Step 1: Litecoin LTC GPU mining
This guide will show you how to get started with Litecoin GPU mining. If anything is unclear in this guide please leave a comment about it. In this guide a AMD/ATI Radeon 6870 is used but settings for other AMD/ATI cards are available also. If you are looking for the most efficient card to mine with then you’ll want to get a AMD Radeon 7950. When looking at the hash to watt ratio this is currently the most efficient card on the market.
You’ll want to start with pooled mining as solo mining is not very viable anymore. The difficulty of the network is too high to effectively solo mine with a single computer. It’ll take a very long time to get a single block of 50 LTC. I suggest you skip to step 2 for pooled mining. However, for people with access to many computers I’ll leave the basics of solo mining in this guide and you can continue reading.
If you want to solo-mine you’ll need to have the litecon client installed and configured. You can download the litecoin client here, if you are running windows look for the latest litecoin-x.x.xx-win32-setup.exe as this is the easiest way to install the client.
After you installed the litecoin client it will have to catch up with the network first before you can start mining as you can see in the image below.
Once the client is done synchronizing with the network (this can take some time) you’ll have to setup the litecoin client.
In order for the litecoin client to support mining you’ll have to create an ini file in the %appdata%\litecoin folder. To get to this folder click your start button (start->run for Windows XP) and type in %appdata%\litecoin
Now right click in the folder (not on a file or directory) and goto New->Text Document
And rename it to litecoin.conf
Now you should get this pop-up as you’re trying to change the extension of a .txt file to .conf. Click Yes.
If you don’t get the above pop-up you’ll have to switch off “Hide extensions for known file types”. In Vista/Windows7 you can find this by pressing ALT once and then going to the Tools->Folder options menu. In Windows XP this menu should be visible without pressing ALT.
After this, remove the .txt from the filename so the full name becomes litecoin.conf.
Now open litecoin.conf and insert this information:
You should change the username and password for safety, even though you’re only allowing the localhost here trojans and mallware ect. could easily access your wallet if you have the standard username/password.
Step 2: Ltc mining software, cgminer and guiminer-scrypt
Currently I advice you to use cgminer as guiminer-scrypt is still very unstable. Cgminer is command line software and a bit harder to set up but if you follow this guide it should be no problem as we also create shortcuts on your desktop to start the mining. I won’t be covering the Reaper miner here since it is less stable than cgminer and doesn’t have any performance advantages.
Cgminer for windows, linux and the source are available here or a backup link for the windows client here.
Guiminer can be found here. This one is not recommended but you can try it if you like.
Now not all graphic cards support mining but if you purchased a medium range or better one the last 1-3 years you should be able to mine. If you have an ATI/AMD card you’ll need the AMD-APP-SDK, which can download here. Also make sure your ATI/AMD drivers are up to date.
Extract the cgminer zipfile (to make it easier to launch I extracted the files to c:\)
Step 3: Setting up the mining pool
If you are solo mining you can proceed to step 4.
In order to mine with a pool you’ll have to register an account. I will be using coinotron in this guide.
Go to https://www.coinotron.com/coinotron/AccountServlet?action=register
Now log in with your newly created account at https://www.coinotron.com/coinotron/AccountServlet?action=logon
Next, go to “my account” and add a worker, in this case 1 for username and password. Make sure LTC is selected under coin.
After you added it you should see the following:
Step 4: Starting with mining
Now you’ll have to determine the optimum settings.
-I
Intensity, this you can set anywhere from 0 to 18 where at 18 your computer becomes unusable and might even freeze. For me the optimum setting is 12 when I’m at my computer and -16 when I’m not working on my computer. You’ll have to see what works best for you. The difference in hashrate is quite big, at 10 I only get 80Kh/s while at 16 I reach nearly 250Kh/s
–thread-concurrency
You can try any of the thread concurrencies within these ranges but it has to be a multiple of 64. Make sure you use the concurrency that fits your card model.
57xx cards: 2368-4096 (3200 is common)
58xx cards: 4096-8192 (5600, 7168, and 8000 are common)
5970 card: 4096-8192 (5632 or 8000 are common)
67xx cards: 2368-4096 (3200 is common)
68xx cards: 3008-6720 (4800 is common)
69xx cards: 4096-8192 (5600, 7168, and 8000 are common)
6990 card: 4096-8192 (5632 or 8000 are common)
7xxx cards 64 * bus_width_of_card_in_bits. So, for a 7950, that would be 64 * 384 = 24576; ideal values are 21712 or 24000. Find your bus width here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Islands_(GPU_family)
–temp-cutoff
You can set a maximum temperature if you run into problems, the default is 95 which is ok for most cards.
