Just 1 card, FREE electricity, budget, what would you get ?

[Valmara]

For startes, I have Free electricity and not worried about fan noise.
I have a PC that i would like to use for mining, just to start out, with 1 gfx card.

Question, What would be the best GPU to get on a budget ? (looking at used cards atm)

If this works out and i regain the costs on that card i would like to add a 2nd one, and so on.
I am aware of the risers that are needed  with multiple cards, and that is not a problem.

I did do a lot of reading, but most of the time people look into cards that are also power efficient and the ones they underclock the voltage, etc.
I don't care about electricity as it free.
The AMD or Nvidia choice isn't crystal clear to me as i read a lot of different stories, just as the older AMD cards that are still performing very well yet they
can be bought used for a decent price, that sounds interesting.

I would like to hear from the people with a lot of experience here what they would buy (just 1 card, free electricity) ?

Any advise is welcome !

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[Jdope]

Free elecricity? get an hd 7990 or an R9 390x2, they're gonna cost you but they're very very good. If they're not in your budget then look for R9 390(without the x2) or an R9 290, these can be bought cheaper than the rx 470 and do as well or even better, they're power mongers though

[Valmara]

Free elecricity? get an hd 7990 or an R9 390x2, they're gonna cost you but they're very very good. If they're not in your budget then look for R9 390(without the x2) or an R9 290, these can be bought cheaper than the rx 470 and do as well or even better, they're power mongers though

I am somewhat on a budget and YES free electricity where i stay so i don't care of it's a power monger.
Thanks for your advise, i will see what i can find (used) for a decent price !

[Vann]

IMO, the best bang-for-buck for a quick ROI is with a Pitcarin series card like the HD7850. You can get used 2GB cards for about $50-$60 and mine UBIQ at 20 MH/s, almost as good as a 1060 3GB card at 1/5 the price. With free power you are looking at a ROI of less than two months.

[Ultegra134]

I would also suggest an AMD 7990, you can easily find some used ones. Whatever you buy, keep it mind that it should be more than 2Gb, 4Gb would be ideal. With a 2Gb you cannot mine Ethereum which is probably the most efficient to mine at the moment. I have 2x 2gb Cards and the most profitable right now is ZCash, don't do the same mistake like I did.

[64dimensions]

The squirrel fan'd ASUS 4GB 290X card modded with the Stilt bios. This card is noisy and needs to be in a cool ambient.

[Vann]

I would also suggest an AMD 7990, you can easily find some used ones. Whatever you buy, keep it mind that it should be more than 2Gb, 4Gb would be ideal. With a 2Gb you cannot mine Ethereum which is probably the most efficient to mine at the moment. I have 2x 2gb Cards and the most profitable right now is ZCash, don't do the same mistake like I did.

The problem with 4GB cards are they are overpriced, since everyone wants to mine ETH. For someone on a budget, the much better value is with 2GB cards. I was mining ZEC with my Pitcarin 2GB cards and switched to UBIQ, which another Ethash coin. It's currently at epoch 6 and has 80 sec block times, so you can mine it with 2GB cards for a long time to come. UBIQ is a nice coin with a low diff and great roadmap. It's a little less profitable to mine than ETH currently, but you can accumulate a lot of coins and IMO it has a much better chance of going up substantially from the ~$1.50 it's at now than ETH does. With free power, you are looking at around $35/month in profit at the current price.

http://whattomine.com/coins/173-ubq-ethash?utf8=%E2%9C%93&hr=20&p=150&fee=2&cost=0.10&hcost=0.0&commit=Calculate

[StraabdenDaals]

I would also suggest an AMD 7990, you can easily find some used ones. Whatever you buy, keep it mind that it should be more than 2Gb, 4Gb would be ideal. With a 2Gb you cannot mine Ethereum which is probably the most efficient to mine at the moment. I have 2x 2gb Cards and the most profitable right now is ZCash, don't do the same mistake like I did.

