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Chia GPU and CPU plotting options

Available Plotters

Hardware requirements for different plotters (K32)

Plotter GPU (min VRAM) RAM (GiB) SSD (GiB) Plot Size (GiB) Plot Time
Chiapos 4 240 101.3 1-4 hours
madMAx (all RAM) 256 101.3 15-30 minutes
madMAx (partial RAM) 110 220 101.3 20-45 minutes
madMAx (all disk) 4 256 101.3 30-60 minutes
Bladebit ramplot 416 78.1-101.3 4-10 minutes
Bladebit diskplot 4 480 78.1-101.3 10-30 minutes
Bladebit CUDA Nvidia (8GB) 256 78.1-101.3 1.5-6 minutes
Gigahorse CUDA (all RAM) Nvidia (4GB) 256 71.3-84.2 1.5-6 minutes
Gigahorse CUDA (1/2 partial RAM) Nvidia (4GB) 128 150-180 71.3-84.2 4-10 minutes
Gigahorse CUDA (1/4 partial RAM) Nvidia (4GB) 64 250 71.3-84.2 8-20 minutes
Gigahorse CPU (all RAM) 256 71.3-84.2 15-30 minutes
Gigahorse CPU (partial RAM) 110 220 71.3-84.2 20-45 minutes
Gigahorse CPU (all disk) 4 256 71.3-84.2 30-60 minutes

Notes

  • Plot times depend on specific hardware and compression level (the higher the compression the shorter the plot time)
    • Chiapos: most dependent on SSD sustained write speed
    • madMAx, Bladebit ramplot/diskplot, Gigahorse CPU: most dependent on CPU and SSD sustained write speed
    • Bladebit CUDA, Gigahorse CUDA: most dependent on PCIe generation and GPU (e.g. PCIe3 is maxed out with a 3060ti)
    • Gigahorse CUDA 1/2 and 1/4 partial RAM: most dependent on RAM speed and SSD(s) sustained write speed. 1/4 partial RAM can have SSD load split across two devices.
  • Higher compression (smaller plot files) also require additional consideration for farming/harvesting workload
  • madMAx and gigahorse CPU plotter scales with more CPU threads
  • Supported Nvidia GPUs: GTX 1000/1600 series, RTX 2000/3000/4000 series
  • Gigahorse GPU plotter supports cards with only 4GB of VRAM but 8GB is recommended
  • GPU plotters will require a fast SSD buffer drive to write plots to (they generate plots faster than a single HDD can write)
  • Chiapos is slow but is well suited for plotting directly to HDDs, especially in parallel due to low CPU and RAM requirements
  • Farming Gigahorse compressed plots is only compatible with the Gigahorse farmer and has an additional dev fee

Larger K-sizes

  • As a rule of thumb, K33 will have double the RAM and SSD requirements as K32.
  • There are no foreseeable plans to move to K33 minimum plot size.
  • Most plotters support K32, K33, K34
  • Currently, Bladebit GPU does not support K33+

Expected future developments

  • AMD GPU support
  • Larger k-size support across all plotters
  • Bladebit CUDA integration into Chia GUI
  • Bladebit CUDA (partial RAM) RAM requirement reduced to 128GB
  • Gigahorse CUDA (partial RAM) RAM requirement reduced to 64GB
  • Harvesting support for compressed plots (no GPU needed on harvesters)
  • Bladebit ramplot RAM requirement reduced to 256GB

Additional Links

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