AMD or Nvidia: which mines better? The best ASIC miners for Bitcoin. Technical characteristics of AMD video cards

The popularity of mining is no longer news. At one point, about two months ago, the new boom seemed to be winding down. But that was not the case, the Bitcoin rate went up, and other cryptocurrencies also rose behind it. And AMD just introduced its new flagship Vega video cards, which attracted the interest of cryptocurrency miners.

In the old days, when there were no ASICs yet, and video cards normally mined Bitcoins, AMD’s solutions were head and shoulders above their competitors from Nvidia. But over time, BTC mining on video cards fell into oblivion, and new cryptocurrencies entered the market. Initially, they also mined better on Radeon video cards, thanks to more cores in their GPU.

And then changes came again: in the spring and summer of this year, the demand for GPU Radeon 400 and 500 series turned out to be so great that there was a shortage, and prices jumped up to 2 times, if not more. Miners paid attention to Nvidia cards: It turned out that at current prices they can be more profitable.

To find out which is better for mining, Nvidia or AMD, you first need to evaluate the performance of popular video cards in cryptocurrency mining. We already have it, but the market situation has changed a little. The table provides information about the performance of AMD and Nvidia cards suitable for mining.

When calculating the profitability of mining a video card, you need to take into account its performance, price and energy consumption. Sometimes a slower solution can generate more net benefit through energy efficiency. This most often happens when electricity is expensive and the GPU is power hungry.

Level maps GeForce GTX 1050 and Radeon RX 560 are not very suitable for creating a farm. They are worth buying if you have cheap electricity and access to motherboard With big amount PCI-E slots. For example, it allows you to connect up to 19 video cards, but it is not for sale yet.

AMD video card prices

Video card prices AMD Radeon vary greatly depending on the store. For example, the most affordable RX 570 video card on Yandex.Market turned out to be a model from Gigabyte, equipped with 4 GB of video memory.

AMD Radeon RX 580 does not sell much more expensive. So, you can find a copy of a video card with this GPU from Gigabyte on sale. Of course, with a high degree of probability, it will not be possible to find these video cards in the required quantity at this price. Therefore, you should focus on the price around 22 thousand.

The latest graphics card, AMD Radeon RX Vega 64, cannot boast of affordability. Prices for it start at twice as much as for the RX 580. At the same time, in order to get a hashrate of about 40 MH/s when mining Ethereum, the cards will have to be configured (change the core and memory frequencies).

Nvidia video card prices

Since the GTX 1050 with 2 GB of memory is not suitable for Ethereum at all (for ETH mining you need at least 3 GB of video RAM), we are not considering it. Next budget model, GTX 1050 Ti with 4GB VRAM. Due to its lackluster mining performance, there is no hype around it.

A more serious model, GTX 1060 with 3 GB of memory. A more advanced version, equipped with twice as much RAM, will cost more, but offers a reserve for the future.

The GeForce GTX 1070 offers higher performance. Let’s look into whether it’s worth spending your money on a set of such cards for a mining farm.

In the flagship category, Nvidia has two graphics cards, the GTX 1080 and GTX 1080 Ti. The first is designed for a mass audience of gamers; its price tag is relatively affordable. But the GTX 1080 Ti will cost significantly more.

Efficiency of AMD and Nvidia video cards in mining

To understand which is better, you need to analyze the price-performance ratio of current GPUs. For calculations, we will start from performance values in Ethereum mining, since this currency is one of the most popular for GPU mining. The situation with other coins is not much different; there are no noticeable advantages in favor of certain video cards.

Let's start with Nvidia: the youngest video card, GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, produces a hashrate of 12.6 MH/s. If we divide 9348 rubles by this number, we get a value of about 742 rubles. This is exactly how much 1 MH/s of performance will cost. For the GTX 1060, dividing the price by performance gives a total of almost 779 rubles per megahash of computing power.

The more expensive GTX 1070 shows a less attractive megahash price, 969 rubles. But when assembling a farm on such cards, there is a chance to save on the rest of the hardware if it is not possible to buy a board with a dozen PCI-E ports. The GTX 1080 is suddenly not happy at all, it produces only 27.5 MH/s, since its memory is faster, but has long delays. As a result, we end up with 1,390 rubles per megahash, which is not encouraging.

