Ethereum mine

[Edgar R. Zakarian]

Hi guys,

 

Just to try it, I'm trying to use my old HD 6990 to mine.

Do you need to have cards in crossfire to mine on them both?

Because newer drivers disable crossfire for some stupid reason..

 

[App4that]

For fun? Have at it. For money? Ask why those with more than you. don't. 

[cj09beira]

no need for crossfire

[Edgar R. Zakarian]

9 minutes ago, App4that said:

For fun? Have at it. For money? Ask why those with more than you. don't. 

Wut?? Those with more than me. don't?

[App4that]

2 hours ago, Edgar R. Zakarian said:

Wut?? Those with more than me. don't?

If mining was profitable, companies would be doing it. See, people forget overhead, they forget expenses. 

 

Awesome analogy.

 

If there were gold bricks laying on the surface of the moom, it wouldn't be profitable to go and get them. You'd spend more money than the value of the gold retrieving it. 

[Coaxialgamer]

You don't need crossfire. But on the other hand, you aren't going to make anything with a 6990. 

[jwacher]

There are entire companies dedicated to mining?

[mariushm]

@jwacher

 

Yeah, here's an example: https://ethermine.org/miners/58801ebec6685d0d5461a30999fa5df91549a59e

Each of those entries is a computer with 3-4 video cards (something in the rx 470 - rx480 range), using around 3-500 watts of power 24/7

You can see from the name  R01PC08 for example ... it's RACK 01, PC 08 from the rack ... and all the way down you can see min24PC42  meaning rack 24 , pc 42

 

(I'm making everything very simple below)

 

So 24 racks, 42 pcs per rack, guy has 1000 computers (page shows only 959 but let's say 1000 to keep things simple)  and probably averages about 3.000.000 watts or 3000 kWh in electricity each day... assuming he pays 0.1$ per kWh he's paying 300$ a day in electricity alone.

BUT he makes now around 2-2.5$ a day for around 20 MH/s of mining and he's doing 80 GH/s averaged or around 8000-10.000$ a day  ... the problem is that with each day that passes, the complexity of mining increases so he'll slowly make less and less money each day so that 10k $ a day could turn in a month in only 8k $ a day for example ... and he still has to pay back the money for all those computers and video cards he uses.

If he took a loan to buy 4 video cards per computer and he has 1000 computers and he paid 200$ for each video card that means he needs to make back at least 800.000$ to recover the costs of the video cards alone.

Add let's say 100$ for each pc and power supply and you have another 100k$  ... and unless he has some barn or some warehouse of his own you add the colocation costs (renting the big place , think 24 racks, 24 bit tall desks with 42 computers on them each ... that takes space) and also keep in mind the cooling requirements as you'll need serious air conditioning or huge fans to move air around that room to keep those 1000 computers cool that's probably another 1-5k$ a month in cooling.

 

So you could say this guy has 1 million dollars invested in equipment that makes him now around $10k a day ... but who knows  for how long, and it will also slow down gradually... and people could simply lose interest one day and the coin value could decrease.. who knows.

 

 

 

 

 

[jwacher]

@mariushm Good break down. I wasn't really asking if there was. I was referring to @App4that when they said that if mining were profitable companies would be doing it. That was a really accurate breakdown. Also one nice thing is that even if the crypto market dies out he still has perfectly good hardware to sell off.

[rn8686]

On 2017-6-7 at 7:14 AM, App4that said:

If mining was profitable, companies would be doing it. See, people forget overhead, they forget expenses. 

 

Awesome analogy.

 

If there were gold bricks laying on the surface of the moom, it wouldn't be profitable to go and get them. You'd spend more money than the value of the gold retrieving it. 

Actually there are, it was only recently that it became really profitable for consumers to do it. Also you need to consider that they, just like any currency, are variable in value so it isnt really that safe of an investment for a business, but great for people who already have a GPU who just want to get some ROI on it. 

 

[MercuryRain]

On 6/6/2017 at 4:14 PM, App4that said:

If mining was profitable, companies would be doing it. See, people forget overhead, they forget expenses. 

 

If there were gold bricks laying on the surface of the moom, it wouldn't be profitable to go and get them. You'd spend more money than the value of the gold retrieving it. 

 

But it is profitable, and companies are doing it.  Why do you think there aren't any RX 570s and 580s to be found? 

 

Rofl.  Do you really think that just a few random dudes buying a couple 580s here and there would clear the stock of 580s out and drive the price up $100?  Come on bro, AMD isn't struggling that much.

 

I don't even have all six of my graphics cards mining right now (driver issues with my NVIDIA cards is killing my hashrate on them and because riser cards suck) but Im making enough money out of the two that are running that they would cover the electricity cost of the other four GPUs and still have enough money to pay themselves back eventually.

[Edgar R. Zakarian]

16 hours ago, CerberusLabrat said:

 

But it is profitable, and companies are doing it.  Why do you think there aren't any RX 570s and 580s to be found? 

 

Rofl.  Do you really think that just a few random dudes buying a couple 580s here and there would clear the stock of 580s out and drive the price up $100?  Come on bro, AMD isn't struggling that much.

 

I don't even have all six of my graphics cards mining right now (driver issues with my NVIDIA cards is killing my hashrate on them and because riser cards suck) but Im making enough money out of the two that are running that they would cover the electricity cost of the other four GPUs and still have enough money to pay themselves back eventually.

Electricity is one thing, but what about paying for the hardware as well?

[mariushm]

Some people spend more than 2-300$ on cigarettes or pay per view ... spending a few hundred dollars as a small risk investment is not such a bad deal. Even if it turns out to be not worth it, you can still sell the hardware and recover some of the money.

You can waste money in worse ways than mining and if you have the money to risk why not. Can't do that with lottery tickets or betting on football games or horses for example.