I just spent a few grand to build a 3 GPU rig to get 95 HS/s while needing to buy 3 more cards to get to 186 HS/s just to find out about these damn miners that you cant buy?
Looks like they launch some before at $1,400, now they have a new batch for $2600 that you cant order and everyone is gouging the shit out of the market at $4k to $5k?
I really want one of these but as someone fairly new to alt coins, I have apparently missed the boat on all fronts.
*runs to find the closest bridge*
You bought a GPU rig to mine Litecoin? God damn everybody and their mother wants to be a miner, but have ZERO clue what they are doing, kinda frustrating!
Let me break it down for you:
There are many different coins and crypto algorithms. Some of the algos are ASIC resistant.
What is an ASIC? ASIC stands for Application Specific Integrated Circuit. It basically means that its a microprocessor that is application specific, all integrated on a chip. Application specific means it can only do one thing, or calculate one algorithm.
CPU and GPU´s are also Integrated Circuits, but can do MANY different operations. Because of this they need registers, cache/memory ALU++ to be able to do these operations, and to be fitted on the same chip. This leaves less room for the "calculating" part on the chip. (I´m sorry this is a little thin, I don´t know the word for it
)
So to recap:
ASIC = Really fast at one operation
CPU = Can do a lot of different operations, but much slower than an ASIC on that specific operation.
GPU = Can do a lot of different operations, but much slower than an ASIC on that specific operation.
Obviously a CPU is much slower than a GPU when mining Ethereum for example. This is because of the type of algorithm used, it uses a lot of memory.
Ethereum is a good example of an ASIC resistant coin. The operations in the DaggerHashimoto algorithm is complex and requires a lot of memory.
This makes it hard and expensive to create an ASIC for it, and this combined with the difficulty bomb/ice age that is programmed into the ethereum code discourages manufacturers to even try to create an ASIC for it.
I used to mine litecoin with GPUs back in 2013, before the ASICs came a long. If I remember correctly I was getting around 3600 kH/s on a rig.
Thats roughly 600 kh/s per graphic card, and a graphic card contains 1 GPU chip.
The Antminer L3+ is a machine that contains 288 ASIC chips, with a speed of 504 MH/s
For perspective:
1 kH/s = 1000 h/s (hashes per second)
1 MH/s = 1000.000 h/s
So a GPU mining LTC will calculate around 600.000 h/s
And the L3+ will calculate around 504.000.000 h/s
Its obvious that when an ASIC hits the market for an algorithm, GPU mining will become obsolete.
So no, you can´t mine LTC with GPUs anymore
Before you go jumping of a bridge you should try mining ethereum, ethereum classic or ZEC. There are no ASICs for these coins (and many others).
Your GPUs could also be usable in the future in projects like golem or iExec RLC.
Welcome to the crypto game, lol xD
Im sorry if this post is hard to read, got zero structure, its my fragmented thoughts basically