The flagship GeForce GTX 1080 Ti costs a lot, but is also not as attractive as the younger models. After all, the specific cost of a megahash on it fell just short of 1.5 thousand: 1,474 rubles.

For AMD the situation is slightly different. For example, Radeon RX 570 at the price indicated above shows a megahash price of 749 rubles. Radeon RX 580 shows off even more favorable price for MX/s, from 737 rubles. And the flagship Vega 64, with correct setting, will cost 1189 rubles per megahash.

For convenience, the data is summarized in a table.

It seems that the price-performance ratio is known, we can summarize. However, do not forget that cards consume a lot of electricity. If kilowatts are expensive, then the consumption may cancel out the benefit of the low unit cost per MH/s.

It is worth considering that exact values video card consumption depends on the degree of success of the chip, the frequency of the GPU and memory, presence/absence. By “playing” with frequencies, you can achieve an increase in hashrate while reducing performance. Namely, which increased the performance of the Radeon Vega 64 to 43.5 MH/s, while simultaneously reducing power consumption. Therefore, we present the TDP values declared by the manufacturer.

To form a complete picture, you need to determine the energy consumption for megahash performance. To do this, you need to take the declared consumption and divide it by the hashrate. This will give an energy efficiency indicator in W/MH/s.

As the table shows, the most energy-efficient video cards for mining are GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, 1070 and 1080. But energy efficiency in itself does not mean anything. To understand how efficiency affects profits, it is worth giving an example of calculations that take into account electricity tariffs. The tariff in Moscow was taken as a sample, amounting to about 9 US cents per kWh.

By multiplying the power in kilowatts spent on developing a productivity of 1 MH/s (the last column of the table at the top) by the tariff, and also multiplying by 24 (hours in a day), we get the amount that needs to be subtracted from the daily profit from mining. On September 12, 2017, it was $0.06802.

Having carried out calculations, we will find out how much net profit this or that card will bring, taking into account electricity costs. This will make it possible to compare profitability directly and identify the best GPUs for mining.

Looking at the last column, you can see how much profit each of the video cards in question will bring from megahash. Based on this data, you can evaluate the profitability of using each card.

What's the end result?

If you look at the last column in the table above, you will notice one interesting pattern: all cards show approximately the same profitability. It varies from 5.2 to 5.6 cents per megahash. That is, the difference in the effectiveness of cards is less than 0.5 US cents, or less than 10%. That is, with long-term operation there will be no significant difference in the profitability of mining on AMD cards and Nvidia no, they are equally good.

To assess the payback of video cards, you need to take into account the cost of megahash. The lower it is, the faster the video card will pay for itself and begin to bring profit to the owner. And the most affordable hashrate is shown by the Radeon RX 570 and 580, GeForce GTX 1050 Ti and GTX 1060 models. Their price for 1 MH/s is less than 800 rubles.

This conclusion confirms what has already been said: there is no fundamental difference in the profitability of mining on AMD and NVidia cards. Both companies have more and less successful models, but overall there is established parity. Which GPU to build a farm on depends only on your capabilities.

Today is the promised article about the rules for choosing basic equipment - video cards and ASIC miners for special tasks.

After reading, you will learn to identify device models that are optimally suited to work on a particular blockchain algorithm; Find out which video cards for mining are recognized as the best in 2017, and also get acquainted with the three most profitable ASICs for mining bitcoins.

Parameters by which video cards are selected for mining

Mining speed depending on the algorithm

Each cryptocurrency platform uses its own computing algorithm and its own performance indicators ( Hash rate), expressed in hashes per second (H/s). And more often in larger units - kilo-, mega-, giga-, tera- and petahashes. For example, the computing power of equipment for Bitcoin mining is measured in Th (terahash)/s, and one of the popular alternative currencies Ethereum (Ether) is measured in Mh (megahash)/s.

The higher the Hash rate for a particular algorithm, the goes faster mining process and the more you earn. This is the first thing you should look at when choosing a video card.

The average hashrates of all vids suitable for mining (more precisely, GPUs with video memory) have already been calculated. They are stored in their databases by various online calculators for calculating the profitability of mining on specific cards, such as or – Mine.

Using such services is quite simple. Let's see how this is done using NiceHash as an example.

