Containerized Zcash ZEC Mining with nvidia-docker

[Patrick]

Knocked this one out this evening since I know we now need crypto mining to go along with our deep learning nvidia cards.

Available Images

zcash.flypool.org

nvidia-docker run -itd -e username=<insert_t_address> servethehome/zec_flypool_ewbf:cuda

dwarfpool

nvidia-docker run -itd -e username=<insert_t_address> servethehome/zec_dwarfpool_ewbf:cuda

You can generate an address using Kraken or similar and use that as the username. Note these are using the EWBF 0.3.4b3 miner. It is much faster than the nheqminer from what I have seen. The EWBF is supposedly optimized for Pascal GPUs.

Additional nvidia-docker Launch Options
-e templimit=t
Replace t with degrees C for a GPU temperature limit. Default is 90C
-e devfee=d
Replace d with devfee % you want to give. Default is 2%

ZEC Reference NVIDIA GPU Zcash Benchmarks
A key here is that ZEC mining seems to be much higher earning/ day than Monero on NVIDIA GPUs.

• NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti (Gigabyte GAMING OC): 685H/s @ 75C 245W
• NVIDIA GTX 1080 EVGA Gaming: 460 Sol/s @ 85C
• NVIDIA GTX 1070 ASUS STRIX OC: 438 Sol/s @ 64C
• NVIDIA GTX 1060 ASUS dual fan: 292 Sol/s @ 73C
• NVIDIA GTX 1050 Ti EVGA: 164 Sol/s @ 58C

ZEC Mining Paypack and Profitability
Here is a calculator Mining Calculator Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Dash and Monero

One quick observation, on payback periods excluding power consumption:

• The NVIDIA GTX 1080 8GB reference is about 4.5 months payback.
• The NVIDIA GTX 1070 is around 3.75 months.
  
• The NVIDIA GTX 1060 6GB payback is about 3.5 months given current pricing.
  
• The NVIDIA GTX 1050 Ti 4GB has a payback of 3 months

If you compare Monero mining on the GTX 1080 and 1070 v. Zcash at current prices (May 12, 2017) Zcash earns about 3x per day. On the GTX 1060 6GB it is about 2x per day. The GTX 1070 looks awesome if you got a low-cost card like this.

 

[Jeggs101]

Hold up there cowboy. Does that mean zec is profitable on Nvidia? Monero on Nvidia sucks a fatty. That's the main reason I have bought a few RX cards. Scaling with Nvidia is terrible on Monero.

 

[Klee]

Yep Zcash does better on Nvidia than on AMD.

 

[Patrick]

@Jeggs101 I want something to run on the machine learning GPUs when idle. Someone told me Zcash works well. I also heard ETH may be good to look into.

Still, a GTX 1060 6GB card mining Zcash is earning the equivalent of 830H/s of Monero mining ($1.91/ day) at current prices.

Price wise here are the cheapest GTX 1060 and RX 580 cards on Amazon:

• Amazon.com: ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1060 AMP Edition, ZT-P10600B-10M, 6GB GDDR5 VR Ready Super Compact Gaming Graphics Card: Computers & Accessories
• Amazon.com: Gigabyte AORUS Radeon RX 580 4GB Graphic Cards GV-RX580AORUS-4GD: Computers & Accessories

Similar gaming performance, similar pricing one gets CUDA, one does not.

 

[Patrick]

Working on adding 1070 8GB and 1050 Ti figures:



Added GTX 1070 and 1050 Ti to the mix.

 

[MiniKnight]

Maybe I'm dense but this means if I get a GTX 1070 it is the best gaming, AI and crypto mining card?

 

[Patrick]

@MiniKnight - that is somewhat accurate. The 1050 Ti is actually a better value but you give up gaming performance. On the other hand, the 1080 is better for just about everything. I do think if you wanted an all-around card, the 1070 if a good value so long as you are buying the lower-end cards.

 

[Patrick]

Tried an overclocked GTX 1080 (Gigabyte Gaming G1) today. It seems to be around 495 Sol/s. Voltages stock. 75C. There is some noise but not a ton. Payback due to the higher cost of the card is closer to 4.9 months.

 

[sfrode]

@Patrick - since you mentioned the G1 Gaming; here's my numbers with EBWF 0.3.3b:

Gigabyte 1080 G1 Gaming: 550 Sol/s @ 150w, +160 core, mem at 10 530 MHz
Gigabyte 1080 Windforce OC: 530 Sol/s @ 140w, +200 core, mem at 10 530 MHz
MSI 1080ti Gaming X 11G: 750 Sol/s @ 280w, +50 core, mem at 10 710 MHz

You can get the 1080ti to do approx 650 sol/s at 170-180w.

More numbers here: http://zcashbenchmarks.byethost16.com/

 

[Patrick]

@sfrode much higher clocks than I am doing! Interesting though.how are you measuring power?

I need to get a 1080 Ti. I finally have a adversarial network training with Tensorflow that is looking good as a benchmark.

 

[sfrode]

@Patrick: atm I'm trusting the sensors on the card (EBWF has the "--pec" option). Probably not the most accurate way of measuring it, but I haven't bothered to get something equivalent to a kill-a-watt yet.

 

[Patrick]

@sfrode that is fairly awesome thanks! I updated the docker containers to have that.

GTX 1080 -> GTX 1070 -> GTX 1060 6GB -> GTX 1050 Ti


I pushed the GTX 1080 G1 Gaming to +152 clock and +402 mem at stock voltages and it is now about 198-202w 524 Sol/s and efficiency of 2.68 Sol/W.

That overclock makes it breakeven power wise at $0.73 per KWH.

 

[Jeggs101]

holy $hit.

Can you mine on your Windows GPU too?

 

[Patrick]

@Jeggs101 Yes. Very easy actually.

BTW @sfrode check out the EVGA Gaming (cheaper version of the reference design) that was $435-439 last week.

GPU0: 489 Sol/s
Total speed: 489 Sol/s
+-----+-------------+--------------+
| GPU | Power usage |  Efficiency   |
+-----+-------------+--------------+
|  0  |    158W     |  3.09 Sol/W  |
+-----+-------------+--------------+

Here is the calculator: Mining Calculator Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Dash and Monero

$86/ month in earnings (excluding power.) Not bad actually.

 

[Marsh]

I am wondering, since mining Zcash is more profitable than XMR.
Is there a reason to stay with Monero at this time?

 

[Klee]

I am wondering, since mining Zcash is more profitable than XMR.
Is there a reason to stay with Monero at this time?

I feel Zcash is for the short term and Monero is for the long term.

 

[Patrick]

Zcash is still much smaller and for AMD the profits are about the same. NVIDIA is much better on Zcash.

Personally, I want to diversify a bit more. I still have about 0.002% of outstanding XMR.

The reason I started looking at Zcash is that it works well even on larger NVIDIA GPUs. Since I wanted NVIDIA for ML workloads, that influenced me. Using fewer larger GPUs also helps require fewer PCIe slots.

I do want to try ETH as well.

 

[Patrick]

Added the ability to limit temperature and change the dev fee from 2%.

 

[Patrick]

Just as a heads-up, the EWBF miner is Pascal optimized. Maxwell runs Monero better than Zcash. Lower power consumption and more earnings/ day.

 

[Klee]

Just as a heads-up, the EWBF miner is Pascal optimized. Maxwell runs Monero better than Zcash. Lower power consumption and more earnings/ day.

I was not super impressed with mining Monero on a GTX 970.