Cheapest gpus for mining: Best mining GPU 2022: The best graphics card for Bitcoin and Ethereum

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti review: Excellent 1080p and 1440p value PC gaming

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Incredible performance for a very good price (if you can find one).

(Image: © Rich Edmonds / Windows Central)

It’s currently a mad time to be a PC gamer. Graphics card availability is very much like attempting to locate a needle in the world’s largest haystack. What made matters worse for NVIDIA fans is the performance boost with the RTX 30 series of GPUs compared to the previous Turing-based RTX 20 series cards.

Take the NVIDIA RTX 3060 Ti we’ve (finally) got here for review. Priced at $459 at launch, NVIDIA boasts increased performance to surpass even an RTX 2080 in some cases. That’s a huge deal since it’s one of the more affordable GPUs in the new RTX 30 series. This also makes it a target for GPU crypto miners who see the value in such a proposition.

So, where does the RTX 3060 Ti fit into the PC gaming range? You will be able to crank up the resolution to 4K in some games after turning visual settings down a few notches. It’s best suited to 1080p and 1440p screens, however. We’ll focus on 1440p in this review since that’s primarily what most people will be buying the GPU for. You’ll soon see why it made our best graphic card collection.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti

Bottom line: This is one impressive GPU from NVIDIA. DLSS and ray tracing support, performance to match an older (yet more expensive) RTX 3080 GPU, and a price tag that’ll fit into most budgets. This is the RTX 30 series graphics card to get for 1080p and 1440p gaming.

For

Impressive performance — can match an RTX 2080
Insane value
Ideal for 1440p gaming
4K at lower settings
HDMI 2.1, PCIe 4.0
Runs quiet

Against

8GB of VRAM
Mediocre 4K performance
Limited availability

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Ampere at a glance

Source: Rich Edmonds / Windows Central (Image credit: Source: Rich Edmonds / Windows Central)

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti I’ll be testing for this review is the EVGA XC Gaming. It closely ties itself to the founder’s edition. Benchmark results will largely be similar to other cards in this class, so I wouldn’t worry too much about which model and vendor you choose. At this point in time, it’s best you take advantage of any RTX 3060 Ti you can find at a reasonable price.

For the specifications, we’re looking at just 8GB of VRAM. It’s GDDR6, but does fall a little short of the RTX 3080, which comes with 10GB, as well as the whopping 16GB found inside the AMD Radeon RX 6800. Inside the RTX 3060 Ti is 4,864 CUDA (or shader) cores, up from the 2,176 CUDA cores in the RTX 2060 SUPER.

Source: NVIDIA (Image credit: Source: NVIDIA)

The Ampere architecture brought improvements to the streaming multiprocessor (SM) used by NVIDIA, as well as new ray tracing (RT) cores and tweaked Tensor cores. All this results in better overall efficiency and performance. As covered in our NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 review, the biggest difference with the new RTX 30 series cards is the SM.

Essentially, NVIDIA took all the gains made with floating-point (FP32) and integer (INT32) operations for Turing-based RTX 20 series cards and turned them up to 11 for even more performance with RTX 30. Instead of cramming yet more cores onto the card and calling it a day, NVIDIA instead changed how the cores work.

All you (and I) need to know is all this magic leads to some significant gains over the last generation of RTX 20 series graphics cards. Recall how I noted NVIDIA touts the RTX 3060 Ti as equal to the older RTX 2080? They aren’t joking and it also isn’t clever marketing jargon. Ampere is the real deal.

As well as better overall gaming performance, ray tracing is also improved in the 3060 Ti thanks to second-generation RT cores.

Source: Rich Edmonds / Windows Central (Image credit: Source: Rich Edmonds / Windows Central)

Category	Spec
Architecture	Ampere
Process	7nm
CUDA Cores	4,864
RT Cores	38
Tensor Cores	152
Core clock	1410 MHz
Boost clock	1710 MHz
Memory	8GB GDDR6
Memory speed	448 GB/s
Memory interface	256-bit
Bus standard	PCIe 4. 0
TDP	200W
Recommended PSU	600W
Power connectors	1x 8-pin
Ports	2x HDMI 2.1 3x DP 1.4a HDCP 2.3 support
Dimensions	110 x 201.8 mm (4.33 x 7.94 inches)

The EVGA RTX 3060 Ti XC Gaming we have in for review has a core clock speed of 1,410MHz, which can comfortably boost up to and hold at 1,710MHz without any tinkering on our part. Because this is an Ampere GPU, there’s also support for PCIe 4.0, which is already with numerous AMD CPUs and chipsets, as well as slowly rolling out on Intel’s side.

The 200W TDP rating isn’t too far from the RTX 2060 SUPER’s 175W, considering the significant performance boost. NVIDIA does recommend a 600W power supply, though you can easily power an NVIDIA RTX 3060 Ti with a 500W PSU if you’re only using an AMD Ryzen 5 or Intel Core i5 series processor.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Design and features

Source: Rich Edmonds / Windows Central (Image credit: Source: Rich Edmonds / Windows Central)

Like most graphics cards, the EVGA RTX 3060 Ti XC we have here for review rocks a unique design. Most aftermarket options from vendors like EVGA offer their own look with different dimensions, modified clock speeds, and cooling. You will be able to check some of these options with our best NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GPUs collection.

EVGA’s RTX 3060 Ti XC Gaming is a sleeper graphics card with understated looks.

EVGA designed this RTX 3060 Ti with a premium look and feel. There are no flashing lights (sorry, RGB fans!), but you do get a solid build with an all-metal backplate. There are also two large fans that provide ample airflow to keep the card running well within a comfortable temperature range under heavy load. It’s understated and more of a sleeper GPU.

Measuring in at just 110mm (4.33 inches) by 201.8mm (7.94 inches), you can install the EVGA RTX 3060 Ti Gaming in even the smallest of small form factor cases. It’s refreshing to see a dual-slot GPU that doesn’t completely cover half the motherboard, providing easy access to the PCIe x1 slot just below.

Source: Rich Edmonds / Windows Central (Image credit: Source: Rich Edmonds / Windows Central)

On the rear of the GPU, you’ll find three DisplayPort 1.4 ports with a single HDMI 2.1 port. You’ll want to use DisplayPort to enjoy the full fruits of NVIDIA’s G-Sync technology, which will work wonders with DLSS and ray tracing. As well as raw specifications, NVIDIA also bundled a few new features with the RTX 30 series that RTX 3060 Ti owners too will be able to take advantage of.

NVIDIA Reflex is a new feature that’s debuting on RTX 30 cards, and it’s designed to deliver much better latency, particularly in FPS titles. NVIDIA was carried out several optimizations to the render queue and this handy feature will work in conjunction with the aforementioned G-Sync. Then there’s RTX IO, which utilizes the Microsoft DirectStorage API to reduce load times by offloading some CPU tasks to the GPU.

Finally, there’s NVIDIA Broadcast, an evolution of RTX Voice, which offers background noise suppression for video calls. It’s truly mind-blowing when you begin to use RTX Broadcast with a loud mechanical keyboard and see how others on your voice call are unable to hear you mashing the keys.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Performance

Source: Rich Edmonds / Windows Central (Image credit: Source: Rich Edmonds / Windows Central)

Category	Spec
OS	Windows 10 Home
Processor	AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16 cores, 32 threads Up to 5.0GHz
Graphics	EVGA XC Gaming NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti 8GB GDDR6 VRAM
Motherboard	ASUS X570-E Gaming
RAM	2x8GB DDR4-4000MHz Dual-channel CL16
Storage	Sabrent Rocket PCie 4.0 1TB Sabrent Rocket PCie 4.0 4TB
Cooler	Custom water-cooling loop

Performance is where things get really exciting for graphics cards like the RTX 3060. These GPUs are what’s used by vendors like NVIDIA to push the boundaries for value PC gaming, allowing those building gaming rigs to save money in more important areas. Considering this is a $400 card (at launch), the performance on offer is simply astounding.

We put the graphic card to the test on our recently completed Thermaltake Tower 900 build, which includes an AMD Ryzen 9 5950X and 16GB of 4,000MHz DDR4 RAM to allow the EVGA 3060 Ti XC Gaming GPU to run at its best on default settings. Games were loaded from a 4TB Sabrent Rocket PCIe 4.0 SSD running at maximum read speeds.

Image 1 of 9

As expected, the RTX 3060 sits comfortably behind the RTX 3070 in most tests, clearing the RTX 2070 SUPER in plenty of chosen titles. Interestingly, it can even trade blows with its more expensive sibling. Compared to the previous generation, the RTX 3060 leaves the RTX 2060 SUPER in the dust.

If you’re looking to upgrade from an older GTX 10 series GPU, you’re going to get great value here. NVIDIA does state the 3060 Ti is better than the 2080 SUPER, though I’d say they’re about the same with the 2080 SUPER taking the lead in more tests than not.

Still, the 3060 Ti is able to pump out 67 frames (on average, with ray tracing disabled) in Metro Exodus, which is incredible considering the 2070 SUPER and 2080 SUPER GPUs come in a little behind. For temperatures, the EVGA RTX 3060 Ti does a good job at keeping the card cool with the two large fans. I didn’t see readings past 70C (room and case temperatures were 23C and 34C, respectively).

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Competition

Source: Windows Central (Image credit: Source: Windows Central)

NVIDIA worked some magic with the RTX 30 series of graphics cards. While AMD is hitting back strong with some excellent GPUs, like the Radeon RX 6800, the RTX 3060 Ti is a fantastic value proposition for PC gamers. The newer, less capable, and more affordable RTX 3060 is coming out isn’t going to come close to this value beast.

NVIDIA’s RTX 3060 Ti is the best value offering for 1440p PC gaming right now.

The next step up for NVIDIA and the closest competition to the RTX 3060 Ti is the RTX 3070, but at an additional $100, I would recommend against this decision if you’re using a 1080p or 1440p monitor. The RTX 3060 Ti is more than enough for either resolution.

On team AMD’s front, we’ve got the Radeon 6700 XT, but we’re not entirely sure how it’s going to fare against the RTX 3060 Ti. Early leaked benchmarks may suggest AMD’s card not having enough power to meet the performance offered by the RTX 3060 Ti, though we’d have to wait until we get our paws on one for testing.

Regardless of which GPU you end up choosing as your next purchase, you’re going to have a hard time tracking stock.

Should you buy the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti?

Source: Rich Edmonds / Windows Central (Image credit: Source: Rich Edmonds / Windows Central)

Who it’s for

Those who want a high-end 1440p gaming experience
Those who want to try out ray tracing and DLSS
Those who want to spend about $400
Those who are looking for a generous upgrade over Turing GPUs

Who it isn’t for

Those who want the best gaming experience
Those who have a 4K monitor
Those who want to spend less than about $400
Those who want a GPU today

In short: yes, you should buy the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. Will you be able to is the better question here as stock levels continue to be exhausted. NVIDIA made some serious gains with the RTX 30 series of graphics cards and while the RTX 3070, RTX 3080, and RTX 3090 are all incredibly powerful cards, it’s the RTX 3060 Ti that really took my attention.

For 1440p gaming, EVGA’s RTX 3060 Ti XC Gaming was amazing. At such an affordable price, you’ll be surprised just how fast this card is. Even in more demanding titles, we found the GPU to easily match the performance of the RTX 2080, even surpassing it in some cases. That’s a testament to NVIDIA’s work between the 20 and 30 series and the new Ampere architecture.

Where the RTX 3060 Ti falls a little short is 4K. It’s possible, but you’re going to have to turn down numerous settings to achieve a stable frame rate. This GPU is simply not capable of 4K and that’s okay. It’s priced accordingly and one shouldn’t expect such performance levels.

If you do have a 4K monitor (or plan to buy one), I’d highly recommend the AMD Radeon RX 6800 or NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090. For 1080p and 1440p screens, the RTX 3060 Ti is a brilliant purchase.

Best Value GPU

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti

Amazing 1440p performance for the price. The RTX 3060 Ti offers DLSS, ray tracing, RTX Broadcast, and plenty of other features that make gaming on your PC a breeze.

Rich Edmonds is Senior Editor of PC hardware at Windows Central, covering everything related to PC components and NAS. He’s been involved in technology for more than a decade and knows a thing or two about the magic inside a PC chassis. You can follow him over on Twitter at @RichEdmonds.

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How to mine crypto and earn passive income with your gaming PC

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ZOTAC GTX 1070
(Image credit: Rich Edmonds / Windows Central)

NiceHash is a handy service that allows you to sell others your PC hardware to mine cryptocurrency. It’s possible to join mining pools to combine computing power and earn some Bitcoin in return by running this software. You can quite easily.

How to set up NiceHash

Source: NiceHash (Image credit: Source: NiceHash)

All you need is your gaming PC, so once that’s up and running, simply follow the steps below to start mining crypto (well . .. technically, it’s selling your PC hardware) and earning some Bitcoin.

Register an account on the NiceHash website.
Download the mining software.
Run the NiceHash software.
Enter your NiceHash address (double-check to make sure you enter it correctly).
Optional: I recommend disabling the CPU under «Devices.»
Hit the big play button.
Profit.

I recommend disabling the CPU because it’s simply not worth it, in my opinion. It’s better to free up your CPU or power it down to save on consumption and allow your GPU to do all the heavy lifting. If you’re looking for the best mining GPU, we rounded up not only the best graphics card for gaming but also more affordable options for crypto mining.

How to store your crypto

As you begin to accumulate cryptocurrency from those paying for your system hardware, it’s time to consider where you’re going to store it. While it’s possible to leave it in your NiceHash wallet, I would recommend against this. Instead, download one of the many free wallet apps for your smartphone.

Once you’ve hit the minimum Bitcoin required to perform a transfer from NiceHash, you can send all your earnings to a wallet of your choosing, just in case your NiceHash account was to be compromised. You could even take this security a step further by investing in a physical wallet, which is a small offline device that stores all the necessary details to access your cryptocurrency.

How to optimize your PC for mining

While it’s certainly possible to load up NiceHash, set it all up and leave it running for years, it’s best to do a little tinkering to get the most out of your GPU without using too much electricity. If we can lower our consumption without affecting performance, we stand to make more profit.

MSI Afterburner is a great tool for altering GPU power, clock speed, and other values.

