Ethereum Mining Cards

[hellochicken]

Hi everyone,

 

I am building an Ethereum mining rig, and I was wondering which option would be the better choice. I am stuck between either 2x Rx 580 4GB GDDR5, or 1x Rx580 8GB GDDR5. I think the 8GB one would last longer, considering that mining Ethereum is getting harder and harder, but the hash rate of 2 4GB ones would be higher. Also, what are some good motherboards and cpus for this, since I'm on a tight budget.

 

Thanks,

hellochicken

[Zando_]

With the insane prices RX cards are going for, it'll be really hard to get a good ROI before the market crashes. Now isn't a good time to get into mining, and I'd wait till Vega if you want to do it no matter what. Or just use the card(s) you have already and see if you can make some cash from mining with those. 

[Gamerguy207]

The minimum for mining is 4 GB if that helps

[DXMember]

I think you're late to the party...

[hellochicken]

I was wondering what would happen when Ethereum crashes, and around when it would be. Also, what are some good specs for a mining rig.

[cj09beira]

The 4 GB ones have slower memory so don't go for them

[hellochicken]

A

1 minute ago, DXMember said:

I think you're late to the party...

Lets just say that I am still able to obtain the 4gb rx580 at around $210

[ATFink]

Dude, too little to late. Ethereum should soon start getting harder and harder to mine pretty soon. Jumping in now probably isn't a good idea, but you asked so I will answer to the best of my ability.

 

When mining, CPU and motherboard do diddily squat. You will only care about your PSU and GPU(s). Find a motherboard with as many PCIEx16 slots as can be crammed on to the board and hook up a bunch of GPUs with risers since you can't fit 4+ GPUs on any normal motherboard. You'll almost certainly have to build your own case for this. No one really knows when (or if) Ethereum will crash, but my guess would be within the next 1 to 9 months. See, I have no idea and I haven't come across anyone that does know.

[DXMember]

6 minutes ago, hellochicken said:

I was wondering what would happen when Ethereum crashes, and around when it would be. Also, what are some good specs for a mining rig.

high hash rate, low tdp

get a 1200W platinum or titanium PSU with a board that has 6 or more PCI-E expansions with 16GB RAM, all the GPUs you can fit with splitters and raisers, and cheapest everything else

[hellochicken]

Alright then, it doesn't seem like a good idea to invest in ethereum. But what would be a better cryptocurrency to invest in right now? I was thinking of zcash.

[Zando_]

6 minutes ago, hellochicken said:

Alright then, it doesn't seem like a good idea to invest in ethereum. But what would be a better cryptocurrency to invest in right now? I was thinking of zcash.

I'd advise just spending the money on upgrading your current rig. You can use it for mining when you're not gaming, so you don't have to worry about trying to pay off the cards. Investing in cryptocurrency is like being a successful stock market trader. You have to keep track of your costs, current ETH to USD ratios, whether they'll go up or down, how it'll fluctuate, blah blah blah. Just get a sweet gaming rig, and it should run mining programs no prob. 

[hellochicken]

Just now, Zando Bob said:

I'd advise just spending the money on upgrading your current rig. You can use it for mining when you're not gaming, so you don't have to worry about trying to pay off the cards. Investing in cryptocurrency is like being a successful stock market trader. You have to keep track of your costs, current ETH to USD ratios, whether they'll go up or down, how it'll fluctuate, blah blah blah. Just get a sweet gaming rig, and it should run mining programs no prob. 

That sounds like a good idea, but I have an i5-7500. Apparently it has a max number of 16 PCIe lanes. Would I be able to add another graphics card to my gaming build?

[Zando_]

Just now, hellochicken said:

That sounds like a good idea, but I have an i5-7500. Apparently it has a max number of 16 PCIe lanes. Would I be able to add another graphics card to my gaming build?

What's your current rig?

[hellochicken]

I currently have an i5-7500, a Asus ROG b250f gaming, a MSI GTX 1060 Gaming x 6GB GDDR5, and a 650W PSU.

[Zando_]

15 hours ago, hellochicken said:

I currently have an i5-7500, a Asus ROG b250f gaming, a MSI GTX 1060 Gaming x 6GB GDDR5, and a 650W PSU.

