Ethereum mining still profitable?

[Mulzatas]

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CUDA and OpenCL rates are basically equal between a GTX970-980 and Radeon 290, power draw on GTX makes it the winner.
...

My R9 290X tri-x is doing 31Mh/s for around 180W (gpu@1150, hynix memory). A R9 290 with hynix memory and identical clock will do about the same. With some undervolting and no oc, you should be around 28Mh/s with 140W.
http://www.mininghwcomparison.com/list/index.php?brand=amd

Nvidia is very good for others algo. I have mined spreadcoin with it but Ether is now amd territory (with the increased dag file, 750 ti is no longer as good as before).

I have asus 290x (GPU 1050,  MEM 1350 elpida, win8.1 cat 14.4, eth 0.9.41)  doing 24 MH
Why there is so difference between your 31 and mine 24 MH?  GPU clock, type of MEM? drivers?

I think the figure of doing 31Mh/s for around 180W (gpu@1150, hynix memory) might not be true.

The dual 970's I have average 36+MH/s on 90W/card, stock clocks, generating ~1.2 ETH/day. Quite frankly, total system power should be the mark to judge by, mine takes 260W (gamer's i5 devil's canyon board).

By the numbers above:
R290X: 180W/31MH = 5.8W/MH (or 140/28 = 5W/MH undervolted, if correct, but what's the point?)
GTX970: 90/18 = 5W/MH stock clocks on factory super-clocked board

I'll say it again; watt-per-hash, the AMD and GTX cards are pretty much equal now thanks to dev's work on CUDA mining (Genoil!). Most GTX970's are still retailing for what they did over a year ago; used are getting 80% of retail give-take a few. If you can get 80% of current retail for a 290X later this year, good onya, to each their own. 

Did you measure your whole system power with a power meter from the socket on  the wall?

[bluebox]

Did you measure your whole system power with a power meter from the socket on  the wall?

Meter on a UPS -- 260W total, mobo, drives, fans, etc. take about 80W, cards ~90W each full-out w/boost. It's basically a multi-boot linux workstation and occasional gaming rig, not exactly designed for lowest power consumption... It's not worth putting a dedicated mining rig together with $300 cards unless you have better reasons to use them (or can recoup a high percentage of their initial cost, as some/most GTX models apparently can).   

[apriyoni]

Did you measure your whole system power with a power meter from the socket on  the wall?

Meter on a UPS -- 260W total, mobo, drives, fans, etc. take about 80W, cards ~90W each full-out w/boost. It's basically a multi-boot linux workstation and occasional gaming rig, not exactly designed for lowest power consumption... It's not worth putting a dedicated mining rig together with $300 cards unless you have better reasons to use them (or can recoup a high percentage of their initial cost, as some/most GTX models apparently can).   

So the nVidia card is more efficient than the 280x from AMD. I think Genoil did a very good job.

[Mastsetad]

Did you measure your whole system power with a power meter from the socket on  the wall?

Meter on a UPS -- 260W total, mobo, drives, fans, etc. take about 80W, cards ~90W each full-out w/boost. It's basically a multi-boot linux workstation and occasional gaming rig, not exactly designed for lowest power consumption... It's not worth putting a dedicated mining rig together with $300 cards unless you have better reasons to use them (or can recoup a high percentage of their initial cost, as some/most GTX models apparently can).   

These 970 cards cost $370 in my country. So it is not profitable to make a rig with them if the Ethereum price drops.

[bluebox]

Did you measure your whole system power with a power meter from the socket on  the wall?

Meter on a UPS -- 260W total, mobo, drives, fans, etc. take about 80W, cards ~90W each full-out w/boost. It's basically a multi-boot linux workstation and occasional gaming rig, not exactly designed for lowest power consumption... It's not worth putting a dedicated mining rig together with $300 cards unless you have better reasons to use them (or can recoup a high percentage of their initial cost, as some/most GTX models apparently can).   

So the nVidia card is more efficient than the 280x from AMD. I think Genoil did a very good job.

Yes, we all have to thank (and tip) Genoil for his dogged work in getting his CUDA fork to match OpenCL on the basis of power consumption.

