Nvidia cards are not profitable unless you get your hardware and electricity for free
This. Also, I would consider mining litecoins over Bitcoins. The Bitcoin network is too strong for GPUs to be profitable.
I have a couple things to add/ask about this thread:
1) While I'm somewhat inclined to agree that GPUs aren't profitable for BTC, there are certain cases where it's not totally true. Especially with $200 BTC and rising! As more ASIC machines hit the network, it may become completely impossible for GPU users to make any money. Of course, even then it depends on how high the perceived value of BTC goes...with $100,000BTC I could be happy mining .001 per day I think. But then, my lease contract states that my electric bill is at a fixed monthly rate no matter the usage...which is nice!
Now for my other concern...
2) I'm planning to buy a new GPU soon for mining LTC and other coins + gaming. I've been thinking of getting a 7850 or 7870, but according to the "Tom's" chart these GPUs only get 250-265kh/s. Can anyone verify this is true?
I was only recently introduced to crypto-currency and mining. Not wanting to waste any more time, I decided to jump in with the 5770 that was available already (also a 6450). With the 5770 I've been getting 200 kh/s or so. According to the chart here, stepping up to a 7850 or 7870 wouldn't really change things much for me. Right now I'm getting around 5770= 200kh/s + 6450= 38kh/s.
I understand that LTC and BTC aren't the same, however the rate of calculation is comparable. What I mean is, with OpenCl & BTC I get 200 Mh/s where as with CGminer & LTC I get 200kh/s. According to the chart in this thread I don't see much motivation for trading in my 5770 on either 7850 or 7870. I really thought the newer, higher class GPU would make much more of a difference. Just wondering if that chart is accurate.
BTW...Anyone have a used 7970 or 2 to trade/sell for cheap??
Thanks in advance for any replies to my questions here.
Personally I still make money mining bitcoins ATM with one 7950 and one 7870, I make around 0.05 btc per day so 10 bucks and I pay around 1-2$ per day for my whole condo(not only PC) in electricity.
With the 7870 from Asus I do around 420 Mhash/s overclocked; got it for 125$ on kijiji but that was really a bargain!!
For gaming the 7950 is completely awesome. All game I tryed I could max out all settings and still have over decent FPS. With the 7870 in my GF PC she can still play most game in best settings.
Bitcoins can still be profitable for GPUs just it may not last a long time longer depending on ASICs and what not. I have a Gigabyte 7870 OC and its getting about 440 Mhash/s so that chart isn't necessarily exactly what you will get. Or even close.
Cool! Thanks to both of you (c0ikws too) for the replies. I was thinking that the 7850-70 should do a little better than 250Mh/s, but hadn't really looked into it too much yet. I've been eyeing a 7870 that's normally just under $200, but it's been on sale a few times lately for $127...Seems it goes on sale when money is tight around my house, maybe they plan it that way.
I'll catch it right eventually...maybe buy 2 of them!
Ya...I figure the ASICS will pretty much kill the mining world for GPUs once they sweep across the network. Thinking that's still a couple of months off though. In the meantime, I say we all grab as much as possible.
I'm thinking people saying it's no good mining either have gotten their ASIC already and can't imagine going back to the slow speed of GPU...are discouraging new miners for less competition...or, remember the early days where solo mining was multiple times faster than pool mining today and comparing to that.
Whatever the case, what may seem an unworthy cause to one man may be the passion of another. As long as it's not costing me any more money in electric to try and mine coins, I'll take whatever I can get. I don't consider a new GPU as as investment cost that must be recouped because I was planning to get one for gaming anyway.
Thanks again for the input.