Dabbling in mining as a hobby

M

Missing the point

2[H]4U
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Mar 27, 2000
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Good day!

I just got a GTX1070 for gaming, and was introduced to mining on the side as well... it has been fun and I would like to extend my 'rig' collection to include the two office computers I own and built at work to mine on the side.

I don't want to buy more GTX1070's (too much $$$) but I can buy a R9 280 locally used for about ~$150usd.. but I can't for the life of me find out what that card can produce? Anyone know?

I am using nicehash 2 miner on my main PC...
 
What is the RAM size? If it is 3gb or less you cannot mine Ether. Not sure about the nice hash numbers but it sounds like the 280x was/is around 12 mh/s. Spend the extra coin and get some 6gb 1060's. I just bought 2 mini 1060's the other day for about $600... Not exactly cheap but they were close to MSRP on Amazon.
 
From what I see the 1060 is barely 20% better than the R9 280, but for me it would be double+ the price? I don't see that as worth it to me... I'm looking for two relatively inexpensive cards to run in my two office computers I built that make at least $1.25/day usd, so I would have a 3-4 month ROI on them. (elec is free)
 
Thanks for the link!

I wish some of these people would message me back.. one guy accepted my offer of $300cad locally for a 980TI (~$235usd) and then never responded again when I asked where to meet... then a guy has both an R9 280 and 290, but won't return any messages! Bah.

I have 4 PC's total I would like to put cards into, two of which will be real gaming PCs, the other two just office computers that have mining GPU's in them... If I had my 1070, a 980TI, a R9 280 and 290, I'd have nearly 100mh/s, or I would assume is somewhere around $6/day for a total investment of ~$700usd.. or a 3-4 month ROI

-edit-

Oh, and confirm yes they are 3+GB cards
 
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Just be careful with running two cards in one PC. Especially those cards that use a lot of power. The motherboard sometimes burn out. Use a PCIe rise for more than one card.
 
Missing the point said:
Good day!

I just got a GTX1070 for gaming, and was introduced to mining on the side as well... it has been fun and I would like to extend my 'rig' collection to include the two office computers I own and built at work to mine on the side.

I don't want to buy more GTX1070's (too much $$$) but I can buy a R9 280 locally used for about ~$150usd.. but I can't for the life of me find out what that card can produce? Anyone know?

I am using nicehash 2 miner on my main PC...
Click to expand...
about 1.20 a day in btc using nicehash to mine eth or zcash
 
Thanks!!

Only one to reply to me has a GTX970 for just under $300cad, or $235usd.. gonna grab that for now because I'm having a hard time getting a hand on anything else!
 
Missing the point said:
Thanks!!

Only one to reply to me has a GTX970 for just under $300cad, or $235usd.. gonna grab that for now because I'm having a hard time getting a hand on anything else!
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Not smart to buy a 970 at this point in time. I wouldn't pay more than $130 and i wouldn't bother using it for mining unless you like watching paint dry.
 
Wow I didnt realize a 1060 could be had that cheap... $277cad + tax = $310cad for a newer card... according to calculators its a tiny bit slower than a 970 but uses 1/3 less power... very tempting! But from what I've read the single-fan 1060s run VERY hot? (and I assume loud?)

-edit- Just double checked, and according to nicehash profit calc they are exactly even when cost of electricity is involved...so I guess the 970 would definitely have to be cheaper to consider it over a brand new card

Also found two AMD cards locally, a R9 280 and R9 290, I can get both for $400cad... Combined they match almost as much as any single card out there (according to Nicehash profitability calculator)
 
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Missing the point said:
Wow I didnt realize a 1060 could be had that cheap... $277cad + tax = $310cad for a newer card... according to calculators its a tiny bit slower than a 970 but uses 1/3 less power... very tempting! But from what I've read the single-fan 1060s run VERY hot? (and I assume loud?)

-edit- Just double checked, and according to nicehash profit calc they are exactly even when cost of electricity is involved...so I guess the 970 would definitely have to be cheaper to consider it over a brand new card

Also found two AMD cards locally, a R9 280 and R9 290, I can get both for $400cad... Combined they match almost as much as any single card out there (according to Nicehash profitability calculator)
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nicehash does not take into account bios mods to turn on the card optimizations for mining. the 1060 can do 25+ mh/s for eth nor do they take into account each version of said card the one i linked comes oced...

and for 20 more you can get this

https://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce...UTF8&qid=1503098143&sr=1-3&keywords=1060&th=1
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Ironically someone posted up a 1 month old Zotac 1060 with dual fans (much better card) that is $359+tax+shipping on Amazon/Newegg, for $300cash... gonna pick it up
 
pclausen said:
Aren't 3GB cards getting borderline for certain algos?
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No but there were some issues with the ram getting filled. There are drivers on both sides that fix the issue of it leaking away the memory overtime. That is specifically what amd's new mining driver addresses.
 