Lower GPU power draw

Source: Windows Central (Image credit: Source: Windows Central)

Run MSI Afterburner.
Lower the power limit to 80%.
Hit the apply button.
Start the NiceHash mining process.
Take note of your hash rate (in MH/s) from the miner command line window.
Lower the power limit in Afterburner a further 5%.
Hit the Apply button.
Take note of your hash rate again after 10 minutes.
Continue steps 6-8 until you notice a drop in the hash rate or hit the minimum power limit allowed.

Change Windows 10 power settings

Hit the Windows key.
Type «power.»
Choose «Power & Sleep» from the results.
Change both drop-down menus to «Never.»
Scroll down and select «Additional power settings.»

Source: Windows Central (Image credit: Source: Windows Central)

Select «High performance. «

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti

NVIDIA’s RTX 3060 may be the more affordable GPU in the new 30 series, but it has more than enough grunt to handle some crypto mining.

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Best Mining GPUs Benchmarked and Ranked

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What are the best mining GPUs, and is it worth getting into the whole cryptocurrency craze? Bitcoin and Ethereum mining have been making headlines again, as prices and mining profitability were way up compared to the last couple of years. Everyone who didn’t start mining last time is kicking themselves for their lack of foresight. Not surprisingly, the best graphics cards and those chips at the top of our GPU benchmarks hierarchy end up being very good options for mining as well. How good? That’s what we’re here to discuss, and we’ve got hard numbers on hashing performance, prices, power, and more.

We periodically update this article, at least the main table showing potential profits and pricing. The latest update uses pricing data from the month of January 2022, combined with current Ethereum prices.

Note: These numbers are no longer up to date, but the current potential profits have taken a nosedive, right alongside the cryptocurrency prices. Bitcoin and Ethereum have both lost over half their value since the start of 2022 — Ethereum is down over 60% since January 1, 2022. Do your own calculations as needed, but there’s a reason we’ve recommended caution since we created this article in 2021.

We’re not here to encourage people to start mining, and we’re definitely not suggesting you should mortgage your house or take out a big loan to try and become the next big mining sensation. Mostly, we’re looking at the data based on current market conditions. Predicting where cryptocurrencies will go next is even more difficult than predicting the weather, politics, or the next big meme. If you don’t already have the hardware required to get started on mining today (or really, about eight months ago), you’re late to the party. Like the old gold rush, the ones most likely to strike it rich are those selling equipment to the miners rather than the miners themselves.

If you’ve looked for a new or used graphics card lately, the current going prices probably caused at least a raised eyebrow, maybe even three! Our GPU pricing index has additional details, but the market had a perfect storm of pandemic induced shortages and increased demand, and mining only made a bad situation worse. We’ve heard from people who have said, in effect, «I figured with the Ampere and RDNA2 launches, it was finally time to retire my old GTX 1070/1080 or RX Vega 56/64. Then I looked at prices and realized my old card is selling for as much as I paid over three years ago!» They’re not wrong. Pascal and Vega cards from three or four years ago are currently selling at close to their original launch prices — sometimes more. If you’ve got an old graphics card sitting around, you might even consider selling it yourself (though finding a replacement could prove difficult).

The good news for those not interested in mining is that profitability has dropped, and GPU prices followed suit (to a lesser degree). Now more than ever, we strongly discourage people from trying to strike it rich with crypto mining. Even with reduced GPU prices, the best-case scenario right now requires more than a full year of 24/7 mining just to break even. Ethereum should make the switch to proof of stake some time before July (maybe), plus there’s the environmental cost to consider. But the cryptocurrency market is nothing if not extremely volatile, and many are willing to take a risk now in hopes of scoring a big payoff later.

Ultimately, we know many gamers and PC enthusiasts are upset at the lack of availability for graphics cards, but we cover all aspects of PC hardware — not just gaming. We’ve looked at GPU mining many times over the years, including back in 2011, 2014, and 2017. Those are all times when the price of Bitcoin shot up, driving interest and demand. 2021 is just the latest in the crypto coin mining cycle.

The only prediction we’re willing to make is a lovely tautology: Prices on Bitcoin and Ethereum will change in the months and years ahead — sometimes up, and sometimes down. And just like we’ve seen so many times before, the impact on graphics card pricing and availability will continue to exist. You should also be aware that, based on past personal experience that some of us have running consumer graphics cards 24/7, it is absolutely possible to burn out the fans, VRMs, or other elements on your card. Proceed at your own risk.

The Best Mining GPUs Benchmarked, Tested and Ranked

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

With that preamble out of the way, let’s get to the main point: What are the best mining GPUs? This is somewhat on a theoretical level, as you can’t actually buy the cards at retail for the most part, but we have a solution for that as well. We’re going to use eBay pricing — on sold listings — taken from our GPU pricing index. How much can you make by mining Ethereum with a graphics card, and how long will it take to recover the cost of the card using the currently inflated eBay prices? Let’s take a look.

For this chart, we’ve used the current difficulty combined with the average price of Ethereum over the past week — because nothing else is coming close to Ethereum for GPU mining profitability right now. We’ve tested all of these GPUs on our standard test PC, which uses a Core i9-9900K, MSI MEG Z390 ACE motherboard, 2x16GB Corsair DDR4-3600 RAM, a 2TB XPG M.2 SSD, and a SeaSonic 850W 80 Plus Platinum certified PSU.

We’ve optimized Ethereum mining performance, with an eye toward minimizing power consumption while maximizing hash rates. Also note that we’re using real-world in-line power measurements for the GPUs, collected using our Powenetics hardware and software solution, so our power figures are not relying on software data, which can be off by anywhere from a few watts to over 50W, depending on the GPU.

Finally, we’ve used $0.10 per kWh for power costs, which is much lower than some areas of the world but also higher than others. Taking the hash rate and current difficulty, we subtract the power cost to come up with daily profits. Then we used the approximate eBay price divided by the current daily profits to come up with a time to repay the cost of the graphics card. The following table is sorted by time to break even (assuming price and difficulty don’t change, which they absolutely will).

Best Mining GPUs Benchmarked and Ranked
GPU	Avg. eBay Price (Jan 2022)	Mining Performance	Mining Power	Daily Profit	Days to Break Even
GeForce GTX 1060 6GB	$300	25	90	$0.76	393
Radeon RX 570 8GB	$357	29.8	130	$0.85	418
GeForce GTX 1080	$457	36.1	138	$1. 08	422
GeForce GTX 1070	$368	29.2	114	$0.87	423
Radeon RX 5600 XT	$543	39.6	115	$1.27	426
Radeon RX 5500 XT 8GB	$365	26.3	81	$0.84	437
GeForce RTX 3060	$711	48.6	118	$1.62	439
GeForce RTX 3060 Ti	$923	60.6	116	$2.09	441
Radeon RX 5700 XT	$810	53.8	125	$1.81	449
Radeon RX 580 8GB	$389	30.3	135	$0.86	451
GeForce RTX 2060 Super	$640	43.7	129	$1.40	457
GeForce RTX 2070	$643	43.8	130	$1.40	458
Radeon RX 5700	$794	52.3	133	$1. 73	459
GeForce GTX 1660 Ti	$459	29.7	73	$0.99	465
GeForce GTX 1070 Ti	$431	31.2	124	$0.92	467
Radeon RX 590	$410	30.8	138	$0.87	469
GeForce GTX 1660	$401	25.3	70	$0.82	488
GeForce GTX 1660 Super	$498	30.2	75	$1.00	497
GeForce RTX 2060	$518	33	105	$1.04	498
GeForce RTX 2070 Super	$704	43.9	128	$1.41	499
GeForce GTX 1080 Ti	$658	44.7	187	$1.30	506
GeForce RTX 3080	$1,613	94	220	$3.15	512
GeForce RTX 3070	$1,086	61.3	123	$2. 10	516
GeForce RTX 2080	$751	43.8	119	$1.43	526
Radeon RX Vega 64	$647	45.5	234	$1.22	531
Radeon RX 6800	$1,150	64.5	166	$2.13	541
Radeon VII	$1,517	85.6	231	$2.80	542
Radeon RX 6700 XT	$847	47.1	120	$1.56	544
Radeon RX Vega 56	$636	40.2	174	$1.16	550
Radeon RX 6600	$516	28.5	75	$0.94	552
Radeon RX 6600 XT	$610	32.3	75	$1.08	563
GeForce RTX 2080 Super	$824	43.9	124	$1.42	580
GeForce RTX 2080 Ti	$1,127	60.1	180	$1.92	587
GeForce RTX 3060 Ti LHR	$844	42. 4	114	$1.39	609
Radeon RX 6800 XT	$1,269	64.6	186	$2.08	609
GeForce RTX 3060 LHR	$657	34	110	$1.07	616
GeForce RTX 3090	$2,609	115	285	$3.82	683
GeForce RTX 3070 LHR	$995	42.9	120	$1.39	715
GeForce RTX 3070 Ti LHR	$1,179	51	155	$1.62	726
Radeon RX 6900 XT	$1,528	64.6	183	$2.09	731
GeForce RTX 3080 LHR	$1,535	65.8	215	$2.06	745
GeForce RTX 3050 LHR	$539	23	75	$0.72	748
GeForce RTX 3080 Ti LHR	$1,874	77	220	$2.49	754

Today’s Best Mining GPU Deals

Radeon RX 580 8GB

$169. 99

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Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Ti

$639.99

$506.99

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AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT

$333

$299

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Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 12GB

$489.99

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Geforce GTX 1660 Ti

$317. 90

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Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super

$329.99

$224

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Deal ends Sun, Sep 18

Reduced Price

AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT

$1,299.99

$799

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AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT

$778.99

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EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 8GB

$1,095

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Low Stock

Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti

$1,900

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Last time we updated this list, the best-case scenario for breaking even required as little as 160 days. With the decrease in Ethereum prices combined with the increase in mining difficulty, at current rates your best bet would be just over a year to break even — which will of course change, because cryptocurrencies are nothing if not volatile.

Keep in mind that Ethereum is still supposed to transition to proof of stake (i.e., no mining) sometime in the first half of 2022. That transition has been delayed a couple of years now, though, so who knows when or even if it will ever happen? Six months from now we could see substantially lower profitability, if GPU miners are forced to find alternatives to Ethereum. Miners likely hope that some other coin will take off and replace Ethereum, but that’s yet another gamble.

Older GPUs like the GTX 10-series and RX 500/5000-series continue to top our list, though the RTX 3060 and 3060 Ti (non-LHR) come in 7th and 8th place overall. Also note that finding some of the older model cards in sufficient quantities may be more difficult, and running multiple GPUs off a single PC requires PCIe riser cards and other extras that add to the total cost. Not surprisingly, Nvidia’s LHR model cards tend to do far worse overall.

Break-even times currently range from just under 400 days to as much as 750 days, depending on the GPU. Unless the current Ethereum pricing trend reverses, you can expect it to take even longer, especially when you factor in the other hardware you’d need. There’s also a real risk of graphics cards failing within two years when they’re mining 24/7.

Note that the power figures for all GPUs are before taking PSU efficiency into account. For pure graphics card power, you should divide the numbers in the table by your PSU’s efficiency rating (e.g., RTX 3080 measured 220W, and with a 90% efficient PSU it would actually use 245W).

We also don’t include the rest of the PC, meaning the CPU, motherboard, and other components. For the RTX 3080 as an example, total wall outlet power for a single GPU on our test PC is about 60W more than what we’ve listed in the chart. If you’re running multiple GPUs off a single PC, total waste power would be somewhat lower, though it really doesn’t impact things that much. If you take the worst-case scenario and add 60W to every GPU, the time to break even increases by 20–30 days.

It’s also fair to say that our test results are not representative of all graphics cards of a particular model. VBIOS mods may help (use at your own risk), and some models simply run better and faster. RTX 3090 and RTX 3080 can run high GDDR6X temperatures on some cards but much lower temps on others. The 3090 can potentially do 120-125MH/s, or example, though that’s still nearly two years to break even.

[That’s it for the new material. Most of the remainder of the article hasn’t been touched since around July 2021, though we did tweak a few of the prices and break-even time estimates.]

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

The problem is that the above table has no way of predicting the price of Ethereum, other coins, or mining difficulty. Guessing at the price is like guessing at the value of any other commodity: It can go up or down at a moment’s notice, and Ethereum, Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies are generally more volatile than even the most volatile of stocks. On the other hand, mining difficulty tends to increase over time and only goes down when people stop mining (like with the China mining crackdown), as the difficulty is directly tied to the network hash rate (i.e., how many GPUs, ASICs, etc. are mining that coin).

The above is something of a best-case scenario for when you’d break even on the cost of a GPU. Actually, that’s not true. The best-case scenario (for miners) is that the price of Ethereum doubles or triples or whatever, and then everyone holding Ethereum makes a bunch of money. Until people start to cash out and the price drops, triggering panic sells and a plummeting price. That happened in 2018 with Ethereum, and it’s happened at least three times during the history of Bitcoin. Like we said: volatile.

Still, there are obviously plenty of people who believe in the potential of Ethereum, Bitcoin, and blockchain technologies. Even at today’s inflated GPU prices with mining profitability slumping, some people are likely still making a go at mining. At least if the value of the coins drops, you still have the hardware that’s at least worth something (provided the card doesn’t prematurely die due to heavy mining use). That means, despite the overall rankings (in terms of time to break even), you’re generally better off buying newer hardware if possible.

Top Picks for the Best Mining GPUs

Our table above includes ‘current’ eBay pricing estimates and the associated profitability. Even when profitability drops, GPU prices tend to take longer to come down. There’s also a balance between time to break even and daily potential profits, but at this point we strongly advise against anyone investing more money into GPU mining.

Okay, sure, you can try to get ahead of the next wave, whenever that happens (if that happens). For those still interested, we’ve considered the options and come up with this list of the best mining GPUs for Ethereum right now — things can change rapidly based on pricing and availability, not to mention the valuation of Ethereum and Bitcoin.

(Image credit: Asus)

GeForce RTX 3060 Ti: After tuning, this is one of the most efficient GPU for Ethereum right now, using under 120W while breaking 60MH/s. Make sure you get one of the non-LHR models, though, or mining profitability with Ethereum is a lot lower. The GeForce RTX 3060 is also worth a look, provided you can find one of the earlier models where the LHR lock was accidentally broken (with older drivers) for a good price.

Radeon RX 5600 XT: AMD’s previous generation Navi GPUs are very good at mining, and the 5600 XT can hit about 40MH/s while using about 115W of power. The RX 5500 XT 8GB might also be worth considering, depending on the price. Mining performance is lower but efficiency and break-even time are basically the same as the 5600 XT.

