Onto the what makes things tick – the video cards. There’s a lot of variables to go over in this section, but no matter what you go with, you should carefully research the card before buying. Some cards are better suited to overclocking than others, while out of the box, others will have a substantially superior hash rate.
Recommendations
Take these with a grain of salt, however based on power consumption, modding, and hashrate, my recommendation tiers would be as follows:
| Best | Better | Good |
|---|---|---|
| Nvidia 1070 | Nvidia 1060 | Nvidia 980 |
| RX 570 8GB | RX 470 8GB | RX 470 4GB |
| RX 580 8GB | RX 480 8GB | RX 480 4GB |
It is important to note that not all cards are created equal. For example, my Sapphire RX 580 8GB Nitro+ produces a much better hashrate and cooler temperature than my MSI Armor 580.
AMD vs Nvidia
This is purely a preferential question based on how long one wishes to wait for their Return on Investment (ROI). AMD cards are generally cheaper and have more community support for BIOS modding and increased performance. Out of the box, however, it is difficult to compete with the EVGA 1070 SC2’s hashrate of 30-35MH/s.
If you plan to use ethos and want something plug-and-play, go AMD. If you plan to use Windows with an overclocking utility and can wait an extra month or so to achieve ROI, go Nvidia.
Drivers
Including this here as well as later on in the guide, but be sure you have a known-good set of drivers. For Windows, this is as follows:
- AMD: (Version 16.11.5 AND Version 17.5.1)
- Nvidia: Version 347.52
Video Memory / VRAM
The more video memory, the better your card will perform. Out of the box, an RX 480 8GB will gain an extra 4-5MH/s over its 4GB counterpart. If your video card has 2GB of VRAM or less, it’s not usable for mining Ethereum and your mining application will throw a similar error to the following:
GPU Error: Cannot Create DAG
Power Consumption and Pinning
Generally speaking, the newer the card, the more efficient it will be. Ideally what you’re looking to do is maximize hashrate to wattage. The less electricity you pay per card, the more profits you will have. My rig of 6x Nvidia 1070s use around 70% of the power than my BIOS-modded and undervolted RX 580 rig uses and produces an average of 5MH/s more per card.
Additionally pay attention to the PCI power connectors needed for the card. The Sapphire Nitro+, for example, requires an 8-pin + 6-pin for power, whereas the MSI Armor requires one 8-pin
Incoming AMD Hashrate Drop
AMD cards are going to experience a significant hashrate drop between June and September 2017. This is due to the smaller translation lookaside buffer (cache) found in AMD cards. Running a -benchmark <dag#>using Claymore’s miner will give an output of your current hardware. RX owners can expect their hashrates to drop about 35% by DAG 160-180.