Topic: Building High-End Gaming System - does it make sense to mine on it while idle? - page 2. (Read 2708 times)

I realize that, if I get a GTX I will not be mining at all. 

GTX is not good for mining even at top level.

I suppose the difference is most of my needs can be met on a 5870, so I'm absolutely not out buying anything, but if I were to built a new PC, the miner in me would likely choose a miner friendly card, but I always buy very outdated cards when gaming. These seem to run recent games really well. But if I were doing it solely for gaming and it somehow compromised that, I suppose I wouldn't.

The heat and wear that you will force onto your GPU just for a few cents is NOT worth it. Plus, you will most likely see an increase in your electric bill that outweighs what few bitcents you will make.

Example: I recently started undervolting my GPUs to maintain the most profitable setting possible. Now, I shut them off, as I would have to undervolt and underclock to all hell just to not mine at a loss. This applies to BTC, but you might have a little better luck with LTC. However, your temps are going to be worse with LTC, and I wouldn't expect it to remain profitable forever.

Choice 1: Buy the GTX and game away
Choice 2: Buy the Radeons and mine LTC while at work. You might make a few (literally, a few) $ on the side, but is that extra heat, power, and wear/tear worth it?

This is the reason people are saying that you shouldn't buy GPUs to mine on anymore.

Well, I want it to be at least a bit profitable since I would be putting in my 2nd choice graphics cards.  The Nvidia GTX 790s are amazing for gaming but are terrible for mining.  I am willing to use the Radeon 7990s, which are slightly inferior to GTXs for my gaming purposes, but only if it will have some economic benefit. 

I can't say that it would be immensely profitable, but I can't stand to run a computer without mining. I'm wasting electricity, doing tasks that don't impede mining, it drives me nuts. I know I could be making more than it cost to run the machine, so I always mine. Even if I could be just breaking even, that sounds a lot better than net negative.. In other words, I don't much listen to folks who say it isn't worth it to mine with GPU - I find that it is. Not BTC, as perhaps traditionally, but investigate alt coins and you'll find a world of options for your old hardware. Though from time to time I still do switch to PPS BTC as a "old standard", so to speak.

GPU mining is dead dead dead. Your dream of using BTC to pay the power bill and saving the rest to "spend at amazon one day" is a dream in more ways than one 

I am building a high end gaming system.  Gaming is its primary purpose, though sadly I work full-time so it will be idle much of the time.  I am buying this system regardless of whether I mine a Bitcoin or alt-coin.  However, I need to decide on the type of graphics cards to buy.  If purely for the point of gaming, I would buy dual GTX 790s since they have higher benchmarks for the games I will be playing.  However, dual Radeon 7990s with moderate overclocking will more or less match their performance in most situations for about the same cost. 

Will it be profitable to mine bitcoins or another alt-coin with the system while it is idle if I get the Radeon's?  Or will the power costs likely cost more than the coins produced, therefore I would just be better off getting the GTXs since I would then not bother mining and take the small gaming performance bonus instead. I do not expect this system to ever pay for itself.  I just trying to figure out if I should put in the 7990s versus the GTX 790s if it will be even a little profitable.  I keep hearing GPU mining is dead, does that mean power costs in such a setup will outstrip mining profits?  My plan would be to sell the BTC needed to pay the increased power bills and then hold the rest of the BTC until they are easier to spend (I dream of amazon accepting them someday).