Starting mining rig

[Tyrantt]

I wasnt sure where to post this exactly so if im wrong, sorry mods.

Anyways, I was thinking of visitng a flea market every weekend, since the last few times I was there, I've seen a couple of GPUs about 1GB to, sometimes, 2GB for the price of around 5-7$ (they have no idea what are they selling). So I was thinking, would it be prfitable to start buying those GPU (I'll be sure they work ofc) and start making a mining rig for some alt-coins possibly? Electicity is not a problem, I just want to know opinions on that.

[achow101]

It depends on the cards themselves. The memory of the card doesn't really matter, what matters are the cores and clock speed.

[brrmatteo]

You must check the model of Gpus, memory isn't important (as achow101 has explaned you) and it limits mining in a few cases(ethereum) and if you buy unknown gpu model/manufactor probably you won't configure it to work correctly.

[Tyrantt]

You must check the model of Gpus, memory isn't important (as achow101 has explaned you) and it limits mining in a few cases(ethereum) and if you buy unknown gpu model/manufactor probably you won't configure it to work correctly.

Sorry for the late response, I've totally forgot about this post. Ok, let's say that I find a few gpus that have the average to lower than average cores and clocking speed. Would that payoff in some case? Would it be worth doing that at all even if I can find a 10+ average GPUs that are considered good for some alt-coin mining?

[QuintLeo]

Actually, for Ethereum, the memory size on the cards is CRITICAL - don't consider anything less than a 2GB card or it flat out won't work.

 For other algorythms/coins that probably doesn't matter.

 Also, anything older than the AMD 78xx/79xx series or the NVidia GTX 9xx or GTX 750ti is going to eat too much electric for what mining it can mangage to be worth investing time and effort into.

 *ANY* 2GB card should be worth looking at though, even if it's an exception to the previous line, as those were always either the higher-end cards or new enough to be worthwhile.

[Shiroslullaby]

Are certain coins mining better on certain manufacturers drivers?
I see a lot of people in the Monero threads talking about using AMD cards.
Or is it just that certain specific cards are performing well at that price point?

[JITENDERPAR3]

I wasnt sure where to post this exactly so if im wrong, sorry mods.

Anyways, I was thinking of visitng a flea market every weekend, since the last few times I was there, I've seen a couple of GPUs about 1GB to, sometimes, 2GB for the price of around 5-7$ (they have no idea what are they selling). So I was thinking, would it be prfitable to start buying those GPU (I'll be sure they work ofc) and start making a mining rig for some alt-coins possibly? Electicity is not a problem, I just want to know opinions on that.

since gpu mining is also a better idea for small mining of digital currency . but i will suggest you don't buy gpu product without prior knowledge about the mining power .
but another thig in my mind is if you have free electricity to use then you should go in this own mining system otherwise leave idea because it is not more profitable .

[QuintLeo]

What little examination I've done of hashrate for Monero indicates a strong preference for AMD on GPUs and a lesser one for Intel on CPUs.

 I've not made the time to do any serious number crunching yet though.

[Raja_MBZ]

First of all, set your budget. You'll finish up on purchasing some crap stuff if you don't investigate before your purchase. Check the model numbers, text written on the stickers, etc. Investigate around here then before purchasing it. Any GPU of less than 2 GB memory size is absolutely worthless in mining, you need some good graphics cards.

[Hamaber]

What little examination I've done of hashrate for Monero indicates a strong preference for AMD on GPUs and a lesser one for Intel on CPUs.

 I've not made the time to do any serious number crunching yet though.

Do you mean the AMD GPU is better than the nVidia for Moenro. Do you use the lastest 480 or the 390?

[robertkedves]

What little examination I've done of hashrate for Monero indicates a strong preference for AMD on GPUs and a lesser one for Intel on CPUs.

 I've not made the time to do any serious number crunching yet though.

Do you mean the AMD GPU is better than the nVidia for Moenro. Do you use the lastest 480 or the 390?

AMD GPU is way more better than nVidia for mining. I've tested both types of cards and the results are incredible: AMD GPU's hashes are 2x better the nVidia (on the same year release of the cards).

Cheers,

[QuintLeo]

AMD GPU is way more better than nVidia for mining. I've tested both types of cards and the results are incredible: AMD GPU's hashes are 2x better the nVidia (on the same year release of the cards).

 Not true for the current generation, the issue there is "Nvidia card does same hashrate but COSTS twice as much" more or less.

 But again, it varies with the specific coin being targeted.

[Hamaber]

AMD GPU is way more better than nVidia for mining. I've tested both types of cards and the results are incredible: AMD GPU's hashes are 2x better the nVidia (on the same year release of the cards).

 Not true for the current generation, the issue there is "Nvidia card does same hashrate but COSTS twice as much" more or less.

 But again, it varies with the specific coin being targeted.

You are right. The nVidia 1070 and the RX 480 has similar hash rate for Etheruem, but the nVidia is much more expensive.

[carlfebz2]

AMD GPU is way more better than nVidia for mining. I've tested both types of cards and the results are incredible: AMD GPU's hashes are 2x better the nVidia (on the same year release of the cards).

 Not true for the current generation, the issue there is "Nvidia card does same hashrate but COSTS twice as much" more or less.

 But again, it varies with the specific coin being targeted.

Agree with this  nvidia gpu are much more  expensive   compare  to others  but the hash rate is still the same. GPU would  really depend on  what  coind would you intend to  mine  same as you said because  theres a particular  gpu which is  good  on mining a certain alt coin.

[Mzie]

Before buying any GPU , be sure of what type of (script) coins u want to mine, i bet u would want to mine profitable coins like Ethereum, XMR, Decred, LBRY etc. If you choose to mine ethereum then all the gpu's that u buy must be a minimum of 4GB AMD preferable. It's also good that you are in this forum , there are many threads that can help you regarding this

[Hamaber]

Before buying any GPU , be sure of what type of (script) coins u want to mine, i bet u would want to mine profitable coins like Ethereum, XMR, Decred, LBRY etc. If you choose to mine ethereum then all the gpu's that u buy must be a minimum of 4GB AMD preferable. It's also good that you are in this forum , there are many threads that can help you regarding this

For the time being, there are not many profitable altcoin to mine if you have to pay the electriicty. The price is too low.

[ethereumhunter]

i think its profitable for you to buy GPU to start mining rig and your choice to mining altcoins is a good choice, you can select many coins with the GPU and if in someday, you think that your mining rig is not profitable again, then you can sold your GPU and for this, you can still make money for that.

[Redrose]

Even assuming that you have free electricity and even cards, if you have to buy the rest of the mining rig at not a very good rate, that's a bad idea. Tell us at which price you can get a whole system and we'll then tell you if that's a good idea or not.

[Hamaber]

Even assuming that you have free electricity and even cards, if you have to buy the rest of the mining rig at not a very good rate, that's a bad idea. Tell us at which price you can get a whole system and we'll then tell you if that's a good idea or not.

For the ZEC mining, it will take several years to ROI if you have to pay for the rigs and even if your electricity price is low.

[64dimensions]

Would a swap meet search algorithm be in this case to:

1) See card.

2) Search on phone, say  mining AMD 6xxx

3) Take best coin hash result and enter into mining calculator.

Probably every 6xxx series card and better has been eval'ed for suitability in alt coin mining.

As the folks above have noted the key parameter will be hash rate per watt.


Amazingly enough, NEWEGG still sells old stuff, so maybe their is some ebay value for your finds.