Alt coin mining profitability - What am I missing?

[miner2002]

I'm currently mining FTC coins on my gaming rig (Nvidia 770) and I'm getting close to 10 coins per day.  I just ordered the R9 290 so I should be getting about 3 times the performance, or 30 FTC coins a day. 

30 coins x 30 days = 900 coins x $1= $900

At $900/month, that is a massive ROI.  I'll get the cash back for my whole rig in around a month if prices hold. I know I'm not taking into account energy cost, but even still, it should be very profitable. 

If I were to invest in 5 similar rigs, I could be pulling in at least $2,500 / month if not more after energy expense which seems like a no-brainer.

Obviously if the coin prices on FTC drop that math doesn't work.  Other than the risk of price drop, what am I missing? This just seems too obvious and too easy.

[An amorous cow-herder]

Switched my gaming rig (with an ATI 7950) from LTC to FTC as well. FTC is a bit more profitable currently. Not sure if the prices are gonna hold though, and if they do i would assume the difficulty to rise pretty quickly.
The thing about no-brainers is that many people realise it quickly, which will probably reduce the profit fairly quickly. Or in other words, you might end up with a couple of gaming rigs that are near worthless as miners in a couple of weeks.
You might ROI by then (and end up with a couple of gaming that rigs that have a resale value as well), it may continue to be worthwhile (possibly switching to a different altcoin) or you may have wasted a couple of thousand on gaming rigs. Your choice, your risk.

[Bipity Bupity]

how about adding some hd 7950 instead? they are really cheap and perform very good, 640 - 650 kh/s each for me, with some overclocking i can get two of them at 1.4 MH/s.. right now they make more or less 0.04 btc a day, and i dont pay for energy.. not bad for 2 cards.. im planning to add more hd 7950 of course 

i tried mining on feathercoin and other coins pools but it was kinda messy, all the clients, all the logins.. i switched to a middlecoin, that way its more clean, one wallett, no logins..

[skleven]

If you are planning to mine almost fulltime, stay away from the 290 and 290x. The best gpu`s for mining now days is 7950, 7970 or 280x. The first two is easy to get second hand. And put as many gpus in the same rig to cut costst. Both in hardware and power.

[limbaugh]

Obviously if the coin prices on FTC drop that math doesn't work.  Other than the risk of price drop, what am I missing? This just seems too obvious and too easy.

It's an unusually profitable time. Mining is a low profit margin, don't be fooled. Most months you are scraping enough just to pay for power. Honestly I had most of my rigs boxed and ready to sell a few weeks ago. Unboxed them to mine some TAG.

[Lauda]

The crazy increase in prices have made the ROI times very short.
Buying the 290 or 290x is a mistake.

[miner2002]

The reason I went with the 290 was because I don't want to JUST mine, I want to game as well so that aspect made the 290 more appealing to me.  I had the GTX 770 and by simply switching to the 290 I'm going to get about 3x the performance when I am mining and slightly improved gaming performance.

If I set up another rig solely to mine, I'll go with a different card of course.

Personally I see bitcoin continuing to do well and Alt coins continuing to go up.  With the current ROI of about a month, and the potential to mine other coins, it seems like a risk work taking to me!

[Lauda]

The reason I went with the 290 was because I don't want to JUST mine, I want to game as well so that aspect made the 290 more appealing to me.  I had the GTX 770 and by simply switching to the 290 I'm going to get about 3x the performance when I am mining and slightly improved gaming performance.

If I set up another rig solely to mine, I'll go with a different card of course.

Personally I see bitcoin continuing to do well and Alt coins continuing to go up.  With the current ROI of about a month, and the potential to mine other coins, it seems like a risk work taking to me!

You don't need a 290 for gaming.
A 7950 is enough.

[miner2002]

The reason I went with the 290 was because I don't want to JUST mine, I want to game as well so that aspect made the 290 more appealing to me.  I had the GTX 770 and by simply switching to the 290 I'm going to get about 3x the performance when I am mining and slightly improved gaming performance.

If I set up another rig solely to mine, I'll go with a different card of course.

Personally I see bitcoin continuing to do well and Alt coins continuing to go up.  With the current ROI of about a month, and the potential to mine other coins, it seems like a risk work taking to me!

