Can i mine with a NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT?

[BitSnail]

Im not sure. Im a newbie in Bitcoin Mining, i read tons of pages about this btw.
Can i mine with this graphic card?

[vssa]

visit http://alturl.com/tqa5i and http://alturl.com/8dy69 and see for yourself

[deepceleron]

Yes, although you will spend 5x as much in electricity as you make in Bitcoin, which will be a few pennies a day.

guiminer would be the easiest way to mine with an Nvidia card.

[Jay_Pal]

Done that in my noob days, got around 3mh/s which is a complete waste of time and money.

[Lethos]

In short answer : Yes, but you shouldn't.

Long answer:
It can be used for mining, however the design of all Nvidia chip GPU's don't work well compared to ATI, due to their differences at a hardware level.
At a software level, the mining process mostly uses OpenCL to make use of the "Shaders" (hardware) on the GPU. Nvidia and ATI both have these, but Nvidia took the approach of a few complex ones and ATI too the approach of lots of simple ones. The mining process is relatively simple, thus having lots of simple shaders is very efficient for this task. Nvidia more complex shaders in some areas are less efficient and thus far there has been no way to compensate for that. There is in the region 5-10 less bitcoins generated out of a similar power (watt) consuming processor between nvidia and ati. This makes Nvidia GPU's so inefficient you actually spending money to make these bitcoins rather than turning a profit, which generally speak you will always do on an ATI GPU.
Both GPU markers, choose these different paths quiet a few years ago and ATI kept theirs when they realise they had adopted a secondary market outside of gamers, Nvidia already had the TELSA to bring in the more Scientific use of GPU so were not going to change their design.

[BitSnail]

In short answer : Yes, but you shouldn't.

Long answer:
It can be used for mining, however the design of all Nvidia chip GPU's don't work well compared to ATI, due to their differences at a hardware level.
At a software level, the mining process mostly uses OpenCL to make use of the "Shaders" (hardware) on the GPU. Nvidia and ATI both have these, but Nvidia took the approach of a few complex ones and ATI too the approach of lots of simple ones. The mining process is relatively simple, thus having lots of simple shaders is very efficient for this task. Nvidia more complex shaders in some areas are less efficient and thus far there has been no way to compensate for that. There is in the region 5-10 less bitcoins generated out of a similar power (watt) consuming processor between nvidia and ati. This makes Nvidia GPU's so inefficient you actually spending money to make these bitcoins rather than turning a profit, which generally speak you will always do on an ATI GPU.
Both GPU markers, choose these different paths quiet a few years ago and ATI kept theirs when they realise they had adopted a secondary market outside of gamers, Nvidia already had the TELSA to bring in the more Scientific use of GPU so were not going to change their design.

Thanks you. For now, i will sell stuff.. maybe the next year i will buy one of these ATI cards. Wich one its better for mining?

[Jay_Pal]

Well, just bought a 5830 which can provide 300mh/s but I'm slowly building the mining rig - I'm on a short budget for now. I have an old board with pcie and wanted to use that one. But now I need a PSU (the ones I have don't suite the thing and don't even have the 6 pin pcie connector yet), RAM and a CPU Fan.
In my actual computer I have a 5550HD and it is pumping some modest 60mh/s which is not bad for the power consumption and noise level.
But you can find the best answer in https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison.
One of these day's, I'll move to FPGA/ASIC!

[Lethos]

In short answer : Yes, but you shouldn't.

Long answer:
It can be used for mining, however the design of all Nvidia chip GPU's don't work well compared to ATI, due to their differences at a hardware level.
At a software level, the mining process mostly uses OpenCL to make use of the "Shaders" (hardware) on the GPU. Nvidia and ATI both have these, but Nvidia took the approach of a few complex ones and ATI too the approach of lots of simple ones. The mining process is relatively simple, thus having lots of simple shaders is very efficient for this task. Nvidia more complex shaders in some areas are less efficient and thus far there has been no way to compensate for that. There is in the region 5-10 less bitcoins generated out of a similar power (watt) consuming processor between nvidia and ati. This makes Nvidia GPU's so inefficient you actually spending money to make these bitcoins rather than turning a profit, which generally speak you will always do on an ATI GPU.
Both GPU markers, choose these different paths quiet a few years ago and ATI kept theirs when they realise they had adopted a secondary market outside of gamers, Nvidia already had the TELSA to bring in the more Scientific use of GPU so were not going to change their design.

Thanks you. For now, i will sell stuff.. maybe the next year i will buy one of these ATI cards. Wich one its better for mining?

This wiki, keeps track of popular mining cards and the results from them.
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison#Popular_Mining_Cards

Generally speaking the 5xxx series has been very popular and now retains a good amount of value since they haven't devalued much in the last year. However the 7xxx series (latest series) is a bit more efficient, however they will devalue by next year, possibly ruining it's resell value if that is something you plan to do (many do). So by next year you can probably pick up a 7970 for a good price. It changes all the time, so their is no good answer that far ahead.