GeForce RTX 2060 Super: Ethereum mining needs a lot of memory bandwidth, and all of the RTX 20-series GPUs with 8GB end up at around 44MH/s and 130W of power, meaning you should buy whichever is cheapest. That’s usually the RTX 2060 Super, or maybe the older RTX 2070.

Radeon RX 570 8GB: All the Polaris GPUs with 8GB of GDDR5 memory (including the RX 590, RX 580 8GB, RX 570 8GB, RX 480 8GB, and RX 470 8GB) end up with relatively similar performance, depending on how well your card’s memory overclocks. The RX 570 is currently the cheapest (theoretically), but it’s not as readily available as some other GPUs, so look for any of the other Polaris 10/20 GPUs. Just don’t get the 4GB models!

GeForce GTX 1060 6GB: Mining performance is lower than the RX 570 8GB, but power is well under 100W in our testing after tuning. Of course these could be five years old cards by this point, and buying a used graphics card presents some obvious risks!

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

Radeon RX Vega 56/64: Overall performance is good, and some cards can perform much better — our reference models used for testing are more of a worst-case choice for most of the GPUs. After tuning, some Vega cards might even hit 45-50MH/s, which would put this higher up the chart. Try to find a card for under $500, though.

Radeon RX 6800: Big Navi is potent when it comes to hashing, and all of the cards we’ve tested hit similar hash rates of around 65MH/s and 170W power use. The RX 6800 is generally cheaper than the others and used a bit less power, making it the clear winner. Plus, when you’re not mining, it’s a very capable gaming GPU.

GeForce RTX 3090: This is the fastest graphics card right now, for mining and gaming purposes, and it’s the only Nvidia Ampere GPU that won’t be replaced by an LHR equivalent. The time to break even is pretty bad, but if you do get into the black it will end up with the highest profitability from that point forward. But at less than $4 of profit per day it’s tough to stomach buying a $2,600 GPU for mining.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

What About Ethereum ASICs?

One final topic worth discussing is ASIC mining. Bitcoin (SHA256), Litecoin (Scrypt), and many other popular cryptocurrencies have reached the point where companies have put in the time and effort to create dedicated ASICs — Application Specific Integrated Circuits. Just like GPUs were originally ASICs designed for graphics workloads, ASICs designed for mining are generally only good at one specific thing. Bitcoin ASICs do SHA256 hashing really, really fast (some can do around 25TH/s while using 1000W — that’s trillions of hashes per second), Litecoin ASICs do Scrypt hashing fast, and there are X11, Equihash, and even Ethereum ASICs.

Many crypto coins and hashing algorithms have been created over the years, some specifically designed to thwart ASIC mining. Usually, that means creating an algorithm that requires more memory, and Ethereum falls into that category. Still, it’s possible to optimize hardware to hash faster while using less power than a GPU. Some of the fastest Ethereum ASICs (e.g. Innosilicon A10 Pro) can reportedly do around 500MH/s while using only 1000W. That’s far faster than a single GPU, but it’s not much more efficient than the best GPUs.

Take the RTX 3060 Ti as an example. Let’s round slightly to say that each one does 61MH/s at 125W. That means 1000W of 3060 Ti cards would do 488MH/s, which is pretty close to what the top Ethereum ASICs achieve. The cost of such ASICs is prohibitively expensive, and even worse, Ethereum 2.0 will soon put an end to proof of work mining. There are other non-Ethereum coins that use the same hashing algorithm, but none are as popular / profitable as ETH. Bottom line: We wouldn’t invest in an Ethereum ASIC these days.

MORE: Best Graphics Cards

MORE: GPU Benchmarks and Hierarchy

MORE: All Graphics Content

Jarred Walton is a senior editor at Tom’s Hardware focusing on everything GPU. He has been working as a tech journalist since 2004, writing for AnandTech, Maximum PC, and PC Gamer. From the first S3 Virge ‘3D decelerators’ to today’s GPUs, Jarred keeps up with all the latest graphics trends and is the one to ask about game performance.

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Tom’s Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site .

The top crypto-mining graphics cards to get a big bang for your buck

Now that we are at the tail end of 2020, the big hardware manufacturers are starting to announce their latest, fastest offerings set to be released ahead of the holiday season. Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency mining market continues to expand rapidly against all odds. Here’s an overview of which producers offer the best graphics cards in the market and which cards suit specific types of mining.

Bitcoin or Ether?

In terms of choosing a cryptocurrency to mine in 2020, there have been no significant changes. This year, most video cards continue to be able to mine Ether (ETH) or its forks. As for Bitcoin (BTC), mining of the world’s first cryptocurrency stopped being available to ordinary people a few years ago, as it requires serious investments, special equipment and access to large amounts of cheap electricity.

This is even more so the case now, as BTC mining is bringing in half the income after the reward halving took place in May. The difficulty of mining continues to increase, and in September, it updated to an all-time high of 19.31 trillion at block 649,152.

As a result, many popular devices such as the Antminer S9 have become obsolete. After the halving, the most profitable miners became the Whatsminer M30S ++ from the Chinese company MicroBT, which can deliver a hash rate of up to 112 terahashes per second and bring in just over $8.50 per day in profit, and Bitmain’s Antminer S19 Pro, which can reach a hash rate of 110 TH/s and see a daily profit of just under $8. 50. But the prices of these miners are rather steep: A Whatsminer M30S++ costs $1,800, and the Antminer S19 Pro comes in at $2,407.

When it comes to Ether and its forks, graphics-card mining is once again becoming popular for several reasons. First, over the past two years, Ethereum’s hash rate has decreased by 15% (when compared with August 2018), now sitting at 256.221 TH/s. This means that Ether is now easier to mine.

Second, both modern and old models of cards can still be used for mining. For example, the Nvidia 1050 Ti, released in October 2016, and the Radeon RX 580, released in April 2017, are still very popular. Prices for such old cards are constantly decreasing as newer cards come out, which is encouraging miners to return to the market. But most importantly, the price of ETH tripled from the start of 2020 to the beginning of September, making Ether still very profitable to mine.

There is another factor that attracts the interest of miners: the upcoming transition to Ethereum 2. 0 and a proof-of-stake algorithm, which is expected to commence before the end of the year. A spokesperson from WhatToMine, a popular web-based calculator for evaluating the profitability of mining cryptocurrencies, told Cointelegraph that Ether will continue to be in demand, not only this year but also in 2021:

“This cycle we can expect further expansion of DeFi projects, which will in turn make ETH network more and more popular. As a result block reward for ETH (the fee part) should increase in cycles with general uptrend, making ETH mining the most profitable for GPU miners.”

What to buy?

At the beginning of the year, Cointelegraph reviewed the graphics cards of the two largest manufacturers, Nvidia and AMD, and Nvidia cards seemed to have an upper hand in mining. However, taking into account the fact that Ether mining has gained a second life, AMD cards should not be written off, as the company’s Vega and RX generations are still very suitable for Ethash algorithms.

Regardless of the manufacturer, the most important factor is return on investment, as any miner must first invest a decent amount of money before turning any profit. A standard rig requires six graphics cards, and as a result, a miner can spend over $9,000 if buying the popular Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti with 8 GB or 11 GB of RAM memory. But what about those who can’t afford the top shelf but still want to make a profit? Here are the most popular graphics cards right now for Ether mining that cost under $400.

Nvidia GTX 1660 Super

This card was released in October 2019, meaning the tech is still fresh. The graphics card has 6 GB of memory and Turing architecture, which executes more clock frequency, uses less power and has 20% better performance than the GTX 1660. The price of this model ranges from $240 to $250.

AMD Radeon RX 5700 and RX 5700 XT

In summer 2019, AMD introduced a new line of RX 5700-series graphics cards to the market. These cards use fin field-effect transistor, or FinFET, technology, which results in better energy efficiency when mining due to the reduced size of electronic components and lower current consumption.

The specifications of the RX 5700 include 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and a power consumption of 180 watts. The RX 5700 XT has a power consumption of 225 W, but the base frequency is also 10% higher than in the RX 5700 model. These cards are slightly more expensive, costing around $430, but can be snatched up with a discount at around $400.

Nvidia RTX 2060 Super

The RTX 2060 Super card may not be an obvious choice, as apart from having 8 GB of memory, it is no different from the RTX 2060. But at the same time, it uses five different algorithms — GrinCuckarooD29, GrinCuckatoo31, DaggerHashimoto, X16Rv2 and BeamV2 — which makes it more stable, safe and suitable for mining.

In fact, this is an intermediate option between the RTX 2060 and the RTX 2070, but it can be found online for just $399, while the RTX 2070 will cost you around $530 — and a $130 difference is a lot of money in this business.

AMD Radeon RX 580

AMD’s RX 580 was released back in 2017 and is still one of the best low-budget GPUs for mining, with a price ranging between around $180 and $230. The card is used mainly for mining Ether and has 8 GB of memory, but it consumes little power at just 150 W. The only potential competitor might be the RX 570, but those card with only 4 GB of memory will no longer be able to mine Ether in 2021.

Nvidia P106-100

Nvidia has a dedicated series of graphics cards for crypto mining. The Nvidia P106-100 “mining edition” is based on the Nvidia GP106 GPU (Geforce GTX 1060), which is almost the same as a regular Geforce GTX 1060 but with some slight modifications. The P106-100 has no video outputs and no rear panel, and the card is equipped with 6 GB of memory.

The «mining edition» in the name does not mean that the new product is better at mining than the usual version but rather that it’s designed specifically for miners, as everything considered nonessential has been removed, allowing it to be sold for around $320, a whole $170 cheaper than a GTX 1060 unit.

So, which one is best to buy?

How long will it take for these budget cards to recoup their initial price? For comparison, one of the most popular cards for mining today, the Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti, brings in around $1.66 per day when mining Ether. If purchased for an average price of around $1,400, this graphics card will take about 28 months to pay for itself, without taking into account the cost of electricity.

So, here is what the calculations say: The Nvidia GTX 1660 Super, which can be bought for $240, would bring $0.65 per day and take 12 months to pay for itself. The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT costs $400 and would have an 8.5-month payback time while bringing in $1.56 per day.

The Nvidia RTX 2060 Super can be bought for $399 and will bring $0.92 per day when mining Ether. This card will pay off in 14 months. The Radeon RX 580 is a very popular card due to its rather low price of around $200, and this card will recoup in just seven months, bringing in almost a dollar ($0. 96) per day. Created specifically for mining, the Nvidia P106-100 will bring $0.85 per day and, at a cost of $320, will pay off in just over 12 months.

However, this is not an exact science, and every miner should keep in mind that the algorithms of any crypto are constantly becoming more complex, which makes it harder to mine and longer to recoup their investment into their mining equipment.

New cards right now?

Given the excitement around decentralized finance, a crypto boom looms on the horizon once again, and the upcoming new products may take it further. In September, Nvidia released its new generation of GeForce RTX 3000 graphics cards, with some people already saying that it can produce 81–89 MH/s during Ether mining. And the upper-class model, the GeForce RTX 3090, is expected to demonstrate 120–122 Mh/s. If so, then Nvidia may face a shortage of cards, as miners will buy everything, leaving gamers with nothing.

But AMD is not lagging behind and will present its Radeon RDNA 2 line at the end of October, which will directly compete with the 3000 series from Nvidia. The emergence of new cards will be of great interest to the crypto mining community. Andrej Škraba, head of marketing at NiceHash — a crypto mining and trading platform — is confident that the technological innovations of AMD and Nvidia will bring higher productivity:

“Nvidia just launched 3000 series, but current availability is super low. New RTX cards will bring higher hash-rates and miners will be upgrading their used 1060s and old AMD cards (480s/580s). We still have to wait for the AMD announcement to see what they will bring to the market.”

Cryptominers are selling off loads of cheap GPUs via livestreams

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Gamers, this is our time: cryptominers are trying to recoup some money by auctioning off mountains of used (but cheap) graphics cards via livestreams, presenting a decent opportunity to grab yourself a bargain — providing you’re happy to take the risk.

The cryptocurrency market has had a rough few weeks following the collapse of most of its more profitable coins such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, but as they say, one person’s pain is another’s pleasure. PC Gamer reports that with so much value knocked off Ethereum especially, the largest currency to still be viably mined using a consumer desktop GPU, cryptominers and farms are attempting to sell off the used hardware to recover their losses.

GPU flood is here.Chinese miners and South Asian ecafes now dismantling their mining rigs and putting cards up for auction on livestreams.3060 Ti’s going for $300-$350 US … pic.twitter.com/kphmIt7vZwJune 21, 2022

This is because Ethereum mining still uses proof-of-work validation, though the currency is set to move over to proof-of-stake which will make mining the currency wildly unprofitable using gaming GPUs, even if the market does recover. This is the same validation method used by Bitcoin these days, which is why miners typically focus more on application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) miners created specifically for mining rather than scrambling to snatch up any of the best gaming graphics cards on the market.

At its height, a single Bitcoin was worth almost $64,400, which means that if you purchased $1,000 of Bitcoin back on November 12, 2021, it would currently be worth around $326 today. Similarly, the price of Ethereum fell to $1,112 this week, down from $4,600 back in November.

Bad news for crypto, great news for gamers

Chinese Miners are dumping 3080 at a pretty crazy price on Xianyu (Taobao 2nd market smartphone app), from just 3500 yuan ($523).@CapFrameX @davideneco25320 @kopite7kimi @chunvn8888 pic.twitter.com/KMCPyXJDzIJune 21, 2022

China’s cheap electricity made it a haven for mining farms, which is likely why we’re seeing most of the sell-offs in this region, with piles of unwanted Ampere RTX 30 graphics cards being sold on the Xianyu marketplace website. Some of the listings for RTX 3080 graphics cards were posted to Twitter by I_Leak_VN , showing that these used GPUs are being advertised at as little as 3,500 Yuan (around $523 / £420 / AU$760).

The same GPU technically has an MSRP of $699 (£649, about AU$950) for the original Founders Edition model, so the savings here aren’t especially massive, though it’s worth pointing out that while we’re seeing stock improvements and falling prices, some units are still priced over MSRP, albeit slightly.

