Anyone using Nvidia cards to mine?

[XX55XX]

Yeah, Nvidia cards are slower and generate a far lower rate of return. But a GTX 560 Ti and a 9400M are all I have at my disposal. I don't want to switch to AMD just for the sake of mining, so I am sticking with Nvidia.

And since I doubt mining for Bitcoins are going to strike it rich for me, mining for Bitcoins is just a side activity. I might earn enough for a extra cup of coffee every month.

[hugolp]

The problem with Nvidia is that you might end up paying more for the electricity they consume that what you get worth of bitcoins. You will have to do the math, use a bitcoin generation calculator, but keep in mind that the difficulty goes up every 10-14 days.

[XX55XX]

Yes, but if the difficulty increases every two weeks, then wouldn't people with AMD cards hit a wall eventually too?

Hmm. This Bitcoin thing sounds like US Treasury bonds - yields keep going down and down...

I pay roughly twelve cents per kilowatt hour.

[hugolp]

Yes, but if the difficulty increases every two weeks, then wouldn't people with AMD cards hit a wall eventually too?

Hmm. This Bitcoin thing sounds like US Treasury bonds - yields keep going down and down...

I pay roughly twelve cents per kilowatt hour.

Yes, AMD cards will hit a wall too. But right now AMD is the most efficient hardware to mine, so everybody will hit the wall and it will get to some kind of equilbrium where the people with the higher electricity rates are priced out of the market and the more efficient stay but with very low rates (obviously if new hardware is discovered then situation changes). And you can imagine that Nvidia being so inefficient will be priced out quickly even with very cheap electiricty rates. Maybe they are alredy priced out, I have not made the math.

[XX55XX]

Hmm. I just bought this GTX 560 Ti a few days before I discovered the Bitcoin mining craze. Shame. I really like Nvidia. Oh well, perhaps I might have to switch to a 6870 after all.

[CydeWeys]

Yes, but if the difficulty increases every two weeks, then wouldn't people with AMD cards hit a wall eventually too?

Yes, but the Radeons will hit the unprofitability wall at a much later time than the Nvidias will.  Heck, depending on how much you're paying for electricity, most Nvidia cards are probably already unprofitable, whereas Radeons still pay to keep themselves running (and then some).

There's only one Bitcoin network. If you aren't using the most efficient hardware, you're going to lose a lot faster than people using the proper hardware will.  Your inefficient Nvidia rig (as measured in MHash/KW-hr) simply can't keep up.

[nuclearstar]

My main PC is a GTX 470 but I dont generally use it for mining.
I setup my old PC with a cheap ATI 5850 and that gets 330mhash/s, this is on 24/7 in my attic just mining.

I only mine with my GTX470 when I am watching a movie on tv show on my main PC, or maybe listening to music while doing other things. I can get another 100mhash/s out of the 470 so I think it is worth running it as I have my PC on already. I wouldn't run it on its own purely for mining as it uses too much power.

I think ATI cards will still be profitable, but only marginally, when it gets harder and harder to generate coins, the price will go up and it will just keep going up to pay for the "commercial" miners costs.