Cryptominers Target AMD Ryzen CPUs for Their Big L3 Caches

[Purgatory]

Here we go again....


https://www.tomshardware.com/news/cryptominers-target-amd-ryzen-cpus-for-their-big-l3-caches

According to a recent report from Bitcoin Press, the new Raptoreum (RTM) crypto has the potential to create a shortage of AMD Ryzen processors if enough cryptocurrency miners jump on the bandwagon. Unlike other cryptocurrencies that you can mine with graphics cards or ASICs, Raptoreum favors processors, especially those with huge caches, such as Ryzen, Threadripper or Epyc chips from AMD that tend to rank high on our list of CPU benchmarks and best CPUs for gaming.

Having been in testnet for three years, Raptoreum launched earlier this year. It's based on the Proof-Of-Work (PoW) model and the GhostRider algorithm. The latter combines the x16r and CryptoNight algorithms present in Ravencoin and Monero or Bytecoin, respectively. GhostRider likes L3 cache, especially the massive ones, and that's an area in which Ryzen chips excel.

Ryzen 9 5950X and Ryzen 9 5900X, feature up to 64MB of L3 cache. Based on information from the Raptoreum Mining Profitability Calculator, the Ryzen 9 5950X and Ryzen 9 5900X offer up to 4,247 h/s and 3,557 h/s, respectively. The first could net you 205 Raptoreum a day, while the latter delivers up to 172. At $0.0220255 per Raptoreum and utilizing an energy cost of $0.12/kWh, a Ryzen 9 5950X makes around $4.16 a day, while a Ryzen 9 5900X puts in a respectable $3.43. That means the Ryzen 9 5950X ($739) practically pays for itself in 178 days and the Ryzen 9 5900X ($524) in about 153 days. While the Ryzen 9 5950X delivers a higher hashrate, the Ryzen 9 5900X takes less time to break even.

The more serious cryptocurrency miners may tap into AMD's core-heavy Ryzen Threadripper or EPYC products. These types of investors are obviously in it for the long game. For example, the Ryzen Threadripper 3970X mines up to 404 Raptoreum per day, while something like the EPYC 7742 gets you 597 Raptoreum. Now, imagine having two of these EPYC bad boys in a dual-socket system or AMD's spick-and-span Milan-X processors with up to 768MB of L3 cache.

Supply for AMD's Zen 3 processors is still very stable, and some of the SKUs, such as the Ryzen 7 5800X have dropped down to $329.99 at Micro Center. There are also some small price cuts with the other Ryzen 5000 chips, but overall, there is ample stock. For the meantime, Raptoreum doesn't seem to have any effect on Ryzen stock, which is a good thing. However, the panorama could change when Ryzen with 3D V-Cache brings chips that can deliver up to 192MB of L3 cache, tripling that of a vanilla Ryzen processor.

 

[Hotwired]

These tokens are a modern plague. Every code monkey trying to create schemes which tie up computer hardware and inflate prices.

 

[JediFragger]

Here we go again....

AMD must have heard already hence not dropping pricing...

 

[Grim5]

That explains why amd isn't dropping prices

maybe price increases coming

 

[Toasty]

Doesn't seem cost effective to mine this big scale though really, more of an add on. As limited by single socket for the most part.
CPU+Decent vrm board and cooler per mining rig , not like gpu where you can stack several per rig to minimize the system overheads.

 

[humbug]

Oh for goodness sake....

Just wait to see what happens when AMD drop their 192MB Zen 3D, we aren't going to see many of them.

 

[jigger]

How would Alder lake fair? Looking for an excuse to buy a couple.

 

[humbug]

How would Alder lake fair? Looking for an excuse to buy a couple.

On the face of it not that well, 30MB of L3 vs 64MB on the 5900/5950X

Its also the performance of the Cache, 5800X is about 600GB/s, 12900K is about 500GB/s, 5900/5950X about 1000GB as its 2X 32MB, its like they are double density.

Zen 3D will be 2000GB/s.

Add to that ADL power consumption. I doubt they are profitable.

 

[Jay85]

The problem with this kind of behaviour is eventually they get replaced and the mass amount of hardware serious miners accumulate either get sold for dirt cheap or more likely end up as e-waste in a landfill cos no one wants them.

 

[jigger]

On the face of it not that well, 30MB of L3 vs 64MB on the 5900/5950X

Its also the performance of the Cache, 5800X is about 600GB/s, 12900K is about 500GB/s, 5900/5950X about 1000GB as its 2X 32MB, its like they are double density.

Zen 3D will be 2000GB/s.

Id imagine the cache to core/thread ratio is critical to good performance. Something with a boat of l2 would probably help.

 

[humbug]

Id imagine the cache to core/thread ratio is critical to good performance. Something with a boat of l2 would probably help.

If its anything like GPU mining the cores don't matter much, you underclock the GPU to save power, run it at about 1Ghz, you overclock the memory as that overclocks the Cache and that's where you get your performance.

 

[humbug]

Its about mining chunks, think of each chunk as a tile in Cinebench, lets say each tile / chunk is 2MB, with 30MB you can mine 15 chunks at once, with 64MB you can mine 32 chunks at once.

The faster that cache the faster that job is done.