There have also been auctions held over livestream to help sell the cards, with Tom’s Hardware reporting on a Baidu post that describes masses of the cards being advertised via livestreams, some under the speculation of being from gaming internet cafes. Within the post, RTX 3060 Ti’s were being listed and sold between $300 (around £245 / AU$440) and $350 (around £290 / AU$510) which, while only just under the card’s original MSRP of $399 (about £299, AU$540), is a vast improvement on the prices we were seeing at the height of the GPU shortage.

Analysis: wait, so should you buy these GPUs?

People in NYC camping out in line to get a new graphics card from best Buy (Image credit: Twitter / Matt Swider)

These sell-offs aren’t just happening in China — eBay, Facebook Marketplace and more are also seeing an influx of used GPUs across the world, but there are a few things you need to take into account before you buy one.

The biggest issue for most folks will be the concern over how used up this hardware is, especially if it potentially came from a large-scale farm rather than a hobbyist miner, but mining cards arent actually as bad as you might assume. This video from LinusTechTips goes into depth about how cards are used for mining and tests within the video revealed that months of constant use in a mining rig actually had a fairly negligible effect on performance.

This is because many miners underclock the cards to better preserve longevity and consume less power, so despite running 24/7, these GPUs have not been pushed to their absolute limit.

There are other things to watch out for though that you might not spot in an online listing. Our US computing editor John Loeffler wrote an informative feature on the dangers of buying ex-mining cards, warning that “In many cases, it’s [run] in a dusty open warehouse next to dozens of other similarly burnt-out graphics cards, all of them generating heat and frying their own and their neighbors’ silicon transistors, plastic PCB, and soldering. ”

It’s difficult to judge the cosmetic state of a GPU from a listing image, but only you can weigh up if buying a cheaper, used product is ‘worth it’. For those of you intending to snap up a next-gen Nvidia Lovelace graphics card such as the GeForce RTX 4090 when they drop later this year, a used GPU could be worth the risk of buying something brand new at MSRP given you only need it to tide you over for a few months.

Whatever your stance on ex-mining hardware though, this is overall great news for PC gamers. With the crypto market tanking, there’s less competition against miners which won’t just result in mountains of used graphics cards hitting the market, but also more availability for new stock. It was reported that Ethereum miners spent $15 billion on GPUs in the last two years and that’s no small rival to contest with.

As we approach the launch of Nvidia Lovelace and AMD RDNA3, we can only hope that the market remains low to give gamers a chance to snap up a new GPU after years of fighting scalpers, bots and miners. Failing that, we might find ourselves reliant on prebuilt desktop gaming PCs and gaming laptops again.

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Jess is a former TechRadar Computing writer, where she covered all aspects of Mac and PC hardware, including PC gaming and peripherals. She has been interviewed as an industry expert for the BBC, and while her educational background was in prosthetics and model-making, her true love is in tech and she has built numerous desktop computers over the last 10 years for gaming and content creation. Jess is now a journalist at The Verge.

TechRadar is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site .

Best GPU for Ethereum Mining

Oh boy! What a time to mine some cryptos. Ether has surged past $1,000 USD, and we don’t know when the rise will stop. Even the newbies are rushing into the industry to get the best GPU Ethereum mining. Mine, comrades! Mine, while it’s hot. Ethereum mining with GPUs has been seen to be practical and not requiring specialized ASIC based mining rigs, but GPUs based computation from mainstream players, can get you in the business.

This is the best time of the year to invest in a serious mining rig. All the big hardware manufacturers have already rolled out their best offerings. And the crypto industry is once again expanding rapidly. So, let’s take a look at the coolest GPUs to augment your mining hardware.

Primarily all graphics cards you will consider will be from either AMD or Nvidia. Both are huge solid companies known for making GPUs that can be used for gaming or mining. Unless of special circumstances you can choose AMD or Nvidia, and any mainstream producer of the cards. But you will want to pick the GPU model carefully as they vary widely in memory sizes, memory speeds, wattage and price. You don’t want to buy it and find out it doesn’t even have enough memory for Ethereum mining!

GeForce GTX 1080 Ti and cousins

Believe it or not, the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is still a solid value in 2021. What a beast of a card! This EVGA model provides a hash rate of nearly 38 MHash/s for Ethereum mining while consuming a very low amount of electricity at approximately 150 Watts. Memory is critical for Ethereum Mining, the 1080 Ti has 11GB of memory operating at respectable memory speeds of 11 Gbps.

Agreed, it’s an old GPU with a 352-bit memory interface. However, the PCB has 9 additional sensors and MCUs embedded in the chip. It has 88 render output, a massive 11 GB frame buffer, and 224 texture mapping units for rendering purposes. That makes it a great choice for crypto-mining. Inside, you get a GP102 graphics chip with 3584 shaders. The base clock speed of GTX 1080Ti is 1481 MHz, and the memory clock speed is 1376MHz. Overclocking easily adds around +150MHz and +300MHz to both clock and memory speeds, respectively. And the best thing? Even with overclocking, the card stays cooler than 1070.

The price of cards in the GeForce 10 series are reasonable as the series was first released back in 2016, the price is higher for newer entrants. Overall, the EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is a solid card for long time use.

Here are some cards available now on Amazon and Ebay:

EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 SC GAMING ACX 3. 0, 8GB Graphics Card
ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Edition GTX1080-8G 8GB GDDR5X
GeForce GTX 1080 Ti on Amazon
GeForce GTX 1080 Ti on Ebay

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 and cousins

Nvidia GeForce 3080

If you can find and afford one, NVIDIA’s latest GeForce RTX 3080 is a monster. Just released in January 2021, and top of the line for the GeForce 30 series, with Ampere microarchitecture.According to some leaked mining benchmarks, the GeForce RTX 3080 delivers an unprecedented 75 MHash/s on the Dagger Hashimoto algorithm. Now, if you overclock it, performance jumps to 93 MHash/s. To put these figures in perspective, the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti manages approximately 54 MHash/sec, while the older GeForce GTX 1080Ti turns in only 30 MHash/sec. As for specs, this graphic card comes with a base clock speed of 1440 MHz that can be boosted up to 1710 MHz. Besides, it has 10 GB of 10GB GDDR6X.

The best thing about this card is that even with overclocking, this thing runs cool. The temperature always stays within the 65 degrees Celsius range. Although the fans run at 1000 RPM (with no load), you can barely hear them hum.

However, there’s a caveat. It has a TDP rating of 320W, considerably higher than both GeForce RTX 2080Ti and GTX 1080Ti. With an overclock, power consumption easily touches the low ends of 400W. If you can play around with different power limits, clock, and memory speed to maximize your crypto profit, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is your champion for 2021. Go splurge!

These are in short supply are a few similar products on Amazon and Ebay that have this or similar GPU models:

EVGA GeForce RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra Gaming, 24GB GDDR6X
PNY GeForce RTX 3090 24GB XLR8 Gaming REVEL EPIC-X
GeForce RTX 3080 on Amazon
GeForce RTX 3080 on Ebay

XFX Radeon Rx 5700 XT

When it comes to profitability, the XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT is a huge draw. That’s because the chip is based on 7-nm Fin FET semiconductor technology, which is a lot cheaper than the latest 6800 series that draws considerably more power.

The Navi 10 processor has a 1605 Mhz base clock speed and a 1750 MHz memory clock speed. It features 160 texture mapping units, 2560 shading units, and 64 ROPs. Moreover, it has 8GB GDDR6 memory interconnected via a 256-bit memory bus interface.

The GPU runs at 52 MHash/s, drawing just 105 Watts from the power supply. Of course, you will need to overclock and power tune the GPU to achieve these results. Thankfully, as it’s an old card, you can find plenty of tuning options online.

The only problem is, this GPU is a bit harder to set for Ethereum mining. But, after it’s all set and working stable, the trouble is worth the effort. We strongly recommend it as long as you’re getting it on the MSRP.

XFX RX 5500 XT Thicc II Pro 8GB GDDR6 Graphics Card
XFX RX 5700 Xt Thicc III Ultra 8GB
XFX Radeon Rx 5700 XT on Amazon
XFX Radeon Rx 5700 XT on Ebay

AMD Radeon RX 480

The Radeon RX 48 is one of the most economical and cost-efficient pieces of hardware for Ethereum mining, thanks to a hash rate of 25MHash/s. However, to achieve this feat, the GPU runs at a core clock speed of 1095 MHz & a memory clock speed of 2160. That consumes approximately 69 Watts. Not Bad, right?

The AMD Radeon is equipped with 8GB GDDR5 RAM. There’s also a 4GB version, but it’s less suitable for mining. Inside, you get an Ellesmere processor chip with 2304 shaders. The base and memory clock speeds of this beast are 1120 MHz and 2000 MHz, respectively.

The Radeon RX 48 can go toe-to-toe with heavy hitters, such as AMD R9 390x because it consumes far less power. This is because it has a TDP rating of a mere 110W and comes with a single 6 pin connector. So, you can even utilize it for gaming without upgrading your power supply.

It’s also jam-packed with features such as VR readiness, DX12 support, and the latest GCN architecture. Overall, AMD Radeon RX 480 8GB is a great value for Ethereum mining. It has a great hash rate with very little power consumption.

MSI GAMING Radeon RX 480 GDDR5 8GB
PowerColor AMD Radeon RED Devil RX 480 8GB GDDR5
AMD Radeon RX 480 | Amazon
AMD Radeon RX 480 | eBay

AMD RX 6800 XT

AMD RX 6800 XT is AMD’s flagship GPU based on RDNA 2 architecture. In Ethereum mining, AMD’s latest GPU offers a 15 percent better performance than the previous generation of GPUs. When using the Phoenix 5.2c miner on stock settings, Radeon RX 6800 XT shows 59 to 60 MHash/s on 250W power consumption.

Sure, the video memory subsystem hasn’t undergone a drastic overhaul. But the 256-bit memory bus and GDDR6 are a little faster, though. Not to mention, the latest AMD drivers come with the fast timings feature designed to increase the overall performance of this series of GPUs in mining crypto, particularly Ethereum. When you enable this function, the hash rate increases by approximately 2 to 3MHash/s.

To increase performance, you can also overclock the video memory up to 150 MHz. Because it’s one of the newest cards, we don’t have the rich mining experience that backs CPUs like RX 5700 yet, however, in the near future, expect to witness better mining settings for RX 6800 XT to fine-tune crypto-mining rigs. Oh, and don’t forget Infinity Cash!

Note: Using the latest AMD Zen 3 CPU chip and the latest AMD Navi 21 GPU provides a remarkable boost in performance compared to using a Zen 2 or Intel processors.

MSI Gaming Radeon RX 6800 XT 16GB GDRR6
Sapphire AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT
AMD RX 6800 XT | Amazon
AMD RX 6800 | eBay

Best GPU for Ethereum Mining – Buyer’s Guide

As far as Ethereum mining goes, the gaming and rendering performance of a GPU is irrelevant. Instead, you should focus on aspects that really impact your mining efficiency. These include:

AMD vs. Nvidia
We think Nvidia is better for novices. Their GPUs are straightforward to set up and consume comparatively less energy. Additionally, they also work great with more mining algos. On the other hand, AMD cards offer low power consumption per hash rate, making them cost-efficient.

Hashrate
Hashrate, or the problem-solving capability, demonstrations how many hashes your GPU makes per second. This is basically the performance of your GPU. It directly impacts the speed at which your rig mines the crypto and depends on the algorithm of a particular blockchain you’re currently on.

Power Consumption
The running cost of a mining GPU is the amount of power it draws from your system. It shows how much electricity your card needs for a stable and optimal performance. Cards that draw more power will also need system upgrades for stability. Wattage can vary by 300% between low power and high power models, so if your pay for your own electricity, be sure to factor the cost of power into your business plan for mining.

Memory Size and Memory Speed
Both memory size and memory speed are important for performance of a mining system when mining Ethereum blockchain. Generally, GPUs with a bigger memory size and offer better memory speed should be prioritized over others. However, they also tend to be more expensive. Anecdotally 8GB of memory should be enough and recommended, but please check the details of your mining setup to make sure you have enough memory for Ethereum Mining. Newer models with high memory speed could be one of the most important tech specs to consider when making a decision. As other gaming like features of a GPU are not important.

Warranty
Always check for a warranty. Many top brands offer a one-year limited warranty. Since mining is rather resource-intensive, GPU parts such as a fan can malfunction or stop working altogether. You can also experience other issues. Therefore, a warranty is a great option, so you can either fix or replace your card for free.

Price
The price of a card will be your initial investment. And make no mistake, mining cards don’t come cheap. You have to empty your wallets to get the best mining GPU for Ethereum mining. So your goal should be to find a suitable option that fits your budget. Older models might have the memory speed and size, as well as crunching capability you need, while keeping power usage lower and much lower price to buy.

New vs used

Are you willing to take a small gamble and buy a used part and perhaps get a better deal. You would need to be more tech savvy and manage the risk that you might have trouble returning to the seller a used part, but your profits could be much higher if you find a good used part.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best GPU for mining ethereum?

There are plenty of GPU options available for mining Ethereum and with cryptocurrencies becoming more commonplace in today’s world, companies are developing more advanced GPUs that can give the best performance.

The most reliable GPU on the market is the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti which is one of the least expensive choices but outperforms the more costly models, especially when it comes to mining Ethereum. It uses less than 120W while exceeding 60 MH/s.

Another great choice is the Radeon RX 5700 which is an older model but incorporates the Navi GPU technology while breaking 50 MH/s using 135W of power. It is just as fast as its upgraded model the Radeon RX 5700 XT but costs less making it just as reliable.

How many GPU does it take to mine ethereum?

Mining Ethereum takes a minimum of one GPU provided it exceeds 3GB of RAM. A lot of gaming laptops are capable of this thanks to their higher end cards but bear in mind that mining can cause a lot of heat which can impact your laptop negatively if mining for long periods of time. It’s always best to go with a desktop PC rather than a laptop as it can withstand high temperatures.

Can any GPU mine ethereum?

Technically, mining Ethereum can be done from the comfort of your own home providing you have a consumer graphics card made by either AMD or Nvidia and can even be lucrative for those living in areas where electricity doesn’t cost a lot. If you become good at doing it yourself, you can even start to make a business of it for yourself and actually earn money and make a decent income.

How much Ethereum will cost can be calculated on a variety of independent calculators such as miningbenchmark. net, CryptoCompare and Whattomine among many others. This will help you to determine whether mining Ethereum yourself will make you any profit or if seeking a professional is the best way to go.

