Which crypto mining rig will be the best in 2021?2020 turned out to be a very tough year for miners: in May we witnessed the Bitcoin halving, when the reward for mining BTC transactions was cut in half. Now miners are cautiously waiting for another burdensome upgrade – the transition to PoS and the
Ethereum 2.0 blockchain, which eliminates the need for mining. However, until the update comes out, everyone has a chance to get some cryptocurrency.
In 2021, it's been advised to turn to cloud mining or renting power to mine digital assets. But if you are still a fan of computer hardware and want to build your own farm, pay attention to our recommendations for creating a rig.
GPU mining. Which type is better to choose?It is difficult to give an unambiguous answer which video card is the best for cryptocurrency mining. The mining industry is so vast that it has several thousand algorithms.
In addition, progress is always on the go: new models of graphic cards are released every six months, and mining clients are constantly improving. It is impossible to name a specific type that will always remain the top one. Therefore, we will focus on several criteria which you should pay attention to when choosing a video card.
Mining rule number one says that the more memory you have, the better. The highest performance is shown by devices with 3 GB or more. The large memory size helps to quickly reach the self-sufficiency of the device and get profit.
This parameter determines how quickly your PC can process the entire amount of information provided by the mining process. That is why the video card must have memory of the GDDR5, GDDR5X or HBM2 generation. Although all modern adapters are equipped with memory of these standards, it is better to play it safe and carefully check the description of the card before buying.
The bus width is directly related to the previous parameter. Older buses slow down the mining process. Therefore, it is worth taking a closer look at new generation video cards with an indicator of 256 bits or more.
This point, without exaggeration, can be called the most important: the process of crypto mining means the operation of your hardware in a non-stop mode, so it is very important that the video card doesn’t overheat. The Radeon line is considered to be one of the best – they have an active cooling system, which will greatly help the equipment not to fail during round-the-clock operation.
Acceleration function
This is not the crucial parameter, but it’s pretty useful when you mine at the industrial scale. Effective acceleration of at least one video card can increase performance by 30-40%.
The reward in the mining pool is distributed according to the capacity.
Top graphics cards for 2021All novice miners know that income from this business depends on the capacity used. The logic is simple: the greatest returns come from the newest and most powerful graphics cards.
Among the brands, NVIDIA is considered to be the best solution, especially the new 3000th generation. However, it will take a long time to recoup the costs of purchasing such a device, since new models are very expensive.
We’ve collected the top 6 video cards of the fair price category, which have proven themselves well on the market.
- GeForce RTX 3080 is a scarce leader of 2021
Hashrate: ETH – 81 MH/s. Power consumption: 320W. Memory: 10GB GDDR6.
Most recently, an American enthusiast made a farm of almost 80 GeForce RTX 3080 video cards. It turned out that, given the Ethereum positive dynamics, such a crypto farm can bring up to $21 thousand per month. At the same time, a single device will help you earn up to $11.6 per day. But, of course, it also has its fly in the ointment – mining will lead to great energy consumption.
- NVIDIA RTX 2080 Ti – an expensive but powerful tool
Hashrate: ETH – 55.5 MH/s. Power consumption: 270W. Memory: 11GB GDDR6.
NVIDIA dominates both the gaming market and the mining industry. The powerful NVIDIA RTX 2080 Ti was released at the end of 2018 and is still one of the most powerful graphics cards around. With a fairly high price (about $1000) and power consumption of 270W, this model still carries the palm in the mining community.
- AMD RX 5700 XT is a strong competitor to NVIDIA
Hashrate: ETH – 56.5 MH/s. Power consumption: 220W. Memory: 8GB GDDR6.
In terms of performance, this video card can be compared to the most popular models of the American brand NVIDIA, but the cost of AMD is on average 20% lower. Such a device will be a real gift for miners who live in places with cheap electricity.
- NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti – an older model with impressive power
Hashrate: ETH – 46.5 MH/s. Power consumption: 250W. Memory: 11GB GDDR6.
Being a very popular flagship among miners this card was their unattainable dream due to the high cost. Today, users can find a second-hand NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti which still delivers excellent performance. And the most pleasant fact is the payback period of the video card: you can get a net gain after 112 days!
- AMD RX 580 – one of the best budget solutions in 2021
Hashrate: ETH – 32.2 MH/s. Power consumption: 180W. Memory: 4GB GDDR5.
AMD rolled out the RX 580 in 2017 as a response to NVIDIA's budget line of graphics cards. For gamers, it lagged behind in terms of performance, but for miners it became an excellent solution, especially during altcoin boom in 2017. This model is a good combination of price and quality. It has impressive accelerating potential and a payback time of just 72 days.
- AMD Radeon VII is the fastest GPU for Ethereum mining
Hashrate: ETH – 89.4 MH/s. Power consumption: 300W. Memory: 16GB HBM2.
