Since we now have a real world ASIC capable of Scrypt mining entering the market, we can see what their performance is like compared to a GPU.
DualMiner USBThe DualMiner is rated as follows:
Price: $85 (order of 20+)
LTC/BTC Dual Mode BTC 500 Mh/s LTC 40 Kh/s 2.5 Watts
BTC Single Mode BTC 1600 Mh/s (1.6 Gh/s) 2.5 Watts
LTC Single Mode LTC 70 Kh/s 1.5 Watts
A typical R290 card (approximate)
1 R290 Graphics card ~ $620 900 Kh/s 375 Watts (full hash)
Using DualMiners, we would need about 13 to equate a single R290 graphics card:
13 Dual Miners ~ $1105 900 Kh/s
19.5 WattsIn this comparison, we can conclude that for nearly twice the price, you get 19x the power efficiency over a GPU. That means you could run 19 900 Kh/s DualMiner rigs (around 20 Mh/s) on the same power it would take to hash on a single graphics card.
This is ultimately the tradeoff: higher up front cost for drastically reduced long term power usage and much better ability to scale over GPUs
Total ConfigurationLet's do a comparison to a typical 6 card GPU rig, including the other parts necessary to operate them
Typical 6 Card Rig Board, CPU, RAM, PSU, HDD, Cables, etc ( $500) 6 R290 Graphics Cards ($3720)
5400 Kh/s (5.4 Mh/s) 2250 Watts Total Cost ~$4220
Equivalent DualMiners (78) AsicMiner 49 Port hubs x2 (~$400, cheaper with other solutions) Raspberry Pi ($45) (Optional) 78 Dualminers (~$6630)
5400 Kh/s (5.4 Mh/s)
117 Watts Total Cost ~$7075
(I may add the 5 Chip miner comparison coming out later)
___________________________
From this we know it takes about 13 Gridchips to equate a single R290 graphics card
We also know that ASICs offer significant power savings over GPUs in terms of nearly 19x
It should be obvious that USB singles like these typically offer the worst $/Hash ratio as they are not hashing dense. It can be assumed something more like a 16x board would fair much better in price/performance. Bitcoin mining performance is paltry for the price here if running in BTC only mode. Compared to GPUs for Scrypt mining however, these chips are a better deal long term.
Gridseeds do offer the unique ability to multi-hash as well, giving your mining operation some flexibility.
Kilohash per $ (Litecoin Only)6x GPU Rig
1.45 Kh/s/$ DualMiners .76 Kh/s/$
Kilohash per Watt (Litecoin Only)6x GPU Rig 2.54 Kh/s/w
DualMiners
46.15 Kh/s/wPlease let me know if my math is wrong anywhere
Show Posts