Played with the calculator last night...

OK say I have a 1070, 1060, 2x 970, R9-280, R9-290, all running nicehash...
GTX 1070 - $1.78/day $2.15 before elec
GTX 1060 - $1.17/day $1.42 before elec
GTX 970 - $1.15/day $1.52 before elec
GTX 970 - $1.15/day $1.52 before elec
R9 280 - $0.97/day - $1.37 before elec
R9 290 - $0.95/day - $1.79 before elec

Total of $7.17/day - $9.77 before elec
$50.19/week - $68.39 before elec
$215.10/month - $293.10 before elec
ROI on cards
5.1 months
3.75 months before elec

At current markets, and the BTC rate of 4118.4usd. Electricity is $0.10 for some and 0.7 for others... I used 0.10 for calculations. Using Nicehash's profitability calculator.

In theory.
 
Nicehash and most online calcs are worthless and misleading since they're not factoring ever increasing difficulty - especially with ETH.

"At current markets" is irrelevant if you are running nicehash. Current value of BTC is irrelevant if you're using nicehash, since youre just selling hashpower for whatever someone is willing to pay, which fluctuates day to day and the weekly and monthly averages will always be lower than the best-case-scenario nicehash calc.

That said I wouldn't put any money into anything less than a 10 Series Nvidia at this point - old Nvidia and AMD cards suck too much power.

RX470 or 570 only if you can get it for close to $200.

RX480 or 580 only if you can get one $250-275.
 
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I got the following right now
1070 - paid ~$320usd (Bought for gaming not mining)
1060 - paid $240usd (higher end card with dual fans)
2 x 970 - paid $160each

Even if everything goes to crap and its worthless tomorrow, I still have graphics cards that are worth something... That's what I like about this "investing", I get a physical item in my hands (I love computer parts, obv), that has the opportunity to make extra $$$, an amount of which is absolutely uncertain, as is almost all investing... especially risky investing. There's the chance difficulty goes way the hell up and I cant make $5/day with all the cards running, OR, the value of the coins can go up and I'm already running so I get to take advantage of that... could go either way... or both ways? lol
 
Missing the point said:
Played with the calculator last night...

OK say I have a 1070, 1060, 2x 970, R9-280, R9-290, all running nicehash...
GTX 1070 - $1.78/day $2.15 before elec
GTX 1060 - $1.17/day $1.42 before elec
GTX 970 - $1.15/day $1.52 before elec
GTX 970 - $1.15/day $1.52 before elec
R9 280 - $0.97/day - $1.37 before elec
R9 290 - $0.95/day - $1.79 before elec

Total of $7.17/day - $9.77 before elec
$50.19/week - $68.39 before elec
$215.10/month - $293.10 before elec
ROI on cards
5.1 months
3.75 months before elec

At current markets, and the BTC rate of 4118.4usd. Electricity is $0.10 for some and 0.7 for others... I used 0.10 for calculations. Using Nicehash's profitability calculator.

In theory.
Click to expand...
i can tell you for the few minutes i got my r9 390 to work correctly it was hashing at 2.53$/day but the temps kept going up the fans never went higher than 40% and after i installed msi afterburner to revamp the fan profile and tell the fans to spin faster i got the boot loop issue back and could not get the card into windows again... switched back to my 280x with the fan profile changed so it ran cooler. back to the 1.53 a day...


I wonder if msi will rma this rma now that i let it sit for 8 months.

I had tried this when i had my rig in an antec 900 case and the card barely fit at all and i did not think it seated well... so the next day i bought a cooler master haf and more ram. well finally got around to trying it again but it failed in the same manner...
 
No real understanding of mining, here. Does the "average" miner actually get a good RoI? Just curious, I'm sure my rig would be worthless at it, and my power bill is high enough.
 
Wyodiver said:
No real understanding of mining, here. Does the "average" miner actually get a good RoI? Just curious, I'm sure my rig would be worthless at it, and my power bill is high enough.
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the balance is out there you need to consider the cost of the hardware and the electricity cost to run it. You can deduct some for if you get to offset heating which is why the winter mining season exists as it can produce enough heat to heat your home...

ROI is the point in time where your mining becomes profitable as you start with the cost of the hardware and deduct the daily electric costs from running whatever your mining with at 60-90% load... generally it is about 200-300 watts per gpu so about 30 cents per gpu per day to run them if whatever you are running doesnt make over what it uses in elect a day then it is not profitable to mine with.

