Mining Ethereum and Altcoins: Best GPUs for 2023

Modern video cards or GPUs are designed for two things games and working with graphics in Adobe Premiere Pro and similar programs.

In this article, we will sequentially figure out how to choose a video card for mining ethereum and altcoins. We will also tell you the best graphics card for mining etherum on the market today, and compile a comparative table of the most interesting cards.

Best Graphics Card For Mining Ethereum

Best Graphics Card For Mining Ethereum And Altcoins

Rating of graphics cards that are worthy of the attention of everyone involved in mining. Cards that have more than 16 GB of video memory should be taken only for growth. It is more rational to focus on power and cost. For example, a card with 300 Watt TDP will need to be “tamed”, while models up to 200 Watt will be easier to maintain and quieter.

best AMD GPU for Mining Ethereum And Altcoins

Anything below the RX 470 is taken at your own risk and discretion. For example, R9 cards are still in service, but more in play. The memory frequency in Ethereum mining is more important than the core frequency remember.

ModelVolume memory GBTire Memory bitFrequency Kernels MHzFrequency Memory MHzPower W
RX 6900 XT1625622502000300
RX 6800 XT1625620152000300
Radeon VII16409617504096300
Radeon Vega 648204815401890290
Radeon Vega 568204814701600210
RX 5700 XT825616801750225
RX 5600 XT619211301500150
RX 5500 XT4/812811301750130
RX 590825615452000225
Radeon Rx 5804/825613402000150
Radeon Rx 5704/825612441750120
Radeon Rx 4804/825612662000140
Radeon Rx 470425612001750128

Red cards are veterans of mining: they are inexpensive, they are resold, but these video cards are worn out. When buying such on the secondary market, ask the seller for a photo with a card in hand in order to avoid substituting a product for a pumpkin.

The optimal scenario would be to request a photo of the video card under the pretext of inspecting the cooling system because it will be clear whether they dug on it or not.

Here our top article on Best Graphic Card For Mining.

Hashrate of AMD GPU for mining

The most important parameter is the speed at which the card brings money (hash rate). Below are the performance cards from fastest to slowest. As you can see, the 4096-bit memory bus does not help Vega cards in mining – the performance is lower than that of the RX 6000 series, and the consumption is high. The RX 5000-series cards still maintain relatively good hash rates.

ModelEthash MH / sCNR Kh / sCNGPU Kh / sCN Fast V2 Kh / sCN Heavy kH / sKaw Pow MH / s
Radeon VII802.825.22.823
Radeon RX 6900 XT6332
Radeon RX 6800 XT6330
Radeon Vega 64451.81.63.71.518
Radeon Vega 56401.71.33.61.4
Radeon RX 5700 XT5510.32.11.35
Radeon RX 5600 XT42.610.252
Radeon RX 5500 XT260.70.151.5
Radeon RX 590321.10.32
Radeon RX 580320.81.81.8112
Radeon RX 570300.750.751.750.910
Radeon RX 480310.80.81.8111.5
Radeon RX 470300.750.651.40.810

best NVidia Video cards for Mining Ethereum And Altcoins

You see the 30th graphic card take it, their prices will only grow. The popular choice is 1060 GPUs. Video Cards of the 2000 line in mid-range mining seem to be expensive, but they seem to pay off quite well.

best NVidia Video cards for Mining Ethereum And Altcoins

Green cards are designed to work, they focus more on the segment of parallel computing, which is necessary for cool explosions on movie screens, so they have, conditionally, a greater resource than red ones. All other things being equal, green cards can be killed as well as similar red models.

ModelVolume memory GBTire Memory bitFrequency Kernels MHzFrequency Memory MHzPower W
GeForce RTX 30801032011881440320
GeForce RTX 3070825615001750220
GeForce RTX 2080 Ti1135215451750270
GeForce GTX 1080 Ti1135215002750220
GeForce RTX 2070Super82561600
GeForce RTX 20701125614001750175
GeForce GTX 1070825615002000150
GeForce RTX 2060Super825614701750175
GeForce RTX 2060819213501750120
GeForce GTX 1660 Ti619215002000120
GeForce GTX 1660 Super619214001860120
NVidia P104-100 (Mining)425616001750180
NVidia P102-100 (Mining)525616831700215
GeForce GTX 10603/61921500200080

Nvidia graphics card Hashrate performance

As expected, the RTX 3080 is ranked # 1 with its monstrous 103 MH / s on Air, but the GTX 1060 is not losing ground in terms of price-to-earnings. The popular choice is still cards of the 1000th line and their older comrades from the 2000th.

The 2000 cards are overpriced more than they should be. Due to the release of a new 3000 line and the emergence of new APIs like the same Vulkan, which competently load the GPU, 2000 video cards should cost less than they ask for.

