A passive income is an unreachable dream for most; but what if there was a way to start earning money without having to put in any effort whatsoever? Lucky for you (and tons of other people) the cryptocurrency industry has proved fairly fruitful when it comes to making money out of mining. To start making some extra money, all you need to do is to get the best mining GPU you afford. In this article, we are going over the six best ones so that you can choose accordingly.
Mining GPU FAQ
Image by WorldSpectrum from Pixabay
1. What Is a Mining GPU?
2. What Does a Mining GPU Do?
3. How Does a Mining GPU Work?
4. Where Can You Buy Them?
5. How Much Money Can You Make With One?
How We Reviewed
Image by WorldSpectrum from Pixabay
Unlike other types of products, GPUs aren't judged by their price or what they offer in general. On the contrary, it's all about their performance mining a specific altcoin. Taking this into consideration we selected the top 10 best performing cards on the market, finally reducing the list to the absolute six best ones. Throughout the article, we'll be mentioning what cryptocurrency each card can mine in order to have the biggest possible profit.
Overall Price Range of Mining GPUs
Starting from around $250 and going all the way up to $750, finding the best mining GPU for you should be easy. You should take into consideration that the more expensive cards bring a much bigger performance to the table, so the possible profits will increase if you invest more money into your new mining GPU.
What We Reviewed
Features
Apart for being probably the best GPU money can buy to provide 1080p and 1440p gaming, the GTX 1070 was, up till recently, supposed to be an absolute beast when it came to mining.
Starting with the specs, the card has a frame buffer of 8GB GDDR5 with an 8GHz memory speed alongside a base clock at 1518MHz which goes up to 1708MHz in boost mode. It features Nvidia's Pascal architecture and was mostly used for mining Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Even though the profit margin has fallen quite a bit, DaggerHashimoto is the algorithm that will yield the best results for Bitcoin mining with this card, as with an average $0.12 kWh cost you'd be having a daily profit of around $0.30 at previous levels. But due to the decrease in BTC's price, you'd right now be seeing a loss of around $6 on a monthly basis, so mining Bitcoin isn't recommended.
Currently, according to crypt0 zone, mining MinexCoin (MNX) using the EquiHash algorithm would yield a daily profit of around $0.30. Denarius (DNR), using the Tribus algorithm, is at the time of this writing the most profitable coin to mine with a daily profit of $0.38.
If you still want to try mining Ethereum, you'd be getting an average of around 32 Mh/s while drawing 150W of power.
Pros
Cons
Where to Buy |
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Amazon |
Features
The RX580 8GB version is considered the best option between a GTX 1060 6GB and a GTX 1070. Plus, they cost much less than the latter. This card is more than good for gaming; but what about mining? The profitable secret in the RX 500 series lies in the two words: "Dual BIOS". Most manufacturers have included a BIOS switch which can be enabled by turning the PC off, turning the switch, and powering the PC on again. This will result in increased hashrates right out of the box without needing to overclock the card.
The RX580 8GB version by XFX has a base clock of 1366MHz and a boost clock of 1386MHz. There are 8GB of GDDR5 memory, and even though the power usage depends on the GPU version you are using, you should be ok with a 500-600W PSU. The RX580 can be used with the Nicehash algorithm to mine Bitcoin, but just like the GTX 1070, it wouldn't be profitable. That being said, you'd only lose around $3.50 per month as opposed to the $6 we saw previously.
Moving on to crypt0 zone, we see that the most profitable coin to mine is ZERO using the Equihash algorithm at around 50kh/s, for a daily profit of $0.2. We should also mention that we've been using the RX580 8GB version for quite some time now, both for mining and gaming, and we have to say that for us it certainly is the best mining GPU at this price point.
Pros
Cons
Where to Buy |
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Amazon |
Features
Running at a base clock of 1506MHz and a boost clock at 1708MHz, the GTX 1060 6GB is the best mining GPU for Bitcoin we have encountered up to this point. Just like previously mentioned, you'll still have a small loss of $1.50 per month, but if the price goes up even by a little, then this is the most likely to become profitable quickly.
Moving to other altcoins, the most profitable to mine right now is Denarius (DNR) using the Tribus algorithm at 60Gh/s, which would result in a daily profit of around $0.15. It sure isn't as good as the RX580 8GB, but it requires much less power to run so it still is a solid and affordable choice.
Pros
Cons
Where to Buy |
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Amazon |
Features
The RX Vega 64 is a great card for gaming and without a doubt the best mining GPU for AMD enthusiasts. But when it comes to Bitcoin, the biggest cryptocurrency there is, the Vega 64 falls behind, as the user would have a loss of almost $10 per month.
Moving on to other altcoins, the Vega 64 is the best mining GPU we've come along so far, as if you were to mine Loki (LOKI) using the CryptoNight Heavy algorithm at 12.07Mh/s you'd get a fat profit of almost $0.5 per day. Other profitable coins to mine would be BitTube (TUBE), Monero (XMR), and Alloy (XAO) as well as multiple others using the previously mentioned algorithm.
Pros
Cons
Where to Buy |
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Amazon |
Features
With the release of the RTX 2080 Ti, the price of the GTX 1080 Ti started decreasing and people have started investing in the 11GB GDDR5X GPU. It has a maximum boost clock of 1582MHz and requires 250W of power to run. For BTC mining, the card is far from profitable, as you would have a monthly loss of $11.30.
Altcoin mining is a whole other thing. MinexCoin (MNX) is the best choice at the time of this writing, because, if you were to mine it using the EquiHash algorithm, you'd get a daily profit of approximately $0.54. Other good mining options would be ZERO, Nilu, and other coins using the Equihash and Ethash algorithms.
It may not be the best mining GPU for the major cryptocurrencies but it's a solid option for many altcoins. Plus, the founder's edition has increased hashrates right out of the box compared to other versions of the same graphics chip.
Pros
Cons
Where to Buy |
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Amazon |
Features
If you want to get something between the GTX 1070 and the GTX 1080, then this is the best mining GPU you can get; but it isn't cheap. It has a maximum boost clock of 1683MHz and 8GB of video memory. It requires 180W of power to operate. BTC mining-wise, it's far better than the GTX 1080 Ti; but you'd still see a loss of approximately $6.45 per month.
Moving on to altcoin mining, surprisingly the Ethash and Equihash algorithms don't pay much, except for ZERO, which still is profitable to mine at a daily profit of $0.22. That being said, the most profitable choice at the time would be Denarius (DNR) using the Tribus algorithm at 59.66Gh/s for a $0.53 profit per day.
Pros
Cons
Where to Buy |
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Amazon |
The Verdict - Which Is the Best Mining GPU?
There are two clear winners here. First up is the RX 580 8GB from AMD as it is the perfect middle-range gaming option that simultaneously performs on mining and doesn't cost much. Looking at Nvidia's cards, we'd go for the GTX 1070 Ti simply because it performs similarly to the GTX 1080 Ti while costing less and being more efficient; plus it is very flexible with multiple algorithms.
Featured Image by Abigail Diseno from Pixabay
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