News How to Optimize Your GPU for Ethereum Mining

Uhh... :cautious:

You know this is going to trigger some folks, right?
Kudos for the information though.
Yup. But we cover all sorts of hardware news, and after quite a bit of discussion we felt it was better to at least provide some clear testing results -- power in particular being something we can do better than the software power reporting. I've also tried to provide real numbers on hash rates, power, and temperatures, in the hope of discouraging some people from getting caught up in the hype. The likelihood of someone seeing this article on TH and not already having intent to mine is pretty slim.

Hopefully, if nothing else, we can help some people recognize that 24/7 mining isn't a panacea. I know multiple people that tried to build mining rigs back in 2017 to "strike it rich." At best, they came out slightly ahead after all the power and hardware costs. Sure, if they had saved everything and then sold at today's highs, they could have made a lot of money. But waiting three years to recoup thousands of dollars (all the while wondering if the prices will actually go up) ... there are better ways of investing IMO. And at least we're not sponsored by NiceHash. :unsure:
 
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tomspown

Distinguished
Sep 28, 2013
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18,515
Oh well Toms Hardware has hit a topic thats not realy welcome in the pc gaming community, they should also include sites for the miners where they can get the last few available Gpus as well, we will just sit on the side line and watch Tommy offer advice to miners.
 

Mythy

Prominent
Feb 6, 2021
3
1
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While its true that mining is making new GPU purchases difficult I would argue that this article is valid and should be appreciated. I myself make a little over $600 a month in PROFIT from just running my gaming rig and my kids/wifes on NiceHash. I mean look.. These cards literally pay for them self in time so we gamers might as well make the purchase a little bit easier lol As for availability if anyone is having issues buying a 3000 series I would suggest hitting up the Microcenter discord servers. They have the inventory delivery's posted, times, numbers ect. Not that hard to get one if you know where to look. I grabbed my 3090 in 2 days.
 
I'm very anti mining:

  1. It causes artificial inflation on component prices
  2. It's bad for the environment in general. The mining in the world consumes energy for mining more than several of the largest states combined.
  3. The biggest users of Crypto are buying stuff they shouldn't, or using it to blackmail people. It funds terrorist states like Iran and N.Korea.
 
Feb 6, 2021
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Why tomshardware promote scams??? Nicehash still hold 18% of my funds stolen in 2017, and they don't want return it! They are scammers and perhaps this is paid article. Tomshardware you lost my trust...
Keep away from nicehash, it is a scam!
 

Mythy

Prominent
Feb 6, 2021
3
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With what hardware?

Currently running a 3090 FE with a few mods trying to keep that memory cool , a 3080 in my wifes and a little 5700XT in my sons. I have CPU mining turned off on my 3900XT and the wifes/kids. Hashing at around 240MH/s I can get it to nearly 260 if I push the 3090 but its just not worth it. Currently only pulling 240W so I'll let her stay cool and quiet.
 

g-unit1111

Titan
Moderator
I'm very anti mining:

  1. It causes artificial inflation on component prices
  2. It's bad for the environment in general. The mining in the world consumes energy for mining more than several of the largest states combined.
  3. The biggest users of Crypto are buying stuff they shouldn't, or using it to blackmail people. It funds terrorist states like Iran and N.Korea.

And just like the 1849 Gold Rush, the people getting rich are the ones selling the mining equipment.
 
I only have general understandings about mining, so I might be wrong in my thinking about all this.
Article is good on how to use GPU for mining effectively, but doesn't tell full story about profits/losses and is misleading in that sense. I've read posts in forums where some miners claim making "easy" money and it turns out they have no clue about how to calculate/measure total power consumption. They only see income and don't take components wear out into account (in sense "I was about to replace those fans (or GPU) anyway...").
And cooling PC is not only those three PC fans spinning. It's also 300W+ of heat dissipated in air which we additionally need to cool down with AC during warm days -just one of the examples.
There's a saying "the house always wins" -and not your house is meant.

Just my 2c
 
Feb 7, 2021
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Yup. But we cover all sorts of hardware news, and after quite a bit of discussion we felt it was better to at least provide some clear testing results -- power in particular being something we can do better than the software power reporting. I've also tried to provide real numbers on hash rates, power, and temperatures, in the hope of discouraging some people from getting caught up in the hype. The likelihood of someone seeing this article on TH and not already having intent to mine is pretty slim.

