Editor's Note: This article comes fromZhikuang University (ID: gh_37c9e0eaf00a), reprinted by Odaily with authorization.

Editor's Note: This article comes from

Zhikuang University (ID: gh_37c9e0eaf00a)

, reprinted by Odaily with authorization.

The mining mine recently received a question from readers about the loss of graphics card mining computing power: My graphics card mining machine is connected to the Spark mining pool. During the mining process, I found that the actual computing power will always be several percentage points lower than the local computing power. , and there will always be delayed shares and invalid shares in the submitted shares. What caused this? Did someone move my computing power?

In order to obtain professional answers, Zhikuang University interviewed Qiu Xiaodong, the business director of Xinghuo Mining Pool, and invited him to give in-depth answers to questions related to the computing power of graphics card mining.

The following is a summary of the interview content.

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01 Computing power and computing power difference

The Spark Pool page displays 4 values ​​related to computing power. As shown above.

The average daily computing power refers to the average computing power of the mining machine web page for 24 hours, which is the basis for measuring the efficiency and stability of the mining machine.

The local computing power refers to the local computing power of the mining machine, which is the computing power estimated based on the mining software, that is, the theoretical maximum value of the computing power without considering network delay and overclocking. The local computing power is fundamental, and the actual computing power can only be high if the local computing power is high.

Daily average local computing power refers to the average value of local computing power in 24 hours.

The ratio in the green label in the upper right corner of the above figure is the computing power difference, which refers to the difference between the daily average computing power and the daily average local computing power and the ratio of the daily average local computing power, which corresponds to (19.41-19.73)/19.73= in the figure -1.62%, it is recommended to observe this value after a complete 24 hours of operation. The smaller the value, the better the optimization of the mining machine, and it is normal within -5%.

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02 Reasons for the difference between daily average computing power and daily average local computing power

Why is the daily average computing power lower than the daily average local computing power? This is because the daily average local computing power can generate actual mining income. The daily average computing power mainly includes the following computing power losses:

1. Mining software fee: generally 1%~2%

2. Network transmission loss: generally 2%~3%

3. Calculation task switching loss: 0.5%~1%

4. Severe overclocking loss: generally above 1%

5. OS pumping: Not all OS are charged by pumping computing power, which needs to be analyzed according to the actual situation.

Mining software refers to the mining core (details will be introduced below), the local computing power and the daily average local computing power are reported to the Spark Mining Pool by the computing power read by the mining core, and the Spark Mining Pool is intact display. Miners use mining software to pay a certain percentage of computing power. This part of the computing power taken away by the mining software will be reflected in the difference between the daily average computing power and the daily average local computing power.

The daily average computing power has one more network transmission link than the daily average local computing power, and the network transmission loss will also be reflected in the difference between the two.

The result of serious overclocking is that a single card frequently and repeatedly submits shares to the mining pool, which will cause the server to disapprove, and the actual effect is the same as losing the card, so it will seriously affect the web computing power.

The OS cluster management system not only provides miners with a friendly interactive interface for observing and managing mining machines, but also optimizes the adaptation of accessories such as graphics cards, motherboards, and power supplies, which also contributes to the improvement of computing power. OS service providers will also charge corresponding service fees. OS charging strategies are more diverse, some are pumping computing power, and some OS service providers may require miners to recharge USDT or ETH to collect copyright fees. The OS strategy for pumping computing power can be divided into invisible pumping for customers like mining software, or cooperation with mining software service providers to share profits according to a certain percentage, etc.

In short, the local computing power minus the pumping of the mining core, network transmission loss, computing task switching loss, severe overclocking loss, OS pumping, etc., can get the web computing power that can generate actual mining revenue.

What methods can optimize local computing power and web computing power? Let's introduce the factors that affect the local computing power of the mining machine and the computing power of the web page.

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03 The main factors affecting the local computing power of graphics card mining machines

The factors that affect the local computing power mainly include the following aspects:

1. Graphics card performance

2. Bios parameters

3. Mining core

4. Mining OS

5. Memory constitution

6. Graphics card life

7. Ambient temperature

1. Graphics card performance

Graphics card performance is the most important factor affecting local computing power. The better the performance of the graphics card, the higher the local computing power. For example, the performance of the Sapphire 5700XT graphics card is better than that of the 5600XT, and the local computing power of the 5700XT graphics card is higher, which is easy to understand.

2. BIOS parameters

BIOS is an important factor affecting the local computing power of graphics cards. BIOS is the abbreviation of Basic Input Output System, that is, "Basic Input Output System". Graphics card BIOS, also known as VGA BIOS, is mainly used to store the control program between the display chip and the driver. The graphics card BIOS is solidified in a dedicated memory attached to the graphics card. Graphics card BIOS is mainly used for the control and management of each device on the graphics card during normal operation, so the technical quality (rationality and function) of the BIOS program will definitely affect the final product technical characteristics of the graphics card, and the impact of the BIOS on the graphics card's computing power very significant.