You don't need a 290 for gaming.
A 7950 is enough.

Not to go too off topic here, but that's a matter of personal preference.  You don't NEED a 290 to game, but when you're playing BF4 a higher end card like the 290 makes a very noticeable difference.

You have every right to your opinion though

[Lauda]

Not to go too off topic here, but that's a matter of personal preference.  You don't NEED a 290 to game, but when you're playing BF4 a higher end card like the 290 makes a very noticeable difference.

You have every right to your opinion though

No, it makes almost no difference. It is overkill. You should consider quitting gaming and just focus on mining, just a suggestion.

[An amorous cow-herder]

Not to go too off topic here, but that's a matter of personal preference.  You don't NEED a 290 to game, but when you're playing BF4 a higher end card like the 290 makes a very noticeable difference.

You have every right to your opinion though

No, it makes almost no difference. It is overkill.

You dont even know what kind of setup the OP has. Some people have dual or even quad monitor setups, you know.

You should consider quitting gaming and just focus on mining, just a suggestion.

Geez, some people have hobbies, you know. And a couple of lucky few gamers even make more a lot more money gaming than you could with mining.

[Lauda]

You should consider quitting gaming and just focus on mining, just a suggestion.

Geez, some people have hobbies, you know. And a couple of lucky few gamers even make more a lot more money gaming than you could with mining.

That's like saying: a couple of lucky few tennis players even make more than you could with mining.
Nice comparison. It's most likely an addiction, not a hobby.

[9971ea1a]

I'm currently mining FTC coins on my gaming rig (Nvidia 770) and I'm getting close to 10 coins per day. 

Which pool are you using?

[miner2002]

I'm using coinotron.  Pretty easy to set up.

Does anyone else have recommendations for a different pool? I didn't put a ton of researching into the pool I selected so I'm sure there's better options. 

[An amorous cow-herder]

Geez, some people have hobbies, you know. And a couple of lucky few gamers even make more a lot more money gaming than you could with mining.

That's like saying: a couple of lucky few tennis players even make more than you could with mining.
Nice comparison. It's most likely an addiction, not a hobby.

You might as well say mining is an addition then as well. At the prices some of the devices are going (USB block eruptors anyone?) a lot of people are likely wasting money instead of making it.

[An amorous cow-herder]

I'm using coinotron.  Pretty easy to set up.

Does anyone else have recommendations for a different pool? I didn't put a ton of researching into the pool I selected so I'm sure there's better options. 

Also using coinotron. And difficulty went up quite a bit during last retarget. If the next one has a similiar jump i might go back to LTC ...

[miner2002]

Yes, I have noticed difficulty going up as well.  To be expected!

Even still, with money flowing into Alt coins I think mining will continue to be profitable even for GPU mining without a custom rig. Who knows, but looking at the current numbers I think I'll be able to at least break even. You can look at threads from early november talking about GPU mining being dead and not worth it, but with the rise in alt coin pricing I don't think that's the case anymore.

I think if you believe alt coins will have a place in the market going forward (which I do) then mining is worth the gamble. 

[Lauda]

You might as well say mining is an addition then as well. At the prices some of the devices are going (USB block eruptors anyone?) a lot of people are likely wasting money instead of making it.

At the current prices, even USB eruptors ROI/make money. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[An amorous cow-herder]

You might as well say mining is an addition then as well. At the prices some of the devices are going (USB block eruptors anyone?) a lot of people are likely wasting money instead of making it.

At the current prices, even USB eruptors ROI/make money. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Assuming a fairly low difficulty increase of 80%/month a block eruptor would make like $17 if it started mining today. Best prices on ebay are around $50. Well, assuming BTC hits like 3.5k it will break even. In which case it would have been better just buying bitcoins ...

[Lauda]

Assuming a fairly low difficulty increase of 80%/month a block eruptor would make like $17 if it started mining today. Best prices on ebay are around $50. Well, assuming BTC hits like 3.5k it will break even. In which case it would have been better just buying bitcoins ...

You could have bulk purchased a while ago for less than that. Also if you use that logic (which is beyond any common sense), buying bitcoin is always better than buying mining equipment.