Topic: My second ZEC + XMR+ ETH thread builds info links thoughts and photos. - page 22. (Read 148019 times)

I use 16.11.3

What is the best, proven AMD Crimson driver version to use for mining ETC/XMR/ZEC?  I see that 16.12.1 has been out a few weeks and 16.12.2 out just about a week, but are these recommended yet or would a more proven 16.11 be better for mining?

try installing over the existing driver 1st. that worked for me on many occasions. if not then safe mode, ddu, then reinstall. that fixed most of the rest.

do you deinstall the "old" driver with DDU or something? or do you just install again on top?!

i have found that once ALL gpus are in, reinstall the graphics driver. the reinstall seems to help all the cards, ie the driver install needs to see all installed gpus during the actual install. even if the driver is working and already installed with less cards in the rig.

works for me anyway.

If you go to the 256 mining the thread is there.

I am on an iPad mini and adding a link sucks to do.

I am partners with buysolar he is a member here and he lives about 3 miles from me.

His array has 2 acres of panels.

I provide gear.

He provides power.
We split the coins.

So his gear risk goes away.

My power risk goes away.

We sell to the grid in the day. And buy from the grid at night.

So in NJ USA this is just about the worst time for us power wise.

We have about 67 th in ASIC and,I am bringing three 2 card rigs should be 1300kh for Zec by the end of the week.

So, I got my 6th 470 for rig #2 so will probably take a crack at moving to W10 and rebuilding this thing today.  This is my plan but I wanted to ask for opinions as to whether or not this is over-kill.  Note that current status is W7, max of 5 GPUs, 2 unsuccessful attempts to strap-mod bios on 2 separate GPUs (exact ones that I have done 4x on my other rig).

1- Power down and unplug all but 1 GPU. Sole GPU will be plugged into PCIe slot #2 (x16), monitor plugged into GPU via HDMI cable.
1a- I suspect this might not work given the issues i have had with slot #2, so will plug into slot #1 initially if needed, then try slot #2 as primary again after W10 install.
2- Boot up and upgrade to Windows 10 before doing anything else
3- Load Crimson drivers from AMD site for 1 plugged in GPU
4- Test GPU in Claymore miner, probably ETH since it shows individual GPU speed, unlike XMR miner
5- Flash that GPU with bios strap-mod, overclock & under-volt, then re-test in ETH miner to ensure speed increase
6- After ensuring all is working correctly, power down, unplug GPU from slot #2 and plug in another GPU into that slot
7- Repeat all of the steps above except for #3 since the drivers will already be on the machine
8- After all steps done for all 6 GPUs, start adding GPUs 1 at a time until up to 6 (hopefully)
9- If I get the error 43 code at GPU #5, install the 6xGPU registry mod app

This is obviously going to take the better part of a full day.  The thing that could save significant time would be to skip the 1 at a time method and add GPUs incrementally after getting the first 1 to work. This would make bios flashing a bit tougher, but I am under the impression that windows should add GPU's device numbers in order, so maybe this could save some time. Meaning, get GPU#1 working after flashing bios mod on device #0, then add the 2nd GPU and flash device #1, etc, etc.

At this point, I am no planning to mess with the bios on the orphan Nitro. If I can get 6GPUs and the 5 MSI's bios modded on this rig, I will be very happy.

Anyone see anything wrong with this approach or have any suggestions?

Hey Phil,

I almost read the whole thread... really interesting thank you all!

Did I miss details about your solar build?! Would be great to read more about that (especially if you´re using batterys or let your rigs run through the day only?)

I saved the fully changed bios.

I like the evga  So far  but I will soon fill it with 4 msi rx 470s  I will know if I really like it then.

It seem to struggle running the xfx hd 7970 card.  which is now doing fine on an older board with 1 single slot.

I will be selling off gear and consolidating .

I will have at least 2 or 3 decent quality mobos z170's
I will have multiple gpus.
At least 1 rx 460
and 1 hd 7970

I first need to fill 3 cases and bring them to the solar array.

