Over the last 3 weeks, I've been spending a lot of time learning about cryptocurrency, investing (investopedia has been my bible), and a bit about mining. While my luck with trading has been generally hit-and-miss, my luck with learning has been excellent. All this has led to me looking into the next stage, which would be setting up a mining rig.
The flip side to this is that I also do a lot of 3d work. There's websites out there like UpWork, where I would have the option to do some things like renders or illustrations on the side to make some extra cash, and this is work I really enjoy, albeit not overly profitable. Its a labour of love for the most part.
As far as a mining rig, my challenge is to somewhat combine these two. The 3d side of thing is easy, as the choice of GPUs and CPUs makes it easy to put a good rig together. Its the mining side where I could use the input of some more experienced amigos out there!
I've been reading a lot about the nvidia v amd debate. Understanding issues like costs of GPU, difficulties in obtaining them, hashrate vs electricity costs etc, I'm toying with the idea of an nvidia based rig. In a nutshell, it sounds to me like it *can* be profitable, provided you switch around to whichever crypto is most profitable and/or pair it up to some trading. On top of this, I have an opportunity to save some money on the cost of the entire machine, getting the parts a little cheaper than retail.
To further confuse things, there's the new single-slot 1070 katana card from Zotac, making a rig, potentially, more neat and compact.
So here's the million dollar question, considering that nvidia is better for the small amount of 3d work I'll be doing, can mining with 1070s be profitable?
AMD are generally better at mining than Nvidia GPU.
So i have read. However, it does seem like nvidia are catching up, and theres a number of websites that claim that when it comes to hashrate vs electricity, nvidia is more efficient. So, thats why when i factor in the 3d side of things (where nvidia cream amd), nvidia seems like it could be worthwhile...... Maybe.
yeah I saw too. I would say AMD CPU (ryzen) and a nvidia GPU. Also personnaly I am going for a AMD CPU + 2 GPU in crossfire. I will put it in a case, which they don't usually do when they mine.
Think also about the noise and the place.
If i was you i would wait a bit, rumors are Nvidia is making a Mining only GTX 1060 that costs around $200. Mining Zcash is with my experience the most profitable with Nvidia cards.
Thats pretty interesting. Is it likely that it would have a longer life expectancy too? (I.e., that you would get a decent bit of life out of it before the return is less than the cost to pay it off/electricity)
Update on the GPU front. Turns out the 1060 9Gbps is showing early signs of promise. At CAD399, its affordable and is considerably less power usage than other options. Thoughts? http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/articles/geforce-gtx-1080-11gbps-gtx-1060-9gbps-custom-graphics-card-roundup