6Block - The Best CPU for Filecoin Mining
The Latest Filecoin Mining Hardware Review
Shared by: 6Block Pool Core Engineer Lee White
Every Thursday at 8 pm Beijing Time, 6Block pool core engineer Lee White livestreams here in Chinese to share the latest news about Filecoin, to update 6Block mining progress, and to answer questions from the community.
Review Criteria: Cost Performance
This week Lee reviewed the latest Fileecoin mining hardware selections. The main criterion of our evaluation is the cost performance.
Mainstream Filecoin Hardware Models:
CPU: AMD 3000 series and AMD 7000 series
Let’s first look at the AMD 3000 series. There are two common types in the 3000 series. One only supports 128GB of memory, including 3950X, 3900X, and 3800X. These three have a high base frequency, and the prices are relatively cheap. The second type supports 256GB of memory, including 3960X, 3970X, and 3990X. Those are more expensive. The main difference between the three models is the number of cores. Based on the official benchmark and our testing, 6Block uses 3970X for Filecoin testnet mining.
Another commonly selected model is the AMD 7000 series, which has a large memory and high stability. The price of the 7000 series with 1TB memory is between 10,000 to 15,000 USD. The most common models are 7402 and 7132.
Those are the mainstream CPUs that are used for Filecoin mining. Next, we will do a close analysis of cost and performance.
Performance
For performance, let’s first take a look at the sealing. The Filecoin team has tested on the 7000 series and 3000 series many times, and the time for sealing is:
AMD 3000 series 128GB memory: 5 hours 40 minutes/sector;
AMD 3000 series 256GB memory: 5 hours 12 minutes/sector;
AMD 7000 series 1TB memory: 8 hours/sector.
Because the 7000 series has a low base frequency, it takes more time. In the 8 hours, it needs about 6 hours to run Pre1, and 2 hours to run Pre2 and Commit.
Generally, the 3000 series is faster than the 7000 series. Of course, sealing is only one aspect, the second criteria we look at is the number of parallel sectors.
The Number of Parallel Sectors
For the 3000 Series with 128GB memory, the memory is comparatively small therefore it can only run one sector. For the 3000 Series with 256GB, it can run 3 parallel sectors. This is tested by 6Block. As for the 7000 series with 1TB memory, there should be no problem running 10 parallel sectors.
In the whole process of Filecoin mining, we can only run parallel sectors in Pre1, not in Pre2 or Commit. We have tested on 3970X. In the first stage, we could run 3 parallel sectors, and then we run Pre2 and Commit in serial.
For the 3000 series with 128 GB memory, it takes about 5 hours to run one sector. For the 3000 series with 256GB, it takes 4 hours to run 3 Pre1s in parallel, and another 3 hours to run the remaining Pre2 and Commit. It takes 7 hours to complete all stages of the 3 sectors, with 2.3 hours per sector on average.
For the 7000 series with 1TB memory, it takes 6 hours to run 10 Pre1s, and then 20 hours to complete Pre2 and Commit, which is 26 hours to run 10 sectors, with an average of 2.6 hours for a sector. Among the process, in Pre2 most of the memory is idle and wasted.
Comparing the average time to complete one sector, the 3000 series win.
To sum up, if we run all the stages with one device, the 3000 Series with 256GB has the best performance.
Cost Analysis
Supply is a critical factor when considering the cost. At present, the 3000 series is generally not out of stock, but the 7000 series is out of stock.
Another factor is of course the price itself. The price range of mainstream CPUs is as follows:
AMD 3000 Series with 128GB Memory: USD 4,000 — 6,000;
AMD 3000 Series with 256GB Memory: USD 6,000–7,000;
AMD 7000 Series with 1TB Memory: USD 10,000 – 15,000.
Although the 3000 series with 128GB memory has a lower unit price, the cost performance is far inferior to the 3000 series with 256GB. The price of the 7000 series with 1TB is double that of the 3000 Series with 256GB, but the performance is almost similar, so the 3000 Series 256GB still wins.
A Possible Comeback of the 7000 Series?
What we have to think about here is the non-homogeneous cluster. We know that the 7000 series 1TB runs very fast in the Pre1 phase. If the 7000 series 1TB is only used to run Pre1, and we use other GPUs to run Pre2 and Commit, will it yield better performance?
The first problem is how to separate Pre1 and Pre2. 6Block has found that it is very difficult to separate Pre1 and Pre2 in real operation. Due to the huge amount of data transmitted from Pre1 to Pre2, it must be equipped with high-quality optical fiber and switches. Pre1 needs an SSD, and Pre2 needs another SSD, so it requires two SSDs. This idea of separating Pre1 and Pre2 is theoretically feasible, but the actual cost performance doesn’t seem so promising.
Because the data to be transmitted between Pre1 and Pre2 is too large, many additional devices are needed to support it. However, only 8MB of data needs to be transmitted between the Pre and the Commit stages. What if we separate the Pre and Commit?
If so, the result is that we will be able to run 10 Pre1s in 6 hours in parallel, and then run Pre2 in 10 hours. The performance here is greatly constrained by Pre2. Pre2 cannot be parallelized, resulting in idle memory, which ultimately affects performance. The most critical point of the 7000 series with 1TB memory is whether the time of the Pre2 can be shortened as much as possible. If yes, the performance of the 7000 series with 1TB memory will undoubtedly exceed the 3000 series with 256GB memory.
In addition, the potential of the 7000 series is undoubtedly greater than the 3000 series with 256GB memory. If there is further optimization of the algorithm to shorten the time of the Pre2, the cost performance of the 7000 series with 1TB memory will be the highest.
That’s all for today’s sharing. Download 6Block App here to stay tuned and win HNS!
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