For those who are intimidated or want to seek assistance from a professional, they can find it takes less time although it is more likely going to be more costly.

Professional miners are based in regions with low costing electricity so they can serve a variety of industries while ensuring that they have an increased profit margin. The profits generated by these companies are only increasing as cryptocurrencies rise in popularity and demand.

Final Thoughts

That’s a wrap on our best GPU for Ethereum mining guide! You will want to study more on How to mine Ethereum before jumping in with your purchase of GPU. We hope this article helps you find your next Ethereum mining GPU. Remember, the performance of a GPU varies depending on the coin that is being mined. That’s why ROI also varies. To optimize your ROI, check various online resources for your profit ratios. This way, you can adapt to the changing market accordingly. Finally, always send your profits to your own crypto wallet and not to exchange. Otherwise, you can lose your hard-earned profits.

Best video cards for mining 2022 — Crypto on vc.ru

What is a video card for mining

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Advantages and disadvantages of mining on video cards

Basic card selection criteria

Top graphics cards

Where to buy cards

Ways to overclock the card

Cryptocurrency mining is now a very profitable business.

The mining process is a specialized automated calculation for which the user or miner is rewarded. That is, in fact, the miner receives a reward for the work that his mining equipment has done.

Despite the fact that today there are several ways to mine cryptocurrencies, the most popular one due to its reliability is mining with video cards.

Video cards have been mined since 2010. It is easy to guess what was the first cryptocurrency that was mined on video cards — of course, Bitcoin.

The more powerful and better the video card, the more stable the mining process. The payback of high-quality video cards for mining will not be long in coming.

Moreover, with proper use of video card overclocking, the performance and power of processors can be significantly increased.

Mining graphics cards are primarily equipment used to produce funds. That is, by purchasing a video card, you acquire not only a universal component of the user’s computer, which is useful in games, graphics, and mining, but also a means of making money, which is a very profitable investment in the long run.

Let’s figure out what a video card is, how to choose it, where to buy it and what are the ways to overclock it.

What is a video card for mining

As a rule, gaming video cards are used for mining, since they have sufficient power and computing capabilities. The work of a video card in the mining process is a process similar to the calculation of textures in video games or their drawing, nothing specific is required from cards in mining.

Game cards are improved, first of all, for gaming needs, however, with their development for the gaming sector, the power of cards for cryptocurrency mining increases.

The most popular graphics cards that can be mined include those made by AMD and Nvidia.

Mining on AMD

graphics cards

This video card is great for mining Ethereum cryptocurrency.

Mining started with this card during the first cryptocurrency boom – that is, from 2015 to 2018.

Mining on Nvidia

graphics cards

NVIDIA cards are highly energy efficient, which is appreciated by gamers around the world. The green logo of the manufacturer’s company symbolizes optimal energy consumption and is associated with environmental friendliness.

Some versions of NVIDIA cards have much more processing power than AMD cards.

Why does card mining remain popular?

Firstly, ASIC farms for cryptocurrency mining are quite expensive, and they also need a separate space for them — preferably a separate room, since the farm takes up a lot of space. You can assemble a farm from video cards yourself, and it does not take up much space. Moreover, it is quite mobile not only in terms of space, but also in the ability to work with different cryptocurrencies. In addition, if you use the cards carefully, they can be resold in the future.

Secondly, video cards are universal soldiers for cryptocurrency mining. New cryptocurrencies appear literally every day, manufacturers simply do not have time to release specialized ASIC farms for each cryptocurrency. In this regard, video cards certainly take the lead from farms.

Thirdly, excellent performance, power consumption and cooling of cards. Gaming graphics cards are designed for intensive use by gamers, so they are usually equipped with evaporators and special vapor chambers so that the equipment does not overheat. Of course, this affects the performance of the cards.

Fourth, graphics cards are much quieter than ASIC farms.

All these pluses are weighty arguments in favor of choosing video cards for mining.

Advantages and disadvantages of mining on video cards

Mining on video cards, like any mining method, has its advantages and disadvantages.

Benefits:

GPU mining can be a great way to make money if you have the initial investment, patience and time you are willing to wait for the card to pay off and bring a net profit.

First of all, GPU mining is a great way to generate passive income. If you connect not one, but several video cards, thereby increasing its performance, you can receive a stable passive income every day.

Mining on video cards requires your minimum time investment. Mining on the map does not mean constantly checking the equipment during the mining process, it is enough just to periodically check the performance of the equipment and monitor the temperature so that the map does not heat up too much.

Variety of cryptocurrencies that can be mined. Cryptocurrencies for mining on cards today are not limited to bitcoin. This is an absolute plus, since you can mine several cryptocurrencies in parallel, which is very profitable.

Moreover, unlike ASIC farms, video cards produce much less noise and have a long warranty period. Video cards assume the most diverse use — cryptocurrency, graphics, video games. And if you really want to get rid of it, you can resell the card on the secondary market. Powerful video cards in good condition are in as much demand in the secondary markets as those packed from the assembly line.

Weaknesses:

In order to assemble and run a mining farm on video cards, it is necessary not only to invest financially, but also to correctly assemble it. In addition, it is periodically necessary to stop mining for preventive purposes and engage in equipment maintenance.

Despite the fact that mining farms on video cards produce much less noise, sleeping in the same room with a working farm is not so easy. Still, for this it is better to allocate a separate space in which you do not spend the night. In addition, equipment can overheat significantly and require additional cooling during the warm season.

The eternal problem of cryptocurrency mining is the instability of the Internet and power outages. If the problem with electricity can be solved by installing an uninterruptible power supply, a battery or a generator, Internet problems depend on your provider.

In order to mine efficiently, you need a powerful relatively new computer. The most functional and expensive video cards make no sense if you have weak hardware.

To avoid problems with equipment overheating, it is necessary to install air conditioners or fans in the room where the mining equipment is located.

Basic card selection criteria

Let’s consider the key characteristics of video cards that you need to pay attention to when choosing:

1. Memory. If you need a video card in the long term, you need to choose a video card for mining with a large amount of storage. The fact is that for the mining of some cryptocurrencies, you need from 5 GB of memory.

2. Card cooling system. Video cards with 2 or 3 fans can extend the life of the device and are less prone to wear and tear during round-the-clock operation. However, buying cards with turbines is also not worth it due to their level of noise production.

3. Tire. A 256-bit graphics card bus is more efficient than a 128-bit one. The most powerful and expensive models have even higher bandwidth buses.

4. Energy consumption. Some AMD cards consume more power to run, which makes them not very profitable, even though their performance is quite good.

5. Acceleration. The ability to speed up a video card is one of the important conditions for mining. Video cards with Samsung memory have the best overclocking capability. However, unfortunately, when choosing a card, this characteristic is not indicated in the product parameters, so the choice of a video card in this regard is like a lottery.

Consider these parameters when choosing the best graphics card for mining.

Top graphics cards

The most popular video cards for mining are produced by NVIDIA and AMD. We present you a list of models of video cards for mining, which are worth a closer look:

1. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER. The release of this video card model was expected by most of the mining community. This model is more powerful than its predecessor, and on some cryptocurrency algorithms, the results from it are 80-160 percent higher. This card holds overclocking well, and you can also increase the frequency of the core and memory on it, and even adjust the consumption limits.

2. AMD Radeon RX 5700. These video cards are equipped with a powerful cooling system with copper pipes, fans and an aluminum radiator. It is possible to overclock the video card using the OverdriveNTool program. Best compatibility with Ethash Claymore’s Miner and PhoenixMiner cryptocurrency mining software.

3. Radeon RX 580 from AMD. It is in good demand among gamers and miners from all over the world. The map is perfect for those who want to assemble a powerful farm with an optimal level of electricity consumption. The video card has good overclocking potential and processor characteristics.

4. Radeon VII Radeon. Of the benefits: high bandwidth and 16 GB memory, as well as a powerful computing core that allows you to show a high hash rate. Among the shortcomings is the high price.

5.RX 6900XT/6800XT. Having appeared on the market relatively recently, cards from AMD have made themselves known loudly. 16 GB of memory and high overclocking speed, runs on a 256-bit bus. In addition, it has a good cooling system.

6. Radeon Vega. The card has excellent throughput and, with proper overclocking on Monero, gives good timing for mining ether.

7. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 1050 Ti. At the moment, this is the most affordable and common video card. With its low price, the payback of the card may not be fast, and the income from it is not very large. However, if the Ethereum rate continues to grow steadily, even taking into account the cost of electricity, it will be possible to earn some money on the video card. This video card is popular among those who assemble cryptocurrency farms, as the video card provides good performance due to special chips running on Pascal. At one time, the demand for this particular card increased sharply with the rise in prices for cryptocurrencies.

8. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650. A fairly productive and powerful card, but, alas, not suitable for Ethereum due to its small memory.

9. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti. The most expensive and most productive card in the manufacturer’s lineup. This card has twice the performance of the GTX 1070.

Specialized cards for mining

These cards include the P104-100 and P102-100 models from NVIDIA. The cards do not have great performance and memory, but they were still popular a couple of years ago during the crypto mining hype. Moreover, these cards are not suitable for the secondary market, which means that you cannot get much profit from them by selling them.

Since today there are two manufacturers of video cards that are market leaders and compete with each other, we present to your attention the TOP cards from each

3. RX 6700 XT

4. RX 6600 XT

5. Radeon VII

6. Radeon Vega 56

7. Radeon Vega 64

8. RX 5700 XT

9. RX 5600 XT

10,0002 10 .RX5500XT

11. RX 590

12. Radeon RX 580

13. Radeon RX 570

14. Radeon RX 470

15. Radeon RX 480

List of the best models of video cards from NVIDIA:

1. GeForce RTX 3080

2. GeForce RTX 3070

3. GeForce RTX 3060 Ti

4. GeForce RTX 2080 Ti

5. GeForce GTX 1080 Ti

6. GeForce RTX 2070 Super

7. GeForce RTX 2070

8. GeForce GTX 1070

9. GeForce RTX 2060 Super

10. GeForce RTX 2060

11. GeForce GTX 1660 Ti

12. GEFORCE GTX 1660 Super

13. GeForce GTX 1060

14. NVIDIA P104-100 (MINING) P102-100 (Mining)

Today, the most profitable cards for mining are NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1060 3gb and Radeon RX 470 4gb.

You can calculate the income from purchasing a video card yourself, but it is best to use special calculator services.

These services include NiceHash and WhatToMine. To calculate the profit, you need to enter the model of the video card that you bought or are going to buy and the cost of electricity in your city.

Choosing a video card for mining is based on the amount you are willing to spend, as well as the one that will be optimal in terms of price-payback ratio.

Where to buy cards

Buying a video card for mining is not an easy task. You need to know where to get a really good video card. It is best to buy where video cards are sold by people, and not through intermediaries and stores, as there is a risk of large markups.

When buying a video card, keep in mind that its cost affects the payback period of the card. It is believed that the card paid off when you earned on mining the amount of money that you spent on purchasing the video card. All that you have earned after this point is your net profit from mining.

There are several common places to buy graphics cards.

Specialized crypto-currency or miner forums. Miners often resell their hardware on them. You need to search for goods in specialized headings: for example, the sale of iron or a flea market.

Electronics stores. For example DNS. The guarantee of the quality of the goods in such places is certainly higher, the card is new, well packaged. However, the price for such a card will be much higher.

Internet shops. You can purchase, again, in online stores, which are represented by outlets in the city. Prices in the online store are lower than in retail outlets. However, you should beware of dubious online stores so as not to run into a fake.

Purchase a video card is also purchased at secondary sales services — Avito, Yula, and so on. In such places, prices for any category of goods are much lower than even in online stores, and there is also the opportunity to bargain. However, there is the same risk as with dubious online stores — they can send low-quality goods. Therefore, it is worth buying only from sellers with good ratings and reviews, it is desirable that the seller has a long registration period on the platform. Beware of those sellers who offer to go to other messengers to discuss the details of the purchase and conclude the transaction.

If you order through Internet services, you should order through those sites and services that have their own delivery. In this case, upon receipt of the goods at the post office, you can issue a return and get your money back if something confused you in the product.

In addition, there are ways to purchase a card outside the CIS.

For example, on large shopping services such as Amazon, eBay and AliExpress.

However, on such services it is also worth monitoring the reputation of sellers and reviews so as not to run into unscrupulous and not lose your money.

Choose the way to buy a video card that is convenient and convenient for you. Which one are you most confident in?

Ways to overclock the card

You have purchased a video card and started mining cryptocurrency. At first, it seems to you that the mining process brings in enough money for the equipment to pay off soon. However, after some time you will want to increase your profits. To increase profits, you must either reduce farm costs or increase their profitability.

Methods for multiplying profits include:

· increase in the number of farms;

· changing video cards and buying more productive;

· location of farms in places with low cost of electricity;

forced overclocking of video cards.

Overclocking a video card is an artificial increase in the technical characteristics of the hardware in order to increase its performance and efficiency. Overclocking a graphics card includes improving memory and GPU settings.

It should be noted that in the process of forced overclocking of the video card, the power consumption of the spare part increases.

For greater efficiency and performance of video cards, a combination of methods must be used. The most profitable combination is overclocking the video card and increasing the number of farms.

Overclocking of a video card depends, first of all, on the model of the card itself and the cryptocurrency that you mine on it.

Parameters to consider for overclocking

Video cards are a rather complex device that performs computational operations. The structure of the device includes RAM, cooling system, as well as graphics processors.

The card has a set of operation parameters that are important to take into account when overclocking:

· core voltage from the power supply;

· the power that the card consumes for operation and its limit;

temperature mode of operation and its permissible limit;

core frequency;

frequency of RAM operation;

cooling system speed.

Different models of graphics cards use their power in different ways. Moreover, different cryptocurrencies require a variety of functions from the video card for their mining. You need to take into account the features of your video card in order to maximize the efficiency of overclocking. And also take into account the needs of the cryptocurrency you are mining.

Overclocking video card for mining

In order to overclock the video card, you need to install the MSI Afterburner program. Please note that you need to download only from the official website of the program manufacturer.