It should be noted that the optimization space of BIOS is significantly different for A card (AMD graphics card) and N card (NVIDIA graphics card). The design scheme of the A card is open source, which means that various parameters of the A card can be debugged by DIY players; the BIOS of the N card is locked, and the N card only has the so-called soft overclocking, such as the P104 card. You can only simply adjust the speed and frequency of the external fan, do simple overclocking and frequency reduction, and use the temperature to affect the calculation. In contrast, the A card has too many adjustable parameters, leaving more room for miners to play.

3. Mining core

Factors that affect local computing power include the mining core (miner). The mining kernel is the software that guides the calculation of the mining machine. Its function is to get the calculation tasks and assign them to the mining machines to schedule and calculate.

4、OS

The impact of the miner on the local computing power is reflected in its optimization of the mining algorithm.

Miners can only mine with a mining core, and a good mining core can greatly improve the efficiency and stability of mining. As long as a competitive miner is posted on GitHub, someone will spontaneously make the miner compatible with various OS for miners to use.

A few months ago, the main miner for mining Ethereum was Claymore, which has the advantages of good stability, reliability, and low rake, and its market share once exceeded 90%. After that, the development team stopped maintaining and updating Claymore. The DAG file of Ethereum continues to increase, and the block height increases, so Claymore cannot dig. At present, the miner competition in the market is relatively fierce, and the leader in market share is Phoenix.

The mining kernel is the mining software that guides the operation of the mining machine. A good mining kernel can greatly improve the computing efficiency and stability of the mining machine, thereby increasing the local computing power.

OS is a cluster management system written based on the Linux version. The relationship between OS and mining machines is similar to that between computers and operating systems such as Windows. A few years ago, there were no various OSs. When you configured mining, it was directly based on the windows system, and then downloaded a Claymore or other mining kernel to interact with the Ethereum network.

Miner is a software that mainly interacts with mining machines for calculations, while OS is a scheduling and monitoring system for cluster management, which can integrate various drivers, various mining algorithms, and miners corresponding to mining algorithms.

In other words, the interaction related to the Hash operation of the mining machine is completed through the miner, and the OS system can install various miner software and can specify a specific miner to run.

Graphics card mining is not only the work of the graphics card, it cooperates with the main board and the power supply. The power supply, the main board transmits data, and the graphics card calculates. There is a good coordination between each component to have higher computing power. OS cluster management system The degree of adaptation of accessories such as graphics cards, motherboards, and power supplies has a great impact on computing power.

5. Graphics card physique

There are many main factors that affect the physical fitness of a graphics card, the most important of which are the brand of the graphics card and the quality of the memory particles.

The general consensus in the industry is that graphics card brands are divided into three levels. The first-tier brands include: Sapphire, ASUS, MSI, etc.; the second-tier brands include: GALAX, Colorful, Gengsheng, etc.; the third-tier brands are ODM OEM white labels. Generally speaking, the better the brand, the better the quality of the graphics card.

The video memory chip also depends on the brand. Samsung and Micron are the most recognized, followed by Hynix and Elpida. Of course, it depends on the batch and batch number.

Why do video memory particles have a huge impact on Ethereum mining? This is because the GPU is far from running at full capacity during Ethereum mining, and only about 20% of its computing power is used, and 80% of its computing potential is not used. The 20% of GPU computing power used is It mainly interacts with the DAG (directed acyclic graph) with the video memory. The interaction efficiency mainly depends on the video memory, so the quality of the video memory particles has a significant impact on the computing power of the video card.

6. Graphics card life

The lifespan of the graphics card is also a factor that affects the local computing power. Taking Nvidia's P104 as an example, as its service life increases, the speed will drop. This is because the best application scenarios of different Nvidia cards are also different. Some cards are mainly designed for games, and some cards are designed for AI computing. Each batch of cards has a good performance in its field of expertise. Performance, which is one of the reasons why Nvidia has a large market share. The P104 card is used to mine Ethereum, which will show a disadvantage in the later stage. Although the P104 has 6GB of video memory, which is much larger than the current 4G DAG file of Ethereum, but because the P104 is too restricted, the larger the DAG file, the P104 uses The longer it takes, the worse it slows down. This is also a factor affecting local computing power. This point is actually mentioned in the BIOS section above, the essence is that the adjustable space of the N card is too limited.

This is why many old miners are willing to buy 5600XT and 5700XT at present. They know that these cards will be the main force of Ethereum mining in the next cycle.

7. Ambient temperature

The ambient temperature is also an important factor affecting the local computing power of the graphics card. The higher the ambient temperature, the lower the computing power of the graphics card, or even stop it.

