Topic: Could someone show the real difference between Linux and Windows mining? (Read 4038 times)

Overclocking is simpler in Linux than in Windows. You have a graphical program AMDOverdriveCtrl that allows you to change the voltage, fan speed, gpu Mhz and memory Mhz (ignoring bios limitations, no need to flash bios). You can use the same program in console if you prefer so or use aticonfig.

Not sure how you'd do it on Windows although I assume you can. In Linux this would be pretty easy.

You'd just call aticonfig --adapter=all --odgt to get temperatures, grep the temperature and if it's over a certain level, use sendmail to notify yourself.

you can run LMI from your cellphone too, if you want to give them monies, hah! not to mention it'd be slow as balls. SSH from your phone is a far superior method.

thats the "issue" im having now. im trying to find a good solution to give email alerts when GPU temps read >x level. Speedfan does not read my damned GPU's, and I imagine this would be rather trivial in linux. i found one that will run an executable file upon alert, but thats about it.

I run my sshds on a different port for each server, and have port forwarding enabled to run headless.

I use Linux over Windows on my mining boxes because they are dedicated mining boxes. I use other computers to do other things (mostly my MacBook Pro). For a multi-use box I would probably use Windows if my needs included gaming, and Linux for the things you mentioned (tor, freenet node, checking exchanges).

I've not had any issues on my boxes with Linux that weren't caused by a dodgy riser. All are working fine with my Autominer script (see signature) and Phoenix/phatk. It takes me about 2 hours to install Arch and download all the stuff I want to get it mining, so I guess I'm at 3.5 hours from box of parts but I put at least 1 of those hours down to my slow Internet connection.

As you said, it's a matter of choice, personally I find Linux convenient as a pure miner, and it does get me a few more hashes. I've used Linux for a long time, I script for Linux and I prefer ssh to other remote admin tools because I can use it from my cellphone anywhere in the world.

a) because it took over a day for you to spill the command:) but seriously, if that works 100% of the time with no issue with drivers, then its dead simple. in my experience, ATI drivers blew with xorg. havent used an ATI card in years, then i started mining. it has been my experience with ATI cards and linux, that you just have some type of problem.

b) the advantage is to personal taste. for me, its nice because i can run DHCP on a box and not have to worry about port forwarding. though, i run static, making this rather moot. i also dig that i can log in from any computer with minimal software install (browser). i am not saying LMI has any advantage over SSH/VNC in any other "typical" environment, only that it held an advantage in this one because it was <2minutes to get it going. i had my miner from "box of parts" to "overclocked, headless, mining rig" in under 2 hours. OS install and config included. i "guess" if i used a "live" linux OS for mining, the OS install would have went faster, but i use this box for a couple of other things as well. (tor proxy, freenet node, checking BTC exchanges, torrent downloader, etc).

im not running a rather complicated system, so complicating it with an operating system and software that could cause >1second of trouble isnt worth it.


if you're using linux for your BTC mining needs, either a) you use little else, or b) you think you're cool. theres very little to gain, $/hash wise, from using linux/windows. unless you paid for your copy of windows. and in that case, i am sorry.

aticonfig --adapter=all --odsc 966,180

How is that not dead simple?


Again, I don't see the advantage of logmein over ssh and screen.

It is rocket science!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gtLSiKmsec

amarok > all other media players.

i am a pretty big linux fan, but i use windows 7 x64 to mine. why?

overclocking cards is dead simple.

i also use logmein to remote control my computer. yeah i could use VNC, even through SSH for good security. or i could install windows 7 and use logmein.
mining isnt rocket science, so it doesnt need a rocket science OS.

as a side note, i installed a wifi card, used LMI to set up a static IP address on it and windows is all "BLAH IM DUMZ DO YEU WANT TEU USE SAME EYE-PEE AS YER ETHURNUT ADAPTER HAS?!?!" so i go "uh yeah, im not a tard". i then promptly disable ethernet, and LMI hiccups, which is to be expected. couldnt log in. check my cisco wifi AP and its connected to wifi, so security settings is correct, but its using an autoconfig address.

had to install an effing monitor to the box and found that windows, DESPITE ME TELLING IT SET THE DAMNED IP, removed the IP address (just removed it. didnt set it back to DHCP). so to windows i say:
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU


windows is just easy. but windows is also stupid.

I can do this in Linux but lose quite a few hashes as I have to turn aggression down from 13 on one of the cards.

I can play games on my windows while mining... just saying...

I get about 15MH higher off each 5850 in Linux over Windows.

Also you can use my awesome Autominer script in Linux (makes mining the laziest process ever).

Gah..... ~drools on my keyboard~

I think they were looking more for numbers or a general advantage/disadvantage of using each.

But anyhow, Linux tends to allow more control over the hardware within your computer.  Most of the things you can't do in Windows, you can in Linux.  And, as far as I know, that doesn't work the other way around.  Linux has emulators for Windows programs (such as Wine) that allows it to run them with a few problematic programs here and there.
Now, one of the bigger advantages of Linux is that most people tend to write their code for Linux since it provides a free and familiar interface for scripting, compiling, debugging, etc.  And so you will find most of the programs for mining ported to Linux.  The downside of this, almost no GUI miners for those of you who prefer a point-click interface.  Instead, we give you the ability to compile your own source code using optimizations specific to your own hardware and preferences.
When GPU mining, ATI limits the number of recognized GPUs in Windows to 4.  In Linux, the max I've seen used is 8, but I imagine it'll allow more if the motherboard can handle it.  But, if you were to use Windows in this scenario, you would end up having to use two machines in order to achieve the same result of one in Linux.
One of the things you will find with Linux vs. Windows is that Windows doesn't have a 64-bit miner available as of writing this that I'm aware of.  Linux has one that I'm using right now for my CPUs.

One advantage that I can say Windows does have is the Intel Compiler which outputs more optimized executables than Gcc is capable of right now.  But your source code has to be written for Windows/the compiler which just isn't the case with most of these programs.

I hope this has been of help to you.  If you're using a 64-bit capable processor, I recommend doing your mining in a 64-bit version of Linux to achieve twice the amount of hashes/sec.  Use Linux in general for more than 4 GPU cores.  Otherwise, it's your choice.

higher resolution please

here's  the difference.

Does someone tried the same miner and arguments on both platform?


I wanna know for sure the difference...