Disclaimer & buying options for OCuLink eGPU adapters for reliable up to 64Gbps ePCIe 4.0 x4 connectivity is here
We all know and love (i.e. hate) miners. Getting a RX 580 was a pain and when I finally got one coupled with a Mantiz I wanted to know whether I could get some of the money back I payed for this setup. This is macOS only (in my case High Sierra 10.13 Beta 17A330h)
The software I'm using is MacMiner (1.5.57) which is a GUI miner that is based on other popular mining software which is terminal only. http://macminer.fabulouspanda.com/macminer/downloads/
Nicehash is a service that offers you the possibility of renting out your GPUs compute power. Instead of mining a profitable coin you sell your hashing power (A rate at which you find coins) and get paid out in bitcoin.
Next up you choose the statrum server from this list https://www.nicehash.com/?p=gstarted . For the username you just enter the bitcoin adress that you get from nicehash. I have had medium success with getting most of the algorithm to work. The one I'm most successful with right now is Keccak. http://imgur.com/9P0R117
If you have success with other algorithm pls share them in this thread.
eGPU detection works just fine. By default the internal GPU gets used too but you can choose to use the eGPU only by typing "--device 1" in the manual flags like so: http://imgur.com/0lrYdBZ
If you aren't sure wether the correct GPU is used you can read the answer here to find out ways to make sure the correct GPU is used: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=197110.msg20707733#msg20707733
Other than that I'm using the recommended settings. You can increase things like Intensity on your own risk since the system will be put under more stress.
If you are interested and/or made any experiences with mining cryptocurrency on mac you are welcome to share it here.
I will add future results and share my experiences in this thread. If you are interested in my worker stats you can check them out here: https://new.nicehash.com/miner/3DujNc2aw8QGnh26kQp8zXZCsPc4XAi8mB
Due to me not wanting to risk anything going wrong I will be mostly mining in evenings and probably on the weekend. But I can imagine having this run for longer periods of time in the future.
Update from 17.08.2017. I've tried out every other possible algorithm at this point in time and Keccak remains the only one that worked out for me.
Compatible Thunderbolt 3 Enclosures
| Thunderbolt 3 Enclosures |
Zotac Box |
AKiTiO HOT Node |
Sonnet Breakaway 350 | 550 | 350D |
HP Omen Accelerator | PowerColor Devil Box |
Asus XG Station Pronew |
Mantiz Venus |
Asus ROG XG Station 2 |
Razer Core V2 |
Sonnet Breakaway Puck |
| Appearance |  |
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| Included GPU1 | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ | RX580 |
✖ | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ | RX560 | RX570 |
| Price US$ |
$220 | $260 |
$249 | $313 | $699 |
$342 |
$300 |
$330 | $399 |
$550 |
$500 | $399 | $599 |
| Max PCIe bandwidth | 32Gbps | 32Gbps | 32Gbps | 32Gbps | 32Gbps | 32Gbps | 32Gbps | 32Gbps | 32Gbps | 32Gbps |
| PSU location-type2 |
external-AC | internal-SFX | internal-SFX | internal-ATX | internal-fATX | external-AC | internal-SFX | internal-fATX | internal-fATX | external-AC |
| PSU max power | 180W | 400W | 350W | 550W | 350W |
500W | 500W | 330W | 550W | 680W | 500W | 160W | 220W |
| GPU max power3 |
150W |
375W | 300W | 375W | 225W |
300W | 375W | 300W | 375W | 500W | 375W | - |
| Power delivery (PD)4 |
15W | 15W | 15W | 87W | 60W | 60W | 60W | 15W | 87W | 100W | 65W | 45W |
| USB-C controller |
TI83 | TI83 | TI83 | TI83 | TI83 | TI83 | TI83 | TI83 | TI83 | TI83 |
| TB3 USB-C ports5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Ports max bandwidth5 | 5Gps | - | - | 5Gbps | 5Gbps | 10Gbps | 5Gbps | 5Gbps | 5Gbps | - |
| USB3.0 ports (+C type)5 |
4 | ✖ | ✖ | 4+1 | 4+1 | 0 |
5 | 4 | 4 | ✖ |
| Ethernet port5 | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ |
| SATA port5 | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ |
| Other ports | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ | USB-C 3.1 |
✖ | USB-B 3.0 | ✖ | 3xDP,HDMI |
| Size (in/mm, LxWxH) visual comparison |
9.06 x 3.90 x 7.20 230 x 99 x 183 |