ModelCT31 (GRIN) H / SCuckaroo 29s H / sMTP Mh / sZelHash H / sCNGPU Kh / sBeam H / sEthash Mh / sKaw Pow MH / s
GeForce RTX 30802.4105.675.54610348
GeForce RTX 30702684263
GeForce RTX 2080 Ti2104.3653.16042
GeForce RTX 2070Super1.158.63.758424223
GeForce RTX 20701.157.72.8461.854739
GeForce GTX 1080 Ti1.457.71.9502.353.552
GeForce GTX 1070152361.33832
GeForce RTX 2060Super0.682.4432413620
GeForce RTX 20600.662.2341.63728
NVidia P104-100 (Mining)0.73.4129.6423919.8
NVidia P102-100 (Mining)0.58444922
GeForce GTX 1660 Ti0.225.1222.81.322.52614.8
GeForce GTX 1660 Super0.224.42241.2252611.5
GeForce GTX 10600.53.51.1160.752124

You want to know about RTX 3060 Vs 3060 Ti Mining.

How to choose the optimal Graphic card for mining?

Miners choose the optimal cards for their farms in terms of the ratio of energy consumption and the amount of dollars they earn per day. Before the release of the 3000th line, the optimal amount was considered to be from 2 to 4 dollars per day from one card. Further expansion of the farm with video cards made it possible to receive $ 900 per day.

In order for video cards to work for a long time, they are selected according to the cooling system and the quality of the GPU power circuits. The more phases and copper pipes in the cooling system, the better. In order for the cards to serve for a long time and not to overheat, the voltage is artificially lowered to them, without loss of profitability.

For home mining with a simple farm on the balcony or in the cellar, among the miners, the Ethash algorithm is considered optimal, which is used in the Ethereum cryptocurrency

How to choose the optimal Graphic card for mining?

Here are the models of video cards with optimal performance according to the Ethash algorithm. It is noteworthy that the RX580 is still relevant, even having worked in crypto-mines at the peak of mining in 2017.

why gpus are still used for mining?

A Graphics card or video card is easier to care for than an ASIC. Plus, the spirit of homemade work plays: the farm is assembled by hand, each bolt is different. In general, mining on video cards continues because of their mobility: they are able to work with different algorithms, and not with one, and after mining, they will be sold, if you do not kill the hardware, of course.

Cryptocurrencies appear faster than iron is made for them. In the world of cryptocurrencies, projects appear and take off sharply, but hardware manufacturers do not have time to make ASICs, and not all algorithms support them. Video cards, in turn, are able to extract literally everything, for which they are loved.

Tradition and order. When mining peaked in 2017, most consumer video cards were bought for Ethereum mining. For miners who do not miss the maintenance of video cards, these work much longer. When later the cards began to surface in the secondary market, the idea of ​​mining on them appeared.

The first farm on video cards was assembled on June 16, 2010. True, it was intended for Bitcoin mining. Since then, there have been more cryptocurrencies, and the mining process has become more complicated. In 2014, mining Bitcoin on video cards was stopped due to the increased complexity. For comparison, in 2021, an overclocked RTX 3090 video card takes 57 thousand years to mine one BTC. Therefore, people mine Ethereum.

The graphics cards have good cooling. Manufacturers understand that their maps will not only render Roach, but also edit and render video. To make the cards work well and not break, they are equipped with steam chambers, evaporators and copper pipes. Models with good cooling are able to withstand 70-90 * C, but when mining, they try to keep the temperature around 50-60 * C so that the electronics do not degrade.

The video card can be sold. After the end of mining, when there are doubts about the further profitability of the farm, video cards are sold on the secondary market. There are also other ways – renting video cards to farmers or converting hardware into a render farm. In this matter, video cards always outperform ASICs in terms of hardware for assembling the first mining farm.

Check out Does Overclocking GPU Reduce Lifespan Of GPU?

Buyers Guide for choosing gPU for mining

Video cards for assembling mining farms are selected by hashrate. This is the speed at which a graphics card is capable of solving mathematical equations. Conventionally, cryptocurrency is not mined, but calculated on video cards, like scenes in blockbusters.

