Best GPU for Ethereum Mining

Oh boy! What a time to mine some cryptos. Ether has surged past $1,000 USD, and we don’t know when the rise will stop. Even the newbies are rushing into the industry to get the best GPU Ethereum mining. Mine, comrades! Mine, while it’s hot. Ethereum mining with GPUs has been seen to be practical and not requiring specialized ASIC based mining rigs, but GPUs based computation from mainstream players, can get you in the business.

This is the best time of the year to invest in a serious mining rig. All the big hardware manufacturers have already rolled out their best offerings. And the crypto industry is once again expanding rapidly. So, let’s take a look at the coolest GPUs to augment your mining hardware.

Primarily all graphics cards you will consider will be from either AMD or Nvidia. Both are huge solid companies known for making GPUs that can be used for gaming or mining. Unless of special circumstances you can choose AMD or Nvidia, and any mainstream producer of the cards. But you will want to pick the GPU model carefully as they vary widely in memory sizes, memory speeds, wattage and price. You don’t want to buy it and find out it doesn’t even have enough memory for Ethereum mining!

GeForce GTX 1080 Ti and cousins

Believe it or not, the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is still a solid value in 2021. What a beast of a card! This EVGA model provides a hash rate of nearly 38 MHash/s for Ethereum mining while consuming a very low amount of electricity at approximately 150 Watts. Memory is critical for Ethereum Mining, the 1080 Ti has 11GB of memory operating at respectable memory speeds of 11 Gbps.

Agreed, it’s an old GPU with a 352-bit memory interface. However, the PCB has 9 additional sensors and MCUs embedded in the chip. It has 88 render output, a massive 11 GB frame buffer, and 224 texture mapping units for rendering purposes. That makes it a great choice for crypto-mining. Inside, you get a GP102 graphics chip with 3584 shaders. The base clock speed of GTX 1080Ti is 1481 MHz, and the memory clock speed is 1376MHz. Overclocking easily adds around +150MHz and +300MHz to both clock and memory speeds, respectively. And the best thing? Even with overclocking, the card stays cooler than 1070.

The price of cards in the GeForce 10 series are reasonable as the series was first released back in 2016, the price is higher for newer entrants. Overall, the EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is a solid card for long time use.

Here are some cards available now on Amazon and Ebay:

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 and cousins

Nvidia GeForce 3080

If you can find and afford one, NVIDIA’s latest GeForce RTX 3080 is a monster. Just released in January 2021, and top of the line for the GeForce 30 series, with Ampere microarchitecture.According to some leaked mining benchmarks, the GeForce RTX 3080 delivers an unprecedented 75 MHash/s on the Dagger Hashimoto algorithm. Now, if you overclock it, performance jumps to 93 MHash/s. To put these figures in perspective, the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti manages approximately 54 MHash/sec, while the older GeForce GTX 1080Ti turns in only 30 MHash/sec. As for specs, this graphic card comes with a base clock speed of 1440 MHz that can be boosted up to 1710 MHz. Besides, it has 10 GB of 10GB GDDR6X.

The best thing about this card is that even with overclocking, this thing runs cool. The temperature always stays within the 65 degrees Celsius range. Although the fans run at 1000 RPM (with no load), you can barely hear them hum.

However, there’s a caveat. It has a TDP rating of 320W, considerably higher than both GeForce RTX 2080Ti and GTX 1080Ti. With an overclock, power consumption easily touches the low ends of 400W. If you can play around with different power limits, clock, and memory speed to maximize your crypto profit, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is your champion for 2021. Go splurge!

These are in short supply are a few similar products on Amazon and Ebay that have this or similar GPU models:

XFX Radeon Rx 5700 XT

When it comes to profitability, the XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT is a huge draw. That’s because the chip is based on 7-nm Fin FET semiconductor technology, which is a lot cheaper than the latest 6800 series that draws considerably more power.

