Litecoin GPU mining on a Mac? - page 2.

theorem

newbie

Activity: 3

Merit: 0

Quote from: User_513 on May 03, 2013, 01:08:59 PM

Is it an Intel Mac Pro? If so why not run Linux or Windows on it? I've got a hackintosh with a 5770 in it that I boot into Windows when I want to mine with it that gives me a reliable 200k running cgminer 2.11.4 or greater.

What results did you get while running cgminer in OSX?
I can't install another OS on mine, it's being used for other stuff |:

maxpower

sr. member

Activity: 456

Merit: 250

Thanks to all of you for the suggestions! The machine is a big tower Mac Pro (with 2 PCI-E slots!), and I do have an NVIDIA GTX285 in it. Maybe the fact that the GPU is NVIDIA is what's preventing me from mining LTC with cgminer, even though mining BTC works fine. I'm going to see what I can do with CUDA Miner, but based on this thread, I'm also going to look into getting an ATI card and/or setting up a Windows partition.

My only worry about mining in Windows on a Mac Pro is that I've heard that Windows can't manage the Mac's fans. Can anyone confirm or deny that? Right now, under OSX, I have the fans cranked way up with smcFanControl, and that's keeping the temperature manageable.

User_513

member

Activity: 87

Merit: 10

Is it an Intel Mac Pro? If so why not run Linux or Windows on it? I've got a hackintosh with a 5770 in it that I boot into Windows when I want to mine with it that gives me a reliable 200k running cgminer 2.11.4 or greater.

the1silverwolf

member

Activity: 112

Merit: 10

In a MAC Pro (Stand Alone Tower Unit, not the macbook pro laptop, or the iMac) you should be fine as far as air flow or overheating goes afaik.

iMac's & apple laptops are horrible at heat dissipation, I wouldn't use them for any kind of mining as you will burn them up.

Also, Nvidia cards are really horrid at mining, even a cheap ATI card would blow a very expensive Nvidia card out of the water Mining.

CUDA miner helps some, but it's still not even a contest. That being said, if you already have an Nvidia card in your Mac Pro and want to mine with it you should be able to get it to do something. I've read that there is a performance drop mining on OSX that has something to do with the opencl implementation. Probably your best bet would be to use bootcamp to install windows 7 and mine from there.

All that being said, if you really want to mine on OSX, the following thread should help you :

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/cgminer-v2113-mac-binary-compiled-for-os-x-1083-mountain-lion-166877

The following thread seems to indicate that it's possible to build cudaminer on OSX but I can't find a walkthrough for it. Perhaps you could PM the OP who seems to have solved his own issue.

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/compile-cudaminer-on-mac-os-x-1083-181707

Alternatively, you may wish to email the developer of cudaminer. You can find his email address here : https://github.com/cbuchner1/CudaMiner

americandesi

hero member

Activity: 518

Merit: 500

BTC < > INR & USD

Be careful when using Mac Pro / imac to mine BTC / LTC.
There have been number of reports of motherboard overheating due to lack of airflow.

Search on this forums or google it.

MiniMinerXT

newbie

Activity: 10

Merit: 0

I had no success using cgminer on Mac OSX mountain loin. Just FYI.

lewisg

sr. member

Activity: 281

Merit: 250

I am trying very hard to mine using mac pro.

theorem

newbie

Activity: 3

Merit: 0

My Mac Pro has a Radeon HD 5770 and I'm able to use cgminer, but while I get ~160 MH/s mining BTC, mining LTC only gets me ~3 KH/s, which is the same I get when mining using a single core in the same computer. So it's not much of a success story :p

I don't remember doing anything specific to get it to run with scrypt, most of my troubles were getting cgminer to compile at all.
It was having trouble finding libcurl, so I had to download a libcurl.m4 and change some paths so that ./configure et al would find it.

Quote from: BitshireHashaway on May 03, 2013, 12:04:05 AM

Also, mac book pros don't have the best cooling system, and the last thing you want is your computer on fire, or burning some vital component.

It's a Mac Pro, not a MacBook Pro.

airbornearie

newbie

Activity: 6

Merit: 0

I have a hackintosh with two ATI 6870's in it.

I've installed cgminer and it runs fine (250 and 220 MH/s).

Here's how to install it: http://www.spaceman.ca/blog/?p=235

Edit: your mac has an Nvidia card; afaik nvidia cards are not as easy to use for mining as ATI cards are.

BitshireHashaway

full member

Activity: 182

Merit: 100

When you say descent video card what do you mean? Unless your electricity is free, I wouldn't recommend it because you will probably not even cover electricity costs. Most mac book pros I know of are Nvidia, and even my current alienware laptop (few weeks old) which has a 2gb nvidia 650 (ahead of the top of the line mac book pros today) will make $0.20 max using btc mining. Litecoin even if it was twice as possible would make $0.40. Therefore, since your mining will most likely be slower, unless your electricity is free, you most likely won't even make your electricity back.

Also, mac book pros don't have the best cooling system, and the last thing you want is your computer on fire, or burning some vital component.

maxpower

sr. member

Activity: 456

Merit: 250

Has anybody actually succeeded in mining LTC on a Mac using the GPU? I have an old Mac Pro sitting around that I'd like to use for mining, and it actually has a decent video card which works fine for Bitcoin mining. When I try to run cgminer with --scrypt, though, I get a bunch of errors and the GPU gets disabled. I found one thread here where someone claimed to have compiled cudaminer under OSX, but they never posted instructions.

Any success stories out there?

Topic: Litecoin GPU mining on a Mac? - page 2. (Read 12556 times)