What video card is the best choice for mining now? My analysis. 21-08-2016.

In this article I will try to find out what card is the most efficient by the main mining ratio - Power/Price/Wattage. 

I will review only the new actual graphic cards, that you can buy now and have a full warranty. 

The prices I will take from the "Newegg.com" shop by default.

So, here is the list of the cards, I will compare (I tryed to find the most cheap model, but good): 

• AMD Radeon R9 390 8GB - 275$

• AMD Radeon RX 470 4GB - 200$

• AMD Radeon RX 470 8GB - 240$

• AMD Radeon RX 480 8GB - 280$

• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 8GB - 440$

• AMD Radeon R9 Fury X - 380$

That's all the cards for now.

 As you can see, there are all non-reference cards, exept R9 Fury X. Why? Because the new cards (RX 470 and RX 480) have a terrible ref. cooling and also have some problems with PCI-E power consuming, R9 390 is too hot and needs a powerful custom cooling too, GTX 1070 have a good ref. cooling and no any problems, but the custom (for ex. MSI Gaming X) model have a lower price, better cooling and functionality vs ref. 

That's why I have chosen these cards. We need to buy not the cheapest model, but the model, that will have a good overclocking capability, potentionaly the long life and good cooling without extra loudness.  

I think, these cards fit these criteria.

The most profitable algorithms for the cards.

AMD cards have the best profit while mining ETH+SC/ ETH+DCR/ETH 

NVIDIA cards are good at mining LBRY/ MonaCoin, VertCoin/ SiaCoin/ XCN/ ETH+SC/ ETH

I will focus on ETH+SC and ETH only for AMD cards.

And LBRY and ETH+SC for Nvidia card.

• The mining hashrates for R9 390 (275$), with OC 1130/6400 Mhz:

ETH only - 32 Mh/s 

ETH+SC - 30+600 Mh/s (dcry=40)

________________________________________________________

Power consumption - up to 300W (without any mods)/ average temp.=73C, 70% fan

Earnings: ETH only = 0.00416BTC Daily = 0.1248BTC Monthly = 74.88$ Monthly (BTC=600$).

Earnings: ETH+SC = 0.00504BTC Daily = 0.151BTC Monthly = 90.6$ Monthly (BTC=600$).

Power cost: 7.2kWh Daily = 216kWh Monthly = 21.6$ Monthly (0.1$=1kWh)

Profit: 90.6-21.6=69$ Monthly overall.

The return rate: 275/69=3.985 months 

• The mining hashrates for RX 470 4GB (200$), with OC 1350/7600 Mhz:

ETH only - 24 Mh/s 

ETH+SC - 22+400 Mh/s

_____________________________________________________________

Power consumption - up to 170W (without any mods)/ average temp.=73C, 65% fan, a bit loud.

 Earnings: ETH only = 0.00314BTC Daily = 0.0942BTC Monthly = 56.52$ Monthly (BTC=600$).

Earnings: ETH+SC = 0.00362BTC Daily = 0.1086BTC Monthly = 65.16$ Monthly (BTC=600$).

Power cost: 4.08kWh Daily = 122.4kWh Monthly = 12.24$ Monthly (0.1$=1kWh)

Profit: 65.16-12.24=52.92$ Monthly overall.

The return rate: 200/52.92=3.779 months 

• The mining hashrates for RX 470 8GB (240$), with OC 1340/8400 Mhz:

ETH only - 27 Mh/s 

ETH+SC - 25.8+450 Mh/s

____________________________________________________________

Power consumption - up to 180W (without any mods)/ average temp.=70C, 70% fan, not loud.

 Earnings: ETH only = 0.0034BTC Daily = 0.102BTC Monthly = 61.2$ Monthly (BTC=600$).

Earnings: ETH+SC = 0.00417BTC Daily = 0.1251BTC Monthly = 75.06$ Monthly (BTC=600$).

Power cost: 4.32kWh Daily = 129.6kWh Monthly = 12.96$ Monthly (0.1$=1kWh)

Profit: 75.06-12.96=62.1$ Monthly overall.

The return rate: 240/62.1=3.864 months 

• The mining hashrates for RX 480 8GB (280$), with OC 1370/8800 Mhz:

ETH only - 28 Mh/s 

ETH+SC - 27+450 Mh/s

_____________________________________________________________

Power consumption - up to 200W (without any mods)/ average temp.=72C, 70% fan, not loud.

 Earnings: ETH only = 0.00366BTC Daily = 0.1098BTC Monthly = 65.88$ Monthly (BTC=600$).