Also by next year, FPGA and ASIC could become more mainstream, due to a change in difficulty of the blocks and reduction in value from them, so buying GPU's for the purpose of mining might not be ideal any longer.

[aqrulesms]

In short answer : Yes, but you shouldn't.

Long answer:
It can be used for mining, however the design of all Nvidia chip GPU's don't work well compared to ATI, due to their differences at a hardware level.
At a software level, the mining process mostly uses OpenCL to make use of the "Shaders" (hardware) on the GPU. Nvidia and ATI both have these, but Nvidia took the approach of a few complex ones and ATI too the approach of lots of simple ones. The mining process is relatively simple, thus having lots of simple shaders is very efficient for this task. Nvidia more complex shaders in some areas are less efficient and thus far there has been no way to compensate for that. There is in the region 5-10 less bitcoins generated out of a similar power (watt) consuming processor between nvidia and ati. This makes Nvidia GPU's so inefficient you actually spending money to make these bitcoins rather than turning a profit, which generally speak you will always do on an ATI GPU.
Both GPU markers, choose these different paths quiet a few years ago and ATI kept theirs when they realise they had adopted a secondary market outside of gamers, Nvidia already had the TELSA to bring in the more Scientific use of GPU so were not going to change their design.

Thanks you. For now, i will sell stuff.. maybe the next year i will buy one of these ATI cards. Wich one its better for mining?

This wiki, keeps track of popular mining cards and the results from them.
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison#Popular_Mining_Cards

Generally speaking the 5xxx series has been very popular and now retains a good amount of value since they haven't devalued much in the last year. However the 7xxx series (latest series) is a bit more efficient, however they will devalue by next year, possibly ruining it's resell value if that is something you plan to do (many do). So by next year you can probably pick up a 7970 for a good price. It changes all the time, so their is no good answer that far ahead.

Also by next year, FPGA and ASIC could become more mainstream, due to a change in difficulty of the blocks and reduction in value from them, so buying GPU's for the purpose of mining might not be ideal any longer.

The 7970 can compete with the FPGA miners out there.  I can undervolt and underclock and manage to get 500 Mhash/s at 80 watts a card.  That's already very competitive with the BFL single.

If you have cheap electricity and the price of BTC is able to adequately increase after the December block reward halving mining with 7xxx is still a very, very good choice.

[BCMan]

In short answer : Yes, but you shouldn't.

Long answer:
It can be used for mining, however the design of all Nvidia chip GPU's don't work well compared to ATI, due to their differences at a hardware level.
At a software level, the mining process mostly uses OpenCL to make use of the "Shaders" (hardware) on the GPU. Nvidia and ATI both have these, but Nvidia took the approach of a few complex ones and ATI too the approach of lots of simple ones. The mining process is relatively simple, thus having lots of simple shaders is very efficient for this task. Nvidia more complex shaders in some areas are less efficient and thus far there has been no way to compensate for that. There is in the region 5-10 less bitcoins generated out of a similar power (watt) consuming processor between nvidia and ati. This makes Nvidia GPU's so inefficient you actually spending money to make these bitcoins rather than turning a profit, which generally speak you will always do on an ATI GPU.
Both GPU markers, choose these different paths quiet a few years ago and ATI kept theirs when they realise they had adopted a secondary market outside of gamers, Nvidia already had the TELSA to bring in the more Scientific use of GPU so were not going to change their design.

Thanks you. For now, i will sell stuff.. maybe the next year i will buy one of these ATI cards. Wich one its better for mining?

This wiki, keeps track of popular mining cards and the results from them.
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison#Popular_Mining_Cards

Generally speaking the 5xxx series has been very popular and now retains a good amount of value since they haven't devalued much in the last year. However the 7xxx series (latest series) is a bit more efficient, however they will devalue by next year, possibly ruining it's resell value if that is something you plan to do (many do). So by next year you can probably pick up a 7970 for a good price. It changes all the time, so their is no good answer that far ahead.

Also by next year, FPGA and ASIC could become more mainstream, due to a change in difficulty of the blocks and reduction in value from them, so buying GPU's for the purpose of mining might not be ideal any longer.

The 7970 can compete with the FPGA miners out there.  I can undervolt and underclock and manage to get 500 Mhash/s at 80 watts a card.  That's already very competitive with the BFL single.

If you have cheap electricity and the price of BTC is able to adequately increase after the December block reward halving mining with 7xxx is still a very, very good choice.

Couldn't agree with you more. I'll better grab 7970, than bfl single, because it performs same good (even if it has worser mh/j, I would still bought it, because I pay 0.05$ per kwh), cheaper, has 2 years warranty (single just 6 months, what a joke) plus I can sell it later, instead of used bfl brick, which will be almost impossible to sell.

[hmongotaku]

I tried it on my 8600 gt.. it's very slow. I think a 6 core cpu is faster

[Ram]

Nvidia cards arent really worth mining.

I've actually gotten pretty decent mhash from my 3930k, but i'm sure the cpu would not take kindly to running with it 24/7.

[GernMiester]

Yes you can, and you will lose money every day it is mining.