I prefer to run it from cmd so I can see any error might it occur. Replace -u and -p with your own username and password.
Don’t forget to change the username and password to your own, you wouldn’t be the first one mining on my account
For pooled mining you have to use: c:\cgminer-2.11.3-win32\cgminer –scrypt -o http://coinotron.com:3334 -u cryptocur.1 -p 1 –thread-concurrency 8192 -I 10 -g 1 -w 256
For solo mining you have to connect to your own litecoin wallet: c:\cgminer-2.11.3-win32\cgminer –scrypt -o http://127.0.0.1:9332 -u username -p password –thread-concurrency 8192 -I 10 -g 1 -w 256
This is the result with intensity 10:
This is the result with intensity 16:
Guiminer-scrypt can be setup like this, it has some default values also but you’ll want to tweak to get the right settings. Note that guidminer-scrypt gets very different results with the same settings, I find it harder to get good hashrates with guiminer-scrypt.
If everything is running smoothly with cgminer you can create shortcuts on your desktop by just right clicking your desktop and going to New->Shortcut
Now just paste the commands in there and create the shortcut
Now you should easily be able to start mining with your gpu from your desktop.
You should be mining by now! Anything missing or any questions? Leave a comment below. If you want more hashing power the Radeon 7950 is currently the most energy efficient card, you can find a lot of them on sale here
.
Is there any way that you’re aware of to get this working on an Nvidia? It’s what I have on hand but I might shop for an old AMD.
Hi thanks for the step by step set up.
But still have a problem, my miner starts working, it shows a +-550/Mhash.
I am not able to mine accepted or rejected shares, nor shows my worker online when i log in on cointron.
Any ideas ?
hi, i followed all the instructions but when i try to launch cgminer from
c:\cgminer-2.11.3-win32\cgminer –scrypt -o http://coinotron.com:3334 -u cryptocur.1 -p 1 –thread-concurrency 8192 -I 10 -g 1 -w 256 ,
the box pops up for a split second then disappears. Then when I go launch CGMiner manually from the folder, all it says is ‘stratum from pool 0 detected new block’ while it runs. I tried to run the mining proxy from my minerd folder hoping that would do the trick. unfortunately, it did not. Any help much obliged.
I get the same thing…
It seems that Coinotron is having some issues, more people are reporting this here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=49182.720
Unfortunately there is no other PPC pool at the moment, bitparking closed this week and the other ones seem to be a scam.
um. i hope you realize that by entering cryptocur.1 under the -u flag for command, you are mining for cryptocur and not you. i only put this because i felt maybe you were making a very unwise mistake, or if it was on purpose and you dont care. carry on i guess.
Any suggestion number for Geforce 610M in –thread-concurrency ???
Not specifically for that card but here’s a decent overview which should give you something to work with.
https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki/Mining-hardware-comparison#wiki-Nvidia_GPUs
Thanks for information…
Don’t use Mobile PC(aka notebooks) for mining, u gonna loose them all.
notebooks usually are not good for that, mining causes lots of heat, so poor cooled hardware can easily fry.
BE AWARE OF THAT. Just Waring You My Friend!
NEVE DO SOME STUFF THAT IS HEAVY, like mining…maybe even those folding@home can do some damage to your hardware.
Again, BE AWARE OF WHAT ARE YOU DOING.
Monitor the temp of CPU/GPU/motherboard and whatever have a temp monitor…
stay safe, u and your hardware ;D
i agree with allan, up till a person is mining using a apu. i do it now, and aside from when i overclocked it, it has had no issues with mining. even overclocked it was fine… till i got carried away and it was a little warmer that day. as for lifespan. maybe mine is shortened now, but im currently getting its full hash rate and typing this and watching a movie on the side right now on the same machine. so you be the judge.
acer a6 3420(i think)with 6650m(like a 5570 desktop style i believe) ill update this later when i have confirmed it. but on a grand scale. this laptop can play the new dues ex out last year on full at 1080p… albiet i put it to 24fps for my tv when i play on it. and its at 30~ fps and not 60fps… but its playable. runs practially flawless on 720 and handles 1600×900 for just laptop screen fine. short story. works like a charm.
just a quick edit. the apu is correct but the gpu aspect of it is a 6520g, not a 6650m. difference is place ment of gpu for the lettering. and as for its desktop equivilant. it is a 5570. the key thing is that while it has 512mb dedicated to the the gpu in this laptop. it has full access to the 1333mhz ram in the laptop so it runs more like it has 2.5gb but the apu splits the rams speed between the cpu and gpu. so the cpu gets like 800mhz and the gpu gets the remainder. so roughly has the power of a 6000 series desktop gpu card. although not statistically speaking as the gpu is modeled after typical laptop gpu architecture. so an actuall 6000 series desktop gpu would out perform this laptop anyday of the week. i say this so as to not give anyone the idea that they should just drop their desktops and run to one of these. their good but desktops are still better.