RAM upgrade

In order to improve the performance of the video card for some cryptocurrencies, it is necessary to increase the frequency of the card’s memory. To do this, the program provides a special RAM slider. Best of all, Samsung RAM is overclocked in this way, since this type of RAM works even with powerful overclocking using the program. In order to start increasing the memory frequency, you need to start the process of cryptocurrency mining. After that, gently and gradually move the RAM slider to the right. This should be done slowly and carefully in order to monitor the stability of mining and how the program affects performance. If you sharply move the slider to the right, there is a risk of overloading the card. Nothing bad is likely to happen. The program will simply reset the card settings to default, the operation of the video card itself will be suspended.

Therefore, try to increase the power of RAM gradually, then you have a better chance of successfully improving performance.

Reduce card power consumption

Many AMD cards don’t use their graphics cores to the maximum during mining. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the core frequency without compromising the performance of the card. This way you can save energy.

In order to reduce power consumption, it is necessary to move the core operation slider to the left, that is, in the direction of decreasing performance. This should also be done carefully and slowly, so as to reduce gradually, observing what indicator is enough to save enough electricity and at the same time not damage the performance of the card. Keep in mind that the processing power of the video card can also decrease, which is why it is necessary to monitor the process in order to reduce the power of the core without ruining the processing power of the video card.

In addition, if you reduce the frequency of the core not on a separate card, but on the whole farm, the energy savings will be more noticeable. In order to further reduce power consumption, you can also tweak the value of the core supply voltage. This will reduce the power consumption by just a few more watts, however, this will be enough to save good electricity in the house.

Ventilation optimization

If you have adjusted the power consumption settings, the device will automatically decrease in heating due to load reduction. This means that the ventilation system may not work as intensively, for this you can reduce the fan speed in the settings.

The MSI Afterburner program allows you to set not only a certain fan speed, but to make full flexible settings, indicating the dependence of the ventilation speed on the temperature of the video card. To do this, go to the cooler section and line up the points on the graph so that they form the necessary dependence curve.

Adjust cooling

Setting the optimal fan speed is a kind of compromise between the intensity of the cooler, the level of noise that it produces, and the temperature of the video card, which it reaches during operation.

If the video card is used intensively, the fan bearing can wear out and fail quickly enough, however, if the fan speed is insufficient, the video card will overheat, which will lead to a quick breakdown of the video card.

In this case, it is easier to fix the cooler than the video card itself. Keep this in mind when looking for the optimum fan speed.

As for the noise, it won’t disappear at all, no matter how slow the cooler’s operation is.

After you have optimized all the settings and made sure that the video card is stable, you need to save the settings using the button in the form of a floppy disk on the right side of the program interface.

Program autostart

The last step in configuring the overclocking of the video card is to set the program to start automatically when the farm is turned on. You can also do this in the program settings in the “Start with Windows” item. Activate this button to automatically overclock your video card to improve its performance and efficiency.

Another overclocking method

In addition to overclocking using the program, you can overclock the video card by flashing the BIOS of the card.

This method can be used even in combination with the program and thereby increase the performance of the card in an even greater percentage ratio — it was and it was.

The only downside to the flashing method is that using it automatically voids your graphics card warranty. In addition, flashing the card is associated with certain risks. If something goes wrong, you will be left without a card and the money invested in it.

If you purchased a fresh video card with a warranty from the store, then it is not recommended to flash the BIOS in the first months of the card’s operation for overclocking.

In this case it is better to use the program and then very carefully. After the video card has paid off on mining, you can try to flash the BIOS or use it with the program.

This method is also suitable for cards purchased from hand, that is, without a warranty period.

These video card overclocking methods are the most popular. Remember that any overclocking option should be used with caution, monitor the behavior of your video card so as not to accidentally break it. With the right settings, overclocking the video card gives really good results and increases its efficiency by up to ten percent.

Conclusion

In 2021, the list of video cards that are suitable for mining has expanded significantly. In order to successfully mine, it is best to purchase a newer model of a video card, the performance of which is higher and the technical characteristics are better. However, you will have to be patient, as the equipment will not pay off immediately, but for the long-term perspective of earning money, video cards are perfect.

Selling video cards on the secondary market is difficult, but possible. Cryptocurrency mining on video cards is not only a source of passive income, but also a long-term investment. By purchasing a video card, you, first of all, acquire the means of producing crypto assets.

Moreover, with proper use, a competent mining strategy and the use of video card overclocking tools, its payback will not be long in coming, and net profit will bring long-term stable income.

Now is probably the best time to buy a video card and start mining cryptocurrencies. Ethereum forecasts for the next year please miners and investors, which means it’s time to invest in crypto!

Best Video Cards For Mining – Rating TOP 6

So, are you interested in video cards for mining? If so, then you have come to the right place. In this guide, we’re going to take a look at the top 6 graphics cards (GPUs) that are currently available on the market. We will be able to compare graphics cards in detail and choose the one that suits you best.

In today’s market today you can find many different models of video cards. Some were created specifically for video processing, others for the comfortable launch of demanding games. However, this guide is not about that at all. It’s about finding the best graphics card for mining, especially for you!

In this guide, we will start with a brief overview of the mining process itself. After that, we’ll take a look at six popular GPUs on the market. Then, we will provide you with a handy table that will help you see the characteristics of each of them and make your final choice.

So, what are we waiting for, let’s get started!

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ON YOUTUBE

1. What is Cryptocurrency Mining?
2. Best Video Cards For Mining
2.1. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070
2.2. AMD Radeon RX580
2.3. Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060
2.4. AMD Radeon RX Vega 56
2.5. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti
2.6. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti
2.7. Best Graphics Cards For Mining: Comparison Chart GPU
3. Conclusion

What is Cryptocurrency Mining?

Before choosing a graphics card for mining, you need to make sure that you have sufficient knowledge about the cryptocurrency mining itself. Mining is the process of verifying transactions in a cryptocurrency network. To make this process as secure as possible for the crypto network that hosts billions of dollars, computers must guess a string of characters – also known as a hash.

This confirmation process is called “proof-of-work” or PoW and is one of the most important features of cryptocurrency. In fact, it is he who protects the network from double spending, the creation of counterfeit Bitcoins (or any other cryptocurrency) and the introduction of fake transactions.

Cryptocurrency mining can be done with a variety of different devices. Although initially the most basic of them was the CPU. CPU means Central Processing Unit. They were great for mining a few years ago, when the competition in this area was at a low level.

However, today GPUs (video cards) are the most common way to mine various cryptocurrencies, with the exception of the most competitive ones, like Bitcoin. This is because GPUs are capable of making many more guesses about a hash line per second. The number of guesses is also called the hashrate. Therefore, the best video cards for mining should have a high hash rate!

GPU stands for Graphics Processing Unit and is an integral part of any computer designed to render videos or run games. Since the popularity of cryptocurrencies skyrocketed in 2017, at that time even a certain lack of video cards on the market began to be observed. The reason for this was the massive buying of video cards by miners. The sales were so huge that the stocks of video card companies such as NVIDIA and AMD experienced an unprecedented increase!

Best Graphics Cards For Mining

Let’s skip the long introductions and help you find the right mining graphics cards for you!

I have compiled a short list of the most suitable options for you. Although some of them will be quite difficult to find. Even at the moment there is a certain demand for them. Thanks to this list, you will be able to compare video cards and choose the only one (suitable).

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070

First on our list of the best graphics cards for mining is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX1070. The 1070 is, first of all, a great graphics card for gaming, but it’s also great for mining.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX1070 has a good hash rate of 30mh/s. It also doesn’t use much electricity. At 150W, it is the most economical on our list. This means less energy consumption and less energy costs.

One of the drawbacks is the cost of the GTX1070. It sells for between $600 and $1,000 depending on where you buy it and availability.

With all of that said, the GTX1070 is (almost) the most powerful graphics card on our list, making it one of the best mining cards out there today!

AMD Radeon RX580

Next on our list of “Best Graphics Cards for Mining” is the AMD Radeon RX580. Like NVIDIA, AMD is another very well-known graphics card company. You can rest assured about the quality of their PC components.

RX580 is offered at a much more affordable price than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070. It costs about $350, which is 2 times less than its competitor. This is actually quite impressive, given the possibility of making changes to the operation of the chip, to achieve a figure of 29mh/s. This is very good!

More importantly, if you want to run multiple rigs with these cards, you can save money on the cooling system. The reason for this is the surprisingly low operating temperature!

However, there are some drawbacks. Unfortunately, at one time it was very popular and almost completely sold out. It also consumes more electricity than the GTX 1070 at 185W, which is by no means high among graphics cards.

Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060

Next on the list is the 1070’s sister, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX1060 graphics card. Like the Radeon RX580, this graphics card is much cheaper than its predecessor. Its cost is kept within $300.

Again, this makes it a great option for those who want to earn passive income from cryptocurrency mining. Of course, it is not as efficient as the best graphics cards for mining, but in terms of price / efficiency, it is very popular.

If you manage to buy a 1060 video card (it’s much easier nowadays), then you will understand that it is quite suitable for GPU mining. Also, this is a good gaming video card! (if you get tired of mining).

I recommend it for those with expensive electricity. It requires 120W — making it the most modest in this parameter on our list.

AMD Radeon RX Vega 56

If you are interested in powerful graphics cards for mining, since your electricity is quite cheap, then the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 is a real find. It’s even faster than NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070!

However, this power has its drawback — a large amount of energy consumed. Therefore, it will not be profitable to use this for mining with high electricity prices. However, if you live in a cold climate with cheap electricity, then this is a great GPU for you. The temperature of its operation is very high, perhaps even the highest among all among our list. For this reason, you will need a good cooling system.

Well, or vice versa, you can approach the problem of heat generation from the other side, like some miners from Eastern Europe. Some have even used the heat to heat their greenhouses during the winter. Another miner from Siberia even tried to heat his house using heat from several rigs!

Another disadvantage of this mining video card is its price. The AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 will cost you around $800. This makes it suitable for those who have the opportunity to invest in their mining project.

In the recent past, this video card was very popular with miners, so it was hard to get it. Although to be honest, at that time such a situation was observed with almost all video cards!

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti

One of the most expensive and arguably the most powerful graphics cards on our NVIDIA GeForce GTX1080 Ti list. This device will cost you $860. Nearly three times more expensive than the cheapest model we recommend. Obviously, it is suitable for either avid gamers or demanding miners.

As you’d expect from a mining graphics card at this price point, the GeForce GTX1080 Ti is incredibly powerful. It offers an incredible hash rate of 32.2mh/s with a few modifications and tweaks. However, this power has its conditions. The GTX1080 Ti requires 250W of electricity, making it the most power-hungry graphics card on the list. For comparison, this is twice as much as the GTX 1060.

Of course, thanks to this power, the 1080 Ti is great not only for games, but also for mining. She was even called the best in her time.

However, you should pay attention to the electricity consumption of this video card for mining. The electricity bill can easily equal your income. Like the Vega 56, the GTX 1080 Ti is best suited for those where the cost of electricity is quite low and there is a comfortable climate for mining.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti

As you can tell from the name, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX1070 Ti is an improved version of the original 1070 model. If you compare these two graphics cards, NVIDIA has made some really noticeable improvements. According to LegitReviews, it can offer a competitive hash rate of 28.3mh/s.

The power consumption of the 1070 Ti also makes it competitive, only 180W. Therefore, if you are still wondering how to choose a video card from this list, then the ratio of consumption and power should be your main criterion.

However, you should be careful when purchasing the NVIDIA GTX1070 Ti as there have been error messages in the device driver. These errors underestimated the hashrate of the 1070 Ti and made it less competitive.

Although for experienced miners and those who just like to understand the settings of video cards, this is not a problem at all. It is solved in several ways, which can now be found almost everywhere!

Pros

First class security
Touch control
Easy setting

GET PROMO CODE

Pros

Super safe
Protection against physical damage
Supports over 1500 coins and tokens

40% OFF

Best Graphics Cards For Mining: GPU Comparison Table

Below, you will find a table where you can compare graphics cards and make your final decision.

GPU	Core Clock	Memory	Frequency Memory	Electrical Connector	Consumption	Outlets
GeForce GTX 1070	1.506MHz	8GB GDDR5	8Gbps	1×6-pin	150W	3x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x HDMI 2.0, DL-DVI
Radeon RX580	1.257MHz	8GB GDDR5	8Gbps	1x 8-pin, 1x 6-pin	185W	1x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x HDMI 2.0
GeForce GTX 1060	1.506MHz	6GB GDDR5	6Gbps	1x 6-pin	120W	3x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x HDMI 2.0, DL-DVI
Radeon RX Vega 56	1.156MHz	8GB HBM2	800MHz	2x 8-pin	210W	3x DisplayPort 1. 4, 1x HDMI 2.0
GeForce GTX 1080 Ti	1.480MHz	11GB GDDR5X	11GHz	1x 6-pin; 8-pin	250W	3x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x HDMI 2.0
GeForce GTX 1070 Ti	1.6070MHz	8GB GDDR5	8GHz	1x 6-pin; 1x 8-pin	180W	3x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x HDMI 2.0

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Conclusion

So, that’s it. Our guide about video cards for mining has come to an end. I hope that this information was useful for you and helped you find the right option for you.

Of course, it is impossible to unequivocally answer the question “How to choose a video card for mining”. It all depends on several factors. Do you live in a place with cheap electricity? Do you want to run them together? Do you have enough funds and desire for serious investments in mining?

The answers to these questions and our guidance should help you make the right decision. Remember, even the most powerful video card is useless if the price of electricity does not give you the opportunity to receive any profit from mining!

In this guide, we have reviewed six of the best GPUs in our opinion. We started with a brief analysis of the mining itself, and then smoothly moved on to comparing NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070, AMD Radeon RX580, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060, AMD Radeon RX Vega 56, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti and GTX 1070 Ti.

Now you know about the disadvantages, advantages and most comfortable conditions for using each of them.

I hope you learned a lot! Tell us which video card did you choose?

Leave your review

Leave your sincere opinion and help thousands of people choose the best crypto exchange. All feedback, both positive and negative, is accepted as long as it is honest. We do not post biased reviews or spam. So if you want to share your experience, opinion or advice — the stage is yours!

for mining, games, work, GTX, Radeon, nVidia, cheap — Top 2021-2022 according to user reviews

Do you dream that all new games run on your PC with maximum FPS? Do not want to compromise and want to play exclusively on ultras? Then the first thing to do is to choose the right video card. A powerful, state-of-the-art graphics card will be the first step towards building a powerful gaming PC.

Gaming PCs require good FPS in games, but for office work, any video card will do. It is very important to approach the choice with full responsibility, because today the market is overflowing with a large number of models, each of which has its own advantages and disadvantages.