The main factors affecting the local computing power are the above, but the local computing power is not the computing power that generates income, and the computing power that generates actual revenue is the web computing power. The conversion of local computing power into web computing power that generates mining revenue is mainly affected by the network and network equipment and facilities. The factors that affect web computing power are introduced below.

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04 Main Factors Affecting Web Page Computing Power

The computing power of the web page is the computing power that can really generate real income. The main factors affecting the computing power of web pages include local intranet, mine network, mine pool server, mining core, etc. Let's introduce them one by one.

1. The local intranet of the mine

The local intranet of the mine is generally composed of the following parts: there is a network switch at the front end, the switch is connected to the router, and the router is connected to each mining machine. The higher the bandwidth of the network switch, the better, but the cost factor should also be considered.

Different OSs have very different requirements for switch bandwidth. This mainly depends on whether the OS has a disk or is diskless, and whether the OS is flashed in the switch or in each mining machine.

At present, there are various OSs such as Flint OS, Miner OS, BMiner OS, and Mine Treasure OS on the market. Some OS is brushed into the switch, and all the mining machines connected to the switch are controlled through the switch. This kind of OS has high requirements on the bandwidth of the switch, because the instructions and reading of each step of the switch need to be supported by the network.

Some OSs are flashed to the hard disk of each mining machine, such as the Flint OS of Spark Mining Pool. This is just like our own home computer. The system is in the local computer. This kind of OS has less stringent requirements for switches and routers, and gigabit bandwidth is enough.

The switches and routers in the local intranet of the mining farm are different from the common brands of switches and routers we use at home. When home switches and routers are transmitting data, even if the router CPU automatically restarts, it will have little impact on the home Internet experience. However, if the switches and routers are used for mining, there will be delays and automatic restarts. Then this impact will be reflected in the computing power of the webpage and the final income.

The interaction between the mining pool and the mining machines is essentially that after the mining pool gets the task of producing blocks from the Ethereum network, it distributes the task to all the mining machines of the connected mining pool through the mining pool server. The mining machine quickly completes the calculation tasks assigned by the mining pool and then quickly submits them to the mining pool. The routers and switches of the mining farm are transferring a large number of small files 24 hours a day, so the upstream bandwidth requirements of the routers and switches are very high. If the carrying capacity of switches and routers is not enough, file packet loss is easy to occur.

File packet loss means that even if the mining machine calculates a result that meets the requirements of the mining pool, due to the limited carrying capacity of the switch or router, the result cannot be submitted to the mining pool in time or even lost. For example, the timely submission rate is only 97%. Then the remaining 3% are delayed shares or even invalid shares, and the corresponding rewards for this part of shares will be greatly reduced or even not.

The above process explains how the intranet bandwidth of the mine and its supporting facilities have an impact on the mining machine’s web computing power.

2. Mine network

The mine network refers to the network of telecommunications, mobile or other operators that the mine accesses. In some cities, the fastest and most stable network may be telecom, while in other cities, the best network may be other network operators. Network operators are also factors that mine farms need to focus on.

In addition, the public network IP is also affecting the mine network. The public network IP means that the mine network will not perform too many jumps. The owner of the mine goes to the operator in the city to ask for a public network IP to mine. The operator anchors the IP of the mine, and the number of jumps between transmissions to the mining pool server will be reduced. Reducing the number of jumps can effectively improve the efficiency of mining machines to submit shares, and reduce delayed shares and invalid shares.

In addition, mining farms generally need to have spare broadband in case of emergencies; the mining farm network is mostly used to submit shares to the mining pool. Compared with the home network, it has higher upstream bandwidth and lower download bandwidth requirements.

3. Mining pool server

The server of the mining pool is also one of the important factors affecting the computing power of the web page. Now the servers of many mining pools are cloud servers. The cloud server has a dedicated hosting computer room and supporting high-defense, and the operation is simple and convenient. More importantly, an excellent cloud server platform provides high-speed channels covering the whole country, which is a service that is difficult to provide with self-built physical servers. High-speed channels can reduce latency and help improve web computing power.

Of course, the cost of the high-speed channel is relatively high. In this regard, large mining pools can dilute the cost through the advantages of scale, which is difficult for small mining pools. Therefore, the high-speed channel of large mining pools can help users increase the computing power of web pages.

4. Mining core

The impact of the mining core on the computing power of the webpage is reflected in the pumping of the mining core.

The developer of the miner will sample the mining machines that use the miner. When your graphics card is mining, the miner may cut off the computing power for 36 seconds (1%) every hour, and the output of this part of the computing power will also be sent to the developer's address. Different miners draw different points, such as 2%, 1.5%, 1%, and 0.5%.