Earnings: ETH+SC = 0.00437BTC Daily = 0.1311BTC Monthly = 78.66$ Monthly (BTC=600$).

Power cost: 4.8kWh Daily = 144kWh Monthly = 14.4$ Monthly (0.1$=1kWh)

Profit: 78.66-14.4=64.26$ Monthly overall.

The return rate: 280/64.26=4.359 months 

• The mining hashrates for GTX 1070 8GB (440$), with OC 2000/9200 Mhz:

LBRY - 270 Mh/s 

ETH+SC - 30+700 Mh/s

_______________________________________________________________

Power consumption - up to 170W (without any mods)/ average temp.=66C, 60% fan, quite.

Earnings: LBRY = 0.00616BTC Daily = 0.1848BTC Monthly = 110.88$ Monthly (BTC=600$).

Earnings: ETH+SC = 0.00523BTC Daily = 0.1569BTC Monthly = 94.14$ Monthly (BTC=600$).

Power cost: 4.08kWh Daily = 122.4kWh Monthly = 12.24$ Monthly (0.1$=1kWh)

Profit: 110.88-12.24=98.64$ Monthly overall.

The return rate: 440/98.64=4.46 months 

The mining hashrates for R9 Fury X 4GB (380$), with OC 1100/550 (HBM) Mhz:

ETH only - 32 Mh/s 

ETH+SC - 31+750 Mh/s

_____________________________________________________________

Power consumption - up to 300W+ (without any mods)/ average temp.=55C, 35% fan, not loud.

 Earnings: ETH only = 0.00418BTC Daily = 0.1254BTC Monthly = 75.24$ Monthly (BTC=600$).

Earnings: ETH+SC = 0.00545BTC Daily = 0.1635BTC Monthly = 98.1$ Monthly (BTC=600$).

Power cost: 7.2kWh Daily = 216kWh Monthly = 21.6$ Monthly (0.1$=1kWh)

Profit: 98.1-21.6=76.5$ Monthly overall.

The return rate: 380/76.5=4.967 months 

The conclusion.

Surprisly for me the best card for mining is Radeon RX 470 4GB (Sapphire Nitro+). But anyway I advice you to buy not it, but 8GB model, it will have more perspectives with its fast memory. 

R9 390 is still a good choice, especially with discounts, if you have not expesive electricity.

Nvidia GTX 1070 is a very good card with amazing power efficiency - it consumes the same average 150W as RX 470-480, but it is a lot more powerful. The bad thing is the price, it costs 57% more than RX 480. The good thing is that you can set up more hashing power with less power consumption on every rig. And also keep in mind, this Nvidia card have very good hashrates on other algorythms (x2-x3 more than RX 480).

And don't forget, there are a lot of hints, mods, modded bioses for the cards, so you can expect higher hashrates or lower power consumption.

Ok. I've chosen the best video card for mining for today. It is AMD Radeon RX 470 8GB!

Let's build the test rig with it!

We'll need:

• GPU AMD Radeon RX 470 8GB (Sapphire Nitro+) - 5x =1200$
• MB Asrock B150 Fatality Gaming K4=95$
• CPU Intel Celeron G3900=48$
• Memory GSkill 8GB DDR4 2400=32$
• PSU EVGA SuperNova 750W - 2x=140$
• Hard Drive HGST 500GB=40$

Total rig cost: 1555$ (wow, beauty number)

Total power consumption of the rig will be around 900-1000W. So we have 500W in reserve.

What about profit? We'll earn with this rig about 0.6255BTC or 375.3$ Monthly by mining ETH+SC (minus eletricity 375.3-72=303.3$).

And after 5 months (5.13) we'll return our attachments and have a clear profit.

For the compare I will take a look on the rig with GTX 1070 for the same price.

For the same price, even a bit more, we can buy only 3 GTX 1070 for our rig. It will look like that:

• GPU NVIDIA GTX 1070 8GB (Gaming X)- 3x =1320$
• MB Asrock B150 Fatality Gaming K4=95$
• CPU Intel Celeron G3900=48$
• Memory GSkill 8GB DDR4 2400=32$
• PSU EVGA SuperNova 750W =70$
• Hard Drive HGST 500GB=40$

Total rig (GTX 1070) cost: 1605$.

Total power consumption - 650W.

The profit: 0.5544BTC or 332.64$ - 36.72$ (electricity)=295.92$ monthly profit.

So, the rig with RX 470 8GB is more profitable with the less cost. But the rig with GTX 1070 have the opportunity for adding 2 cards yet. It's nice, that NVIDIA can mine very well too.

That's the end of my review. I hope you like it.