Mining hardware

AMD Radeon RX 6800 and RX 6800XT - the first test in the mining of Ethereum cryptocurrency

Along with the start of sales of new AMD video cards - Radeon RX 6800, RX 6800XT, the first tests of these video cards in mining the Ethereun cryptocurrency (Dagger-Hashimoto mining algorithm) became available. As expected, RDNA2 video cards are not far from the previous generation of RDNA (RX5700) in terms of performance in ETH mining. the video memory subsystem has not undergone drastic changes. The 256bit memory bus and GDDR6 are still used, which has become a little faster. The mythical Infifnity Cash, on which many pin great hopes in these tests, did not show itself in any way.

AMD Ryzen 9 5900X - RandomX hashrate, Monero cryptocurrency

With the release of AMD's ZEN 3 generation processors, everyone has witnessed a historic event when AMD processors once again became the ultimate processor of choice in all use cases. The last time AMD processors received such a title was back in 2004 with the release of the first 64-bit Athlon 64 processors. FX processors. Those. Since the release of Bulldozer microarchitecture processors in 2011, AMD has firmly established itself as the best processor for cryptocurrency mining. Considering that ZEN 2 processors showed themselves at their best in Monero mining on the RandomX algorithm, then the new generation of ZEN 3 will not be an exception. We are most interested in the moment how an increase in IPC by 19% will affect mining, for this we took a Ryzen 9 5900X processor (12 cores, 24 threads) and checked its performance in mining.

AMD Radeon RX 6800, RX 6800 XT, RX 6900 XT video cards announced. Mining performance forecast

On October 28, 2020, AMD introduced the long-awaited new-generation RDNA 2 video cards called: Radeon RX 6800, RX 6800 XT, RX 6900 XT. This time, AMD did not deviate from the established tradition of 2020 and the presentation of new products once again surprised and delighted miners and computer enthusiasts. And first of all, this concerns the release of video cards not only competing with the best solutions from Nvidia, but offering even greater performance in games and at a lower price (RX 6900 XT). Probably no one expected such a breakthrough from AMD. The last graphics card from AMD to impose a worthy competition in the top segment was the Radeon R9 290X, which was at or better than the GTX 780 Ti in performance. And this, for a second, was as much as 7 years ago in 2013. All subsequent AMD solutions in the top segment (Fury, Vega, Radeon 7) could only compete with Nvidia's average performance video cards (GTX 1070, RTX 2070). If the gaming performance of the new generation of video cards was shown at the presentation by AMD itself, then we need to figure out the performance in mining ourselves until the video cards go on sale on November 18. Until this happens, let's try to predict the hashrate of the RX 6800 and RX 6900 video cards in mining popular cryptocurrencies based on the official technical data available after the presentation.

Nvidia Geforce RTX 3070 first test in mining cryptocurrency Ethereum

After just a day from the start of sales of RTX 3070 video cards from Nvidia, the first tests of the new product in mining the Ethereum cryptocurrency have already appeared on the Internet. And what is most interesting, the RTX 3070 is similar in performance to the previous top RTX 2080 Ti, not only in games, but also in the resulting hash rate when mining with the Ethash algorithm.

Selection of the optimal voltage, frequencies memory and GPU of AMD Polaris (RX480, RX580) video cards for Ethereum mining

Video cards Radeon RX470, RX480, RX570, RX580, RX590 continue to be in high demand among miners, despite the fact that the first models appeared on sale in mid-2016. And all thanks to its unique capabilities in mining Ethereum cryptocurrency and other cryptocurrencies with the Dagger Hashimoto (ETHash) mining algorithm combined with a favorable price. The entire line of AMD video cards with GPU Polaris 10, Polaris 20, Polaris 30, regardless of the type of memory based on the Ethash algorithm, shows a performance of 30-34Mh/s with a power consumption of 100-130W, depending on the settings of the video cards. At the same time, by default "out of the box" the buyer will be able to receive only 24-25Mh/s, ie. with the help of simple manipulations, you can improve the performance of video cards in Ethereum mining by 40%.

Testing in the mining of the EVGA Geforce RTX 3090 XC3 video card

The presentation of the new generation of Ampere video cards from Nvidia left an indelible impression on the minds of miners and gamers, especially a threefold increase in the speed of floating point calculations (FP32). If the previous flagship RTX line of video cards - RTX 2080ti coped with this task at a speed of 13.448GFLOPS, then the current leader RTX 3090 in this discipline already has 35.581 GFLOPS. That should definitely affect the performance of the RTX 3090 in GPU-dependent mining algorithms. It will be really interesting to check, considering that in the Ampere generation, the structure of the Cuda core has been significantly changed compared to the previous generation of Turing video cards. And such an opportunity appeared only with the advent of new versions of miners: WildRig Multi, Gminer and T-REX, which support the mining of cryptocurrencies using algorithms BeamHash3, Cuckatoo32, MTP, Equihash, KawPow.