16.85 x 5.71 x 8.94 428 x 145 x 227 |
13.38 x 7.25 x 8.00 340 x 185 x 202 |
15.75 x 7.87 x 7.87 400 x 200 x 200 |
15.75 x 6.77 x 9.53 400 x 172 x 242 |
14.76 x 4.21 x 8.07 375 x 107 x 205 |
12.99 x 6.42 x 8.46 330 x 163 x 215 |
17.95 × 6.22 x 10.94 456 x 158 x 278 |
13.38 x 4.13 x 8.60 334 x 105 x 218 |
6.00 x 2.00 x 5.12 152 x 51 x 130 |
| Max GPU len (in/cm) |
7.87/20.0 | 12.60 / 32.0 | 12.20/31.0 | 11.42/29.0 | 12.20 / 31.0 | 12.24/31.1 |
13.00 / 33.0 |
12.20 / 31.0 | 11.81/30.0 | - |
| Weight (kg/lb) | 0.85/1.87 |
4.90/10.78 | 3.20/7.10 | 5.50/12.10 | ~3.60/7.92 | 2.95 /6.50 |
3.60/7.92 |
5.10/11.22 | 4.95/10.89 | 2.38/5.25 |
| Updated firmware6 | 26.1 ✔ | B1-25+4.3.3✔ | 25.2 | 25.2 | 25.1 ✔ | 25.25✔ | 25.101✔ | ✔ | 25.1✔ | v25 ✔ | 26.1 ✔ | 25.1 ✔ |
| TB3 cable length (cm)7 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 150 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 |
| Vendor page | link |
link | link | link | link | link | link | link | link | link |
| Review | unbox |
link | link | link | user | preview | link | link | link | link |
| Implementations |
link | link | link | link | link | ✖ | link | link | link | link |
Native macOS 10.13.4+ supported eGPUs
| Natively Supported GPUs in High Sierra | ||
| Radeon Vega | Radeon Ellesmere | Radeon Baffin |
| Pro WX 9100 | Pro WX 7100 | Pro WX 5100 |
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| Vega Frontier Edition | RX 580 | Pro WX 4100 |
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| RX Vega 64 Liquid | RX 570 | RX 560 |
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| RX Vega 64 | RX 480 | RX 560D |
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| RX Vega 56 | RX 470 | RX 460 |
|
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tbMBP 13" 2016 + RX580 (Mantiz Venus) + macOS 10.14 + Windows 10
With that said I'm gonna conclude my mining session for today and go to sleep
Algorithm: Keccak
Time running: 2h 45 min
Hashrate shown in MacMiner: 300 Mh/s
Hashrate shown in Nicehash: 330 Mh/s
Intensity: Recommended
Other settings different from Recommended: -
tbMBP 13" 2016 + RX580 (Mantiz Venus) + macOS 10.14 + Windows 10
_
ASUS A53SV: i7-2860QM, 16GB DDR3 running WINDOWS 10 Enterprise LTSB 2016
SSD: SAMSUNG 850 PRO(256GB)+SAMSUNG 850 EVO(120GB)
eGPU: EVGA GTX 1080 FTW+ PE4C V3.0(mPCIe)+EVGA 650 G3 PSU (internal display ONLY)
2 months ago I bought I Mac Mini just to leave my Akitio Thunder2 + 1080ti mining. I used Nicehash, and it was pretty fair. I was getting around $8 a day (spending around $2 on energy). Unfortunately the rates went down and now I'm getting around $3/day, which is just too much work for profiting around $30/month.
2017 15" MacBook Pro (RP555) [7th,4C,H] + GTX 1080 Ti @ 32Gbps-TB3 (Mantiz Venus) + macOS 10.12.6 & Win10 [build link]
Depending on what algorithm you use hashrates can vary a lot. Scrypt for example is only like 30 Kh/s for mining litecoin whereas SHA-256 is easely 600 Mh/s for mining bitcoin.
If you don't believe me I can show you a screenshot tomorrow. You are welcome to test it out yourself too.
tbMBP 13" 2016 + RX580 (Mantiz Venus) + macOS 10.14 + Windows 10
_
ASUS A53SV: i7-2860QM, 16GB DDR3 running WINDOWS 10 Enterprise LTSB 2016
SSD: SAMSUNG 850 PRO(256GB)+SAMSUNG 850 EVO(120GB)
eGPU: EVGA GTX 1080 FTW+ PE4C V3.0(mPCIe)+EVGA 650 G3 PSU (internal display ONLY)
@Rycco What algorithm did you mine with. I'm only now starting to get a little bit into and depending on which algorithm you use the income can vary a lot.
I agree it's not something you should do for the money. I look at it as a hobby more than anything else.
tbMBP 13" 2016 + RX580 (Mantiz Venus) + macOS 10.14 + Windows 10
@dani29m You are welcome to add anything substantual to the thread as I think it's interesting and if you don't have anything meaningful to add you can take your negativity at a different place. eGPU.io is a community where we can share ideas and enjoy our hobby not make fun of each other.
tbMBP 13" 2016 + RX580 (Mantiz Venus) + macOS 10.14 + Windows 10
ASUS A53SV: i7-2860QM, 16GB DDR3 running WINDOWS 10 Enterprise LTSB 2016
SSD: SAMSUNG 850 PRO(256GB)+SAMSUNG 850 EVO(120GB)
eGPU: EVGA GTX 1080 FTW+ PE4C V3.0(mPCIe)+EVGA 650 G3 PSU (internal display ONLY)