Ethereum GPU mining?

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VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,226
9,990
126
@aleader , Well, I would, personally. @ $0.10 (CAD?) per KWh, that seems like a reasonable electrical cost, and with a RX 5700XT, you could probably be making like $1-2 USD / day (worth of BTC, worth more in CAD), minus maybe $0.50-0.60 / day electrical cost. It would make you money, however slight. At least, in the near future, mining revenue can and is unpredictable.
I can tell you from watching ebay prices on BIN on RX 5700XT cards (Decent ones), that that PCGamer article is flat-out WRONG. There ARE crypto-miners snapping up cards. It may not be as "obvious" as in 2017-2018, but it IS happening.

Edit: I wasn't calculating that you would heat your house/apt. with single RX 5700XT, you won't. Also, if you're mining ETH, either directly with a miner program, and a pool, or using Nicehash, use AMD Wattman (Tuning), and set the Freq. to 1350Mhz, and the Voltage to 860mV. Also, consider sliding the Power Limit down to -20%, and bumping up the VRAM clock to 1800 or higher (IF you card allows, some cards will vastly lower their MH/sec if you go too high, like from 49MH/sec to 0.12 MH/sec.)
 
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MrTeal

Diamond Member
Dec 7, 2003
3,554
1,658
136
I'm reading all this and am wondering if it's worth my while to mine with my 5700XT (Sapphire Pulse) that I will receive today? My desktop is strictly for gaming. I live in Canada, prairies, very cold in the winter. Heating is obviously natural gas (very cheap). Power cost here is $0.10/kwH. I just read this article today in PC Gamer that seems to imply that mining isn't worth it anymore:

https://www.pcgamer.com/crypto-currency-price-rise-gpu-drought/

Is it worth my while to figure out how to do this? Any thoughts appreciated.
I calculated it awhile ago also for the Canadian prairies, and electric heating was about 4x the cost of gas even with it being 100% efficient vs ~90%. When running those numbers through calculators I would just discount the price of power with what I was saving on gas, and run with that.
 

aleader

Senior member
Oct 28, 2013
502
150
116
@aleader , Well, I would, personally. @ $0.10 (CAD?) per KWh, that seems like a reasonable electrical cost, and with a RX 5700XT, you could probably be making like $1-2 USD / day (worth of BTC, worth more in CAD), minus maybe $0.50-0.60 / day electrical cost. It would make you money, however slight. At least, in the near future, mining revenue can and is unpredictable.
I can tell you from watching ebay prices on BIN on RX 5700XT cards (Decent ones), that that PCGamer article is flat-out WRONG. There ARE crypto-miners snapping up cards. It may not be as "obvious" as in 2017-2018, but it IS happening.

Edit: I wasn't calculating that you would heat your house/apt. with single RX 5700XT, you won't. Also, if you're mining ETH, either directly with a miner program, and a pool, or using Nicehash, use AMD Wattman (Tuning), and set the Freq. to 1350Mhz, and the Voltage to 860mV. Also, consider sliding the Power Limit down to -20%, and bumping up the VRAM clock to 1800 or higher (IF you card allows, some cards will vastly lower their MH/sec if you go too high, like from 49MH/sec to 0.12 MH/sec.)

No, $0.10 USD, 0.1423 CAD/kwH. I just figured people would relate better to that. Oh, I see, people actually calculate the savings of heating your entire house from a bunch of cards. I wondered why that was a factor. What I'm getting from this though is that I may break even at best?
 
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aleader

Senior member
Oct 28, 2013
502
150
116
I calculated it awhile ago also for the Canadian prairies, and electric heating was about 4x the cost of gas even with it being 100% efficient vs ~90%. When running those numbers through calculators I would just discount the price of power with what I was saving on gas, and run with that.

This should maybe go in another thread, but I went through this whole bit when I built a house in 2009 on land I bought out in the country. There was no real option for natural gas ($35,000 just to bring the line close enough...nobody around for 5 km), so I went with an electric furnace (cost me $650). 1600 sqft walkout on two levels (3200sqft total), one vaulted wall with all windows, three sets of double patio doors (high heat loss), average -25C from Dec to March. My power bills were $279 CAD avg per month (no gas bill) over 5 years.

In the city now, they are about $135/month on average (gas is $80/mth). I saved almost $6,000 for a high efficient furnace and was able to install the electric myself (no gas ticket needed). Replacement cost is the same ($6,000 vs $650), but electric pretty much runs forever according to several electricians I know. My neighbour just replaced his furnace motor (direct drive) and it cost him almost $2,000 after only 8 years.

Next house I build (subdivided 10 acres and sold the house, kept 150) will have an electric boiler with in-floor heat and a fireplace/wood stove (I live in the forest). We didn't lose any on the sale either as the realtor initially listed it with gas and didn't even change the price when I told him it was electric. Said we MAY have to take a hit of $5,000, but that didn't happen.