You should be able to make some money just mining with a single 1060. I'd wait until the mining craze is over, then get a Ryzen 5 1600, B350 board, 16GB RAM, and a 1070 or two. Then next time a profitable currency comes along, you'll have two cards that are awesome for gaming and decent at mining. Or get two Vega cards when they come out. 

[hellochicken]

2 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

You should be able to make some money just mining with a single 1060. I'd wait until the mining craze is over, then get a Ryzen 5 1600, B350 board, 16GB RAM, and a 1070 or two. Then next time a profitable currency comes along, you'll have two cards that are awesome for gaming and decent at mining. Or get two Vega card when they come out. 

I am running it currently, and getting about 18.5-19 mH/s. Is there anyway to boost this? I read somewhere that I can boost the memory clock speed using MSI afterburner? Would you recommend this?

[Zando_]

Just now, hellochicken said:

I am running it currently, and getting about 18.5-19 mH/s. Is there anyway to boost this? I read somewhere that I can boost the memory clock speed using MSI afterburner? Would you recommend this?

If you do it right, it should be fine. I think VRAM speed is a big factor in mining. If you can find a decently priced 1060, you could run two for more profits, though they don't support SLI for gaming. 

[hellochicken]

1 minute ago, Zando Bob said:

If you do it right, it should be fine. I think VRAM speed is a big factor in mining. If you can find a decently priced 1060, you could run two for more profits, though they don't support SLI for gaming. 

Ok, thanks for the replies. If I were to add another one though, could my build support it, since I only have 16 PCIe lanes on my i5-7500, and only 20 PCIe 3.0 lanes on my motherboard?

[Zando_]

2 minutes ago, hellochicken said:

Ok, thanks for the replies. If I were to add another one though, could my build support it, since I only have 16 PCIe lanes on my i5-7500, and only 20 PCIe 3.0 lanes on my motherboard?

Yes. It says it supports Crossfire (AMD's version of SLI), so it can take two cards. 

[loculus]

Keep in mind that Ethereum is in active development with a planned stepped transition to proof-of-stake later in the year, which will phase out the mining. So an 8 GB card may last longer but it could be just a few or several months anyway.

 

Mining for many of the other cryptocurrencies does not require high memory bandwidth and/or large VRAM.

 

The PCIe bandwidth shouldn't matter much. With some it's the GPU working with its own data in VRAM that counts; you're not talking about huge data transfers between the CPU and GPU.

[hellochicken]

1 minute ago, Zando Bob said:

Yes. It says it supports Crossfire (AMD's version of SLI), so it can take two cards. 

Would one of them be bottlenecked, since it only has 20 PCIe 3.0 lanes? And would my processor, the i5-7500, work with both, since it says that it has 16 PCIe lanes maximum here: https://ark.intel.com/products/97123/Intel-Core-i5-7500-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_80-GHz

[Zando_]

16 hours ago, hellochicken said:

Would one of them be bottlenecked, since it only has 20 PCIe 3.0 lanes? And would my processor, the i5-7500, work with both, since it says that it has 16 PCIe lanes maximum here: https://ark.intel.com/products/97123/Intel-Core-i5-7500-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_80-GHz

I wouldn't think so. It'd probs take bandwidth from your main PCIe 3.0 x16 slot, making them both x8. Should be fine, since there aren't any GPUs that can saturate a whole PCIe x8 slot AFAIK, and a 1060 defo won't. 

[hellochicken]

Just now, Zando Bob said:

I wouldn't think so. It'd probs take bandwidth from your main PCIe 3.0 x16 lost, making them both x8. Should be fine, since there aren't any GPUs that can saturate a whole PCIe x8 slot AFAIK, and a 1060 defo won't. 

And the processor?

[Zando_]

1 minute ago, hellochicken said:

And the processor?

I doubt it'll be the bottleneck, though with $700 to spend, you could easily get a new mobo and Ryzen or an i7. 

[hellochicken]

1 minute ago, Zando Bob said:

I doubt it'll be the bottleneck, though with $700 to spend, you could easily get a new mobo and Ryzen or an i7. 

Ok. Thank you so much for the replies.