Mining equipment should be tested immediately after purchase. Used equipment is tested before the transaction. The procedure is as follows:
- Examine the equipment carefully. Check the seals, check the connections for burns.
- Read the machine’s data sheet or the manufacturer’s website.
- Determine the reference hash rate. Find the benchmark power value and calculate the gain for a given power cost using online mining calculators.
- Check BIOS settings to ensure no custom firmware is installed.
- Search the manufacturer’s website for the ASIC serial number. The ID indicates the date of manufacture and the model of the ASIC. You can identify your graphics card using the datasheet or the GPU-Z application.
- Evaluate the potential of the hardware using benchmarks. You need to compare the parameters with the given ones and compare these numbers with other models.
Parameters for tests
In mining, the equipment works around the clock under peak load. For this reason, many users opt for crypto trading on biticodes instead of mining cryptocurrencies. To extend the life of a graphics card, regular performance tests are necessary. Any benchmark can be used for this purpose. To run the benchmark, you need to do the following:
- Download the program from the manufacturer’s website.
- Start the installation. Activate “Full Screen” for the full screen mode and screen resolution.
- Use the default settings or set average values.
- In the Settings section, select the desired tests.
- Select Dynamic Background (to use the PC for other tasks during the test), Burn-In, or Xtreme Burn-In (for heavy or ultra-heavy workloads).
- On the GPU Temperature Alarm tab, enter the peak temperature. The system will sound an alarm when the value is reached. The value must not exceed 90°C.
- Start the process by clicking Go.
You must run the test for at least one hour. The software will generate a report that can be compared with other devices. After you have tested the stability of the hardware under peak loads, you can start estimating the crypto performance. Any mining program performs this task. The algorithm looks like this:
- Download the program from the developer’s resource. The utility is usually free of charge.
- Install the application. Accept the terms of use. You also need to select the interface language and add the program to the antivirus exclusion list.
- Enter the address of the cryptocurrency wallet.
- The program should detect the mining equipment. At the same time, it may automatically download additional software to work with a separate algorithm.
- The application starts testing the efficiency of the mining hardware (this stage is called “benchmark”). Hardware parameters (hash rate, temperature, fan speed, power voltage) can be viewed under Devices.
- Begin degradation. The device should work for 24-48 hours.
During load tests, you need to make sure that the devices are stable. There should be no hangs, no random restarts, and no large number of errors. Performance is measured in relative units – points. The test results for each GPU model and CPU in common applications can be found on the developer’s website.
The obtained values must be as close as possible to the reference values (the difference must not exceed 5-10%). In case of significant deviations, it is worth checking the cooling performance.
The hashing speed depends on the algorithm of the cryptocurrency. The reference values for each coin can be viewed in the mining calculator of the selected pool.
Mining uses technically complex equipment with many characteristics. It is not easy to estimate which of them will be more effective in finding a valid hash. For this purpose, the hardware is operated through special software that loads the system to the maximum (benchmark).
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