Best option between a regular 3070 and an LHR 3080 for recouping some of the GPU cost for a gaming card

[durrburger]

I've been waiting for a chance at a GPU for over a year now like many people, and in my area it just recently became possible. The GPU will be used for gaming and personal use, but since the prices are still 70%+ over MSRP, I do plan to mine on it for as long as possible to recover some of the cost. I'm thinking of getting a Gaming X Trio 3080 LHR, available for 1250eur atm, but I'm really confused about how profitable it is right now. I've only been mining casually on my 1080 Ti using Nicehash/Dagger, so I don't know how other mining programs/algorithms work. Also, I can sell my 1080 Ti for 450eur whereas it was selling for 650+ 2 months ago, which is why I'm considering doing all of this now and to start mining with stronger cards while it's profitable.

 

On Nvidia RTX 3080 LHR mining calculator | minerstat, the top results are pretty solid with 6.17eur daily profit on the Tent/Equihash (no clue what it is lol), and the Nicehash calculator estimates 3.86eur daily using Kawpow algo, which is far less and with a huge power use but again, more than I thought an LHR card would make. Now, how realible and realistic are these measurements? Especially minerstat since even the second best options estimates an ok 4.24eur a day at 230w. I have used Nicehash so I know how that works but what about these other methods, would it be safe to assume their estimations are correct for the next 3,4 months at least?

 

The other option I'm considering is getting a regular 3070 now for 890eur, then use it to mine for about 4 months, and resell it for a 3080 then when hopefully, prices start favoring 3080 a bit more. Right now they are both at a bit over 70% markup, but the 3080 is obviously disproportionately more expensive considering their MSRPs. Should I do this or go for a 3080 LHR right now, and how much of a certainty it is that I can get close to Minerstat profits from it? My goal is to get a 3080 eventually, but not sure if I should go for it right now or is it more profitable to get a 3070 first until prices stabilize further.

[tikker]

8 minutes ago, durrburger said:

would it be safe to assume their estimations are correct for the next 3,4 months at least?

This is unfortunately impossible to predict. The market does what the market does and especially crypto could in principle tank hard tomorrow and never return. Just look at the price trends for the coin to get a feel of how quickly it can change and what it's doing at the moment, but note that it doesn't say much for the future.

[durrburger]

3 minutes ago, tikker said:

This is unfortunately impossible to predict. The market does what the market does and especially crypto could in principle tank hard tomorrow and never return. Just look at the price trends for the coin to get a feel of how quickly it can change and what it's doing at the moment, but note that it doesn't say much for the future.

Thanks, what I'm particularly wondering is, are LHR GPU profits more volatile than non-LHR ones since those rely primarily on Eth? As in, would in this case a regular 3070 be a safer bet to mine on for a few months. I know it's impossible to say for sure but any estimate would help a lot.

[tikker]

3 minutes ago, durrburger said:

Thanks, what I'm particularly wondering is, are LHR GPU profits more volatile than non-LHR ones since those rely primarily on Eth? As in, would in this case a regular 3070 be a safer bet to mine on for a few months. I know it's impossible to say for sure but any estimate would help a lot.

No difference. Both versions can mine the same stuff. It's just that the LHR ones are made to detect Ethereum mining and will limit the hashrate in that case (roughly halve it compared to a non-LHR version IIRC). It's easy to circumvent by just mining something else than ETH though, which is what NiceHash will already do if you run all the benchmarks. It will mine whatever is most profitable then.

 

One is not more volatile than the other, because your profits depend on the market. If the value halves your revenue halves no matter what card you are mining with.

[connorkincaid]

17 minutes ago, durrburger said:

I've been waiting for a chance at a GPU for over a year now like many people, and in my area it just recently became possible. The GPU will be used for gaming and personal use, but since the prices are still 70%+ over MSRP, I do plan to mine on it for as long as possible to recover some of the cost. I'm thinking of getting a Gaming X Trio 3080 LHR, available for 1250eur atm, but I'm really confused about how profitable it is right now. I've only been mining casually on my 1080 Ti using Nicehash/Dagger, so I don't know how other mining programs/algorithms work. Also, I can sell my 1080 Ti for 450eur whereas it was selling for 650+ 2 months ago, which is why I'm considering doing all of this now and to start mining with stronger cards while it's profitable.

 

On Nvidia RTX 3080 LHR mining calculator | minerstat, the top results are pretty solid with 6.17eur daily profit on the Tent/Equihash (no clue what it is lol), and the Nicehash calculator estimates 3.86eur daily using Kawpow algo, which is far less and with a huge power use but again, more than I thought an LHR card would make. Now, how realible and realistic are these measurements? Especially minerstat since even the second best options estimates an ok 4.24eur a day at 230w. I have used Nicehash so I know how that works but what about these other methods, would it be safe to assume their estimations are correct for the next 3,4 months at least?

 

The other option I'm considering is getting a regular 3070 now for 890eur, then use it to mine for about 4 months, and resell it for a 3080 then when hopefully, prices start favoring 3080 a bit more. Right now they are both at a bit over 70% markup, but the 3080 is obviously disproportionately more expensive considering their MSRPs. Should I do this or go for a 3080 LHR right now, and how much of a certainty it is that I can get close to Minerstat profits from it? My goal is to get a 3080 eventually, but not sure if I should go for it right now or is it more profitable to get a 3070 first until prices stabilize further.

My advice- if you want a 3080 eventually, you do yourself no good by putting it off and buying another card in the mean time. At the end of the day you're spending far more than you need to at that point. 

 

You cannot depend on mining to recoup costs, once you have the card, you can OFFSET the costs with mining. 

 

You cannot depend on the possible profits of a not so stable asset. 

 

Mine what you can while you can with what you can afford. That's just my opinion. 

[durrburger]

9 minutes ago, connorkincaid said:

My advice- if you want a 3080 eventually, you do yourself no good by putting it off and buying another card in the mean time. At the end of the day you're spending far more than you need to at that point. 

 

You cannot depend on mining to recoup costs, once you have the card, you can OFFSET the costs with mining. 

 

You cannot depend on the possible profits of a not so stable asset. 

 

Mine what you can while you can with what you can afford. That's just my opinion. 

Offset is more appropriate here yeah. The 3080 is the end goal for 4k gaming, and I can afford it now but it would definitely be breaking the bank lol. 

 

The only reason I'm considering a 3070 is that in my area at least, 3070 went from some 1500e a few months back to 890e now for a non-LHR version, but the 3080 went from 2200e+ to 1250e (LHR). So while it's a similar 70%ish dropoff, the 3080 got much cheaper comparatively, and I'm thinking that if prices continue to drop until the end of the year at the same tempo, a 3080 will gain more value than the 3070 will at that point. 

 

But there's no guarantee that the prices will keep falling and that mining profitability won't drop by the end of the year so you may be right that it's better to grab one now...