When I tweaked the memory clocks up, it outperformed but was a bit unstable. Would need to spend time I don't have in getting them solid. Probably due to the EVGA kit, already OC'd out of the box, other manu's might fare better (or not). Happy with stock settings, hasn't crashed in weeks, but will likely compile on and use linux in the near future (can't stand windows).

[bluebox]

These 970 cards cost $370 in my country. So it is not profitable to make a rig with them if the Ethereum price drops.

No-one said you had to, no-one's trying to convince you either way. If it doesn't make sense, it doesn't make sense.

I need nVidia kit because of my work (HPC); virtually all GPGPU is CUDA-based, some is Intel Phi, but nothing of consequence uses AMD, or for that matter OpenCL (yet?). Doesn't make sense for me to buy any Radeon's even though they're "cheap", does it?  

I haven't sold a single ETH yet, don't care where others think the price will go. No-one does, if anyone says so they're full of shit. I have my plan/goal, sticking with it, and if the whole altcoin world craters I could care less because I didn't spend money on hardware I can't use now and later, and I've only spent a small fraction of my electric bill on it.

[fricircled]

These 970 cards cost $370 in my country. So it is not profitable to make a rig with them if the Ethereum price drops.

No-one said you had to, no-one's trying to convince you either way. If it doesn't make sense, it doesn't make sense.

I need nVidia kit because of my work (HPC); virtually all GPGPU is CUDA-based, some is Intel Phi, but nothing of consequence uses AMD, or for that matter OpenCL (yet?). Doesn't make sense for me to buy any Radeon's even though they're "cheap", does it?  

I haven't sold a single ETH yet, don't care where others think the price will go. No-one does, if anyone says so they're full of shit. I have my plan/goal, sticking with it, and if the whole altcoin world craters I could care less because I didn't spend money on hardware I can't use now and later, and I've only spent a small fraction of my electric bill on it.

It is better to use the existing rig to mine. The price is quite volatile, so it might not be profitable to mine in the future.

[thesmokingman]

These 970 cards cost $370 in my country. So it is not profitable to make a rig with them if the Ethereum price drops.

No-one said you had to, no-one's trying to convince you either way. If it doesn't make sense, it doesn't make sense.

I need nVidia kit because of my work (HPC); virtually all GPGPU is CUDA-based, some is Intel Phi, but nothing of consequence uses AMD, or for that matter OpenCL (yet?). Doesn't make sense for me to buy any Radeon's even though they're "cheap", does it?  

I haven't sold a single ETH yet, don't care where others think the price will go. No-one does, if anyone says so they're full of shit. I have my plan/goal, sticking with it, and if the whole altcoin world craters I could care less because I didn't spend money on hardware I can't use now and later, and I've only spent a small fraction of my electric bill on it.

It is better to use the existing rig to mine. The price is quite volatile, so it might not be profitable to mine in the future.

Isn't the BTC price volatile? Might it not be profitable to mine in the future?

[64dimensions]

Anybody know if you can run ethminer using old AMD drivers like 14.4 and 13.12? I want to use more than 4 GPUs but I am using Windows 7.

Etherminer does not work with 14.4 or below. The lowest version which can work is the 14.6. It works well with 15.7. If you just want to mine with 6 GPU, there is no need to mod.

I have the same problem. With Win 7 and AMD 15.12 drivers, the fifth card doesn't install properly. All I can find on the internet so far are mystical references.

[adaseb]

Anybody know if you can run ethminer using old AMD drivers like 14.4 and 13.12? I want to use more than 4 GPUs but I am using Windows 7.

Etherminer does not work with 14.4 or below. The lowest version which can work is the 14.6. It works well with 15.7. If you just want to mine with 6 GPU, there is no need to mod.

I have the same problem. With Win 7 and AMD 15.12 drivers, the fifth card doesn't install properly. All I can find on the internet so far are mystical references.

Cant do 5 gpus with WIndows 7, upgrade to 8.1

[Xianantung]

Anybody know if you can run ethminer using old AMD drivers like 14.4 and 13.12? I want to use more than 4 GPUs but I am using Windows 7.

Etherminer does not work with 14.4 or below. The lowest version which can work is the 14.6. It works well with 15.7. If you just want to mine with 6 GPU, there is no need to mod.

