I was getting 7 mhash/s on GUIminer.. but only 0.3 on bit minter?

Question

I'm really new to bitcoins. I have a good computer, cpu based at least. 8 core AMD processor with 4 ghz a core with decent amount of cache. I wanted to make some extra money and use my computer to get some bitcoins. Knowing nothing about the industry first thing I did was download wallet and GUIminer. Guiminer keeps taking all the cpu and generates up to 7 Mhash/s However it proves really ineffective, taking all that cpu and showing absolutely no progress on the BTC guild website. So I looked for an alternative method of bitcoin minig that will result in higher reward. I came to bitminter, downloaded their client. When I ran their client, it generated a 0.3 Mhps. This was really disappointing and I don't know why. Well why is my mhps so low on bitminter, and where should I mine bitcoins?

Also it says "warning: electricity-wasting slow cpu" but I have a beast CPU

Answer 1

As far as I can tell GUIMiner may have been failing,

The reason why Bitminter says "Warning" is because CPUs are not effective for mining. (I have an Phenom II X6 @ 3.6 Ghz and get the same as you), My graphics card (ATI 7770) can only just mine them now.

How many cores is bitminter set to use?

My recommendation could be for you to mine litecoins and then exchange them for bitcoins. Litecoins mine better on the CPU.

Answer 2

Bitcoin mining now requires either powerful graphics cards (usually AMD cards) or ASICs built from the ground up to perform the hash computations required in mining.

Here is a link to demonstrate the performance of various pieces of hardware:

• https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison

In short, your computer processor was not designed to mine bitcoins nor has the ability to be repurposed like a graphics card. Thus, the hash rate you are getting is reasonable.

Answer 3

The amd 8 core processors are not in the least a beast cpu. They are terrible for things like this. It is a budget cpu as are most of AMDs processors if not all. If you want a cpu that can do some damage go for an intel i7 3770k or above, but if you cant afford then I guess your stuck with that somewhat poor cpu. i have no idea how many Mhashs/s i could do with my CPU because it is no longer supported apparently, but i can do upto 115 mhases/s and its generally 109-112 mh/s with my Gtx 680 GPU from Nvidia. Graphics cards are BEAST when it comes to parallel processing and repetative computations. Such as decrypting hashes (or password cracking) etc

Answer 4

if you are getting .3, then it must be your video card doing the work in bitminter. There is no way your cpu will get anywhere near that, neither will an Intel. Keep your AMD cpu, stay way from NVIDIA gpu's as they are terrible at this job. Multiple top end AMD GPU's in Crossfire will give you the best speeds possible without buying an ASIC as you will see here https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison unless you want to spend thousands on a Tesla to get the performance AMD offers at $699...