oh and before i forget again. i get 35kh/s for ltc and 35mh/s for btc on this laptop. i keep the settings low at -1 – 1 on bitcoin but ive been able to use it at intensity 10~ on litecoin. im absolutely sure i could get better speed with overclocking, but as i am using linux right now and the bios is locked anyways, im back at base one for learning how to overclock from the os again. lol
Do you have another pool,better? And can you explain how to set new pool on cgminer.Thanks
Great guide you have here. I’ve set up the miner and it seems to be working (it says I’ve connected to the pool I’ve chosen as well as finding blocks and displaying a steady hashrate) however both A and R stays at 0. Does this mean the pool is neither accepting nor rejecting any shares from me? It has stayed like this for nearly an hour now and my stats on the pool site is set to 0.00 kh/s too even though I’m getting close to 500 according to cgminer. Any fixes or help with this problem?
P.S. I’ve posted this comment before mistakenly on the CPU guide.
how long does it typically take to update the accepted and rejected shares? mine seems to be staying at 0. also, even though the gpu is set to be running at 18 intensity and i hear the fan spinning and working very fast, my computer is not lagging at all, which to me means that it’s not working? any potential fixes on this? i’m running a 7950 gpu. any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks!
1. 250 ms
2. yes
3. Something is obviously wrong but i don’t know what, never happened to me before.
Do you have another gpu maybe? I had a problem when it would run my bad Intel graphics card but no my main gpu. Look carefully at what one its using.
First off thanks for the very informative write up, really appreciate it.
I am up and running thanks to your guide but I seem to keep getting interrupted then reconnecting again. Also A=0 R=1 for the last half hour or so.
Could you please take a look at my screen shot and tell me if it looks ok.
http://imgur.com/f5PGClt
Thanks in advance,
What is the exact command line you are using? I see Mh/s in the miner which should be Kh/s for Litecoin.
I am running cgminer-2.11.4-windows, I actually just booted up CMD and typed
c:\cgminer-2.11.4-windows\cgminer
Then followed the prompts when it asked for the server (http://coinotron.com:3334) and then my worker user name and password, it did the rest.
I will have another try will your command line though. I attempted to use the command line “c:\cgminer-2.11.3-win32\cgminer –scrypt -o http://coinotron.com:3334 -u myusername -p 1 –thread-concurrency 4800 -I 10 -g 1 -w 256″
Although the program did not accept it. I will try again and i will also roll back to the exact version you are using and see if that helps.
I definitely have my worker setup to mine Litecoin on the coinotron end.
Regards,
I have now tried the following two combination but I can not get it to accept the commands
(http://imgur.com/ucAIVpk)
c:\cgminer-2.11.3-win32\cgminer –scrypt -o http://coinotron.com:3334 -u username -p 1 –thread-concurrency 4800 -I 10 -g 1 -w 256
and also
(http://imgur.com/ENCoWwe)
c:\cgminer-2.11.3-win32\cgminer -–scrypt -–thread-concurrency 4800 -o http://coinotron.com:3334 -u user -p 1 -I 10 -g 1 -w 256
Thanks!
Did you copy/paste the command line? There seems to be something wrong with the formatting of the dashes. This might have something to do with the font on this site, I’ll have a look at that. It will probably work if you type over the whole command line manually.
i downloaded cgminer-2.11.4 placed it in c drive then opened cgminer.exe and typed “cgminer –scrypt -o http://coinotron.com:3334 -u user.user -p password –thread-concurrency 8192 -I 10 -g 1 -w 256″ that didn’t work it just closed i also tried “cgminer -o stratum+tcp://coinotron.com:3334 -u user.user -p password –scrypt” and that just closed as well i’m not sure what i’m doing wrong
I think you have the same problem as Sam smoo, the dashes are not formatted properly. It should be working when you type them manually. thread-concurrency and scrypt require double dashes.
If that still doesn’t work launch cmd first and then execute the command. Then the window shouldn’t close and you can see the error.
I fixed the issue with the double dashes, the command it should be copy/pastable now.
Ok thanks a million that did the trick. Although I did notice there is also two space between “-p 1 –thread-concurrency 8192″ in the command published above but I just removed the second so it is format hopefully that is right. Everything is working smooth now thanks!!