Select a video card from the list.
We indicate the cost of electricity (rubles per kilowatt-hour) and monetary units.
We look at the indicator in the cell next to the required protocol. This is the Hash rate we are interested in.
Press the button " Calculate" After this, the characteristics of mining profitability on the selected device will be displayed at the bottom of the window.

Thus, the Hash rate of AMD RX 480 8GB for the Dagger Hashimoto algorithm (Ethereum mining) is 29 Mh/s. As you can see in the diagram below, the profitability of calculations on this card is 100% (which means that the video card is perfectly suited for this task). And its payback at current exchange rates and a price of $250 will be 63 days.

Performance/cost ratio

The higher the Hash rate, the more you can earn on the device, but this does not mean that the most powerful cards are the most profitable to buy. When calculating profitability, you also need to consider how productivity compares to energy costs.

By substituting different card models or their hash rates and consumption, you can choose the most profitable option for the actual cost of one (mega) hash.

Thermal Power (TDP) and Cooling System Efficiency

A standard farm of 4-6 cards produces a large amount of heat, the excess of which is harmful both to the devices themselves and to people if the equipment is located in a habitable room without air conditioning. The thermal power of video chips (TDP) is determined in Watts: the higher this number, the more heat is generated and the higher the requirements for the cooling system.

When choosing between two video cards with the same performance, it is better to give preference to the one with a lower TDP. It will heat itself and the surrounding space less, which means there will be a more favorable climate in the room where the farm operates.

As for the video cooling system, its effectiveness is assessed by the temperature of the GPU in operating mode. If the indicator does not exceed 60-65 °C, everything functions as it should. If it exceeds, it means that the heat dissipation is insufficient and the cooling system needs to be improved.

By the way, a good cooling system has a radiator that removes heat not only from the GPU, but also from memory chips and power circuit elements. This significantly prolongs their life.

Overclocking potential

To get the most out of hardware, you have to overclock it. In particular, when mining ether, overclocking gives an increase of 8-9 Mh/s. It turns out that cards with good overclocking potential are more profitable to buy than without it.

Additional details

The following factors are not decisive when choosing video cards for a mining farm, but they provide a number of advantages:

Dual videoBIOS. Preparing video cards for mining, as already mentioned, includes overclocking, usually associated with making changes to the BIOS. And if the parameters are unsuccessfully selected, there is a risk of turning the device into a “brick”. In order to bring the card back to life without a programmer if something happens, a second vBIOS will come in handy.
Memory manufacturer. As practice shows, Samsung brand memory behaves most stable after overclocking (important when mining Ethereum, where the main load falls on the video memory).
Number of GPU power phases. The more there are, the better the ripples of the supply voltage are smoothed out and the lower the current load on the elements that form the power circuit. This increases the stability of the GPU and extends the life of the elements.

GPU power supply and video memory. We count the number of phases by chokes

Single connector additional food 6-8 pin instead of double - such cards are less power-hungry and it’s easier to choose a power supply for them.

Is it possible to use used video cards for cryptocurrency mining?

The best thing to do, of course, is to invest in completely new equipment, but due to the fact that it is difficult to find on sale, and the prices are high, many novice miners are ready to consider used options. I would definitely not dissuade this decision, since the proposal is different. And some are still worth considering.

I think sometimes it makes sense to buy:

Serviceable video cards that the previous owner used for mining, if they did not have time to exhaust their resource (maintained the calculation speed) and if their cost is not higher than 1/3 of the original price. For ½ the price, you can agree to buy only an almost new card.
A faulty video card with a minor breakdown (failure of something small, BIOS crash, etc.), which can be inexpensively repaired. If its price + repair costs do not exceed 1/3 of the original cost.
A card with a faulty GPU, if they give it to you for next to nothing. And if you are ready to spend several thousand on repairs - replacing the video chip with a new one (making sure in advance that this is possible). It may not last as long as a new one, but with careful use at reduced frequencies and low GPU voltage, as well as with good cooling, will most likely recoup your costs.

The best video cards for mining

The most profitable algorithms this year are Equihash and Ethash (Dagger Hashimoto). The first is used to mine ZCash, ZClassic, Komodo, Hush, ZenCash cryptocurrencies; the second is for Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Expanse, Musicoin, Ubiq and some others. So, what video cards show best performance at the lowest cost?