The Navi 10 processor has a 1605 Mhz base clock speed and a 1750 MHz memory clock speed. It features 160 texture mapping units, 2560 shading units, and 64 ROPs. Moreover, it has 8GB GDDR6 memory interconnected via a 256-bit memory bus interface.

The GPU runs at 52 MHash/s, drawing just 105 Watts from the power supply. Of course, you will need to overclock and power tune the GPU to achieve these results. Thankfully, as it’s an old card, you can find plenty of tuning options online.

The only problem is, this GPU is a bit harder to set for Ethereum mining. But, after it’s all set and working stable, the trouble is worth the effort. We strongly recommend it as long as you’re getting it on the MSRP.

AMD Radeon RX 480

The Radeon RX 48 is one of the most economical and cost-efficient pieces of hardware for Ethereum mining, thanks to a hash rate of 25MHash/s. However, to achieve this feat, the GPU runs at a core clock speed of 1095 MHz & a memory clock speed of 2160. That consumes approximately 69 Watts. Not Bad, right?

The AMD Radeon is equipped with 8GB GDDR5 RAM. There’s also a 4GB version, but it’s less suitable for mining. Inside, you get an Ellesmere processor chip with 2304 shaders. The base and memory clock speeds of this beast are 1120 MHz and 2000 MHz, respectively.

The Radeon RX 48 can go toe-to-toe with heavy hitters, such as AMD R9 390x because it consumes far less power. This is because it has a TDP rating of a mere 110W and comes with a single 6 pin connector. So, you can even utilize it for gaming without upgrading your power supply.

It’s also jam-packed with features such as VR readiness, DX12 support, and the latest GCN architecture. Overall, AMD Radeon RX 480 8GB is a great value for Ethereum mining. It has a great hash rate with very little power consumption.

AMD RX 6800 XT

AMD RX 6800 XT is AMD’s flagship GPU based on RDNA 2 architecture. In Ethereum mining, AMD’s latest GPU offers a 15 percent better performance than the previous generation of GPUs. When using the Phoenix 5.2c miner on stock settings, Radeon RX 6800 XT shows 59 to 60 MHash/s on 250W power consumption.

Sure, the video memory subsystem hasn’t undergone a drastic overhaul. But the 256-bit memory bus and GDDR6 are a little faster, though. Not to mention, the latest AMD drivers come with the fast timings feature designed to increase the overall performance of this series of GPUs in mining crypto, particularly Ethereum. When you enable this function, the hash rate increases by approximately 2 to 3MHash/s.

To increase performance, you can also overclock the video memory up to 150 MHz. Because it’s one of the newest cards, we don’t have the rich mining experience that backs CPUs like RX 5700 yet, however, in the near future, expect to witness better mining settings for RX 6800 XT to fine-tune crypto-mining rigs. Oh, and don’t forget Infinity Cash!

Note: Using the latest AMD Zen 3 CPU chip and the latest AMD Navi 21 GPU provides a remarkable boost in performance compared to using a Zen 2 or Intel processors.

MSI Gaming Radeon RX 6800 XT 16GB GDRR6
Sapphire AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT
AMD RX 6800 XT | Amazon
AMD RX 6800 | eBay

Best GPU for Ethereum Mining – Buyer’s Guide

As far as Ethereum mining goes, the gaming and rendering performance of a GPU is irrelevant. Instead, you should focus on aspects that really impact your mining efficiency. These include:

AMD vs. Nvidia
We think Nvidia is better for novices. Their GPUs are straightforward to set up and consume comparatively less energy. Additionally, they also work great with more mining algos. On the other hand, AMD cards offer low power consumption per hash rate, making them cost-efficient.

Hashrate
Hashrate, or the problem-solving capability, demonstrations how many hashes your GPU makes per second. This is basically the performance of your GPU. It directly impacts the speed at which your rig mines the crypto and depends on the algorithm of a particular blockchain you’re currently on.