We’ve compiled a list of the best graphics cards based on expert reviews and reviews from real customers. Our recommendations will help you make the best choice for your requirements and desires. There are many competitors in the global computer equipment market, but we have selected the best manufacturers and recommend paying special attention to them:

GIGABYTE
MSI
Asus
ASRock
Sinotex

Mining

MSI GTX 1050 Ti 4GT OC

Game (Play)

NVIDIA

For mining

GTX

*from user reviews

about

MSI GTX 1050 Ti 4GT OC (video card)

Minimum price:

Main advantages

The device is based on the nVidia Pascal architecture, its main application is the use for initial gaming systems
Sufficient 4 GB of video memory allows you to confidently implement modern game projects
In the most sophisticated games, the speed of the GPU is enough to select the “High” level settings
The video card guarantees complete hardware support for the latest OpenGL 4. 5 and DirectX12 graphics interfaces. The device can be connected to three monitors at once
For active cooling, a dual-fan system is used, equipped with a solid aluminum heatsink. Cooling is low noise

MSI GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER VENTUS OC 8GB

GeForce

NVIDIA

For games (Gaming)

For mining

*from user reviews

about

MSI GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER VENTUS OC 8GB (video card)

Minimum price:

Main advantages

The most economical top-end video card from NVidia. For normal operation, a 550-watt power supply

is enough

Full support for MSI’s proprietary overclocking utility Afterburner. Automatic search for optimal overclocking parameters
G-Sync technology. A compatible monitor adapts to the frame rate of your graphics adapter to eliminate tearing and deliver seamless video footage in fast-paced scenes
Artificial intelligence powered by tensor cores. Thanks to the new ray tracing algorithm, it provides a realistic image without FPS drawdown
Support for DLSS technology. The neural network stretches the image in Full HD resolution, adapting it for 2K and 4K monitors without compromising performance

GIGABYTE AORUS ELITE 12G GV-N3060AORUS E-12GD (rev. 2.0)

NVIDIA

For games (Gaming)

For mining

*from user reviews

about

GIGABYTE AORUS ELITE 12G GV-N3060AORUS E-12GD (rev. 2.0) (video card)

Minimum price:

Main advantages

One of the most productive gaming video cards. Suitable for mining. Stays cool enough under heavy loads, as it is equipped with an advanced cooling system WINDFORCE 3X
12 GB VRAM. Enough to store a large location with many objects and high quality textures
Three powerful backlit coolers controlled by the RGB Fusion app. Looks great in a system unit with a transparent side cover, including frame
Steel plate on the back of the PCB. Protects all components from accidental mechanical damage
Four-year warranty when registering a video card on the official website of the manufacturer
Implemented the fastest PCI Express 4.0 connection type, eliminating latency when loading, processing detailed games

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ASUS TUF GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Gaming OS

GeForce

GTX

NVIDIA

For games (Gaming)

For mining

*from user reviews

about

ASUS TUF GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Gaming OS (video card)

Minimum price:

Highlights

The most reliable mid-range graphics card in the GeForce lineup. Before entering the retail sale, each device undergoes many hours of performance testing. Quality assurance from NVidia
Dustproof fans with double ball bearings. Twice the life span of traditional plain bearings. Quiet operation under medium load
Built-in hardware decoder with support for Open Broadcaster Software. Broadcast gameplay to YouTube and Twitch, record video without performance loss
Proprietary GPU Tweak II utility for monitoring parameters, overclocking the frequency of the graphics core and memory
A graphics chip based on the Turing architecture. Performance is on par with the more expensive GTX 1070

Sinotex Ninja GeForce GT 740 2GB (NH74NP025F)

GeForce

GTX

NVIDIA

Budget (Inexpensive)

For games (Gaming)

*from user reviews

about

Sinotex Ninja GeForce GT 740 2GB (NH74NP025F) (video card)

Minimum price:

Main advantages

Budget discrete video card for office work or home media center. Enough power for the latest version of Photoshop whether rendering short videos
VGA port. Allows you to connect old analog monitors. When using digital HDMI, you can achieve a good 4K picture on a large TV
One cooler is used for cooling. The video adapter is less noisy compared to more powerful models
Economical in terms of electricity consumption. A 400 watt PSU is sufficient for operation. Does not require additional power
You can run undemanding games, hits of the past years — for example, «Stalker», the third «Heroes» or Diablo II. Will pull Fortnite and Dota 2

Show all GTX items

GeForce

Gigabyte GeForce GT 1030 Low Profile 2G

GeForce

Budget (Inexpensive)

*from user reviews

about

Gigabyte GeForce GT 1030 Low Profile 2G (video card)

Minimum price:

Key benefits

A convenient option to overclock the video card with one click of the virtual button of the branded AORUS Graphics Engine application allows you to increase the clock speed of the GPU core up to 1506 MHz
Single-slot design and optimized low-profile design make hardware installation as easy as possible in a small package
Ultra Durable components provide long life and will not fail even when exposed to high temperatures
HDMI and DVI connectors allow you to connect monitors and modern TVs to the product
The low power consumption of the graphics card ensures compatibility and performance in systems with a 300 W power supply

Show All GeForce Items

Budget (Cheap)

Asus GeForce GT 1030 GT1030-2G-BRK

Nvidia

Budget (Inexpensive)

GeForce

*from user reviews

about

Asus GeForce GT 1030 GT1030-2G-BRK (video card)

Minimum price:

Main advantages

Proprietary GPU Tweak v2 software allows you to activate the game mode of the video card with one click with disabling / limiting other system components that use video memory and other resources of the device
Low profile product design with active cooling simplifies installation in compact cases/motherboards with one available slot
Super Alloy Power II video card element base has an increased level of protection against overheating and a long service life
HDMI and DisplayPort interfaces regulate the ability to connect to any modern information output device that has a digital input
The specific design predetermines the absence of the need to supply additional power

Show All Budget (Low Cost) Items

Radeon

Sinotex Ninja Radeon R5 230 1GB (AKR523013F)

Radeon

Budget (Inexpensive)

*from user reviews

about

Sinotex Ninja Radeon R5 230 1GB (AKR523013F) (video card)

Minimum price:

Key benefits

Silent video card from Radeon for office, home computer, equipped with a small cooler. For domestic use (surfing, movies, music), cooling can be turned off altogether
One of the narrowest models — thanks to its dimensions, the mounting plate occupies one mounting slot
The best inexpensive video card for the home. Can be used as a temporary «stub» in a gaming PC while the main graphics adapter is being repaired. Easily handle movies, surf
Connected via PCI-E version 2.1 interface. Compatible with motherboards and processors released before 2015
Does not place additional load on the power supply. The cheapest PSU with the minimum number of connection connectors

will do

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2020

ASUS DUAL GeForce GTX 1650 MINI OC

2020

GeForce

GTX

NVIDIA

Budget (Inexpensive)

For games (Gaming)

*from user reviews

about

ASUS DUAL GeForce GTX 1650 MINI OC (video card)

Minimum price:

Main advantages

The cheapest video card for gaming at an acceptable FPS value. Suitable for a gamer who prefers old «tube» video games and does not chase high graphics settings in modern AAA projects
Four gigabytes of video memory on board. Minimum required to run demanding modern games like Horizon Zero Dawn or Cyberpunk 2077
Manufactured using Auto-Extreme technology. All components are soldered in one step. The thermal load on the board is reduced, which reduces the likelihood of factory defects, delamination
When buying a video card as a gift, a free licensed copy of XSplit Gamecaster is an application for streaming the passage of the game. The best graphics card for a beginner gaming blogger
Compatible with Quantum Cloud, a service for beginner miners. Allows you to receive a small income by starting cryptocurrency mining during idle video adapter

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Total votes — 13,
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Read also under the heading «Computers»

Building a Mining Farm from Scratch / Step by Step Guide 2022

In this article, you will learn how to build a mining farm in 2022.

Technical basics of choosing a mining farm

In order to assemble a mining farm, you first need to decide on the following indicators:

Video card manufacturer (AMD or Nvidia)
Budget
By choosing the video card itself
Choice of accessories for truss assembly
Farm location
Electricity

Let’s consider all these points in more detail.

READ
Income (payback) of all video cards in mining. Choose the best video card in terms of fast payback!

Video card manufacturers

Let’s start the review in order by choosing a video card manufacturer (AMD or Nvidia), yes, yes, you need to start from this point, and not the budget, since the price category of these manufacturers is different.

In addition, video cards from these manufacturers are better suited for one algorithm or another (cryptocurrencies are mined using different algorithms).

For example, Ethereum (ETH) is best mined on AMD video cards, since the memory of the card is primarily used to mine ether. Its price is also a plus: several times cheaper than the price of Nvidia cards, with almost the same amount of memory.

However, in 2021, with the release of the new 30th line of Nvidia video cards, Ethereum mining has also become very profitable on Nvidia.

And a coin like Ravencoin is better mined on Nvidia video cards, since the processor frequency is an important component there (an Nvidia graphics processor is much more powerful than an AMD processor). Despite the high cost of Nvidia graphics cards, there are more coins that it is best suited for mining than coins that are better mined on AMD.

Simply put, AMD video cards are great at mining coins of the algorithm — Ethash (the algorithm of Ethereum and many other coins created on its platform).

And Nvidia video cards — perfectly mine coins on such algorithms as — Cuckatoo31, MTP, Cuckaroo29s, as well as Ethereum itself (especially new lines of cards) and many others.

Of course, you can mine any coins on both Nvidia and AMD, but this is not entirely advisable.

Any cryptocurrency calculator, when you insert any video card like AMD into it, will first offer coins of the Ethash algorithm, and then algorithms such as KawPow (and others), since the former will bring more coins, which means that the equipment will pay off faster. The same goes for Nvidia cards.

Having decided on the choice of coin, pricing policy and directly with the video card manufacturer, we move on to the next point.

We would like to remind you that there is an article on our website, where all video cards are described in terms of their payback!

Budget

Once the graphics card manufacturer has been selected, the budget needs to be calculated. Having this or that amount, you need to calculate how many video cards you can buy.

Important! When calculating the budget, do not forget to take into account not only the cost of video cards, but also the cost of the system itself (motherboard, processor, RAM, hard drive (or SSD), power supply). All this will also cost a decent amount, since, for example, it’s better not to save on a power supply and buy a high-quality one, because it will power expensive equipment — video cards (you can find out how to choose a power supply here.)

Costs that you will have to incur when assembling a mining farm:

The first and most expensive — video cards
System. Purchase: processor, motherboard, RAM, hard drive.
Power supply. It is advisable to buy with a minimum certificate of 80+ Bronze.
Raiser (if you buy more than 1 video card). They are needed to connect multiple video cards to the PCI-e x1 expansion slots on the motherboard.
Frame for farm (if farm from more than one card). It is needed so that the cards stand stably and are easily blown by air.

Choosing a video card

After you have decided on the pricing policy, go to the next step.

Selection of the video card itself — that is, its model. As in any market, the more modern (newer) the product, the higher its price. So it is with video cards: the newer its model and the better its cooling system, the more expensive it is. The latest models are always more expensive, but more often than not, they are more efficient and mine more coins.

Here is an example:

In April 2021, a farm of 6 Nvidia 3080 video cards per day will bring 45.9$5 on Ethash algorithm:

And 6 video cards 6800XT from AMD, will bring $ 32.24 per day on the same Ethash algorithm:

So that you can understand in real time how much this or that video card (or several video cards) brings, use a special online service — whattomine. Whattomine is an online calculator that shows how much cryptocurrency and money you will receive from a particular video card (screenshots above are from whattomine).

You should also understand an important thing: you should not save and buy a bunch of cheap video cards (so that you have a large mining farm), for example, such as: 1050 TI, 1060 3 GB, RX 470 (570, 580) for 4 GB and so on.

Of course, these cards are 3 times cheaper than the cards of the latest model (or more powerful cards), but they also bring in several times less. Collecting such farms at home is not logical, because if you want to mine more coins, then you will need 3 times more such cards than more powerful cards (for example, 2080 TI), which means more occupied space in the apartment and more noise.

It is important to understand and not to confuse, we mean the purchase of very weak cards. If, for example, you can buy quite profitable (not very powerful cards) cheaply, such as, for example, 1660 Super, then of course it is better to take several of these cards than 1-2 expensive 2080 TI (or another), since you can quickly recoup and make a profit faster! Remember, there is no point in saving and buying exactly weak cards, which are already obsolete and which experienced miners are trying to get rid of and sell to «hamsters»!

It is worth noting that the complexity of cryptocurrency mining is growing almost every day. This means that very old video cards for mining become weaker (bring less profit), as the complexity affects the mining of cryptocurrency, which means that a weak, old model of a video card will bring even fewer coins over time, which will quickly lead it to the fact that it will produce less than the cost of electricity, as opposed to a powerful, modern graphics card.

Below in the screenshot you can see the increase in the complexity of the most popular cryptocurrency (which is mined on video cards) — Ethereum!

After choosing a video card model, you should be very careful when choosing a company that assembles video cards (Asus, MSI, Palit, Gigabyte and many others).

Note that Nvidia and AMD create only graphics chips, and the assembly of the video card itself in its usual form is given to intermediaries such as Asus, MSI, Palit and many others. They, in turn, make the cooling of the video card and give their own design.

Why should this choice be carefully considered? Because the cooling of the video card is the most important thing to look at when choosing it, since it will work in your farm 24/7 (non-stop), respectively, the cards will heat up. Modern cards consume a lot of electricity, which means they emit a lot of heat and so that they do not «burn out» they need high-quality cooling!

With poor cooling (and without additional ventilation in the room where the farm is located), the video card can overheat and go into protection (turn off), moreover, this will stop the entire process of mining (mining) until you start it again, and still it will cause any harm to the video card.

READ
GPU temperature during mining. What is the normal temperature of the card?

We also advise you to watch a video from our YouTube channel: is the temperature of the video card 80 degrees, is this normal? What is the normal temperature of the card?

Good card cooling means big heatsinks, lots of copper pipes and big coolers (preferably 3), but there are times when just 2 coolers do the job perfectly.

However, you should understand that it is very difficult to visually understand whether a video card copes well with thermal loads or not, because there are cases when a card has 3 coolers, a lot of copper heat pipes, but the card is still a «stove».

Therefore, be sure to check the tests and thermal images of the card on our site, or on others, before buying this or that card!

