On August 20, 2018, Nvidia unveiled the long-awaited new generation of Turing consumer graphics cards. On the eve of the announcement, there were a lot of rumors about the technical characteristics and the name of the chips, which were never confirmed. Today, when prices and technical data on older models of RTX20XX video cards become known, you can compare the novelties with the outgoing generation GTX10XX in terms of using video cards for crypto currency mining.
Because sales of the announced RTX2070, RTX2080 and RTX2080Ti video cards will begin only on September 20, so there is currently no real data on video card performance in the mining. Because of this, all submitted data on the hashrate of Nvidia video cards of the Turing generation will not be accurate, but rather as a result of comparing the characteristics of two generations. To compare the generations of Pascal and Turing video cards, we took only the parameters important for mining and presented everything in a convenient tabular
Comparison of the characteristics of GTX1070 and RTX2070
| Characteristics | GTX1070 | RTX2070 | Difference % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Release date | 10.06.2016 | 20.10.2018 | |
| GPU | GP104 | TU104-350 | |
| Techprocess | 16nm | 12nm | -25% |
| Frequency GPU (BOOST) | 1506MHz (1683MHz) | 1410Mhz(1620Mhz) | -6% (-4%) |
| Cuda cores | 1920 | 2304 | +17% |
| GFLOPS FP32 | 6463 | 7465 | +14% |
| Memory | 8GB GDDR5 | 8GB GDDR6 | 0% |
| Memory bus width | 256bit | 256bit | 0% |
| Bandwidth per pin | 8008Mbit/s | 14000Mbit/s | +43% |
| Total memory bandwidth | 256Gbit/s | 448Gbit/s | +43% |
| Energy consumption | 150W | 175W | +14% |
| Announced price, USD | 349 USD | 499 USD | +30% |
In the table, green marks positive changes, for example, an increase in Cuda cores or memory bandwidth. As you can see in the new generation of Turing, there are not only positive changes, but also negative ones, which we marked in red. Here it is worth noting the decrease in the core frequency, the increase in energy consumption and the announced cost.
The increase in TDP from 150 to 180 watts with a reduced process technology of 25%, where the number of cores has increased by only 17%, can be explained by the appearance of a ray tracing unit, which was not in the previous generation. L
Also, do not pay too much attention to the price increase of 30%; video cards at the recommended prices have not been sold for a long time, the real cost of Geforce GTX1070 at the moment is not less than 400USD.
Comparison of Geforce RTX2070 with Geforce GTX1070 in Mining
As we have already mentioned real performance data in the Geforce RTX2070 mining, at the moment there is no, so we will make our forecast based on the data obtained in the previous table. First of all, we will be interested in increasing the performance of the GPU core in GFLOPS and the memory bandwidth in Gbit / s.
For comparison, let's take two topical algorithms for mining on graphics cards, and absolutely different ones are ETHASH (more memory dependent) and X16r (more depends on the GPU).
| Algorithm | GTX1070 | RTX2070 | Difference % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ethash | 30Mh/s | 43Mh/S | +43% |
| X16r | 8MH/s | 9,1MH/s | +14% |
In the RTX2070 presented, an increase in the performance of the memory subsystem by 43% promises us about the same increase in the Ethereum mining, but a slight increase in the GPU's performance by 14% will give about the same increase for the processor-dependent algorithms (Cryptonight, Equihash, X16r, Keccak). If our assumptions on the hashed are confirmed, then the purchase of RTX2070 instead of GTX1070 will only be relevant when mining Ethereum.
And if you remember that Geforce GTX1080 using OhGodAnETHlargementPill gives 40+ MH / s at the same power consumption of 180W, but with a higher GPU performance in 8873GFLOPS and with a lower price, then the choice in favor of RTX2070 is not at all obvious.
Comparison of the characteristics of GTX1080 and RTX2080
| Characteristics | GTX1080 | RTX2080 | Difference % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Release date | 27.05.2016 | 20.09.2018 | |
| GPU | GP104 | TU104-400 | |
| Techprocess | 16nm | 12nm | -25% |
| Frequency GPU (BOOST) | 1607MHz (1734MHz) | 1515Mhz(1734Mhz) | -6% (-1,5%) |
| Cuda cores | 2560 | 2944 | +13% |
| GFLOPS FP32 | 8873 | 10068 | +12% |
| Memory | 8GB GDDR5X | 8GB GDDR6 | 0% |
| Memory bus width | 256bit | 256bit | 0% |
| Bandwidth per pin | 10008Mbit/s | 14000Mbit/s | +29% |
| Total memory bandwidth | 320Gbit/s | 448Gbit/s | +29% (+43% GTX1070) |
| Energy consumption | 180W | 215W | +16% |
| Announced price, USD | 499USD | 699 USD | +29% |
The video card Nvidia Geforce RTX2080 on the background of the predecessor GTX1080 looks even more bleak than the RTX2070 in front of the GTX1070. The performance gain of the GPU RTX2080 is +12%, and the memory is + 29% and is equal to the bandwidth of the low-end model RTX2070. Therefore, expecting from RTX2080 a significantly higher hash on the Ethash algorithm compared with the RTX2070 is not worth it.
