XMRig Review

XMRig is a neat tool for mining CryptoNight and a few other algorithms.

It’s rather easy to set up and works with CPUs and AMD/Nvidia GPUs.

The OS support is very good, so XMRig can be used on Windows, Linux, Mac, and FreeBSD.

What can you mine with XMRig?

The XMRig mining software supports the following cryptos:

• RandomX – Monero(XMR), BiblePay(BBPP), Quantum Resistant Ledger(QRL), Dinastycoin(DCY)
• KawPow- Ravencoin(RVN)
• CryptoNight – LuKa(LUK), Bytecoin(BCN), Monero-Classic(XMC), Dero(DERO), Karbo(KRB)…
• AstroBWT – Dero(DERO)
• GhostRider – Raptoreum(RPT)

How to set up and run XMRig on Windows

First, go to the official XMRig website and download the latest version for your platform:

As you can see, there are tabs for Windows, Ubuntu, Linux, macOS, and FreeBSD.

So to install it on Windows, click the green button that says “xmrig-6.17.0-gcc-win64.zip”.

Depending on when you are using this tutorial, it may be named a bit differently(a newer version), but the logic stays the same.

A popup should show up, click the blue button titled “I understand, show the link”:

Then in the next popup click on the green “Download” button:

The download should start, but you may get a security notification in Chrome or your browser of choice:

On the right, click the “Show all” button to see all of your downloads:

On the downloads screen, click on “Keep dangerous file”:

and confirm:

Go to your downloads folder, and you should see a file named: “xmrig-6.17.0-gcc-win64.zip”.

Unpack it with your archiving tool of choice, like 7Zip or WinZip, and you should get a folder called: “xmrig-6.17.0”, which should look something like this:

As you can see, the folder contains the xmrig.exe file, as well as a few preconfigured “.cmd” files.

The “benchmark_1M.cmd” and “benchmark_10M.cmd” files are rather interesting and not seen everyday.

Basically, you can run one of them and see how your hardware performs in different algorithms:

then choose to mine the algorithm that works best for your hardware.

Or, you can use the “pool_mine_example.cmd” to start mining Monero immediately.

Be sure to edit the “pool_mine_example.cmd” file first, and enter your own wallet and pool address:

Replace “pool.hashvault.pro:3333” with your own mining pool address, and replace “48edfHu7V9Z84YzzMa6fUueoELZ9ZRXq9VetWzYGzKt52XU5xvqgzYnDK9URnRoJMk1j8nLwEVsaSWJ4fhdUyZijBGUicoD” with your own Monero wallet.

Once done, save the “pool_mine_example.cmd” file and double-click on it to run it.

If everything is okay, the XMRig should start mining Monero for you:

Note: If you get the “FAILED TO APPLY MSR MOD, HASHRATE WILL BE LOW”, it means you need admin rights for it to happen.

Close the XMRig window, then run the “pool_mine_example.cmd” file again. But this time, don’t double-click on it. Instead, right-click on it, and then click on “Run as Administrator”:

This will run XMRig with Administrator privileges, and you won’t see the MSR error anymore: