Anyone have much experience with coin mining?

[Ntran]

I just started bitcoin mining (probably a little too late from what I’m reading online). Does anyone have any tips regarding ways to optimize mining? I’m somewhat limited regarding hardware and was wondering if there were any way to improve mining on the software side. I am currently running a Sapphire HD 7850 1GB (Core: 975Mhz Memory: 1350 Mhz) and GUImining is reporting about 290Mhash/s (is this normal?). I’m planning on adding a second 7850 to crossfire for gaming but I’ve heard that crossfire does nothing for mining and may even decrease performance, is this true?

[Morpheus]

crossfire would help, because I have read a lot of places where people run multi gpu configs for mining and as far as your situation goes, no offence but I think it will be hard to mine with that gpu

[pGuerrerox]

I dont know the performance of this card for Bitcoin but for Litecoin it should give you around 375~400 Kh, this cards need the core to be overclock to really perform good.

 

it is not necessary to crossfire, it does not help mining. 

[RuecanOnRails]

Crossfire and mining has fairly random results. some people find no reduction in hash rates, while others do. Regardless of what results you get, you will never get MORE hash from crossfire. You will either get the same hashrate, or less.

 

I'd highly recommend Litecoin or another scrypt based coin. (Litecoin being the leader of the scrypt coins) You will get more out of mining. Nearly Double the profits if you were to transfer the coins into bitcoins on an exchange as you mined them. Right now Litecoin has a 175% profit over bitcoin. (changes all the time)

 

 

My views and suggestion with crossfire.

 

When you are running crossfire, your cards are working together more so. Meaning disabling the primary card will still result in a laggy and possibly unusable computer while mining unless you stop mining all together.

If you do not run crossfire, both cards are fully independent. Lets say your computer lags and is unusable while mining. Simply disabling the primary card will allow you to use your computer and keep the second card mining at full speed. This includes gaming on a single card solution. While that's great for mining and productivity, it does hurt with gaming as you don't get as much horsepower compared to crossfire.

 

The solution to gaming with crossfire and mining with independent non crossfired cards is a bit of a hassle but managable. First leave the side panel off your case (improved airflow for temps with mining) When you feel the need to play some games, simply power off the computer. Plug in your Crossfire cable and turn the computer back on. Let it go through the few seconds of setting up crossfire. Now you can game for as long as you want. When it's time to switch back to mining, go into CCC, select crossfire, then disable. Shut down the computer and remove the crossfire cable. Boot back up and run your miners.

 

If you can get away with gaming on a single card you should run without crossfire. The ability to disable the primary card and keep the other one mining while you game or use the computer is a huge boost in total hashing and overall more coins in your pocket. If there are certain games you want to experience or need more power, shut down and put your computer into crossfire mode.

[Ntran]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I wasn't expecting much considering my hardware and how it's a lot harder to mind now than it was back in the day....but I was kinda hoping to get may a few per month, at this rate I'll be luck if I get one a month =\  

pGuerrerox thanks for suggesting litecoin I haven't heard about them but I'll definitely look into them.