RVN is one of the most popular coins for mining, second only to Ethereum (ETH) and Ethereum Classic (ETC). The cryptocurrency belongs to the Proof-of-Work consensus algorithm and has a hybrid algorithm (Kawpow) that engages both the core and the video card memory.

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2Miners Ravencoin Mining Pool

Because of such features, this algorithm cannot be called “cold”. It depends heavily on video card overclocking and power allocation (Power Limit, PL).

Overclocking video cards when mining Ravencoin. How is it similar to Firo?

On October 26, 2021, the Firo cryptocurrency was hardforked, changing its mining algorithm from MTP to the new FiroPoW algorithm.

We wrote about it in a separate article "Firo (ZCoin) network will be updated. How to prepare for the hardforward?".

Firo used to be known as Zcoin.

The FiroPoW algorithm is a modification of the ProgPoW algorithm. The same goes for KawPoW, which is used in RVN mining.

In the end we have two algorithms - FiroPoW and KawPoW - which are derived from the ProgPoW algorithm. They are very similar to each other, so their overclocking principles are exactly the same. Accordingly, and although this article is written about RVN mining, it can be successfully used to overclock cards for the FiroPoW algorithm for Firo mining.

How to overclock video cards when mining Ravencoin?

Overclocking video cards primarily depends on the willingness of the miner to experiment and the cost of power. Still, apart from average-optimal overclocking parameters, a hard downvolt is possible, giving only 80 percent of the average hash rate, but reducing the power consumption of the video card by 33-39 percent. And vice versa, we can almost always add 10-15 percent of hash rate sacrificing 22-30 percent of excessive consumption.

Important: profitability calculators always show some average optimal overclocking for each model, available on most video cards. However, an experienced miner should know the possible minimums and maximums for each of his video cards.

Ravencoin miner

For example, an RTX 2070S card can produce a speed of 17.05 MH/s per 89 watts of power consumption (only 5.22 watts per 1 MH/s), but it can also produce 20.88 MH/s per 121 watts (only 5.8 watts per 1 MH/s). And if we have free power, this graphics card can be overclocked to 26.05 MH/s at 209 watts at all (the card will consume as much as 8 watts per 1 MH/s). In this case, don’t forget about good video card cooling.

Below is a summary table with some of the most interesting overclocking options and mining hash rates for this coin for different Nvidia graphics card models.

The data in the table is derived from the T-rex 0.24.2 miner, and is updated as new models are tested or significantly more efficient miners are released.

Principles of video card overclocking for the Kawpow algorithm

Almost all parameters of video card overclocking affect the hash rate of video cards when mining this algorithm. Therefore, it is necessary to overclock everything. However, if we overclock everything at once, we will not know the true cause of failure when video cards become unstable.

That’s why we should overclock in stages.

Step 0. Before you start overclocking, determine the profitability of the algorithm – the 2CryptoCalc calculator helps here. Next, write down the cost of 1 kWh of electricity.

Taken together, we get an estimate of the rationality of overclocking in terms of energy cost. Then use these values to determine a reasonable level of power consumption for the graphics card.

Step 1: Find a stable maximum in memory.

To do this, incrementally increase the memory by +50 MHz to the stability limit. Backtrack down by one step.

Important aspect: when the video card heats up, the video memory chips are also heated and the stable overclocking values decrease.

Cryptocurrency mining

Second important aspect: there is no need to turn on the "tablet" for 1080 and 1080ti video cards. With a fixed PL it will not add speed and overclocking stability will definitely decrease.

Step 2: Core overclocking.

If you are mining on Windows operating system, then fix the core voltage in MSI Afterburner program. This will increase the stability of the overclocking and increase the level of maximum achievable energy efficiency.

Increase the core frequency by +25 MHz upwards, find a stable maximum, backtrack from it 1 step down.

If you have a time of day differential, and you want to automatically switch to cold mode on the expensive tariff, and overclock on the cheap tariff, overclock the core at all points of the core fix.

