Topic: Best and most affordable GPUs for mining? (Read 427 times)

Even though Ethereum will switch to PoS, Ethereum Classic will retain its PoW consensus algorithm for the foreseeable future. Most miners would simply migrate to the ETC chain once ETH goes full-fledged PoS. I'm deciding whenever to take NVIDIA GPUs or AMD ones. But I'm more convinced of the AMD GPUs as their prices are much more affordable than NVIDIA GPUs. The most important part would be the GPU itself, as the rest has no effect (either directly or indirectly) whatsoever in the mining process. 8GB GPU cards seem to be the minimum standard for getting started with ETH mining. But I plan to go for higher-end graphics cards at a later time.

If you buy an ASRock or Biostar motherboard, along with a 1000w ATX power supply, no HDD (only an 8GB USB drive with a live version of Linux), an AMD Semphron CPU, 4 to 6GB of RAM, and an 8GB graphics card, you can easily build a mining rig without breaking the bank. Then you could use the profit earned to upgrade your rig as time goes by. It's a task that requires a lot of effort (and patience) but it seems to be largely rewarding in the long run (as ETH is the most profitable GPU coin to mine today). After ETH goes PoS, I'll be sure to switch my miners to the ETC chain.

Nonetheless, thanks for the advice. This gives me better options to choose from, when building my own mining rig. I've been thinking of adding liquid cooling to the rig, but it'll go way past my budget. A couple of fans here & there should do the trick until I gather enough money with ETH mining to perform further upgrades on my rig.

I'll be locking this thread as my problem has been solved. Any other tips, suggestions, or recommendations, feel free to contact me via PM.

AMD GPU (a decent one), the lowest spec AMD CPU possible, 4GB RAM

Forget this, if you want to mine ETH, 8gb on AMD cards are necessary

There are several opinions what to choose. RX570-580 are the best choice for mining ETH, ETC. As was said - 8GB memory only. But if ETH will convert to PoS - these GPUs becomes nothing.
NVIDIA gives more various choice and as for me - more interesting. The best ROI - P104, but it has warranty only 3 months. Next choice is 1660. It has 6GB memory and uses just about 70-80Watt, so it would be enough for a long time.
And there are used GPUs. This choice, as for me, is possible, only if you can repair it by yourself. In such a way - 470-580, 1066.

Well, what you think about rx 5600xt or rx 5700xt 2nd hand? Maybe rx 480/570/580 are good options too. This GPU's has a great cost x benefit ratio

Thanks for the recommendation, mate. I'm often inclined to AMD graphics cards as they go well with existent AMD CPUs. What matters most is the GPU above all else. Which means, that I could use a weak CPU, low RAM, and a small HDD for my GPU mining rig. This way, I would save a lot of money being able to reach a ROI in the shortest time possible. Back in 2017 where crypto became extremely hyped, prices per GPU skyrocketed like never before. Even AMD GPUs were ridiculously expensive. As for the power supply, I wonder what the minimum wattage requirement will be? Just to be safe, I'll go for a 1000w ATX power supply to power my rig.

I've been doing a search on eBay recently, and found out that the ASRock and Biostar motherboards are very inexpensive (compared to ASUS, MSi, and Gigabyte motherboards). They would go great with my mining rig, as they don't break the bank. Now the real deal would be power consumption, as out here where I live, the cost per kwh is $0.10. I could leave this running for a while, but not for long in order to save on energy. A GPU mining rig would go great with solar panels in order to reduce costs as much as possible (and contribute to the environment too).

Nonetheless, I'm going to try doing this with no HDD (only a USB drive with a live Linux installation), an AMD GPU (a decent one), the lowest spec AMD CPU possible, 4GB RAM, and a 1000w power supply. This setup seems to be the cheapest one yet that will not exceed $400 in total costs. Mining Ethereum with it, would be the most profitable decision to make.

I think you should go for Nvidia cards I have mined with both Amd and Nvidia and I think Nvidia are just easier to use.
some of the benefits for Nvidia are:

You can mine more different coins with them and I think the programs are better to.
Higher Hashrate per Card
Better Electricity efficiënt
Cooler then Amd that means you can use them longer then Amd cards as well.
Higher resale price.

I know this year Nvidia is releasing new Cards again the 3000 Series maybe you should wait for that because they are going to have a huge performance boost compared to the 2000 series because of a new gpu!