Ethash algorithm (Dagger Hashimoto): AMD RX 480 8 GB

Significant Characteristics

GPU – Radeon RX 480.
Technical process – 14 nm (the lower this value, the higher the performance and lower the power consumption of the microchip).
Core frequency – 1120-1330 MHz.
Quantity unique processors – 2304.
Video memory capacity – 8 GB.
Memory type – GDDR
Memory frequency – 7000-8000 MHz.
Memory bus bandwidth – 256 GB/sec.
TDP (thermal power) – 150-180 W.
Maximum energy consumption is 140-160 W.
Ethereun mining speed is 26-33 Mh/s (without overclocking - with overclocking).
Payback period (according to information from forums) is 3.5-4.5 months.
The price of the card included in the payback calculation is $250. After appearing on sale, it can increase by 1.5-2 times.

Models

Gigabyte AMD Radeon RX 480 G1 GAMING
HIS Radeon RX 480 1120 Mhz
ASUS Radeon RX 480 1310 Mhz
Sapphire Nitro Radeon RX 480 1208 Mhz
PowerColor Radeon RX 480 1330 Mhz
XFX Radeon RX 480 1288Mhz, etc.

User selection: Sapphire Nitro Radeon RX480 8192 Mb.

The card has excellent overclocking potential and fast, stable memory. Maximum speed when mining Ethereum, which can be achieved during overclocking - 33 Mh/s.

Equihash algorithm: NVIDIA GTX 1070 8 Gb

Significant Characteristics

GPU – NVIDIA GTX 1070.
Technological process – 16 nm.
Core frequency – 1500-1670 MHz.
The number of unique processors is 1920.
Video memory capacity – 8 GB.
Memory type – GDDR5.
Memory frequency – 8000-8200 MHz.
The memory bus width is 256 bits.
Memory bus bandwidth – 259.4 GB/sec.
TDP (thermal power) – 150-170 W.
Maximum energy consumption – 150 W.
Recommended power supply power is 500 W.
ZCash mining speed – 435.21 H/s (without overclocking).
Payback period is 4.7-5.5 months.
The price of the video card included in the payback calculation is $400. The real cost today is almost 2 times more expensive.

Models

MSI GeForce GTX 1070 1531 Mhz
GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1070 1620 Mhz
ASUS GeForce GTX 1070 1657 Mhz
Palit GeForce GTX 1070 1506 Mhz
Inno3D GeForce GTX 1070 1506 Mhz
PNY GeForce GTX 1070 1506 Mhz, etc.

User selection: MSI GeForce GTX 1070 1531Mhz 8192 Mb.

This card is an example optimal ratio mining speed, energy consumption and payback in the Equihash algorithm. It races well, and when overclocked it can reach almost the same hashrate as the more expensive “big brother” GTX 1080 without overclocking. So why pay more?

Best ASIC miners for Bitcoin

Bitcoins are one of the few cryptocurrencies that, due to the ever-increasing complexity of calculations, are unprofitable to mine on video cards. To mine these coins, specially created equipment is used - ASIC miners or “ASICs”. Compared to video cards, they have significantly more computing power and at the same time consume much less energy. In addition, an ASIC is a ready-made device, often with its own power supply, network controller etc. You don’t need to assemble anything, just connect and configure.

Mining chips on ASIC board

The disadvantage of ASIC-based solutions is their narrow scope of application, or more precisely, the support of only one calculation algorithm (very rarely two), in particular, SHA-256. If a video card is relatively easy to repurpose for another currency, then such a trick will not work with an ASIC. If it is for Bitcoin (and other SHA-256 currencies), Ether, Litecoin, Zcash, Monero, etc. will not be mined on it.

When choosing ASIC miners for Bitcoin, they adhere to the same criteria as when selecting types, the main one of which is the ratio of hash cost and energy efficiency. Today best results 3 models demonstrate this indicator.

AntMiner S7

Characteristics

Hash rate – 4.73TH/s.
Technological process – 28 nm.
Mining chip – BM1385 (total quantity – 162 pieces).
Energy consumption – 1210 W.
The number of hashes per 1 W of electricity is 0.25 W/Gh.
Price – $480-490.

On it, your earnings for 1 month will be 0.1645 BTC.