What affects the hash rate of a video card

  1. The amount of VRAM (video memory). Calculations require space to store variables and equations, so the size of the memory affects the speed at which the video card makes money. The optimal size in 2023 is considered to be from 6 gigabytes, but there are also mining methods on cards with 4 GB memory. Limiting the performance of a card by memory is a topic for a separate discipline in the special Olympiad.
  2. The width of the memory bus. What connects the processor of the video card and its memory. A bus has a “width” – the length of the bits it can transmit in one clock cycle. For example, a card with a 256-bit bus will perform better than a 128-bit card. It’s hard to make a mistake – the more, the better. 512 and 1028 bits will work much faster if the miner client is optimized for them, but the cost of such cards is higher. People’s Choice 2023- 256-bit memory bus.
  3. Cooling system . Copper tubes or aluminum radiators. Ideally – copper radiators, but this will require the map to be modified with a file from familiar radio technicians. The number of fans is not critical. Two – will do, three – generally good, but there will not be much difference from their presence with the correct downvolting of the card. Video cards with a turbine – one powerful fan in the case – make noise like a Hayabusa crankshaft, keep this in mind when assembling.
  4. Power consumption . An excellent reference point for this item is the technological process by which the transistors for the chip were created. For example, a card with a 14 nm process technology will be colder than a card with a 22 nm chip, all other inputs being equal. In mining, it is customary to use what is, so the decisive factor will not be the technical process, but the availability of hardware.
  5. Video chip frequency. A categorically conditional measure. By 2022, there are no cards with a processor frequency below 1 GHz in mining. The higher the frequency, the higher the temperature, so when a card with a high frequency is bought, it can be artificially underestimated.
  6. Memory chips. Triune mantra: Hynix, Samsung, Mikron. If you have a memory chip from one of these manufacturers, you can overclock the memory frequency. You can find out the manufacturer using the GPU-z program (the manufacturer is indicated in the Memory Type field).
  7. Do not use PRO , VEGA or Titan . They stand like a BMW, but they dig unsatisfactorily and eat a lot. Older models of these lines at a low price can serve as a heater in winter, but I still do not recommend it.

See also Why Are Graphics Cards So Expensive?

how to find a profitable cryptocurrency to mine with gpu?

Where people sell them themselves and not through a store or reseller. Cards are often resold between miners on specialized forums. For example, on Miningclub.info there is a special section “Flea market”, where miners can resell cards – leftovers after upgrading the farm, for example, when switching to RTX 3080 or 3090. More often they sell to reduce the number of movements required to service the hardware.

The cost of the card affects the payback period. It is calculated as the price of the card divided by its daily profit. After the payback occurs, the card makes money out of thin air. It’s a paradox, but a productive card with a high price will pay off longer than its younger colleagues. When the card comes out on a net profit, they say that it “paid off”. Traditionally, cards pay off in a period from 3 months to 1 year. The biggest paybacks before the 3080 were the RX 580 and 470.

Where to buy video cards for mining. The question is relevant from year to year. There are three layers where video cards are bought.

  1. Layer one, public : CSN, Comfi and any other store with outlets on the map.
    Advantages : warranty card, new card, box, packaging, documentation, seals.
    Disadvantages : horse markup.
  2. Second layer, public: any online store that is in the e-Katalog or Hotline catalog.
    Advantages : the mark-up is lower than that of stores with retail outlets. Usually, new ones are sent.
    Disadvantages : if the store is questionable, they can send a pumpkin in a box or sell a soldered card. Usually this is immediately written about in reviews.
  3. Third layer, semi-public. Websites of private ads: OLH, Yula, Avito, Prom and other aggregators of offers.
    Advantages : for the sake of competition with online stores, they give discounts, try not to make a mark-up, monitor their reputation.
    Disadvantages : as in point 2 – they can send a pumpkin, you should take it only from trusted sellers. For example, with a registration period older than a year and those who do not offer to change the site’s messenger to Viber, Vatsap or Telegram.

Countermeasures: take through built-in delivery services, for example, OLH Delivery. Then the chance of a complete scammer is lower, at least it will be possible to prove that the card was defective when received by mail and return the money. When working without an intermediary guarantor, such cases will not be solved in your favor.

There are other places where miners get their graphics cards. Not all cards are bought in the CIS.

  1. NewEgg , eBay , Amazon are the first rank trading platforms for the sale of equipment. They have a support service, guarantors, support delivery all over the planet.
  2. Aliexpress is the second rank, it is doubtful. Better to look at eBay, but there are decent options. If the seller has a reputation without stains, and he has been on the site for a long time, then there is a reason to take it. You can check the seller through AliRadar: a reputation below 80% suggests that it is worth considering.
  3. Wish bypass. There have been cases of selling GT 450 video cards under the guise of 1060 with a complete flashing and replacement of the board. Dangerous place.

Conclusion

They are taken once and for all, at least until the garage for the farm is broken into. Therefore, video surveillance is used on large farms. They say GPU mining is dying out, but profitability calculators disagree. Here is a screenshot from April 9, 2021 from 2cryptocalc for one 1080 Ti video card.

how to find a profitable cryptocurrency to mine with gpu

Surprise but in the first place a certain MWC31 (or MimbleWimbleCoin). The mining ecosystem is able to take care of itself, so others come to replace one dying currency. In addition to Ether, there are at least 6 more coins with decent profitability.

All high hash rates and low temperatures, miners.

Hi, fellow tech enthusiasts! I’m Syed Kashif Shah, and I’m proud to be your go-to expert for all things like problems, suggestions, recommendations related to graphics cards. As a seasoned Technology Consultant and Hardware Enthusiast, I’ve spent years in the graphics card troubleshooting and repair field.