And depends how you do it most roi is about 2-3 months for me it was 4 months before burst got f-ed in the A by Burstnation now i dont think burst will hit roi for me my gpu could easily hit the 200$ roi it needs to be profitable as i am at around 50 atm if i keep it going i should hit roi in 4 months...

My biggest issue is if my r9 390 worked correctly it would be a little over 2 times the money for just another 50 watts... like the 280x i already had that card paid off so 2 or so months and it would pay off my roi... Now i am contemplating putting my last 270x in place of a usb 3.0 card that has controllers for each port...
 
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1070 is already in my main PC...

So total investment of $1120usd I have a GTX1070, GTX1060, 2 x GTX970, R9-280 and R9-290.

Hard to calculate MSRP on them but it's somewhere around $2160, not counting the inflation of prices due to current market conditions...

So now I get to set them up in some PC's and see what kind of weekly monies I make :)
 
I'm going to retire a 280x of mine soon. Those old cards just aren't really worth running much longer.
 
Yeah even if they just offset the cost of purchase by a noticeable percentage I'm happy, I'll end up with 4-5 PC's that are capable of playing current games at 1080p, and at least one PC at 4k.... that sounds sweet to me.

And if something changes, I'll have a bunch of cards already set up able to take advantage...
 
Missing the point said:
Yeah even if they just offset the cost of purchase by a noticeable percentage I'm happy, I'll end up with 4-5 PC's that are capable of playing current games at 1080p, and at least one PC at 4k.... that sounds sweet to me.

And if something changes, I'll have a bunch of cards already set up able to take advantage...
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nvidia is where I"m putting my money. The processing per watt is just insane and they're far better for gaming to preserve better resale. 1070 is a smarter buy than the 580. Many people swear by the 1080ti's but I find them to be too expensive and too long of ROI for me even though they're great to game on which is why i have them.
 
Got everything up and running, today's the first day :)

Got my 1070 in my main PC
Dual 970's in my Wife's PC
1060 in my Office front PC
R9-290 in my Second Office PC

Mining an array of coins through nicehash,

DaggerHashimoto
Accepted speed: 46.70 MH/s
Decred
Accepted speed: 1.32 GH/s
Equihash
Accepted speed: 696.76 Sol/s
Lbry
Accepted speed: 0.22 GH/s

Totallng ~$10usd/day

Today seemed like a huge jump in daily earnings, did the coins gain a bunch of value, or was the upgraded nicehash miner just a bit more optimized? I noticed almost $0.50 jump in my 1070 rig today over yesterday...
 
With one 1080 Ti and Ryzen 1700x, Nicehash, I am getting about $4.75 a day. EVGA Precision has no way to undervolt, POS. Set at 82% for power, memory OCing does not seem to do much of anything even with 120% power limit so is at default.

Just experimenting, will be building separate rig for mining with left over cards and hardware. 2x 1070s, 290, 7970. If I get a Vega 64 LC then add a Nano to the list.

What OCing software works well with EVGA cards that can undervolt the GPU?
 
I stand corrected, OC 1080 Ti mem +309 (5315 x 2 = 10630), USD now is $5 a day Nicehash. This is also using the 1700x as well which is running at 3.94ghz at 47% cpu usage.
 
$5 nicehash? That sounds pretty good. Maybe I should just switch to nicehash for my single 1080ti.
 
Right now it is $4.84 for the 1080Ti + 1700x. Other rig with the Nano is at $2.04. I may put in the two 1070's on the Ryzen setup with the 1080 Ti until I get the dedicated mining rig assembled. That is if the CH6 will work with three cards.

The new AMD drivers, 17.8.2 are funky when mining. Before I could reduce the Nano voltage down to 1150mv without issue - it crashes now. Aida 64 is showing voltage to the GPU at 1.08v even though it says set at 1200mv in Wattman. Aida 64 shows the Nano GPU power 150w, Memory at 11w which is not too bad. Clockspeed at 874mhz which normally would be at 1000mhz while mining??? May have to revert back to the older drivers.
 
noko said:
Right now it is $4.84 for the 1080Ti + 1700x. Other rig with the Nano is at $2.04. I may put in the two 1070's on the Ryzen setup with the 1080 Ti until I get the dedicated mining rig assembled. That is if the CH6 will work with three cards.

The new AMD drivers, 17.8.2 are funky when mining. Before I could reduce the Nano voltage down to 1150mv without issue - it crashes now. Aida 64 is showing voltage to the GPU at 1.08v even though it says set at 1200mv in Wattman. Aida 64 shows the Nano GPU power 150w, Memory at 11w which is not too bad. Clockspeed at 874mhz which normally would be at 1000mhz while mining??? May have to revert back to the older drivers.
Click to expand...
you using the mining drivers?
 
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