I got my hands on a very old but free GPU I wanted to see what it could do I have it plugged in and the computer sees the GPU fine however when I try to mine on that 2ndary card the miner is outputting data that indicates it is running on the primary GPU. I would say the hash rate also suggests that is the case as given the age and power of the card I can’t see it earning that much and system monitoring seems to also agree with this.
I have never tried mining off multiple GPUs and I just got this one free and had an open PCIe x16 sized slot, runs at x4, to drop it in. This is on a Windows PC and both card are AMD one is an RX 500 series the free card is an old Radeon HD 7700 series. I can accept it is possible that it may be too old to mine on but wanted to try and set this up at least as a testing experiment and to learn about running 2 GPUs to allow one be dedicated to mining. Since I didn’t know what algorithms might work I went with NiceHash which gave only 4 options for the HD 7700 series and of those only the ERGO algorithm even benchmarked. I might try and pop this in another computer to just test the mining capabilities of the card but that won’t be practical for me outside of a test bench.
Let me know what I might be missing or if this sounds like it just won’t work and is too old.
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So just trying to think outside the box here.
The GPU will work , it just comes down to algo and packet/data size. I have a single fan MSI (similar to a 500-550). It has serious limits. I found the trick for me was to run a mining program myself as any HiveOS or NiceHash is geared to maximize anything/everything.
By using my own mining program I was able to access all the preset formats (architecture) the program has for GPU’s. A lot of trial and error but I was able to assign a similar brand/model architecture type (it’s 0-99 presets, in groups by model/manufacturer) for my lesser GPU which the program thinks is the GPU I assigned. Doing this allowed my 2 GPU’s to mine independently. Before I assigned a GPU architecture type to my lesser GPU, the program counted the 2 as 1, I know this because hashrate’s increased.
So If I was to pitch direct advice it would be to test XMR-Stak (mining program/app) . Run the file 1 time so it builds its pre-sets, then turn it off. Enter the GPU config file and tinker with the architecture type and also tinker with the “mem_mode / Memory” you will likely have to lower memory stats to meet the lesser GPU (for only that PCI slot and GPU).
Coin type matters greatly. I would recommend Cryptonight coins. Cryptonight Turtle can be mined with nearly any miner/gpu . If cryptonight coins are profitable , is another topic (yes and a lot more no, lol)
If this info seems to be what you are looking for , tell me. I’ll gladly post my GPU config files and share model brand/types/#'s . Good luck and happy adventures
Addon/edit: Something I just remembered. This trick does not work with Nvidia. I believe it is because Nvidia’s are locked programming Vs. Radeon and MSI types which are open programming (this allows things like Afterburner being able to adjust fan and MH speeds. I was not able to re-assign architecture type to any Nvidia so far.
I did some more testing and tinkering and I am fairly certain that it will take more work than the GPU is worth to get a working algorithm on it. I will just unload the whole rig I received for free for a little cash and move on.