TLDR, there are a lot of factors to take into account other than just the cost of electricity...when building a house anyways :D
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,226
9,990
126
Well, let me just say, if you're ALREADY heating with electric, seeing as how it's basically 100% efficient conversion of electricity to heat, in a PC... you SHOULD be heating your house with mining rigs, and even if they become unprofitable in the future (ETH 2.0 takes off, PoS rather than PoW), then just switch the GPUs over to Folding@Home or something PrimeGrid-related. It would do good work for science, and heat your home at the same time.

There's someone on our DC TeAm that lives in the Pacific Northwest of USA, that does something similar. I'm in the Northeast, and I've done something similar too.
 

aleader

Senior member
Oct 28, 2013
502
150
116
Well, let me just say, if you're ALREADY heating with electric, seeing as how it's basically 100% efficient conversion of electricity to heat, in a PC... you SHOULD be heating your house with mining rigs, and even if they become unprofitable in the future (ETH 2.0 takes off, PoS rather than PoW), then just switch the GPUs over to Folding@Home or something PrimeGrid-related. It would do good work for science, and heat your home at the same time.

There's someone on our DC TeAm that lives in the Pacific Northwest of USA, that does something similar. I'm in the Northeast, and I've done something similar too.

Ha, my brother in law lives near Seattle (Gig Harbor) and I wouldn't call what they get 'winter' ;) More like 'early fall'. I'm on gas now, it just seems like a lot of hassle (and floorspace) for very little gain. Having said that, where is the best place to get started (i.e. tutorial)?
 

Shmee

Memory & Storage, Graphics Cards Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 13, 2008
7,381
2,415
146
A useful sight to check out for estimates on mining revenue is https://whattomine.com. It also gives basic hashrate and settings for a lot of popular cards. YMMV of course, but a 5700XT should be able to do about 50MH/s at around 100W, depending on how you tweak it.
 

aleader

Senior member
Oct 28, 2013
502
150
116
Name(Tag)
Algorithm
Block Time
Block Reward
Last Block
Difficulty
NetHash
Est. Rewards
Est. Rewards 24h
Exchange RateMarket Cap
Volume
Rev. BTC
Rev. 24h
Rev. $
Profit
Profitability
Current | 24h
3 days | 7 days
eth.png

Ethereum(ETH)
Ethash
BT: 13.25s
BR: 2.33
LB: 11,369,553
3,725,527,226M
281.23 Th/s
0.9%
0.0028
0.0035
0.03120500
(Binance)

0.0%
$66,717,457,573
14,839.14 BTC
0.000087
0.000109
$1.97
$1.73
100% | 100%
100% | 100%


I stuck a '1' beside 5700XT and changed the wattage to 100 and this is what I get when I hit 'calculate'. I also changed both to 7 days. Does this mean the profit for 7 days would be $1.73? Or is it the 'estimated rewards' I'm looking at? Remember, I'm a total noob at this...
 

Elfear

Diamond Member
May 30, 2004
7,096
640
126
Name(Tag)
Algorithm
Block Time
Block Reward
Last Block
Difficulty
NetHash
Est. Rewards
Est. Rewards 24h
Exchange RateMarket Cap
Volume
Rev. BTC
Rev. 24h
Rev. $
Profit
Profitability
Current | 24h
3 days | 7 days
eth.png

Ethereum(ETH)
Ethash
BT: 13.25s
BR: 2.33
LB: 11,369,553
3,725,527,226M
281.23 Th/s
0.9%
0.0028
0.0035
0.03120500
(Binance)

0.0%
$66,717,457,573
14,839.14 BTC
0.000087
0.000109
$1.97
$1.73
100% | 100%
100% | 100%


I stuck a '1' beside 5700XT and changed the wattage to 100 and this is what I get when I hit 'calculate'. I also changed both to 7 days. Does this mean the profit for 7 days would be $1.73? Or is it the 'estimated rewards' I'm looking at? Remember, I'm a total noob at this...

To me it looks like your revenue for 7 days = $1.97 and your profit = $1.73 meaning your electricity expenses would be $0.24.

Did you enter in some sort of value for your cost of electricity?
 

aleader

Senior member
Oct 28, 2013
502
150
116
To me it looks like your revenue for 7 days = $1.97 and your profit = $1.73 meaning your electricity expenses would be $0.24.

Did you enter in some sort of value for your cost of electricity?

I just left it at the default of $0.1/kwH, which I'm assuming is USD...which is what my power cost is.
 
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aleader

Senior member
Oct 28, 2013
502
150
116
Is any of this true? It's an excerpt from this: https://www.barrons.com/articles/how-cryptocurrency-miners-boosted-nvidias-earnings-51605822391

Sales to miners generated at least $175 million in the third quarter, accounting for much of the outperformance, according to a Thursday note from RBC Capital Markets analysts Mitch Steves. Before the results came out, he had estimated sales to miners would be $150 million.

