Just one day after the Ethereum merge, when cryptocoins successfully switched from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS), GPU mining profitability completely collapsed. So, just as God intended, the best graphics cards should finally return to their rightful place: gaming PCs. This is a rapid decline considering yesterday there were still some cryptocurrencies that were technically profitable.
Staring What To Mine (opens in new tab), with a standard $0.10 per kWh, the best results are on the GeForce RTX 3090 and the Radeon RX 6800 and 6800 XT. These are technically slightly positive results, about $0.06 per day even after deducting power costs. However, it doesn’t take into account the cost of the PC’s power supply or the wear and tear on the graphics card.
Even with slightly positive results, it would take more than 20 years to undo the cost of the RX 6800. Don’t worry about 20 years from now, predict what the cryptocurrency market will look like a year from now. This is a volatile market and no doubt there are a lot of groups and individuals trying to figure out how to make GPU mining profitable again (MGMPA has its hat on inbound…) .
Will anything bring back Ethereum mining highs? Probably, but I wouldn’t bet on it.neither would i Against that. Either it happens or it doesn’t, and I’m not going to worry about it any more.
In the meantime, here’s a quick overview of the current profitability (or non-profitability) of current generation graphics cards.
Of the 21 current-generation graphics cards in the AMD RX 6000 series and the Nvidia RTX 30 series, only five are theoretically profitable right now, and they’re all barely profitable. This uses data from NiceHash and WhatToMine, so there are probably ways to tune other GPUs to get a net profit, but the bottom line is that GPUs shouldn’t be used for mining at this point, they’re not for mining. You shouldn’t buy an extra GPU for that. Purpose.
It can certainly be argued that cryptocurrency valuations may rise again in the future. But if you really believe that, why should you invest thousands of dollars in PC hardware and mine at very low rates when you can invest directly in any coin you happen to like?
As we pointed out in our recent GPU price check right before The Merge, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where many of the older mining GPUs will no longer be sold on used markets like eBay in the coming months. . Even with super-cheap power, GPU mining just doesn’t make sense when you factor in warehouse space, power costs, people to run it all, and other infrastructure considerations. It’s a good time to put it in and sell the rest of your inventory, or cut your losses and close the store.
Buying a used graphics card is likely to become much more attractive in the near future. Our advice: Buy from a reputable seller on a marketplace that allows returns (eBay, etc.). Conversely, don’t pay cash to someone on Facebook Marketplace that you have to meet in the parking lot.
This is all great news for gamers who have spent most of the last year getting by with their cards before the cryptocurrency boom of late 2020. It means AMD and Nvidia can’t charge. High prices for GPUs hoping to sell in volume. We Might See The RTX 4090 And RX 7900 XT Launching With Higher MSRPs At First But Upcoming Nvidia Ada And AMD Just As The RTX 3090 Ti And RX 6950 XT Were Quickly Below MSRP At Launch The same thing happens with RDNA 3 GPUs.
If you’re looking to build a new gaming PC or upgrade your existing graphics card, wait a little longer and never buy a graphics card over $500. Prices for existing GPUs continue to drop and new ones are just around the corner.