Power Consumption
The running cost of a mining GPU is the amount of power it draws from your system. It shows how much electricity your card needs for a stable and optimal performance. Cards that draw more power will also need system upgrades for stability. Wattage can vary by 300% between low power and high power models, so if your pay for your own electricity, be sure to factor the cost of power into your business plan for mining.

Memory Size and Memory Speed
Both memory size and memory speed are important for performance of a mining system when mining Ethereum blockchain. Generally, GPUs with a bigger memory size and offer better memory speed should be prioritized over others. However, they also tend to be more expensive. Anecdotally 8GB of memory should be enough and recommended, but please check the details of your mining setup to make sure you have enough memory for Ethereum Mining. Newer models with high memory speed could be one of the most important tech specs to consider when making a decision. As other gaming like features of a GPU are not important.

Warranty
Always check for a warranty. Many top brands offer a one-year limited warranty. Since mining is rather resource-intensive, GPU parts such as a fan can malfunction or stop working altogether. You can also experience other issues. Therefore, a warranty is a great option, so you can either fix or replace your card for free.

Price
The price of a card will be your initial investment. And make no mistake, mining cards don’t come cheap. You have to empty your wallets to get the best mining GPU for Ethereum mining. So your goal should be to find a suitable option that fits your budget. Older models might have the memory speed and size, as well as crunching capability you need, while keeping power usage lower and much lower price to buy.

New vs used

Are you willing to take a small gamble and buy a used part and perhaps get a better deal. You would need to be more tech savvy and manage the risk that you might have trouble returning to the seller a used part, but your profits could be much higher if you find a good used part.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best GPU for mining ethereum?

There are plenty of GPU options available for mining Ethereum and with cryptocurrencies becoming more commonplace in today’s world, companies are developing more advanced GPUs that can give the best performance.

The most reliable GPU on the market is the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti which is one of the least expensive choices but outperforms the more costly models, especially when it comes to mining Ethereum. It uses less than 120W while exceeding 60 MH/s.

Another great choice is the Radeon RX 5700 which is an older model but incorporates the Navi GPU technology while breaking 50 MH/s using 135W of power. It is just as fast as its upgraded model the Radeon RX 5700 XT but costs less making it just as reliable.

How many GPU does it take to mine ethereum?

Mining Ethereum takes a minimum of one GPU provided it exceeds 3GB of RAM. A lot of gaming laptops are capable of this thanks to their higher end cards but bear in mind that mining can cause a lot of heat which can impact your laptop negatively if mining for long periods of time. It’s always best to go with a desktop PC rather than a laptop as it can withstand high temperatures.

Can any GPU mine ethereum?

Technically, mining Ethereum can be done from the comfort of your own home providing you have a consumer graphics card made by either AMD or Nvidia and can even be lucrative for those living in areas where electricity doesn’t cost a lot. If you become good at doing it yourself, you can even start to make a business of it for yourself and actually earn money and make a decent income.

How much Ethereum will cost can be calculated on a variety of independent calculators such as miningbenchmark.net, CryptoCompare and Whattomine among many others. This will help you to determine whether mining Ethereum yourself will make you any profit or if seeking a professional is the best way to go.

For those who are intimidated or want to seek assistance from a professional, they can find it takes less time although it is more likely going to be more costly.

Professional miners are based in regions with low costing electricity so they can serve a variety of industries while ensuring that they have an increased profit margin. The profits generated by these companies are only increasing as cryptocurrencies rise in popularity and demand.

Final Thoughts

That’s a wrap on our best GPU for Ethereum mining guide! You will want to study more on How to mine Ethereum before jumping in with your purchase of GPU. We hope this article helps you find your next Ethereum mining GPU. Remember, the performance of a GPU varies depending on the coin that is being mined. That’s why ROI also varies. To optimize your ROI, check various online resources for your profit ratios. This way, you can adapt to the changing market accordingly. Finally, always send your profits to your own crypto wallet and not to exchange. Otherwise, you can lose your hard-earned profits.