My house will be all msi rx 470's very soon.

With all biostar four card and of course the evga four card.

@phill

my gigabyte bios has custom save slots for bios settings, like 10 user defined ones. saves every setting in the bios.can you use something like those when you get a bios setup that works? youll need a corresponding os image to restore the os also.

It needs 3 separate bios changes to work. I did get it working.

Windows 7 install needs to be checked off
Devices  m2 slot must be activated
Sata must be legacy

the m2 uses sata slot 4 and 5

if you are using a cd/rom drive for windows 7 install (a must)  you have to plug the sata cable into a sata slot closer to the cpu socket

so far it is working but it crashed a few times

 I did have 1 rx480 1 rx 470 1 rx 460 1 hd7970 in it

So I pulled the hd7970 and it is using 3 cards just fine




@vg54dett I think there is an asrock or something else what country are you in?

here is the asrock not sure it will work

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157649



the biostar that works for sure
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138421





the evga  that was a real P.I.T.A.  with 3 bios changes needed but it works with an m2 ssd and four cards

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1UH4R24324

note this evga has been a bit shaky .


So to be honest so far the biostar is the king.

I may order the asrock today not sure if I will

@PHIL sometimes the m2 socket shares pcie lanes with the pcie slot near it. cant use both at the same time. maybe thats it?

maybe bios setting?

Phil , could you tell me few MB that can accept 4 GPUs like the Biostar ?

because the Evga and the Biostar you are using are difficult to find in the EU , or very expensive.
Is it others MB that can do the same and I might be able to find at a normal price here ?

My aim is to build a powerful 4 GPUs gaming computer who will be mining 99% of the time when not gaming ! (and ready to sell to gamer when mining will become not profitable, like your good old strategy Phil)
Any advice ?

When it's ready to go live I'll create a proper domain name and open it up for people to use and BETA test.
Right now I'm randomly picking people as I'm adding a lot of BTC / alt-coin specific things and double and triple checking things to make sure everything is catered for and those with big farms / amounts of rigs can typically provide better testing & suggestions.

If you need more beta testers, you can count on me too.

I'll send you a message off list shortly.

Sorry, I should of been more specific. For RX470 and RX480, XMR is more profitable. (You have to hand adjust all the values as the default figures on the site is WAY off).
For XMR, I've been using dwarfpool for the last 2 years and been extremely happy. No stolen shares, consistent payouts, geographically located and the payout to exchange is 0 (they pay for it themselves).

 Not for everyone. I haven't seen it come up as "most profitable" for anything I run *except* my GTX 750 Ti cards yet (those are in XP gaming machines that CAN'T run anything else AFAIK), though it's been getting semi-close on my RX 470s (though whattomine hashrate figures need to be taken with LARGE quantities of salt at times).

 On the other hand, the pool I've been running the 750 Ti cards on seems to be not accepting a TON of hashrate - any recommendations for a RELIABLE pool, preferably with a low "payout to exchange" minimum?

That's very good analysis - and good visuals too for easy reference -- are the codes available to us? or is this on subscription basis?

I landed up coding it as I wanted to see profitability side by side with various coins over time.


XMR fork happening in a few days which is the final hurdle before the XMR wallet (which will cause the price to spike, big time). Either way, XMR is still the most profitable over the last 24h.
Also the pools pay the commission charges so you're actually saving yourself some profit by not having to send from wallet -> exchange and back again.


The thing you have to realize is that using NH isn't just a 3% loss in revenue, that's just their fee.
You're losing about 13-15% of your PROFIT (on average!) as NH as it's considerably more profitable to mine the coins directly to the exchange (on Poloniex) and sell for BTC.
I'm busy automating the entire process so that there's never a need to babysit it. The second any non-BTC coin lands on the exchange, code will sell immediately.
There's around 70 people using the code / site currently so I'm sure that (configurable) functionality will come in handy.