AntMiner S9

Characteristics

Hash rate – 13.5 TH/s.
Technological process – 16 nm.
Mining chip – BM1387 (total quantity – 189 pieces).
Energy consumption – 1475 W.
The number of hashes per 1 W of electricity is 0.098 W/Gh.
Price – $2000-2100.

On it, your earnings for 1 month will be 0.3603 BTC.

Avalon6

Characteristics

Hash rate –3.5TH/s.
Technological process – 18 nm.
Mining chip – A3218 (total quantity – 40 pieces).
Energy consumption – 1050 W.
The number of hashes per 1 W of electricity is 0.29 W/Gh.
Price – $500-520.

On it, your earnings for 1 month will be 0.1232 BTC.

Most full list Available commercially available ASIC miners are collected on the resource. It includes regular models, like today’s top three, and industrial ones, like the SP50 with a hashrate of 110 TH/s, and miniature Avalon nano, the size of a USB flash drive and a performance of only 0.0036 TH/s.

Is it worth investing in expensive industrial miners? Maybe it’s worth it, if you’ve been mining for a long time and in gigantic volumes, you have the appropriate premises and resources to maintain all this stuff. For beginners, it’s definitely better to start with something simpler, optimally with two or three mid-budget ASICs, having weighed the risks in advance and calculated the potential costs. But remember that an ASIC that has become unprofitable is almost impossible to sell, because, unlike a video camera, it cannot be used for anything other than its sole purpose.

In a word, draw conclusions and decide; the choice, as always, is yours.

Also on the site:

The best video cards and ASIC miners for cryptocurrency mining in the summer of 2017 updated: March 5, 2018 by: Johnny Mnemonic

1. Radeon RX 460
2. Radeon RX 470
3. Radeon RX 580
4.GeForce GTX 1060
5.GeForce GTX 1070
6. GeForce GTX 1050 TI
7. GeForce GTX 1080 TI
8. Radeon RX570
9. Radeon RX580
10. Radeon RX Vega

Cryptocurrencies continue to occupy the brains and time of a new generation of Eldorado seekers, and therefore it is time for a rating that includes the best video cards for mining.

The rapid growth of such coins as Bitcoin and e|Ethereum has caused a stunning demand for video cards, the main tool of the miner, and therefore it is worth taking a closer look at modern market and identify the best video card for mining in 2017, which will show maximum efficiency relative to its base cost.

Our top 10 includes exclusively the best offers on the video card market, and therefore if you are faced with the question: “Which video card is best for mining?”, then we recommend that you immediately familiarize yourself with this material.

What is the best card to buy? Which GPU The most powerful? Which graphics cards are best for Ethereum mining? Which video cards are best to use for your first farm? Our article will answer these and many other questions.

Radeon RX 460

It’s far from a new video processor, but in modern reality, where all current cards are becoming rare on the shelves and have unreasonable prices big money, this product can be a good start for an inexperienced miner.

A farm based on this video card is quite capable of showing identical results to the top lines of the brand, taking into account the cost of the cards and their performance, and lower power consumption and the absence of inherent noise Radeon models RX 5** will become additional advantage. The disadvantage is clear - you need more cards, which means the farm requires a lot of space, so if you still plan to equip it in your home, it makes sense to look towards more productive cards.

Radeon RX 470

The most important parameter for a mining video card is the period during which the owner will be able to recoup it. This card has a memory of 4 to 8 gigabytes and a frequency of 1270 Mhz. The price of this card fluctuates around 15,000 rubles, and therefore it will pay for itself in approximately four months. Our calculations also include electricity bills, so do not rush to divide the cost by the mining period and declare that the editorial authors are wrong.

The performance of these video cards has long earned a solid reputation, so choosing the Radeon RX 470 will definitely not make you regret it.

Radeon RX 580

The Radeon RX 580 isn't all that different from previous model, although the technical indicators of this video card are slightly higher. This is a frequency of 1257 MHz, which can be overclocked to 1340 MHz; the updated version of the Polaris 20 core, which replaced Polaris 10, has the same composition of computing units. The RX 580 is a more recent model, which means its price is much higher, by this moment it fluctuates around 26 thousand rubles or more.