Do you have any articles on here that cover building a rig? I am only getting 300khash’s time to upgrade I think.
Ok i tried through cmd this time and this is what it showed me
“started cgminer 2.11.4
ADL found less devices than opencl!
There is possibly more than one display attatched to a GPU
Use the gpu map feature to reliably map OpenGL to ADL
WARNING: Number of OpenGL and ADL devices did not match!
Probing for an alive pool
pool 0 JSON stratum auth failed : [
25,
“Not subscribed”"
Alright, so I’ve set up everything and it should be good, but when I start GUIMiner it stays put at ”starting” or ”connecting”.. I’ve tried cgminer but I couldn’t understand anything about it.
Using a 6870 as well and the setup on coinotron went successfully.. I also installed the SDK
Can you please help me?
How long did you wait from starting? GUIMiner takes 2 or so min to start running in my experience.
Cryptocur what do you think of the rig I am planning to build? http://www.reddit.com/r/litecoinmining/comments/1c75af/building_my_first_rig_need_help_selecting_parts/
Funny that you mention it! I have been doing some research the last few days to create an article about mining rigs.
It is looking good, the comments are pretty much spot on. You can make it cheaper if you like to as you don’t really need the cpu, ssd, casing and the RAM (1,5GB per card is enough when using reaper, for cgminer you need even less). However, a bit extra ram and the ssd are nice.
For the GPU I have seen the Sapphire cards like this one: Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 3GB DDR5 11196-16-20G
being advised as good but there are many different types of that one so I’m not sure which one is the right one, or perhaps they’re all good. But if you google “sapphire 7950 bitcoin” there is plenty to find.
@Cryptocur: Thanks for the great guide. I am using cgminer 2.11.4 on a Ubuntu 12.04 LTS machine and an AMD Radeon 7850 1GB. I have been mining for a week and was wondering about thread concurrency. Now I know, computed it for my card, updated and save cgminer.conf and I am getting a better hash rate now.
The site you linked to download cgminer is down. Is there any other place I can download it?
I uploaded the zip to mega: https://mega.co.nz/#!TctUiI5L!SkhKyzkx74UGrXJa1BHNV1RMpLsGUsbRHKAx_sb1EqU
Hello, everytime I start cgminer, after a few seconds cgminer causes a problem and maust be closed. can you help me please?
If you launch cmd first through strart->execute->cmd and then start cgminer you should get an error, can you post that error?
same error: cgminer detected a problem and must be closed
you have corrupted opencl driver use amd driver removal tool from site (around 2mb) and use that to remove al drivers then install 13.1 not beta 13.3 this only if you have HD5xxx,6xxx,7xxx card
AppName: cgminer.exe AppVer: 0.0.0.0 ModName: amdocl.dll
ModVer: 2.4.595.10 Offset: 002bb761
I’m getting the message “No suitable long-poll found for http://127.0.0.1:9332” when I try solo GPU mining. At which point I get a popup indicating that cgminer.exe has stopped working. What am I doing wrong and is my video card supported?
cgminer 2.11.4
Win 7 Ultimate 64
ATI 4870X2 GPU
The backup file for cgminer has a trojan. Go screw yourself.
Some virus scanners say it is but it isn’t. This is because miners are also used on infected computers to mine for someone else. Just google cgminer trojan and you’ll see for yourself.
I can confirm this, even the one from the official cgminer site shows as a trojan with some av but if you do a little research you can see it is widely used in the litecoin community and all you need to do is add an exception. FYI Cryptocur I have been promoting this article like mad on reddit.com/r/litecoinmining as it really helped me out in a way i could understand. thanks again.
I’m still just a bit confused on the thread concurrency.
You wrote:”So, for a 7950, that would be 64 * 384 = 24576; ideal values are 21712 or 24000″
I am not understanding how you get “ideal” values of 21712 and 24000 from 24576.
For example, I have a 7850, the bus width is 256. 64 * 256 is 16384 so my ideal thread concurrency would be 16000? Is that right?
Hey, i have a question.
i inputted the command line etc. etc.
And its start with saying that GPU 0 failure, disabling!
Then after a minute, it says that Stratum from pool 0 detected a new block, does this mean that it is working, or not?
I am running an pretty old card, a Geforce 8500 GT.
B
I have the exact same problem
mine is a Geforce 8400GS.
I entered the command that included all of the information (thread concurrency, web address, username, etc.) and received the response “All devices disabled, cannot mine!”
The computer is connected to the internet and the grapics card is working, what do you think could be the issue?
What card are you using, I think it might be the ati sdk, I had a similar problem. You need to install the sdk first then the gpu drivers.