Hopefully, if nothing else, we can help some people recognize that 24/7 mining isn't a panacea. I know multiple people that tried to build mining rigs back in 2017 to "strike it rich." At best, they came out slightly ahead after all the power and hardware costs. Sure, if they had saved everything and then sold at today's highs, they could have made a lot of money. But waiting three years to recoup thousands of dollars (all the while wondering if the prices will actually go up) ... there are better ways of investing IMO. And at least we're not sponsored by NiceHash. :unsure:
THANKS for this article. You can be confident that it helped me a lot. I decided to buy a Radeon RX 5500 XT for mining after reading this. I was able to get it a 480 USD and here in Argentina we pay 0.02 USD/KWh so it makes a lot of sense to mine and with your recomendation on lowering CPU frequency and oosting RAM frequency things look even better.
THANK YOU !
 
Feb 7, 2021
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I tried Nbminer and didn't notice any improvement over claymore unless you like that 3% dev fee (2% higher than claymore). I'm getting similar hashes (105M) on a ventus 3090 but definitely not those temps. I'm getting approx. 63C at 310W stock. Electric bill is group and still on hold so it's all profit making $330/mo ETH. I can still play WoW @ 1440p and get between 64-90 MH 60fps locked (in-game limiter) depending on High-Low settings but the temps go up to 75C @340W.
 
Feb 7, 2021
1
0
10
Yup. But we cover all sorts of hardware news, and after quite a bit of discussion we felt it was better to at least provide some clear testing results -- power in particular being something we can do better than the software power reporting. I've also tried to provide real numbers on hash rates, power, and temperatures, in the hope of discouraging some people from getting caught up in the hype. The likelihood of someone seeing this article on TH and not already having intent to mine is pretty slim.

Hopefully, if nothing else, we can help some people recognize that 24/7 mining isn't a panacea. I know multiple people that tried to build mining rigs back in 2017 to "strike it rich." At best, they came out slightly ahead after all the power and hardware costs. Sure, if they had saved everything and then sold at today's highs, they could have made a lot of money. But waiting three years to recoup thousands of dollars (all the while wondering if the prices will actually go up) ... there are better ways of investing IMO. And at least we're not sponsored by NiceHash. :unsure:
Yea right, NOT. My RTX 3070 mines at 134W, Core clock stock, memory Clocks at +1200 ( Can do +1420 but temps hit 50-60 depending if I'm running 1 or two cards due to small tower) and obtain 63 MH/s (61.5 @+1200Mhz). Single card temp would be 50C at +1420 Mhz with Fan speed of 38-42 % depending on ambient tempreture. Running Palit's RTX 3070 Jetstream.
 

xxxWARSPITExxx

Prominent
Oct 17, 2020
5
0
510
I tried Nbminer and didn't notice any improvement over claymore unless you like that 3% dev fee (2% higher than claymore). I'm getting similar hashes (105M) on a ventus 3090 but definitely not those temps. I'm getting approx. 63C at 310W stock. Electric bill is group and still on hold so it's all profit making $330/mo ETH. I can still play WoW @ 1440p and get between 64-90 MH 60fps locked (in-game limiter) depending on High-Low settings but the temps go up to 75C @340W.
I like the T-Rex miner after moving away from Claymore.
 

HWOC

Reputable
Jan 9, 2020
141
21
4,615
Without getting into the whole moral argument about mining, I would just like to point out that when properly optimized, the numbers that NiceHash lists are comfortably achievable. If you search around the internet, you'll find that miners report numbers more similar to NiceHash listings than those in this Toms test. I'm not a miner, but I find all kinds of tuning interesting. I tried it on my 3070, you need to bring down the power limit, not increase it. Similarly, you need to underclock the GPU, not overclock it. Overclock the memory, underclock the core, and reduce the power limit. This yielded over 60 MH/s at less than 160w for me.
 
Feb 8, 2021
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I have a 3080 TUF for gaming but I don't seem why I can't use it for mining while at work. Keeps the study warm!

I don't think the results on this article are great though!

The best I get using Trex to mine ETH

MSI Afterburner
Power: 73%
Core: -200
Memory + 1300

ASUS RTX 3080
100.18 MH/s
T: 46C
P: 233W
F: 83%
E: 432kH/W


Actual income running 24/7 while not gaming is ~ $63 per week
 
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