The problem with 4GB cards are they are overpriced, since everyone wants to mine ETH. For someone on a budget, the much better value is with 2GB cards. I was mining ZEC with my Pitcarin 2GB cards and switched to UBIQ, which another Ethash coin. It's currently at epoch 6 and has 80 sec block times, so you can mine it with 2GB cards for a long time to come. UBIQ is a nice coin with a low diff and great roadmap. It's a little less profitable to mine than ETH currently, but you can accumulate a lot of coins and IMO it has a much better chance of going up substantially from the ~$1.50 it's at now than ETH does. With free power, you are looking at around $35/month in profit at the current price.

http://whattomine.com/coins/173-ubq-ethash?utf8=%E2%9C%93&hr=20&p=150&fee=2&cost=0.10&hcost=0.0&commit=Calculate

This is a really interesting idea. I guess you have to scrounge ebay?

[Vann]

I would also suggest an AMD 7990, you can easily find some used ones. Whatever you buy, keep it mind that it should be more than 2Gb, 4Gb would be ideal. With a 2Gb you cannot mine Ethereum which is probably the most efficient to mine at the moment. I have 2x 2gb Cards and the most profitable right now is ZCash, don't do the same mistake like I did.

The problem with 4GB cards are they are overpriced, since everyone wants to mine ETH. For someone on a budget, the much better value is with 2GB cards. I was mining ZEC with my Pitcarin 2GB cards and switched to UBIQ, which another Ethash coin. It's currently at epoch 6 and has 80 sec block times, so you can mine it with 2GB cards for a long time to come. UBIQ is a nice coin with a low diff and great roadmap. It's a little less profitable to mine than ETH currently, but you can accumulate a lot of coins and IMO it has a much better chance of going up substantially from the ~$1.50 it's at now than ETH does. With free power, you are looking at around $35/month in profit at the current price.

http://whattomine.com/coins/173-ubq-ethash?utf8=%E2%9C%93&hr=20&p=150&fee=2&cost=0.10&hcost=0.0&commit=Calculate

This is a really interesting idea. I guess you have to scrounge ebay?

Yep, but they seeemed to have vanished. A month ago you could find used HD 7850 2GB cards for less than $50.

[bmartin44]

Since you have FREE electricity, then should get a powerful GPU card for mining. 1080ti is a good card to mine zcash, full load ~350w (depends on card), noise level is low too.

[Ultegra134]

I would also suggest an AMD 7990, you can easily find some used ones. Whatever you buy, keep it mind that it should be more than 2Gb, 4Gb would be ideal. With a 2Gb you cannot mine Ethereum which is probably the most efficient to mine at the moment. I have 2x 2gb Cards and the most profitable right now is ZCash, don't do the same mistake like I did.

The problem with 4GB cards are they are overpriced, since everyone wants to mine ETH. For someone on a budget, the much better value is with 2GB cards. I was mining ZEC with my Pitcarin 2GB cards and switched to UBIQ, which another Ethash coin. It's currently at epoch 6 and has 80 sec block times, so you can mine it with 2GB cards for a long time to come. UBIQ is a nice coin with a low diff and great roadmap. It's a little less profitable to mine than ETH currently, but you can accumulate a lot of coins and IMO it has a much better chance of going up substantially from the ~$1.50 it's at now than ETH does. With free power, you are looking at around $35/month in profit at the current price.

http://whattomine.com/coins/173-ubq-ethash?utf8=%E2%9C%93&hr=20&p=150&fee=2&cost=0.10&hcost=0.0&commit=Calculate

Would you mind letting me know what card you are using? I'm currently using 2 R7 260x OC with further overclock using MSI Afterburner and I am making $1.20-$1.50 per day using the Nicehash Miner (Equihash Algorithm).

[Valmara]

Thank you all for responding !

I started looking at the 7990 but it is NOT very easy to find here in Holland. Even on Ebay in other countries you don't find them for a bargain.
I mean, they are 4 year old cards and eventhough they don't say it thet probably mined the shit out of them.

1080TI would be great but way out of my budget, they are asking crazy prices for them these days.