With 192MB of cache you can mine 96 Chunks at once.

 

[NinjaCool]

Hopefully it won’t be a big issue but maybe save up for Q1 2022 if you plan to upgrade soon so you can put an order in at launch in case prices starts to creep up soon after.

 

[jigger]

Its about mining chunks, think of each chunk as a tile in Cinebench, lets say each tile / chunk is 2MB, with 30MB you can mine 15 chunks at once, with 64MB you can mine 32 chunks at once.

The faster that cache the faster that job is done.

With 192MB of cache you can mine 96 Chunks at once.

I’m trying to understand the work flow. You can’t just keep adding cache without cores, or can you?

 

[humbug]

I’m trying to understand the work flow. You can’t just keep adding cache without cores, or can you?

L3 yes you can, L3 is a shared cache pool, its an Un-Core peripheral, so outside the core, you can literally glue more on post production if you have the glue technology to do it.

 

[jigger]

L3 yes you can, L3 is a shared cache pool, its an Un-Core peripheral, so outside the core, you can literally glue more on post production if you have the glue technology to do it.

So l1/2 private cache is less important to performance hence the lack of core scaling.

Sorry if these are novice questions. I’m just struggling to understand the process.

 

[HangTime]

Interesting, could you mine in parallel with GPU mining i.e. have your Ryzen9 mining Raptoreum alongside a RTX3000 series mining ETH? I've never bothered with mining but if I could max out the CPU and GPU it might be more appealing.

 

[humbug]

So l1/2 private cache is less important to performance hence the lack of core scaling.

Sorry if these are novice questions. I’m just struggling to understand the process.

I don't understand what is going on my self i'm just guessing based on what's being said about it.

On the GPU side some GPU's can't do it at all because the block chains are too big to fit in memory.

Whats being said here is more L3 the better so i'm assuming its about how much can be done at once.

That is no different to how this works in other workloads, the more L3 cache you have the more can be done in that cache so you get higher performance.

Its a hierarchy, each higher level is faster but there is less of it, what doesn't fit in L1 it gets pushed to L2, if L2 is full it gets pushed to L3, if L3 is full it gets pushed to System RAM

 

[jigger]

I don't understand what is going on my self i'm just guessing based on what's being said about it.

On the GPU side some GPU's can't do it at all because the block chains are too big to fit in memory.

Whats being said here is more L3 the better so i'm assuming its about how much can be done at once.

That is no different to how this works in other workloads, the more L3 cache you have the more can be done in that cache so you get higher performance.

Its a hierarchy, each higher level is faster but there is less of it, what doesn't fit in L1 it gets pushed to L2, if L2 is full it gets pushed to L3, if L3 is full it gets pushed to System RAM

Yeah, understand how cache fits in the pipe, what I don’t is processing requirement. It must be quite light.

 

[Purgatory]

https://overclock3d.net/news/cases_..._the_world_s_supply_of_amd_ryzen_processors/1

Raptoreum mining threatens the world's supply of AMD Ryzen processors
In the world of x86 processors, many of the latest architectural innovations have come in the form of cache enhancements. This is true for both the AMD Ryzen 5000 series and Intel's 12th Generation Core series processors. Stronger cache performance and large cache sizes are an avenue towards increased performance within most modern processors, especially gaming workloads.

While these cache capacity and performance innovations are good things for consumers, these innovations may fuel a new CPU-based cryptocurrency mining boom, which may cause a shortage of high-end x86 processors in the future.

Raptoreum (RTM) is a cryptocurrency that has recently seen boosted profitability thanks to the currency's growing value, rising from $0.0143 yesterday to $0.024 today. That's an increase of over 66%. The problem with this currency, for PC builders, is that it is profitable to mine this cryptocurrency on AMD's high-end Ryzen processors, especially their Ryzen 9 series.

AMD's Ryzen 9 desktop CPUs from their Ryzen 3000 series and Ryzen 5000 series each feature 64MB of L3 cache, which is considered to be the reason why these processors are the most profitable to mine Raptoreum with.

Raptoreum is a cryptocurrency that is designed to be mined using CPUs, using a mining algorithm called "GhostRider" to harden itself against ASIC-based mining techniques. Part of this hardening against ASIC mining is its benefit from large CPU caches, a factor that makes the creation of cryptocurrency mining ASICs challenging.

El Chapuzas Informatico has reported that a cryptocurrency miner has invested in 28 Ryzen 9 processors and 28 of ASUS' Prime X570-P motherboards, highlighting that cryptocurrency miners are willing to take advantage of this new mining opportunity. If others follow suit, this could cause shortages of AMD's Ryzen 9 processors and low-cost AM4 motherboards.


With AMD's Ryzen 9 processors lacking integrated graphics, it is possible that widespread Raptoreum mining could also lead to a shortage of other components. This includes DDR4 DRAM and low-cost graphics cards that would otherwise not be used in cryptocurrency mining systems. That said, some miners may adopt a cross-mining solution with a high-end GPU for Ethereum mining and a Ryzen 9 CPU for Raptoreum mining.

If Raptoreum's value continues to increase, there will be increased interest in x86 processors for cryptocurrency mining applications. This could cause a CPU, motherboard and DRAM hardware shortage, placing even more strain on the consumer PC market.