Selecting system components

After the final selection of a video card, it is necessary to select and buy a good system (components).

The system for building a farm is no different from the system that is assembled for ordinary computers.

Farm will need:

Motherboard
Processor
RAM
Hard drive or SSD
Power supply
Raiser

Let’s analyze these points in more detail.

We advise you to watch a video from our YouTube channel: Mining accessories: how to choose? What is needed for a mining farm? What can you save on?

Motherboard

When choosing a motherboard, pay attention to the number of PCI-e x16 and x1 outputs. The ideal ratio is a total of 6 slots. You can take less, but if you plan to buy additional video cards in the future, then it’s better to take it immediately with a margin, since then, in addition to the new motherboard, you will have to buy a new power supply, processor and everything else.

When choosing a motherboard, pay attention to its settings.

The easiest mining motherboard to set up is ASRock H81 Pro BTC r2.0. There are many other motherboards that are not difficult to set up. And there are those in the settings of which even an experienced user will get confused.

READ
Best Mining Motherboard List

Why should you pay attention? Because many motherboards will not start with more than two video cards connected without additional settings in the BIOS (Uefi), without dancing with a tambourine.

Processor

Next comes the processor. Depending on the LGA of the motherboard, buy the most budget processor (the choice of processor is based on the socket).

For example, for the Asus Prime z270-p (LGA1151) motherboard, the most budget Intel Celeron G3930 2 core (socket 1151) is suitable. In simple terms, the CPU socket must match the LGA of the motherboard.

Remember, it makes no sense to overpay for the CPU, it does not affect anything, buy the most budget one! Well, if you want to mine cryptocurrency on a processor, for example, such as Monero, then we advise you to buy only processors from AMD, since Intel is less profitable for this type of mining.

Watch the video from our YouTube channel: profitability from mining on the processor, is it worth it to mine on the CPU.

RAM

RAM. After selecting the processor, select the RAM. Depending on the motherboard and its technology, RAM (DDR-3, DDR-4 or other) supports a certain type of memory. We buy 4 gigabytes of the cheapest RAM. You should not overpay for the brand and buy more memory, it will not particularly affect the mining of cryptocurrencies.

However, more and more coin algorithms began to appear that require more RAM (RAM is not important for Ethereum), so for safety, if you mine other cryptocurrencies in the future, you can take more RAM.

Hard disk or SSD.

It is worth noting here that if you have nothing else on the farm (except for the operating system, the miner itself and programs), then a hard drive (or ssd) will do, even with a memory capacity of 60 gigabytes (but it is better to take 128 GB to immediately download miners for different algorithms, programs, and so on). Also, for some algorithms, you will have to increase the paging file.

About 10 GB will be spent on the system, a couple of gigs for various overclocking programs and miners (special programs for mining cryptocurrencies).

What is better to choose: SSD or hard disk drive (HDD) for a farm? The answer to this question is very simple.

It is best to use SSD drives, as they will install the operating system many times faster, the farm will start up in a matter of seconds (since the operating system itself will be almost empty after installation and not cluttered with various programs). Also, in the case of reinstalling the system, you will spend less time, which means you will start mining (mining cryptocurrency) faster.

The programs themselves will be installed and launched many times faster.

A hard drive is also not a bad option (You will get more memory for the same money as a 60 / 128 GB ssd.) but it will be:

Significantly slower than
Take up a lot of extra space in the truss frame

There is no clear rule here that it is better for you to decide.

Power supply

And finally, let’s move on to the last, but the most important point (after video cards) — the power supply.

It should be noted right away that for a farm with a large number of video cards, you will most likely need 2 power supplies to power the entire farm. Here you can learn how to run 2 power supplies.

So how do you choose a power supply?

Certificate
Block capacity
Number of wires

The certificate is an important factor when choosing a unit.

SEE
Power Supply Selection Guide

When choosing a certificate, please note that it must be at least «80 + Bronze». Also look out for a real block manufacturer (OEM).

Why is it so important to pay attention to this? Since the unit will power not only the system, but also the video cards themselves (expensive equipment), you should approach its choice with special care. When buying, pay attention to its functions and whether the block will go into protection in the event of a power surge (otherwise, it can burn the cards, it is better that the block will burn itself and go into protection than expensive cards).

Certificates are responsible for power outages (and much more). The higher the certificate, the lower the current drawdown.

Remember that the block is at the heart of your verm, through which electricity passes, powering the most expensive thing in the farm — video cards! Do not save on the block, do not make such mistakes:

A good block will die on its own, but it won’t take the video cards with it! A bad block will die on its own and drag the entire system with it!

Block capacity

Depending on the total total power consumed by video cards, you should choose a power supply (1 or 2, depending on the number of cards and the power they consume). Plus, do not forget that the system also consumes electricity ~ 120 watts.

Always keep at least 80 watts left in the power supply for stable operation. When overloaded, the block may simply not withstand and go into defense, and a bad one (cheap, without a certificate) and even worse — burn out. This is another reason why the block is not worth saving.

Number of wires

Always count how many PCI-e, Molex and SATA wires are in the block.

After counting the number of cards, find the unit with the ideal number of PCI-e wires for you.

For example, if the card consumes more than 250 watts, then for safety reasons it must be powered by two separate PCI-e wires. That is, if you have 4 video cards of this power, then you need 8 wires.

In the same situation, but with a card power consumption of less than 250 watts, 4 PCI-e wires are needed for 4 video cards.

SATA and Molex are the wires that will power the riser. Do not forget that 1 sata wire is given to power the hard drive.

It is best to feed the riser through Molex, but in almost all blocks there are very few of them (usually 2-3 wires). If molex wires are not enough, then feed through sata.

To do this, you need either SATA risers right away, or ordinary molex risers, since they always come with an adapter to SATA.

If in any case you cannot connect everything with 1 unit, then you should buy and feed the farm with 2 power supplies.

Assembling a farm for 5,6,7,8 cards — proceeds in the same way as described above. The only thing that is different is that you will need to find a motherboard that supports 8 PCI-e wires. Also, most likely, to power such a farm, you will need 2 power supplies, since there will not be enough wires for one unit.

Farm location

The choice of the location of the farm should be approached with special attention: your apartment or some kind of storage room. The second option is much simpler, so let’s take a closer look at the first one.

The choice of the location of the farm in the apartment should be approached carefully, since the apartment is often warm (and stuffy in summer) — this means that the video cards will be hot.

In this case, the cards should be blown with additional fans and the room should be ventilated frequently, and it is even better to keep the window open, since the cards, consuming electricity, push it out in the form of heat. The more cards, the more electricity consumption, and therefore more heat generation.

A closet or small enclosed space is not suitable for a farm, as the karts will again be hot.

It is ideal to place the cards in a well-ventilated room (preferably not in the bedroom), as there will be a strong hum from the farm (from the fans of the video cards and additional airflow). Ideally, the farm is best placed on a small frame on the floor, for better blowing.

In order to save space, you can assemble a large frame, but in this case it will be necessary to install additional cooling (for example, fans), since such a frame allows you to place many closely spaced cards, they in turn generate heat and warm each other.

Electricity

Since video cards consume a lot of electricity, you should immediately find out what wiring is in your room and how much electricity is allocated to it.

Copper wiring is excellent wiring that can withstand heavy loads with ease.
Aluminum wiring — most often distributed in the old fund. It is worse than copper and is harder to cope with a large load.

If your room has aluminum wiring, it is best to run a copper wire from the shield to the truss. This operation will allow you to withstand the load from the farm, but will not give a good indicator in the rest, since aluminum wiring will most likely also go to the shield.

Depending on the amount of electricity allocated to the room, for example 15 sq., do not use all 15 from one outlet, as it simply will not withstand. If you want to install several farms in one room, then it is best to run additional copper wire from the shield and make an additional outlet. Otherwise, you will constantly knock out traffic jams.

After you have chosen all the equipment, it remains to buy it. Next, let’s look at how to build a mining farm from scratch.

How much does a mining farm bring in?

In this video we told in detail how to find coins for mining, how much 1 video card brings, how to run the miner, set up Bat files and much more:

And in this article we told how to mine on 1 video card on a computer.

Farm assembly scheme

After the equipment is purchased, we proceed directly to the farm assembly itself.

First, take the motherboard, RAM and processor.

We insert the RAM and the processor into the corresponding slots of the motherboard.

Next, take the power supply, and connect it to the motherboard. To do this, we need 2 wires from the power supply:

Motherboard power
Processor power (on almost all modern blocks, the word — CPU is written at the connectors (edges of the wire)

We firmly insert the power cable into the motherboard. Check if there are any gaps. If there are any, insert the cable more tightly.

Next, take the processor cable from the power supply and insert it into the motherboard.

The motherboard is connected, now you need to power the hard drive or SSD. To do this, you need 2 wires: one SATA from the power supply, and the second SATA wire from the motherboard (comes with the motherboard).

The wire that comes with the motherboard looks like the picture below (may be a different color, most often black)

Hard drive cable from the power supply, looks like the picture below.

Now these two wires need to be connected to the hard drive. The wire from the power supply must be inserted into the unit itself and directly into the hard drive.

The wire that came with the motherboard is inserted into the hard drive at one end and the other end into the motherboard.

The hard drive connector on the motherboard is called SATA.

Hard disk connected, system powered. It remains to connect only the video card.

Insert the first video card into the large PCI-e x16 slot on the motherboard.

Now you need to power up the video card. To do this, we take a PCI-e cable from the power supply, insert it with one end into the unit, and with the other end into the power supply of the video card (into the connectors). On such a cable, «PCI-e» is most often written.

Pay attention to the power consumption of video cards.

If the cards consume more than 250 watts, then according to the safety regulations, they must be powered by two different PSI-e wires. And if the power consumption is less than 250 watts, but at the same time there are 2 power outputs (2 connectors) on the card, then 1 double wire is enough (technical name — PSI-e (6+2)+(6+2))

Connected card to power supply, looks something like the picture below.

Now you need to power the remaining cards, most likely they will all be installed on the riser.

In the remaining slots PSI-ex16 and x1 we insert adapters from risers, as in the picture below.

Now you need to insert power into the riser itself — wires from the block, Molex or SATA. In order not to confuse those who are poorly versed in this, the picture below shows the difference between SATA wires and Molex.

Inserting the power cable (SATA or Molex) firmly into the riser, insert the USB cable wires (which were previously inserted into the motherboard). Get it like the picture below.

Now it remains only to insert the video card, already powered by the power supply, into the riser. This procedure is no different from inserting the card into the PCI-e slot of the motherboard, since the slot in the riser is identical to the slot in the motherboard. It will turn out as in the picture below.

That’s it, the farm is assembled, now you need to turn it on and connect the monitor.

For the first time, be sure to connect the monitor to the main (first) video card located in the motherboard itself. To turn on the farm, switch the button on the power supply from 0 to 1.

Now the most interesting thing, because there are no buttons for turning on the computer (farm), as on a standard PC familiar to us. In order to turn on the farm, you need to find the following inscription on the motherboard (it will be next to the needle-shaped outputs) “+ PLED” “+ PWRBIN”.

Having found these inscriptions, take a metal object (for example, scissors), and clamp the two extreme needles. Hold a metal object for no more than 1-2 seconds, the system will instantly turn on, the video card cooler and power supply will start working.

The truss is assembled and ready to go. Now it remains to configure the video cards and install the miner itself — a program for the extraction of cryptocurrency.

Setting

After the farm is turned on and the operating system is loaded, the first thing to do is download the program for managing overclocking, coolers, power consumption and much more — “MSI Afterburner”.

Next you need:

download and install a miner — a program for mining cryptocurrency. You can download it on our website. Instructions for setting it up are presented in the section — pools.
Register on the exchange. To mine coins, you need to create an electronic wallet on the exchange. Also, after the extraction of a certain number of coins, they are sold through the exchange. See the rating of reliable exchanges.
Select a mining pool. A pool is a place where all the miners come together in order to mine coins, since alone, mining coins is now almost impossible due to the ever-increasing complexity.

Choosing a pool and setting up a miner for it is fully and step by step described on our website.

Also on our website you can choose a convenient exchange for you, with full instructions for its operation, from registration to trading.

After the above procedures, the mining process can be started. It will look like the picture below. Depending on the mined coin, the appearance may vary slightly from the presented picture, but the essence will remain almost the same.

Cheapest gpus for mining: Best mining GPU 2022: The best graphics card for Bitcoin and Ethereum

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti review: Excellent 1080p and 1440p value PC gaming

Incredible performance for a very good price (if you can find one).

For

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NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Design and features

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Performance

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Who it’s for

Who it isn’t for

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The Best Mining GPUs Benchmarked, Tested and Ranked

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Bitcoin or Ether?

What to buy?

Nvidia GTX 1660 Super

AMD Radeon RX 5700 and RX 5700 XT

Nvidia RTX 2060 Super

AMD Radeon RX 580

Nvidia P106-100

So, which one is best to buy?

New cards right now?

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Bad news for crypto, great news for gamers

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Best GPU for Ethereum Mining

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NVIDIA GTX 1050 Ti

NVIDIA GTX 1650 SUPER

NVIDIA GTX 1660

NVIDIA RTX 2070

NVIDIA RTX 2070 SUPER

NVIDIA RTX 3060

AMD RX 6700 XT

NVIDIA RTX 3060 Ti

AMD RX 6900 XT

Best video cards for mining 2022 — Crypto on vc.ru

Best Video Cards For Mining – Rating TOP 6

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Contents

What is Cryptocurrency Mining?

Best Graphics Cards For Mining

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070

AMD Radeon RX580

Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060

AMD Radeon RX Vega 56

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti

Best Graphics Cards For Mining: GPU Comparison Table

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Conclusion

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for mining, games, work, GTX, Radeon, nVidia, cheap — Top 2021-2022 according to user reviews

Mining

MSI GTX 1050 Ti 4GT OC

Main advantages

MSI GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER VENTUS OC 8GB

Main advantages

GIGABYTE AORUS ELITE 12G GV-N3060AORUS E-12GD (rev. 2.0)

Main advantages

ASUS TUF GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Gaming OS

Highlights

Sinotex Ninja GeForce GT 740 2GB (NH74NP025F)

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GeForce

Gigabyte GeForce GT 1030 Low Profile 2G

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Budget (Cheap)

Asus GeForce GT 1030 GT1030-2G-BRK