Would 2x crossfire HD 7970 make any sense ?  These i can find at a good price.

[Undefined31415]

Thank you all for responding !

I started looking at the 7990 but it is NOT very easy to find here in Holland. Even on Ebay in other countries you don't find them for a bargain.
I mean, they are 4 year old cards and eventhough they don't say it thet probably mined the shit out of them.

1080TI would be great but way out of my budget, they are asking crazy prices for them these days.


Would 2x crossfire HD 7970 make any sense ?  These i can find at a good price.

Crossfire is not necessary for mining, and can often reduce performance and/or create a number of different problems.

7970s were once the flagship single-GPU cards, but as always, whether or not they're worth it largely depends on the price you can get them for. Back when GPU mining BTC and LTC was profitable, 7950s were actually more popular since the 7970s usually didn't offer a performance increase that justified the additional cost & power.

However, you'll want to check your options carefully. The GPU mining scene today isn't exactly the same as it was with BTC/LTC. Now, the amount of graphics RAM is more important. It's only a matter of time before 3GB cards become obsolete for Ethereum. (There are 6GB 7970s floating around, though.)
Check out hashrates for mining performance on other cryptos, such as Zcash.

[antantti]

Question, What would be the best GPU to get on a budget ? (looking at used cards atm)

How much is your budget?

7970 can do about 2€/ day so 60€ would be 30 days, 80€ 40 days and so on...

[Valmara]

Question, What would be the best GPU to get on a budget ? (looking at used cards atm)

How much is your budget?

7970 can do about 2€/ day so 60€ would be 30 days, 80€ 40 days and so on...

Budget is around 350 euros  (400 dollars)
Was thinking of finding 3x HD 7970 3GB cards ...  Or is 3GB Obsolete very soon ?
I wanted to start out with 1 card, but i have space in my casing and the mobo supports it, maybe 3 cheap 7970's will net me more power in the end than just 1x R9 390.

I am just thinking out loud and a total noob. Feel free to comment if this doesn't make any sense.

[bmartin44]

Question, What would be the best GPU to get on a budget ? (looking at used cards atm)

How much is your budget?

7970 can do about 2€/ day so 60€ would be 30 days, 80€ 40 days and so on...

Budget is around 350 euros  (400 dollars)
Was thinking of finding 3x HD 7970 3GB cards ...  Or is 3GB Obsolete very soon ?
I wanted to start out with 1 card, but i have space in my casing and the mobo supports it, maybe 3 cheap 7970's will net me more power in the end than just 1x R9 390.

I am just thinking out loud and a total noob. Feel free to comment if this doesn't make any sense.

I think 3GB is more than enough for mining ETH now and future. I remember I saw somewhere that mentioned about the calculation of ETH, ETH will go into POS before 4GB is needed.

[Mimsoo]

Get a 1080ti. Will benefit you in the Future too.

[Valmara]

Yeah, heard the 1080Ti before but it is very pricey right now ..... ROI would take a year probably.

What do you guys think of a R9 295x2 ?? It's old but supposed to be very powerfull and since electricity is free in my case that could be an option.
I did find some used, bot cheap ofcourse but $150 less than a 1080TI. Maybe i need to flex that budget a bit.


I am aware that you can't mine ETH forever and i might even end before i could ROI a premium GPU like the above.
Ofcourse there is plenty to be mined besides ETH. Looking at alternatives to mine would AMD or Nvidia be the choice ?

Thanks

[antantti]

What do you guys think of a R9 295x2 ?? It's old but supposed to be very powerfull and since electricity is free in my case that could be an option.
I did find some used, bot cheap ofcourse but $150 less than a 1080TI. Maybe i need to flex that budget a bit.

295x2 used to be in 300-400€ area but right now the street price is higher. Not worth it if they they are close to 1080ti prices imo.

Nvidia 970 could be a good option too if you find them cheap.

[tunctioncloud]

Take a big nasty dual GPU AMD such as 390x2. It produces a big hashrate but it consume so much that it is not widely used anymore. But in case you are not worried about that, go with this one !