Two of the biggest miner software for Grin, Bminer and Gminer, received an update few days ago. In this tutorial, we will walk through how to mine with Gminer and what benchmarks (as well as bugs) to expect. (Check this article if you wanna know more about Grin and why it might be a good idea to mine it)
First, let me clarify something to avoid confusion. Grin can be mined by using few different algorithms. Cuckaroo29 is the official GPU-friendly ASIC-resistant algorithm and it will become less relevant as times goes by until be completely replaced by an ASIC-friendly algorithm in about 2 years from now.
Cuckatoo31+ is the ASIC-friendly algorithm that will be relevant for few more months until being replaced by Cuckatoo32 (which is ASIC-friendly too).
Both miners I have mentioned allow you to mine Cuckatoo31+ (the ASIC-friendly algo) with a GPU. Why? Because for now, mining C31 with a GPU is more profitable than mining C29, as detailed below.
Bminer and Gminer Requirements
Cuckatoo31+ is very VRAM-intensive. To mine it, you will need to have an Nvidia GPU with 8GB or more VRAM. In theory, here are the compatible Nvidia GPUs:
- GTX 1070
- GTX 1080/ti
- GTX 2070
- GTX 2080/ti
I say ‘in theory‘ because I haven’t managed to get my GTX 1070 cards to mine C31. I have been trying to run a GTX 1070 under Windows 10 but it failed with both the Gminer and the Bminer. I suspect the problem is that Windows 10 consumes too much video memory. It is possible that a GTX 1070 might be able to mine C31 under Windows 7 but I haven’t tested that.
Also, I haven’t tested the Titan RTX series – if you have one of those cards, please share your benchmarks in the comments.
The other important requirement is hard drive/SSD space. Gminer requires you to allocate at least 50 GB of free HDD space for virtual memory.
Bminer 14.3.0
Download precompiled Bminer for C29 and C31 https://mega.nz/#F!k1wDnQyT!YW16xmmkiiW1ZoYdOfkugA
I have tried Bminer with different cards but I haven’t managed to get it to work, sadly. It keeps showing me the same error: “insufficient video memory on device”. I have been trying to run it on my Windows 10 rigs and I suspect the OS to be the problem.
Apparently, Bminer only mines C31 under Windows 7. None of my rigs have Windows 7 and since Gminer is a decent alternative anyway, I haven’t bothered to install Windows 7 just to try Bminer.
Gminer – How to Set It Up
Download precompiled Gmminer for C29 and C31 https://mega.nz/#F!MgBiGKDB!rf1GxKm2CPp5iNwnMEQ7Mw
Gminer proved to be Win10-friendly. So far, I have tested it with 3x 1080 Ti and 6x GTX 1080 Ti rigs and both combinations worked pretty well.
Making the bigger rig work was a bit tricky – at first, one of the cards wasn’t hashing. However, increasing virtual memory from 42gb to 50gb did the trick and now the entire rig is hashing as expected. At first, I though that switching the display to the onboard GPU could solve it but eventually, it has nothing to do with it.
Here’s how to make it work:
Gminer Cuckatoo31+ Benchmarks
GTX 1080 Ti 3x GPU Mining Rig
- Hashrate: 1.95 G/s (19.5 gp/s on c29)
- Clocks +150/+500
- Power Limit 70
- Power Draw 150w
- full review
GTX 1080 Ti 6x GPU Mining Rig
- Hashrate: 3.7 G/s (37.7 gp/s on c29)
- Clocks +150/+500
- Power Limit 70
- Power Draw 150w
- full review
thanks!
Gminer Mining Profitability
While C29 is considered a GPU-friendly algorithm, it’s more profitable to mine C31 instead. As for today, C31 mines 22{520ebc7d04367f10067c097a94259816cd1e6df76ec40212834858ca2e1af940} more coins per hour than C29. The only reason to mine with C29 is if you don’t have a GPU that is compatible with C31.
Thank you for reading. As always, your comments, suggestions and questions are welcome.
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