at the same time requires the instant allocation of a larger amount of RAM.

The popular crypto algorithm Scrypt also works using RAM. True, it retains the possibility of building and using high-performance and highly specialized devices for mining digital money, working on the basis of this algorithm. If we talk about ccminer-cryptonight, then, unlike the Scrypt algorithm, all new blocks, 64 bytes in size, depend on all previously generated blocks. This updated algorithm uses 2 megabytes of RAM, which is the minimum value for the L3 memory cache of desktop CPUs. This amount of RAM occupied does not allow the use of ASIC devices for crypto mining.

Users should understand the differences between the CryptoNote and CryptoNight algorithms. CryptoNight is essentially one way to implement CryptoNote. Crypto coins based on Kryptonite include Monero (XMR), ByteCoin (BCN), and Aeoncoin.

As for the advantages of cryptocurrency mining using this algorithm, they include:

• ensuring a gradually fading emission for cryptocurrency assets;
• minimum time intervals between the formation of new crypto blocks;
• impossibility of crypto mining using ASICs;
• to improve the performance of cryptocurrency farms, it is possible to use hybrid combinations of CPU and video chips;
• the presence of a number of significant conceptual differences from Bitcoin algorithms, which should attract the attention of new users, as well as crypto investors interested in investing in new crypto assets;
• the peculiarities inherent in coins using the CryptoNight algorithm allow them to stand out from other cryptocurrencies and attract the attention of crypto market participants;
• profitability and payback rates are significantly superior to most existing analogues;
• the video card and processor heat up much less than when using other crypto algorithms, which has a positive effect on the reliability and durability of the equipment for mining digital money.

CGMiner for AMD video cards with increased Neoscrypt performance

This is an update of the official CGMiner to version 3.7.8 with Neoscrypt support, which adds a new kernel with better performance and allows the miner to work with the latest AMD 14.9 drivers, which was not possible with the previous version of miner 3.7.7b. We have compiled the source code of the new cgminer 3.7.8 Neoscrypt for Windows, which you can download from the link below and try it yourself.

Our first test on the AMD Radeon R9 280X without overclocking showed performance of about 140 KHS, so the increase from previous versions was approximately 50%, and some users managed to achieve an increase of 200%, albeit using overclocked video cards. Since it's still not possible to get a CUDA miner for Neoscrypt, you can use this CGMiner with OpenCL-based Nvidia graphics cards, although you won't get much of a performance boost.