As a result, it’s not the worst video card for mining, but in terms of price-performance ratio, it’s clearly not the best representative of the rating. This video card can be found in two variations with 4 GB and 8 GB of memory, but you shouldn’t chase a higher figure, because if we're talking about only about mining, then the differences are not so critical. A model for the case when a video card of the same brand, but a lower version, is difficult to obtain.

GeForce GTX 1060

What's striking is the memory capacity, which is weak compared to competitors - from 3 to 6 gigabytes, which could not but affect the hashrate - no more than 20 Mh/s. The big advantage of this card is the fact that despite its decent efficiency, it is still not difficult to purchase in stores in your city. For 18,000 rubles you can buy a video card with excellent mining performance, which will pay for itself in about four months.

The card was popular even before the exponential growth of cryptocurrencies, which is why even now, despite much poorer indicators than the older products in the line, it is sold out with a bang. It can hardly be called GTX 1060 best video card for mining ether, but this is still a very solid option and proven by millions of users.

GeForce GTX 1070

Without a doubt, a great card from Geforce, delighting users with 8 gigabytes random access memory and showing a phenomenal power of 28 Mh/s, but it’s worth weighing the pros and cons. For such solid characteristics you will have to pay a tidy sum of 27,000 - 30,000 rubles, which ultimately leads us to disappointing conclusions - the payback will be about 150 days, the energy consumption of 140 W does not go unnoticed. The video card, which has successfully proven itself in ethereum mining, is certainly one of the leaders in our rating.

The Pascal architecture inherent in all GeForce 10xx models, which allows achieving three times more productive results, makes it practically unattainable for competitors from AMD. It is worth remembering that this technological solution is the most popular among miners around the world, so to purchase it you will most likely have to shell out not the most adequate money. This option is more likely for those who do not want to reinvent the wheel and are able to afford to purchase a large number of cards at an inflated price.

GeForce GTX 1050TI

A budget option, with prices ranging from 8,000 rubles in nominal value to 13,500 rubles on store shelves. This card will appeal to beginners who want to take the path of mining and experience the crypto-economy with their own hands. This card, of course, should not be inserted into a huge farm, but at home it shows excellent results. If you missed the train from the cryptocurrency boom this summer, but still would like to try it, the GTX 1050 TI is a very good option.

GeForce GTX 1080TI

The flagship nVidia model may surprise you - 11 gigabytes of RAM, which allows it to mine up to 700 sol of Ethereum, while the 1070 has about 420 and the base 1080 has 510-520.
The latter (regular 1080), by the way, is literally the most unprofitable video card for mining, which you may have noticed from the slight increase in performance in relation to the Geforce GTX 1070, but the price varies very significantly; you cannot purchase this card for less than 50,000 rubles , and therefore it does not yet look like there is no alternative the best option for mining, at least until the line is updated and the price of this card is reduced.

Radeon RX570

Another card from AMD that produces a very respectable 22.4 ETH when inserted into the rig right out of the box, but with minor manual modifications the device is capable of delivering significantly better results.

Do not forget that tuning your card for specific tasks mining may not affect her in the best possible way, because by accelerating its performance you will certainly pay for it in noise, power consumption, and most importantly, its wear resistance.

If these side effects do not bother you, we highly recommend this map, the price of which currently fluctuates around 20,000 rubles. But it’s worth remembering that the AMD 5** line is actually a slightly updated 400, then we recommend that you first familiarize yourself with the test results and calculate whether purchasing it will be significantly more profitable than purchasing its predecessor.

Radeon RX580

An excellent video card that will outshine any competitors in the matter of Ethereum mining. It is unlikely that you will be pleased with the ratio of costs and expected income; an even greater problem will be to find the card itself in wide access. If you are willing to pay up to 50,000 rubles for a modification with 8 gigabytes of RAM, you will not regret it, but in general we recommend taking a closer look at more affordable options.

An advanced cooling system will help your farm feel comfortable in the heat, and the minimal noise produced by the video card will make it possible to place your source of income not only in the utility room, but also at home. Not a bad option for those who purchase hardware for their needs and their direct responsibilities, but free time I wouldn't mind doing mining.

Radeon RX Vega

At all fresh map in our rating. The performance of the new premium segment product is an impressive 31-32 Mh/s, but, as we remember, Radeon loves manual setting and with some diligence you can significantly exceed these indicators. Of course, for such a high hashrate you will have to pay with significant power consumption, and you will also have to think about a good cooling system, because as the temperature rises, the card noticeably loses performance.

