How to Setup and Optimize your CGMiner Config File

Anyone who starts out mining Bitcoins for the first time generally stays away from cgminer because it takes a little bit of over clocking knowledge if you want to get the best Mhash/s from your GPU or GPU’s. This being said its not that difficult to get it running and optimizing it for your graphics card. I will explain the entire process of creating the config file to changing settings so that you get the most MHash out of your card possible.

Setting up cgminer for the first time: (skip this if you already have cgminer running)

1. Download the newest version of cgminer from its Git Repository (download link)
2. Unzip cgminer to your hard drive (somewhere you will remember)
3. Navigate to the cgminer folder and open cgminer.exe
4. When it asks for your pool address enter it there with port (i.e. stratum.bitcoin.cz:3333)
5. Next it will ask for your Worker so enter that (i.e. username.1)
6. Next enter your workers password when it asks and press enter
7. If all information was entered correctly it should now start mining.

Create a Config File for cgminer: (skip this if you already have a cgminer config file)

1. After cgminer begins mining press “S” for settings
2. You will have a list of options show up, next press “W” for Write Config File
3. It will ask about naming the config, just press enter for the default name (cgminer.conf)
4. You now have a config file for cgminer

NOTE: if you are happy with the MHash you are getting at this point all you need to do is run cgminer.exe to begin mining the pool you setup earlier since its all saved in the config file you just created.

Optimizing you cgminer config file:
Bitcoin mining uses your GPU core and not the memory so you will want to clock your memories core down and over clock your GPU core. Keep an eye on your GPU’s temperature when doing this as you want to make sure it doesn’t get too hot and damage the GPU. Most newer cards can run around 80-85 degrees celsius safely for prolonged periods of time but I would not recommend letting it get hotter than this.

1. Lookup your Graphics cards default core and memory clock speeds first thing
2. Navigate to and open your cgminer.conf file in notepad
3. Change the intensity to 5
4. Change the gpu-engine to your default GPU core clock
5. Change the gpu-memclock to about 1/3 of the default clock
6. Leave everything else the way it is and save the config file.
7. Re-open cgminer via cgminer.exe and after around 5 minutes record your MHash

Start Overclocking your GPU in cgminer to squeeze out MHash:

1. Close cgminer if you have it open to edit the config file again
2. Go back to your cgminer.conf file and open it again in notepad
3. Increase your gpu-engine by around 50 and save the file
4. Open cgminer.exe and again watch the MHash and Core Temperature
5. Continue these steps until you have increased your MHash as much as you can while keeping a temperature under 80-85.

Note: If you crash, see artifacts and/or go over the recommended temps then back off the clock 25 and re-test until you get to a stable working condition.

There are other options that you can mess with in cgminer although everything mentioned above is the best way to get MHash to its optimal setting and keeping your card safe from burning out. Please also take note that I am explaining the process but am not responsible for using this information or misusing this information and damaging hardware. Good luck Bitcoin Mining and please consider a donation if this was helpful to you.

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