The Ampere graphics processing units, or GPUs, are popular among Ethereum crypto miners, as it is one of the primary currencies to use GPUs for mining. Technical changes to Ethereum that will take effect around Dec. 16 mean that much of the older hardware Ethereum miners currently use won’t work anymore. As a result, Steves wrote, they are buying GPUs and Nvidia’s look pretty good.


I thought Ampere cards were useless for mining? Is the Dec. 16th date for real?
 

Shmee

Memory & Storage, Graphics Cards Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 13, 2008
7,381
2,415
146
They aren't useless, but they aren't that much better than a Radeon RX 5700 considering the price.
 

aleader

Senior member
Oct 28, 2013
502
150
116
They aren't useless, but they aren't that much better than a Radeon RX 5700 considering the price.

And aren't available anyways! I am reading up on mining right now to see if it's worth my while to do with one card. If I could pay for the card in a year, that would be worthwhile to me.
 

Accord99

Platinum Member
Jul 2, 2001
2,259
172
106
To be fair, the RX 5700s seem to have disappeared at many locations too (almost over night), at least for suggested retail prices. In August, they were plentiful and usually discounted/rebated.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,226
9,990
126
Yeah, I snagged 2x RX 5700XT and 1x RX 5700 (that one at a ripe price of $450 + tax, ugh). Hoping that they pay for themselves after a year. Then I can mine for another year, and/or sell them, for pure profit.
 

aleader

Senior member
Oct 28, 2013
502
150
116
To be fair, the RX 5700s seem to have disappeared at many locations too (almost over night), at least for suggested retail prices. In August, they were plentiful and usually discounted/rebated.

Nov. 24th, all the 5700XT's disappeared here in Canada too. They were plentiful and even discounted below MSRP up to that point.
 

aleader

Senior member
Oct 28, 2013
502
150
116
Still looking at the mining thing for my card. I've watched several videos now and have a good idea what to expect, but I have some basic questions that I can't seem to find answers for. Can I still game when mining with this thing, i.e. is it simple to just switch to gaming when I sit down and want to do it? Is it simply loading a different profile in the Adrenaline software? Is it necessary to load a modded BIOS as this guy does, or can you just stick with the default one:


I really don't feel like risking bricking my card messing around with a modded BIOS.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,226
9,990
126
Yeah, I hear you. Although I've been doing this for a while, I haven't modded any of my BIOSes yet. (*My XFX RX 570 4GB cards came with a BIOS switch, and a "gaming" and a "mining" BIOS, mining was definitely better with the switch in the "mining" position.)

You CAN undervolt,.

Edit: RX 5700 and RX 5700XT cards will do 49.xx MH/sec on ETH mining out-of-the-box. If you boost the VRAM clocks and undervolt the core, you can get 51MH/sec out of them. 58MH/sec or more requires BIOS modding, but honestly, unless you're going for the extreme efficiency, and don't mind doing such technical things, and don't mind hurting your re-sale value or RMA-ability, should a card just "die", then you could do that. I chose not to.
 
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scineram

Senior member
Nov 1, 2020
361
283
106
It shouldn’t be surprising that Navi10 cards disappeared since AMD created the mining specific SKU.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,226
9,990
126
It shouldn’t be surprising that Navi10 cards disappeared since AMD created the mining specific SKU.
Did AMD already create a mining card SKU, or are you suggesting that they will? I could see them diverting the remaining Navi10 GPUs to that SKU. Is it with 192-bit VRAM, like RX 5600XT, or 256-bit VRAM, like RX 5700(XT)? Price? As long as it has a single HDMI2.0 or DisplayPort output (can do 4K UHD), I'd be down for a few of those cards.\

The only difference spotted between the “navi10 blockchain SKU” and regular SKUs is that the “patches disable the Display Core Next (DCN) and Video Core Next (VCN) support with this new SKU not having any display support.”
Ugh, NO display outputs? Hard pass. No resale value on cards == no bueno.
 

scineram

Senior member
Nov 1, 2020
361
283
106
I bet they are already selling it to big operations. Probably more efficient than gayming cards with the unnecessary blocks disabled.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,226
9,990
126
Anyone mining on 230-240V AC in USA? How did you go about it? I think that I have a 230V AC outlet for A/C in living room.
 

ultimatebob

Lifer
Jul 1, 2001
25,135
2,445
126
I bet they are already selling it to big operations. Probably more efficient than gayming cards with the unnecessary blocks disabled.

Most crypto now is mined by dedicated purpose built hardware built just to mine major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum. It's dozens of times faster than a video card for that purpose.
 

The Alias

Senior member
Aug 22, 2012
647
58
91
I installed a 30A twistlock receptacle, and then used a PDU to run power to the different rigs.

Pretty much exactly what he said. Look up the Tripp lite metered PDU in Amazon. When you get your 240v 30A added, make sure you get a L6-30p outlet for compatibility with the PDU.