Showing in stock condition results of a well-overclocked GTX 1070, Vega consumes twice as much energy, so despite the enviable nominal performance, we would not be sure that such an investment is economically justified, at least today, when the card costs a catastrophic 45,000 rubles for the Nova version. Perhaps with time and a fall in price we will reconsider our conclusions about rationality this attachment, but for now this card is more exotic on the market of video cards for mining than a time-tested option for stable earnings.
Thank you for plunging into such an intriguing and still poorly understood world of mining with us. We hope the article was useful and you will choose a video card for your farm that fully meets your needs.

Mining involves non-standard use of a video card. The key criterion for its selection is efficiency. In mining, it refers to the ratio of hashrate and energy consumption. There is significant variation in this parameter. You have to choose the best option from the many. On miner forums, the efficiency of video cards is not indicated due to their versatility. ASICs are simple, they work in the same algorithm and their efficiency is constant. For video cards, each algorithm has different efficiency. We calculate it ourselves, and here are the top maps.

The best video card for mining 2017 has the following parameters:

technological process 22-14 nm. Less technical process means less energy consumption;
a large number of CUDA cores (shader processors);
Power of at least 150 W.
The bus is 256 bit.
Memory - DDR5.

Hundreds of video card models correspond to these parameters. Of these, miners choose popular models and there are one dozen of them. The price factor plays a role here. Models launched into industrial series have a lower price. In general, for electronic devices, the production cost depends very much on production volumes. Good mining cards are tracked by price. Due to the growing demand for them, the price rises. While on others electronic devices price increases after an announcement are extremely rare.

Manufacturer NVIDIA

Enjoys a reputation as the most reliable. The price is higher than AMD, but not significantly. Taking into account the fact that on mining farms video cards operate at 100% load around the clock, reliability comes first. NVIDIA pays attention to power circuits; the components on the boards meet military standards.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti

Top video card for mining. Top model from NVIDIA. Cost - $500-950. At the time of release, the video card cost $1000. On many farms, the GTX 1080 Ti can be identified by its silver titanium case. Due to the mining boom, the price of this card has repeatedly increased. RAM frequency - 8 GHz, volume - 8 GB. Standard - DDR5. The video card copes well with cryptocurrencies with a complex algorithm for which there are no ASIC miners.

The cooling system is equipped with heat pipes and a radiator with an evaporation chamber. This is a true miniature refrigeration system. The centrifugal turbine is effective for the PC case. On an open farm frame, it is replaced with a system with two or three powerful coolers.

GTX 1070 Ti and GTX 1080 are various video cards. The price for the 80th version is much higher. The model without the Ti index has a reputation as the most unprofitable mining cards. For the same performance values, the price is 2-2.5 times higher.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti

The most available card for mining. Has a cost below $200. In stores with a small markup you can buy it for 7,000 rubles. GeForce GTX 1050 Ti is a modern and relevant video card for mining; the 2017 rating puts it in first place in terms of affordability. RAM - 2 GB. For Ethereum mining, this is the lower limit, but for promising exotic coins (at the end of 2017, Karbovanets is gaining popularity) it is perfect. The 1050 series contains from 640 to 768 universal shader processors.

The main drawback is the RAM capacity is 128 bits. This is offset by the Pascal architecture, which is ideal for Ethereum mining. Low level noise and power consumption makes this card the best for beginners.

Manufacturer AMD

Its products are low cost. AMD video cards are popular among miners. Their reliability is not as high as that of NVIDIA, but low price eliminates this drawback.

AMD Radeon 480x

Radeon 380x, 390x are equipped with 28 nm chips technological process. AMD Radeon 480x - from 18. This is the first card in the line with such characteristics. Graphics chip contains 5.7 billion transistors, grouped into 2048 shader cores. Even the top NVIDIA video cards have a usual number of cores - 1024. Their number is twice as large highest performance. When deciding which video cards are best for mining in 2017, we put the AMD Radeon 480x in first place.

4 GB of RAM allows you to mine various coins using complex algorithms. RAM type - DDR5 with maximum for of this standard throughput 225 GB/sec. Computing power- 6 teraflops. Unlike ASICs, video cards are universal and suitable for any calculation.

