Hi guys,
It's cool that there is shared interest by others
I am a newbie to this so my knowledge is limited. Perhaps Russell can share his valuable insights?
1. Thanks for your input however there is no evidence to suggest that mining decreases the life of a GPU. There have been some experiments done which showed no degradation, e.g. here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKk2dDMN1Xs , on the contrary there is evidence to suggest that leaving silicon in a cool state or a hot state (cryptoMining) is far healthier than warming and cooling frequently (gaming).
b. The cost in Spain seems to be EUR 0.24 per kWh (in the UK its £0.18/EUR 0.20) - this is still quite profitable. Right now, it is 1 degree C there - do you not use heating? Heating with a heater is a waste when this will heat your home /and/ make you more money than heating by electricity will cost. If you heat by gas or heat pump then it would be different of course (but still profitable).
c. $4 a day is $120 a month is $1,440 a year for free. You can buy a new 2080Ti every few months and they will only get cheaper. Every 2 years you can get a top of the range system / VR gear for free. $4 a day might seem small but it adds up - If someone were to give you $1,440 at the end of this year, I don't think anyone will say "no thanks, I don't want it".
2. The easiest thing to do is to install NiceHash:
https://www.nicehash.com/ and set it to auto start with Windows, auto start mining, and mine while idle. That's it really - it automatically calculates the most profitable algorithm/crypto to mine, and it will start on that. Just make sure your computer is detecting
idle correctly as some systems can't because of software such as for Razer Orbweaver or some Logitech products, where you must then disable some features of to get idle state detection working. I have hacked together a script to detect if Idle is working:
Idle detection script (
Save as .ps1, then Right click and Run with Powershell):
Code: Select all
Add-Type @'
using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
namespace PInvoke.Win32 {
public static class UserInput {
[DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError=false)]
private static extern bool GetLastInputInfo(ref LASTINPUTINFO plii);
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
private struct LASTINPUTINFO {
public uint cbSize;
public int dwTime;
}
public static DateTime LastInput {
get {
DateTime bootTime = DateTime.UtcNow.AddMilliseconds(-Environment.TickCount);
DateTime lastInput = bootTime.AddMilliseconds(LastInputTicks);
return lastInput;
}
}
public static TimeSpan IdleTime {
get {
return DateTime.UtcNow.Subtract(LastInput);
}
}
public static int LastInputTicks {
get {
LASTINPUTINFO lii = new LASTINPUTINFO();
lii.cbSize = (uint)Marshal.SizeOf(typeof(LASTINPUTINFO));
GetLastInputInfo(ref lii);
return lii.dwTime;
}
}
}
}
'@
for ( $i = 0; $i -lt 1000; $i++ ) {
Write-Host ("Last input " + [PInvoke.Win32.UserInput]::LastInput)
Write-Host ("Idle for " + [PInvoke.Win32.UserInput]::IdleTime)
Start-Sleep -Seconds (Get-Random -Minimum 1 -Maximum 2)
}
-- Once you have accumulated enough money, you can withdraw it for free. Small amounts can incur charges.
An interesting note about NiceHash is that you are being paid for leasing of your GPU to miners - not being paid by mining directly. If there is a market for something, no matter how stupid, in my humble opinion, it's worth looking into it. I am sure people get paid for doing stupid things at their jobs all the time...
3. Advanced:
There is much you can tune:
a. You want to set the cost of electricity in NiceHash and tell it to display Net Profit - This will tell you how much actual money you are making.
b. You want to set the option that it only mines when profitability is over $X so when it becomes not worth it, it won't mine.
c.
-- You want to minimise the electricity usage while maxing the performance for maximum profitability. Setting TDP to 60% on my 2080Ti brought the power usage from 260W to 150W and drastically increased profitability from £2.20 to £2.80.
-- You also want to max your TDP for your gaming for max performance.
You can make a simple script to have Afterburner set TDP to 60% when mining, and then back to 100%+ when exiting mining. You can then use a tool / script to launch these scripts when the computer goes into idle or comes out of idle to completely automate the process - I use a tool called "watch 4 idle 1.2":
This is my script for starting and stopping. I am no coder but this works for me after some testing:
Start mining (Afterburner profile 5 is 60% TDP):
Code: Select all
taskkill /im "MSIAfterburner.exe"
taskkill /im "MSIAfterburner.exe"
taskkill /im /T "NiceHashMiner.exe"
taskkill /im /T "NiceHashMiner.exe"
taskkill /im /T "app_nhm.exe"
taskkill /im /T "app_nhm.exe"
taskkill /im "NiceHashMiner.exe"
taskkill /im "NiceHashMiner.exe"
taskkill /im "app_nhm.exe"
taskkill /im "app_nhm.exe"
cd /d "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSI Afterburner\"
start "" "MSIAfterburner.exe" -profile5
cd /d "C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Local\Programs\NiceHash Miner\"
start "" "NiceHashMiner.exe"
Stop mining (Afterburner profile 1 is 110% TDP):
Code: Select all
taskkill /im "MSIAfterburner.exe"
taskkill /im "MSIAfterburner.exe"
taskkill /im /T "NiceHashMiner.exe"
taskkill /im /T "NiceHashMiner.exe"
taskkill /im /T "app_nhm.exe"
taskkill /im /T "app_nhm.exe"
taskkill /im "NiceHashMiner.exe"
taskkill /im "NiceHashMiner.exe"
taskkill /im "app_nhm.exe"
taskkill /im "app_nhm.exe"
cd /d "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSI Afterburner\"
start "" "MSIAfterburner.exe" -profile1
4. In my opinion, the most important thing is that it doesn't interfere with your normal time on your computer - you shouldn't have to click on/off or remember anything. You shouldn't even ever see it unless to manually check on your income/history. It is therefore important to automate as much as one can.
I am sure there is plenty more that more experienced miners can add. I am looking forward to learning...
Windows 11 64-Bit | 12900K @ 5.3GHz | 2080 Ti OC | 32GB 3900MHz CL16 RAM | Optane PCIe SSD RAID-0 | Sound Blaster ZxR | 2x 2000W ButtKicker LFE | nVidia 3D Vision | 3D Projector @ DSR 1600p | HP Reverb G2
for future reference
