Ethereum mining with Intel Arc: Poor benchmarks will please gamers
For the first time, gamers can look forward to the poor benchmarks of the Intel Arc A380 (test), because after DirectX 9 and DirectX 11, mining is also the graphics processors of the first generation Intel Xe HPG (“Alchemist” ) not really. The performance for mining Ethereum (ETH) is still below a GeForce GTX 1660.
The Intel Arc A380 doesn't do mining
While the Intel Arc A380 can at least celebrate one or the other respectable success under DirectX 12 and Vulkan, the 1,024 shader-strong ACM-G11 only does games with DirectX 11 and DirectX 9 moderately or not at all. The same applies to the mining capability of the graphics processor, which at 10.2 MH/s and 0.136 MH/s per watt is far below the efficiency of popular mining GPUs, which are up to 120 MH/s and 0.461 MH/s per watt. s Mine for cryptocurrency up to four times more efficiently. However, players will be happy when Arc becomes available.
Nanominer v3.7.0 was the first Ethereum miner to receive an update that makes the tool run on an Intel Arc A380.
Nanominer v3.7.0 – Release Notes
Added Intel Arc support for ethash.
Added automatic switch from ETH to ETC when ETH moves to PoS.
Intel Arc a380 ethash hashrate: 10.2 MH/s without OC.
Automatic switch is configured by switchToEtc. In case of mining on exchange wallet or any other custodial wallet switchToEtc should be false.
To enable automatic switch add the following line into the config:
switchToEtc = true
To disable automatic switch add the following line into the config:
switchToEtc = false
The default value is true.
The fastest graphics cards in this range are the GeForce RTX 3090 and the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, which at around 120 MH/s with a limited power consumption of 300 watts achieve an efficiency of 0.40 MH/s per watt. The efficiency king on the Ethereum blockchain is the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, which delivers 0.46 MH/s per watt.
The wait for Intel Arc
After Intel Xe HPG is offered for the first time outside of China in the form of the ASRock Arc A380 Challenger, there is a faint hope that the Arc A380, A580, A750 and A770 will also be offered in this country soon.
Intel Arc (“Alchemist”) – Specifications (Source)* Model GPU Xe Cores Memory Competitor AMD Competitor Nvidia MSRP** Intel Arc A770 ACM-G10 32 16 GB GDDR6@256 bit RX 6650 XT RTX 3060 Ti $349-399 Intel Arc A750 24 8GB GDDR6@256 bit RX 6600 RTX 3060 $279-349 Intel Arc A580 16 8GB GDDR6@128 bit – RTX 3050 199-249 USD Intel Arc A380 ACM-G11 8 6 GB GDDR6@96 bit RX 6400 GTX 1650 125–149 USD Intel Arc A310 4 4 GB GDDR6@64 bit RX 6400 GTX 1050 Ti 99 USD *) not officially confirmed **) without taxes
The YouTube channel Red Panda Mining, which specializes in mining, demonstrates Ethereum mining on the Gunnir Arc A380 Photon 6G using the Nanominer v3.7.0 in a detailed video.