Will GPU mining die soon because of ASICs invasion?

[AlgoSwan]

What do you guys think about this?

What happens if any GPU hit the market with 2 GH/s with solar powered unit? (Yeah, fantasy! just like cell phones in 80's)

[glendall]

GPU mining won't die.

It'll just go to razor-thin profit margins and won't be worthwhile for many people to do.

[computerparts]

GPU mining won't die.

It'll just go to razor-thin profit margins and won't be worthwhile for many people to do.

Lol it's already at that point, yet some people continue to do so.

[glendall]

Gotta say I'm pretty surprised at the rate of which difficulty is still rapidly increasing at, even when the price was sub $70.

I guess it falls into two camps:

1) New miners who jumped in this month with all the Bitcoin press who don't realize how fast the difficulty is going up

2) Established miners who already have everything all set up so there isn't much point of shutting down unless they are actually losing money.

Either way the good ole days of pretty profitable mining are gone (not that I was a part of this myself).  Getting into ASICS will require an investment, and they can't be resold or else-wise used like GPUs can.

   "back in the good ole days..."

[MashRinx]

GPU mining won't die.

It'll just go to razor-thin profit margins and won't be worthwhile for many people to do.

Lol it's already at that point, yet some people continue to do so.

I hear this comment a lot, but I don't understand it.  Given current BTC prices, the RoI on my GPUs has been higher in April '13 than any months I've been mining.  Granted I'm not an old-timer, but have been mining since Jan 2012.

[Nova!]

What do you guys think about this?

What happens if any GPU hit the market with 2 GH/s with solar powered unit? (Yeah, fantasy! just like cell phones in 80's)

GPU mining is a great way to repurpose old hardware especially if you're in an area with low electricity costs.

However the GPU mining applications don't need to go away even if costs of electricity skyrocket.

Most GPU miners use OpenCL.  There are now FPGAs on the market that can be programmed directly using OpenCL and exhibit performance exceeding that of my FPGA unit from Butterfly Labs.  More importantly, it's half the cost and uses 15 watts at full throttle.  It'll still take me a year or two to make back my initial investment.  But it is just re-using the GPU mining software.

[Operatr]

Those GPUs will find a happy home in the altcoin mining arena, of which there are several new ones to play with.

[AlgoSwan]

Those GPUs will find a happy home in the altcoin mining arena, of which there are several new ones to play with.

As long as there is profits and high ROI, ASICs will try to invade these alt coins. But some alt cryptocurrencies can prevent this invasion by using different system in which ASICs not work or work slower.

[Bitsaurus]

Those GPUs will find a happy home in the altcoin mining arena, of which there are several new ones to play with.

The scrypt based coins are ASIC resistant (if not ASIC proof).

[Signus]

GPU mining is just hard to jump into now. I've hit a wall with money and I can't expand my farm to anything worthwhile yet.

As far as ASIC's go, they're developed for Bitcoin hashing, meaning that for anything else they're almost worthless which is nice if people need something to fall back on.

[seleme]

I wrote on some other thread earlier today that I wish ASICs never appeared. I don't mine and won't (unless I could buy and get asic in a week or two, lol) so it does not bother me too much but asics are making bitcoin community to be all that bitcoin community supposedly hate in "real word" one - big fish to become bigger and other to eat a dust from their tables. Greed, greed, greed... greed is everywhere

Won't even start about scam mark they brought to bitcoin.

[Viceroy]

Those GPUs will find a happy home in the altcoin mining arena, of which there are several new ones to play with.

Yep... Mass migration to Litecoin before the year is out...

[mokahless]

Lol it's already at that point, yet some people continue to do so.

*looks at math did for weekly power estimates for a radeon 5830+system (no more than 250W total) (approx. 1 target period) at current Ontario power rates (comes to 0.0761CAD per KWH after making a weighted average, then accounting for holidays that have a lower power rate. The power ontario website says to use 0.08CAD for averaging but they are lazy with their math.)*

3.20CAD

*looks at income for that one week at current exchange rate at current difficulty level (321MH/s@1GHz)*

rounded down:
0.1259 = 33.09CAD (mtgox)


*calculates % I get to keep as profit*

90%


uhhhh what?


Note: I haven't done much math like that in a while because I mine regardless because I keep the BTC and don't convert it to CAD. Electricity is just the cost of creating BTC that I absorb and I choose how much total I want to absorb monthly, regardless of how much BTC I produce.

[Schrankwand]

Lol it's already at that point, yet some people continue to do so.

*looks at math did for weekly power estimates for a radeon 5830+system (no more than 250W total) (approx. 1 target period) at current Ontario power rates (comes to 0.0761CAD per KWH after making a weighted average, then accounting for holidays that have a lower power rate. The power ontario website says to use 0.08CAD for averaging but they are lazy with their math.)*

3.20CAD

*looks at income for that one week at current exchange rate at current difficulty level (321MH/s@1GHz)*

rounded down:
0.1259 = 33.09CAD (mtgox)


*calculates % I get to keep as profit*

90%


uhhhh what?


Note: I haven't done much math like that in a while because I mine regardless because I keep the BTC and don't convert it to CAD. Electricity is just the cost of creating BTC that I absorb and I choose how much total I want to absorb monthly, regardless of how much BTC I produce.

You won't believe how fucking lucky you are.


After the great idea to trash all our nuclear plants not build new, more efficient ones, here in Germany you pay somewhere around 0.25  for a kwh.

[Viceroy]

After the great idea to trash all our nuclear plants not build new, more efficient ones, here in Germany you pay somewhere around 0.25  for a kwh.

OMG!

Here in Colorado we burn coal from the mountains and we let the smoke travel across the plains into kansas, so it's their problem.  (Isn't that where BFL is?).  Our electric company Xcel sells commercial power for $0.004 to $0.006 / KHh.  (Most people do not know that).  In order to buy electricity that cheap you need to consume 25,000 watts constantly and pay a fee of $300 US per month extra.  It is what big factories pay.  (And large marijuana farms).

[aqrulesms]

If GPU miners all migrate to Litecoin then Litecoin will gain an even larger backing by the miners.

Essentially we will have a split between Bitcoin and Litecoin as the two major cryptocurrencies.

ASIC miners on bitcoin will make as much as the average GPU miner on litecoin, which practically renders ASICs as an equal to GPU. This means more miners will be likely to flock to Litecoin because building custom rigs that one can call their own is a more enjoyable hobby.

[crazy_rabbit]

GPUS will move to litecoin. Litecoin will become honestly valuable. Someone will build an ASIC for Litecoin, and gpu miners will have to find something else to mine.

[AlgoSwan]

Someone will build an ASIC for Litecoin, and gpu miners will have to find something else to mine.

So, you think scrypt based coins are not ASIC resistant?

[Viceroy]

So, you think scrypt based coins are not ASIC resistant?

Honestly, I do not know.  Come join us and let's figure it out.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=179033

[aqrulesms]

GPUS will move to litecoin. Litecoin will become honestly valuable. Someone will build an ASIC for Litecoin, and gpu miners will have to find something else to mine.

I guess you don't know how memory intensive Litecoin is. The more hashes you have, the more memory you need. A 7970/7950 alone takes up 1.5-2 GB of memory. Imagine a 60 mhash ASIC hashing away.. The memory requirement is HORRENDOUS.