AMD Radeon RX 580

For video cards with 4 GB of RAM, the Radeon RX 580 has a low price and good performance. It falls into the category of boards up to $500. In the 2017 ratings, this model occupies middle places. On Ethereum, this card will provide 30 MN/sec. The production time for one ETH coin is 8000 hours (calculation for the end of 2017, when the cost of iron is 0.5 ETH and the reward for a block is 3 ETH).

The best mining video cards for today: table.

Rating	AMD	NVIDIA
1	Radeon 480x (8GB)	GTX 1070Ti
2	Radeon 470x	GTX 1080Ti
3	Radeon FuryX	GTX 1060 (6GB)

To calculate the payback, use calculators: Nicehash.com. Before entering data into calculators, get the hardware hashrate value. The rest of the data (network power, block reward) is preset in the calculator automatically and is updated in real time.
The hashrate of video cards varies depending on the type of cryptocurrency. The top currency for mining on video cards is Ethereum. It has a typical value of 30 MN/sec per video card with 180-200 W of power consumption. The cost of a video card for mining starts at $200. There are models for beginners for $100, but they don’t bring any tangible income. As the power of the farm increases, it is more profitable to buy 7 powerful cards than 15 low-power ones.
Buy used equipment only if the cards have not been used in mining farms. Semiconductors cannot last forever. The GPU chip of a video card contains 5 billion transistors. The number of RAM cells is more than 10 billion. With such a number of elements, when operating a video card around the clock with 100% load, problems are inevitable. Miners know that a video card can “burn out” even though it still produces its hashrate and looks functional, but it no longer has a resource.
The best option for buying video cards is Taobao, stores of Taiwanese manufacturers or electronics hypermarkets. The markups there are small.
Cooling is the main factor for long service life. give him attention.

To understand the question of Nvidia or AMD, which is better for mining, you should consider a number of factors: what is cheaper, what is more powerful, what consumes less from the socket, what is easier to sell to gamers later.

Previously, gamers were bothered by the choice, and the choice was something like religion with the resulting crusades, holivars and srachas. Today, gamers should look at the prospect of selling cards after mining.

Where Nvidia has one complex computing unit, Radeon has four simple ones....

Therefore, at the dawn of mining, AMD was dragging many times faster ( modern cards from both manufacturers are approximately equal in the manufacturers' race).

Therefore, the graphics on Nvidia turn out better (in addition, Nvidia makes all sorts of technologies for processing hair with grass in games), we are interested in this at the level of “what is easier to sell to gamers later.”

Judging by pictures like this, it is generally accepted among gamers that Nvidia is better for games.

With gamers in general outline figured it out. Now about mining...
There have been no special holivars since the times when the amuda was dragged many times faster. Well, except that the miner programs were released under green and under red in different time and showed different performance. If a new algorithm and new coins have appeared, this is not yet a reason to run to the store and assemble a farm in order to start a week earlier than competitors.

As practice shows, different algorithms work better on different maps. So it’s more profitable to dig Z-cash on Nvidia, and Monero on Radeon.

My merry farm has both working at the same time. On Monero, all three of them give out 300+

But on Z-cash, the amuda actually loses, it directly drains (in Zicash, the speed should be measured in salts, so imagine Sol/S instead of H/S).

Why am I mining Monero on Nvidia if it's not profitable? So the temperature is lower and the PPS reward scheme is more clear.

From my own experience, I can answer the questions posed at the beginning like this:

which is cheaper- GTX1050 for 8300, RX460 for 7300
which is more powerful- the results will be different for different algorithms (I won’t give a definite answer)
which consumes less from the outlet- all three of my cards consume from 50 to 75 watts (with different algorithms they consume differently and heat up differently)
which is easier to sell to gamers later- this is a matter of religion (but I'm on Nvidia's side)

What's better?

My experience is that with Envide there are fewer problems. Just add the utility Nvidia Inspector and turning the sliders (chip overclocking, memory overclocking, cooler speed).

My amuda won't even let me adjust the coolers until I put a monitor emulator in it. My amude hung and even brought Windows to a blue screen.

A little cheaper, for those who like to flash, open locked cores and other jerking - AMD Radeon.
A little more expensive, you can’t open blocks, it works almost without problems with a minimum of interruption - Nvidia.