Cryptocurrency miner

It is best to start with the highest voltage desired point. It should be remembered that the higher the voltage of the core, the less you can overclock it. On the same card at 950mV the card can have a maximum overclock of +125, at 800mV the core is already +175MHz, and at 700mV even +225MHz – especially for the RTX 30xx series.

In this case, it’s better to backtrack down to 50MHz to spare at the high voltage points. After all, the card is maximally unstable there, and if the driver fails, all points are dropped at once.

RVN and Ethereum dual-mining

The memory of modern video cards may well hold working files for mining two cryptocurrencies at once. However, they will compete with each other in memory and core usage, so the final speed will depend significantly on the intensity of each algorithm.

Note: Windows 10 system has excessive video memory consumption of all video cards. Dual-mining is not possible for video cards with only 8GB of memory, but it is possible with Windows 7 or Linux-based mining operating systems like RaveOS.

In practice, with the global dominance of Etherium in terms of mining yields over other cryptocurrencies, the use of Dual mode mining in 2020-2021 has not led to the ability to earn more on cards without mining protection.

For example, RTX 2070 Super graphics cards can produce 40+ MH/s when mining only one algorithm at 93W per Ethereum. If the cards hold 7800 in memory, the figure increases to 42-43 MH/s as well. When mining Ravencoin, one can get respectively 21 MH/s at a low consumption of 121W or over 26 MH/s at a high consumption, i.e. at 200W.

With dual mining at different intensities, it is possible to get ETH speeds of 16.5 MH/s and RVN speeds of 16.5 MH/s, while consuming up to 200 watts of electricity. This is just under 40 per cent for Ether and just under 70 per cent for RVN.

It is easy to calculate that the last two years net mining one Ethereum coin has been more profitable in the vast majority of cases, plus it consumes much less power.

Note: different miners were used in the tests, so that the intensity of each coin could be varied. The values obtained may not be the maximum.

If you have so-called LHR video cards, then in theory dual-mining would make sense, although it would not give a large increase in rewards. This option is only relevant if you have a cheap source of electricity.

On topic: "T-Rex Miner unlocks 100 percent of Nvidia's LHR video cards hash rate - truth or fiction?"

RVN mining on Nvidia RTX 30xx video cards

As you may have noticed, RVN mining speeds are half the rate of ETH mining in mega hashes in most cases.

The RTX 30xx series – like the 20xx cards – use very fast memory that can transfer huge amounts of data and use very high frequencies. In this case the bottleneck becomes the data bus.

That is why cards with the same bus are very similar in their mining speeds. For example it is 3060ti and 3070 or 2060S, 2070 and 2070S.

Nvidia video cards deficit

With the release of the 30xx core graphics cards are even more powerful and with faster memory, but the bus bit rate remains the same. So it is relatively useless to overclock the core, because RVN mining speed on 3070 card will not go higher than 30-33 MH/s. But the consumption will increase, so on RTX 3070 or RTX 3060ti when mining RVN and ETH you should overclock the memory as much as possible and lower the core frequency as much as possible to achieve maximum energy efficiency.

This depends on memory overclocking: you can get 31 MH/s with 8200 MHz memory.

For the same reason, it is relatively useless to use different dual-mining variants on cards without LHR if you run RVN+FIRO, RVN+ETH, RVN+ERGO and others on one card. Here it is impossible to achieve profitability increase relative to mining one coin.

Bottom line. Is Ravencoin mining profitable?

Mining RVN cryptocurrency is already one of the most relevant options to mine something other than Ethereum today. Well, in light of the upcoming major updates inspired by Ethereum developers’ desire to move away from video card mining entirely, Ravencoin mining could be seen as a very good alternative. Especially given its wide range of options for selecting the desired energy efficiency of mining within even a single model.

There’s no telling how much time until Ethereum fully migrates to PoS. However, it is already worth considering checking your cards for their ability to mine alternative currencies, as well as learning the possible stable ranges of hash rate/efficiency depending on overclocking.