I suggested 1080 ti for example because there's more power in only 1 card, it's more easy to deal and learn about mining with one card, and them add more to the rig
1080 ti uses more power, but more hashrate too, so I stick with most powerfull cards at first

1080 ti and RTX 2080 are power hungry this is fine if you have very cheap or free Electricity rate.
Amd cards will be bit better or go for rtx 1660 ti and rtx 2060 these cards are better if you are looking for a brandnew cards but if he is looking for 2nd hand and cheaper cards with Good hashrate well only AMD cards like rx580 and vega are best option. However if they can get cheaper gtx 1080ti they are way more better if the electricity rate is cheap. 

If you have a small budget (like I do) you might find this interesting - it's a 3 month's young open source project that can run on Raspberry Pi's.
It's very energy efficient, has fast transaction speed and low fees.

Check www.bitcointoken.pw

If you want to check it out here's the IMG file to run on the Pi's with some simple setup instructions: https://github.com/bitcointokenbtct/BTCT-Rasp-Pi-Image

Just got listed on Coinmarketcap and has over 2000 active nodes already.
I ordered my first Raspberry Pi and hope to start it in about a week to join the project.

With your budget you could start up a nice set of Pi's and generate quite a daily income.

Greetings,
Xie

POS coins also a possibility. I have started to run some on Raspberry PI and a smal NUC pc.
or
FPGA mining

My budget was even lower than yours and I already have alot fun.

I think a couple of GTX 1060s would be a good choice because they are cheap and efficient. I think for Cryptonight coins 1060 would be a great choice, not just good.

How much is your electricity rate?
It's important to know if this is going to worth

But my suggestion is:

If you already have a PC and just need a GPU to start mining, spend all you can (750 USD) and buy the most strong GPU like a RTX 2080 or even a used 1080 TI
Nvidia and the strong ones are very good at more algos than AMD, so it´s a better start

If you want to buy a rig from scratch, I suggest you to buy the RXs 570 or 580, used for 100 USD or less, and put 3 or 4 GPUs on you rig

But I prefer the first option

https://whattomine.com/coins is your friend, you can compare all the GPUs and hashrates / earnings

I'm a fun of nVidia for mining(like 1060 and 1070), both for their low energy consumption and relatively low prices.

The best deals you can find are usually the ones where you buy a used GPU, but with a valid warranty of at least 6-12 months.

Buying cards like this will allow you to get a good working GPUs with enough time to mine before they die(or you get a new one via warranty).

The profitability jumps on daily basis, but also depends largely on your budget, space and electricity price.

This short intro isn't sufficient, but can put you into right direction

if we consider ethash based coins then rx 5xx series is the best for it
in second hand you can get it easily for around 100usd

cryptonight based coins like xmr and others have migrated to randomx so it is useless to talk about because it is cpu area now

other coins like raven grin and others are an expertise of nvidia gpus
getting high end last gen gpus like 1080 or 1080ti second hand will provide you good value and double the hashrate for half the space
also get zotac as they have 5y warranty which is pretty sweet

I think 1060's are well efficient and low in price, if you are going to mine Cryptonight coins then these the most affordable Cards to start with.

If you want the most affordable just get the RX 470/480/570/580 8GB GPUs second hand somewhere. They should not cost anymore than $100 and the 4GB models are even cheaper. Better to stay with 8GB since the DAG will exceed 4GB at the end of the year. So no idea how long you want to mine but keep this in mind.

Nvidia is generally more expensive and certain algos are more efficient. However keep in mind that you will need to pay more for those since there is more demand for gamers with Nvidia GPUs. The AMDs generally aren't gamers favorites and there are many RX series GPUs on the second hand market now from miners who are giving up and liquidating their farms. Check the classifieds of Bitcointalk forum and you should find some deals. If not then try eBay, Amazon, Craiglist, Facebook marketplace, Kijiji, etc.

Motherboards, frames, CPU, doesn't really matter. They will all work well. Just get a decent PSU and don't cheap out.

I've been considering getting deeply into the GPU mining business for making my own source of income out of crypto. My budget is medium to low (average $750) and I'm looking for a way to start earning with GPU mining without breaking the bank. I know that AMD cards are extremely popular for GPU mining, but of them are expensive. Nvidia GPUs are a good option, but most crypto enthusiasts do not recommend them for serious mining.

Which is why, I'm on the hunt for a decent mid-range GPU that would help me get started with crypto mining. As earnings accumulate, I'll be able to upgrade my rig accordingly. So far, I've toppled with a couple of frames for a GPU mining setup located on eBay. (item numbers: 112975867609 & 264556995267). These frames are affordable, but I wonder if they're worth it?

Any recommendations or suggestions will be highly appreciated. Thanks in advance.