Hi there,
Would you be so kind to give me some feedback on the following hardware-set for mining Litecoin?
- GPU – Club 3D Radeon HD 7950 Royal King
- ALTERNATE Upgrade Kit – GigaByte GA-Z77X-D3H (MOBO) i5-3570K (CPU) – 8GB
- CPU cooler- Enermax ETS-T40-TA
- SSD HDD – Samsung 840 Series MZ-7TD120
- Case – Corsair Carbide 300R
- Seasonic X750 V2 (Gold)
What do you think? Good enough?
Furthermore, do i like to have some case coolers. Any recommendation?
Appreciate your feedback!
Cheers
need config for 2X Sapphire HD7970 Vapor-X
(11197-12-40G) try everything..
Fixer wil be rewarded.
try GUIminer on coinotron.com, 3334, 7970 LOW settings for start. Also open miner (s) on coinotron. Should work
Hi. I have one wierd problem. I put my AMD 7870 (1000/1250MHz) graphic card in one computer (Intel DC E2180@2,0GHz, 2GB DDR2 RAM, MBO Lenovo Think Centre A55, Windows Vista Business). When i start guiminer, it show ~250Kh and that is ok. When i open pool, and watch worker, it show me ~80Kh (i try with coinotron.com and give-me-ltc.com and pooledbits.com, all three show same value of kH, i mean ~80Kh). What is problem here????? Why guiminer client show ~250Kh, and pool show ~80Kh? with cgminer is same situation thanks for any help!
ALL,,, If you use the args -D -T as the last 5 entries in your config. This will display and retain the error foor you that is causing the crash. So with that said the example using the string in this article would be this,,
“c:\cgminer-2.11.3-win32\cgminer –scrypt -o http://coinotron.com:3334 -u myusername -p 1 –thread-concurrency 4800 -I 10 -g 1 -w 256″ -D -T
Then when you get it running you can re-edit your config script to remove those args. This will result in a clean stacking of either accepted or rejected shares. Then you can optimize your “settings” for maximum hashrate/accepted shares.
hi. i like your whole explanation. very detailed but, have ltcminer client and want to use my samsung galaxy tab 10.1 to mine but my client says communication error. please help.
Just want to ask if this works on an APU Like that of AMD A10 5800K?
I tried the instruction abive but I’m getting this error:
cgminer version 3.3.1 – Started: [2013-08-14 04:51:06]
——————————————————————————–
(5s):0.000 (avg):0.000h/s | A:0 R:0 HW:0 U:0.0/m WU:0.0/m
ST: 2 SS: 0 NB: 2 LW: 4 GF: 0 RF: 0
Connected to coinotron.com diff 256 with stratum as user toviasrepier.1
Block: c775a46d4f9b5091… Diff:55.8M Started: [04:51:19] Best share: 0
——————————————————————————–
[P]ool management [S]ettings [D]isplay options [Q]uit
GPU 0: 10.0C | OFF / 0.000h/s | A:0 R:0 HW:0 U:0.00/m I:12
——————————————————————————–
[2013-08-14 04:50:57] Started cgminer 3.3.1
[2013-08-14 04:50:57] Probing for an alive pool
[2013-08-14 04:51:06] Pool 0 difficulty changed to 256
[2013-08-14 04:51:06] Network diff set to 55.8M
[2013-08-14 04:51:06] Stratum from pool 0 detected new block
[2013-08-14 04:51:06] Maximum buffer memory device 0 supports says 200540160
[2013-08-14 04:51:06] Your scrypt settings come to 536870912
[2013-08-14 04:51:06] Error -61: clCreateBuffer (padbuffer8), decrease TC or increase LG <<<<<<<<<<<<
[2013-08-14 04:51:06] Failed to init GPU thread 0, disabling device 0
[2013-08-14 04:51:06] Restarting the GPU from the menu will not fix this.
[2013-08-14 04:51:06] Try restarting cgminer.
Press enter to continue:
[2013-08-14 04:51:19] Stratum from pool 0 detected new block
Does this means I still need a dedicated Video Card despite I'm using an APU?
We’ll I was under the impression that CGminer needed to be compiled but the gist I get from this tutorial is that all you have to do is download it and place it in a folder and run it from cmd prompt. Is this the case? I’ve been trying to follow the windows readme.txt, provided in the download to compile it, with no luck.
I try to get my card mining again after installing a new OS: Windows 7 64bit pro.
cgminer(3.3.4) crashes “cgminer detected a problem and must be closed”. I’m running Catalyst 13.10_beta and I have a AMD 5770.
What can I do?
thanks