Comparison of Geforce RTX2080 with Geforce GTX1080 in Mining
Because the algorithm of memory GDDR5X used in the GTX1080 and GTX108ti is very different from the work of GDDR5 and GDRR6, so on the Ethash algorithm the comparison will be with the GTX1070.
| Algorithm | GTX1070 | RTX2080 | Difference % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ethash | 30Mh/s | 44Mh/S | +44% |
Although the hash of the power of the GPU itself depends little, but we added + 1Mh / s to our forecast more than the RTX2070.
For the X16R algorithm, a comparison with the GTX1080
| Algorithm | GTX1080 | RTX2080 | Разница в % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ethash | 40Mh/s | 44Mh/s | +10% |
| X16R | 10,5MH/s | 11,8MH/s | +12% |
The performance in the mining of the RTX2080 compared to the GTX2080 is projected to grow by no more than 10-12% for all mining algorithms (considering OhGodAnETHlargementPill for GDDR5X memory). At the same time, the cost of the novelty will be 30% more expensive and, importantly, energy consumption also promises to grow by 16%. In this scenario, the purchase for the mining of the previous generation graphics card GTX1080 looks more rational.
Comparison of the characteristics of GTX1080Ti and RTX2080Ti
| Characteristics | GTX1080Ti | RTX2080Ti | Difference % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Release date | 10.03.2017 | 20.09.2018 | |
| GPU | GP102 | TU102-300 | |
| Techprocess | 16nm | 12nm | -25% |
| Frequency GPU (BOOST) | 1480MHz (1582MHz) | 1350Mhz(1545Mhz) | -9% (-2,5%) |
| Cuda cores | 3584 | 4352 | +18% |
| GFLOPS FP32 | 11340 | 13448 | +16% |
| Memory | 11GB GDDR5X | 11GB GDDR6 | 0% |
| Memory bus width | 352bit | 352bit | 0% |
| Bandwidth per pin | 11008Mbit/s | 14000Mbit/s | +22% |
| Total memory bandwidth | 484Gbit/s | 616Gbit/s | +22% (+59% GTX1070) |
| Energy consumption | 250W | 250W | +0% |
| Announced price, USD | 650USD | 999 USD | +35% |
The performance of the GPU RTX2080Ti was increased by 16%, and the memory subsystem by 22% relative to the GTX1080Ti. Nvidia did not become modest and raised the price for the new titanium by a record 35%, setting the price for a thousand US dollars for the not overclocked copy.
Comparison of Geforce RTX2080Ti with Geforce GTX1080Ti in Mining
As for the RTX2080, the comparison for the Ethash algorithm is done with the GTX1070 card.
| Algorithm | GTX1070 | RTX2080Ti | Difference % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ethash | 30Mh/s | 48-50Mh/S | +59% |
The released hashrate on the Ethash algorithm, according to our expectations, for RTX2080Ti video cards will be at the level with the previous generation GTX1080ti video cards using the OhGodAnETHlargementPill mod.
| Algorithm | GTX1080Ti | RTX2080Ti | Difference % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ethash | 50Mh/s | 50Mh/s | 0% |
| X16R | 15MH/s | 17,5MH/s | +16% |
Given the near-zero performance gain of the RTX2080ti on the Ethash algorithm and not a significant 16% increase in hash on other algorithms, compared to a 35% increase in price, the purchase of Nvidia Geforce RTX2080Ti for mining also seems not the most optimal solution.
Once again, we warn that the indicated hashed for video cards is obtained by comparing the technical characteristics of two generations of video cards and may differ from the real hash that testers of this equipment will receive at the end of September 2018.
Conclusion: The new generation of Turing video cards from Nvidia Geforce RTX20XX, announced in August, is unlikely to interest those customers who buy GPU only for mining crypto-currencies because of their technical characteristics and starting prices. the increase in the cost of a new generation of video cards is not commensurate with the increase in productivity in the mining. In addition to the high price, the power consumption of RTX20XX video cards remains questionable, due to the inclusion in the GPU of the ray tracing unit, the power consumption of the video cards did not decrease, but increased on the contrary, although the process technology was reduced from 16 to 12 nm, and the GPU frequencies were even understated compared to the Pascal generation.
Before the first Geforce RTX cards appeared on sale, there was almost a month left to confirm or disprove our guesses with the hasht on these video cards. If all the same, our conclusion is confirmed, then in stock Nvidia left GTX2060 and GTX2050, in which there will be no blocks of retracement, and a new technical process with a more powerful GPU will give the miners the very energy-efficient product that they expect from the new generation video cards