In 2019, Radeon VII became the leader in Ethereum mining. Its RAM with high bandwidth provides excellent mining performance. The video card has the same cryptocurrency mining capabilities as the top card from NVIDIA. However, this model is several times cheaper, although it consumes a little more power.
Obviously, the emergence of new cards has little impact on the mining industry. The good players of the last year continue to hold the leading positions.
To choose the best option, the future miner can use the profitability calculator. There are two awesome tools for that –
WhatToMine and
NiceHash. Here you just need to fill in the model of the video card and the cost of electricity in your region, and the calculator will show the best ratio of the video card and its payback.
Processor mining. What's the difference?Mining due to the computing power of the central processor is available to almost every owner of an ordinary PC. Today there are several types of mining cryptocurrencies on the processor:
- solo mining – the process of mining on a home PC using exclusively its own computing power;
- mining pool – crypto mining on the server using the capacities of several miners;
- multipool – mining on the server, which allows you to mine several digital currencies at once and switch between them depending on their profitability.
With all this diversity, it should be understood that mining on a processor has almost lost its profitability. Currently, it makes sense to mine only new, not very popular cryptocurrencies, because the complexity of their network is quite low, as is the competition among miners.
Today, there are hundreds of newbie altcoins that can be mined on a home PC. In addition, note that the value of chosen cryptocurrency should grow. Good options include Monero, Dogecoin, Dash, and others.
To start mining on a processor, you need to:
1. Download a special program for mining (Claymore's Dual Miner, NiceHash miner, GMiner and others).
2. Create a
crypto wallet for storing coins.
3. Register in the mining pool.
4. Create a file with the BAT extension and register the number of threads in it.
5. Save the file and run it. Cryptocurrency mining has begun!
Which mining processor should you choose?There is one single principle you should follow when choosing a video card for mining: the more powerful it is, the better. Currently, there are two popular multithreaded processor companies on the market – AMD and Intel.
Here is the list of their top models for mining in 2021.
8 cores, clock rate – 3.60 Ghz, monthly income ~ $7.56.
This is a fairly expensive but very powerful model that handles multi-threaded tasks perfectly. This option can be used not only by miners, but also by players – a high-quality processor will withstand both gaming and cryptocurrency mining.
6 cores, clock rate – 3.60 Ghz, monthly income ~ $5.81.
An excellent model for those who are just trying their hand at mining. Although this processor is considered a mid-range device, it is recognized as the fastest 6-core consumer model.
- AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X
16 cores, clock rate – 3.40 Ghz, monthly income ~ $16.13.
Experts say this device is called a real "mining monster" due to the number of cores and performance. Of course, the price may seem high, but such a powerful machine will pay off in about a year.
In any case, you need to make sure that the tool is profitable before its purchase. The above mentioned
NiceHash calculator will be of great help.
Is it possible to mine on a laptop?In modern realities, you can mine cryptocurrency even on a laptop or smartphone. Of course, their performance is lower than that of mining farms running on video cards, but energy costs are also much lower. Therefore, for novice miners who are just learning the basics of mining cryptocurrencies, this option may be the most convenient.
Programs for mining on a laptop practically don’t differ from software on a PC. You should also select a pool and configure the mining utility. The only difference is that you will have to set the laptop temperature threshold to values that don’t reach a critical level. This will help prevent the laptop from overheating and getting damaged.
All in all, the process of mining on a laptop can be very successful, provided high-quality and efficient components. First of all, it depends on the installed video card and processor. However, we should warn that the cost of such equipment is quite high.
The most productive option would be mining through a laptop on an external video card. To do this, you need to connect the accelerator via a separate cable and install the appropriate drivers.
Although laptop mining is a luring variant, we don’t recommend buying it on purpose. Powerful gaming computers show good results, but the payback period for such a device can be up to several years.
Is it worth starting mining cryptocurrencies in 2021?Going through many options on what and how to mine cryptocurrency, you will primarily consider your budget. Of course, the price of processors and laptops is more affordable compared to powerful graphics cards. But we strongly advise you to be patient and save up the missing amount in order to purchase a high-performance graphics card that will bring you more profit and pay off faster.
Many experts agree that by the end of 2021, mining coins on home computers will completely sink into oblivion due to competition and growing complexity. The other half of the miners are frantically waiting for the Ethereum 2.0 release, which will determine the further fate of the cryptocurrency miners.
Before becoming a miner, you need to ask yourself the question: what purpose are you following? If you plan to make a huge profit in just a couple of weeks, you definitely should not start now. If you are considering mining in the long term, then you can give it a try.
As we know, mining has been buried several times. However, it is still alive and profitable for specialists in this field, although today the power in the market is largely shifting from the small miners to large investors who can finance the launch of industrial-scale farms.
Accordingly, before starting the mining at home, carefully weigh the pros and cons and decide for yourself how expedient it is to start mining cryptocurrency now.
