Many people seem to be having trouble compiling CudaMiner from source for Windows, and since our readers have also requested a short and easy-to-follow guide, we’ve put together something that should help. The procedure is fairly straightforward, so if you follow the steps carefully, you should be able to compile the code in no time.
To begin, download the following files:
- You must have Visual Studio 2010 or 2012 installed with C++; other versions can work, but we have not checked them.
- Download and install the Nvidia CUDA Toolkit; keep in mind that the CudaMiner Nvidia CUDA ToolkitToolkit needs Visual Studio to function properly.
- You must download the Windows versions of OpenSSL, and curl for the version of Windows you will be compiling for (32 or 64-bit); there is a bundle that includes all of these to make it easier for you, but they may not be the most recent versions.
- To make things simpler, download the new CudaMiner source code using the Download ZIP button on the right.
What is Cryptocurrency Mining Software (Cudaminer) How Does It Work?
The method of creating new cryptocurrency and adding components to an existing blockchain is through cryptocurrency mining tools. As a reward for contributing to the blockchain, a new cryptocurrency is validated and belongs to the mining group. Cryptocurrency mining technology makes use of a computer’s graphics processing unit (GPU) to aid in the discovery of blocks.
The majority of today’s mining is done through a mining pool, which pools resources and distributes rewards through a network. The computing power of web visitors or app users is used by cryptocurrency mining tools. Other tools allocate server resources to mining pools on a local level. Companies may use these resources to create their cryptocurrency.
The majority of today’s mining is done through a mining pool, which pools resources and distributes rewards through a network. The computing power of web visitors or app users is used by cryptocurrency mining tools. Other tools allocate server resources to mining pools on a local level. Companies may use these resources to create their cryptocurrency.
The method of creating new cryptocurrency and adding components to an existing blockchain is through cryptocurrency mining tools. As a reward for contributing to the blockchain, a new cryptocurrency is validated and belongs to the mining group.
Cryptocurrency mining technology makes use of a computer’s graphics processing unit (GPU) to aid in the discovery of blocks. The majority of today’s mining is done through a mining pool, which pools resources and distributes rewards through a network.
The computing power of web visitors or app users is used by cryptocurrency mining tools. Other tools allocate server resources to mining pools on a local level. Companies may use these resources to create their cryptocurrency.
Prepare all you’ll need for the project’s compilation:
- Make a folder called CUDAMINER-WIN in which you’ll put all of the required files, such as CUDAMINER-WIN, and extract the entire package of prerequisites as well as the CudaMiner source code; it should look like the image above.
- Open the CudaMiner-master folder and the cudaminer.sln project files in Visual Studio; it should open automatically. Note that the project is in VS2010 format, and you will be prompted to update the project to the 2012 format if you use 2012, for example. Select yes.
Final adjustments and Visual Studio compilation:
- After you’ve opened the cudaminer SLN file in Visual Studio, make sure you’ve selected Release to build and selected whether you’re compiling a 32-bit or 64-bit edition.
- If you want to compile the code for a GPU architecture other than the default, go to Project, Properties, Configuration Properties, CUDA C/C++, Device, and check the boxes next to the appropriate ones under Code Generation.
- From the Build menu, select Build Solution and wait for the compilation process to complete; the executable file will be found in the Release folder (or x64, Release for the 64-bit version).
- The cudaminer.exe executable file, as well as the cudart DLL file, are needed (32 or 64-bit, depending on the version you are building).
- Get the 32-bit or 64-bit version of the pthreadVC2.dll file from the treads folder as well.
- Combine the executable file and the two DLL files into a single folder, and CudaMiner is ready to use.
- Keep in mind that everything should work fine on your setup, but you’ll need to install this kit on any other computers that don’t have Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2010/2012 installed (version depends on what version of Visual Studio you have used to compile the project).
Alternatively, you should simply include the msvcp and msvcr DLL files with the other files to ensure that you have all of the required files.
This guide can hopefully assist you in compiling the CudaMiner source code for Windows on your own; it may also be useful in compiling other projects if you haven’t used Visual Studio before, but the guide is explicitly for CudaMiner.
Download the latest version of CudaMiner for Windows
CudaMiner received a large code contribution from Nvidia’s Alexey Panteleev in the last few days, and there is still no official binary release available, so we compiled windows binary from the latest source, which you can download below.
The failover pool support in the latest code is one of the most useful new features since it allows you to add additional pools as backups by simply including them in the command line alongside the parameters for the first pool.
Apart from failover pool support, the new update includes some optimizations, improved error handling, and support for up to 32 GPUs, though 32 Nvidia GPUs on a single device have yet to be seen. We used Visual Studio 2012 to compile the code, so if you get errors while trying to run it, you’ll need to download and install Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2012.
Please keep in mind that this is not an official version, but rather a build from the latest source with a lot of new features, so there might be some bugs and stuff that don’t function properly!
CUDAminer Nvidia GPU Miner With Blake-256
Although the most recent beta version of cudaminer includes support for the Blake-256 algorithm, there is still no official release compiled for Windows that includes the new code with Blake algorithm support, so we have compiled it and made it available for download.
So far, only two cryptocurrencies – Blakecoin (BLC) and Photon (PHO) – use the Blake-256 algorithm, but the good news is that if more emerge, you’ll be able to mine them with Nvidia GPUs as well.
It’s worth noting that the hashrate you’ll get mining Blake-256 cryptocurrencies will be in megahashes rather than kilo hashes, which is fairly typical for this algorithm. Mining on AMD GPUs would still give you substantially better results than mining on Nvidia, but you can still mine on Nvidia.