I have the same problem. With Win 7 and AMD 15.12 drivers, the fifth card doesn't install properly. All I can find on the internet so far are mystical references.

Cant do 5 gpus with WIndows 7, upgrade to 8.1

For me, there is no mining performance difference between the W7 and W8.1. So it is OK to upgrade.

[Juliamit]

The hash rate is 822GH/s now. It is rising very fast. It doubled from 3 months ago. The rate is increasing.

[bitcoinpete]

The hash rate is 822GH/s now. It is rising very fast. It doubled from 3 months ago. The rate is increasing.

I predict it will rise even faster in the months leading up to the summer

[sanadas]

The hash rate is 822GH/s now. It is rising very fast. It doubled from 3 months ago. The rate is increasing.

I predict it will rise even faster in the months leading up to the summer

Why? Do you think people are spending more time and money to build more rigs to mine ethereum?

[Rumant]

The life span of the GPU rigs for Ethereum is just 10 months. Do you know any coin worth mining?

[Ayers]

Did you measure your whole system power with a power meter from the socket on  the wall?

Meter on a UPS -- 260W total, mobo, drives, fans, etc. take about 80W, cards ~90W each full-out w/boost. It's basically a multi-boot linux workstation and occasional gaming rig, not exactly designed for lowest power consumption... It's not worth putting a dedicated mining rig together with $300 cards unless you have better reasons to use them (or can recoup a high percentage of their initial cost, as some/most GTX models apparently can).   

These 970 cards cost $370 in my country. So it is not profitable to make a rig with them if the Ethereum price drops.

you can always sell them if it is not profitable, 970 can be sold easily on the market, but the question is is ethereum still profitable?

[mikewillda]

Did you measure your whole system power with a power meter from the socket on  the wall?

Meter on a UPS -- 260W total, mobo, drives, fans, etc. take about 80W, cards ~90W each full-out w/boost. It's basically a multi-boot linux workstation and occasional gaming rig, not exactly designed for lowest power consumption... It's not worth putting a dedicated mining rig together with $300 cards unless you have better reasons to use them (or can recoup a high percentage of their initial cost, as some/most GTX models apparently can).   

These 970 cards cost $370 in my country. So it is not profitable to make a rig with them if the Ethereum price drops.

you can always sell them if it is not profitable, 970 can be sold easily on the market, but the question is is ethereum still profitable?

Yes, we can sell. But buying and selling costs lots of money if you have a big farm to deal with.

[apriyoni]

Did you measure your whole system power with a power meter from the socket on  the wall?

Meter on a UPS -- 260W total, mobo, drives, fans, etc. take about 80W, cards ~90W each full-out w/boost. It's basically a multi-boot linux workstation and occasional gaming rig, not exactly designed for lowest power consumption... It's not worth putting a dedicated mining rig together with $300 cards unless you have better reasons to use them (or can recoup a high percentage of their initial cost, as some/most GTX models apparently can).   

These 970 cards cost $370 in my country. So it is not profitable to make a rig with them if the Ethereum price drops.

you can always sell them if it is not profitable, 970 can be sold easily on the market, but the question is is ethereum still profitable?

Building a rig and set up the system costs lots of time of money. If we can make good profit, it is ok to build.

[thesmokingman]

Light reading for anyone interested in future Eth profit potential. Boost VC is moving away from investing in BTC companies to invest in companies building upon the Ethereum network.

http://themerkle.com/news/boost-vc-wants-to-invest-in-ethereum-projects/

[thesmokingman]

Anybody know if you can run ethminer using old AMD drivers like 14.4 and 13.12? I want to use more than 4 GPUs but I am using Windows 7.

Etherminer does not work with 14.4 or below. The lowest version which can work is the 14.6. It works well with 15.7. If you just want to mine with 6 GPU, there is no need to mod.

I have the same problem. With Win 7 and AMD 15.12 drivers, the fifth card doesn't install properly. All I can find on the internet so far are mystical references.

Cant do 5 gpus with WIndows 7, upgrade to 8.1

You can certainly do 5+ GPUs on Win 7, it just takes a little work to get it going....

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=712228 - here's a thread for anyone wondering how to get it done. Hope it helps!