Nvidia Geforce RTX 3090 - the hashrate of the video card in Ethereum mining became known

The Geforce RTX 3090 is the flagship of Nvidia's new line of graphics cards with a suggested price of $ 1,499, which is more than double the price of the Geforce RTX 3080, which has already shown impressive results in mining the Ethereum cryptocurrency. On the very first day after the start of sales of the RTX 3090, the first tests of this video card on the Ethash mining algorithm appeared. In stock the RTX 3090 delivers 106Mh/s with a power consumption of 350W, which is 24% better than the RTX 3080 in stock. Considering that some samples of RTX 3080 video cards can get 110 MH/s, then the ceiling of the RTX 3090 will be 136Mh/s. At the moment, the maximum known Ethash hash result for the RTX 3090 video card is 122 MH/s and 350W at unknown GPU, memory and Power Limit frequencies.

GoldShell HS3 - new Asiс miner for Handshake cryptocurrency (HNS)

GoldShell has released a new version of the ASIC miner called HS3 for the Handshake algorithm and the Handshake cryptocurrency of the same name. Compared to the previous version HS1 and HS1 PLUS, the novelty has slightly improved energy efficiency (1W/GH instead of 1.1W/GH), as well as a body in a more familiar design, since the first models HS1 and HS1 PLUS were small-sized and designed for power consumption in 57W and 115W respectively. The HS3 is made in a case in the style of the latest Bitmain models and already consumes 2000W with a hashrate of 2000GH/s. The cost of Goldshell HS3 is 4999USD, making it one of the most expensive mining devices at the moment. The payback according to the Profit-mine.com calculator, even taking into account the considerable cost, will be from 180 days, depending on the cost of electricity.

Nvidia Geforce RTX 3080 - the first test in mining on the DaggerHashimoto (ETHash) algorithm

On the well-known resource Videocardz.com, the first results appeared in the mining of a new generation Nvidia video card - Geforce RTX 3080. But so far only on one algorithm: Ethash or DaggerHashimoto, with which the Ethereum cryptocurrency is now being mined. The tests were carried out using the NiceHash Benchmark program, as well as more detailed tests with changing frequencies and PL on the Ethereum Claymore Dual Miner.

Geforce RTX 3070, RTX 3080, RTX 3090 mining performance forecast. Comparison with previous generation Nvidia graphics cards - Turing and Pascal.

Today, September 1, 2020, Nvidia announced a new generation of graphics cards, codenamed Ampere. The most powerful RTX 3090 ($ 1499) and RTX 3080 ($ 699) graphics cards will go on sale first in mid-September 2020, followed by the RTX 3070 ($ 499) in October. This time, Nvidia delighted its fans. in terms of technical characteristics, the new generation of RTX video cards surpasses the previous one in all respects, and significantly, which cannot but please gamers and miners, especially since the prices have remained at the same level. Next, we will compare the announced Nvidia RTX 3000 graphics cards with the generation of GTX 1000 and RTX 2000 and try to make a forecast of the performance of video cards in cryptocurrency mining.

The energy efficiency of asic miners has grown 223 times since 2013. Comparison with video cards.

The history of the appearance of asic miners for bitcoin mining began in 2012, when the Butterfly labs company was the first to announce such devices with a hashrate from 5 to 60 GH/s. But due to development and production problems, the company eventually lost Canaan's leadership and closed after litigation due to a delay in the first supply of mining equipment. Canaan, in turn, bought Avalon in 2014, which first released Bitcoin Asic Miner in early 2013 under the name Avalon1 - the SHA-256 Asic Miner existed in 3 versions, the average model had a performance of 70GH/s and an energy consumption of 600W. 

Canaan has released a new 11 series of its SHA-256 ASIC miners Avalon

The Chinese company for the production of asic miners Canaan immediately released several new SHA-256 asic miners called Avalonminer 1146, 1146 PRO and 1166. All 3 models have the same power consumption of 3200W, but different energy efficiency and, accordingly, different hashrate on the SHA-256 mining algorithm (Bitcoin ) But even if we take the most advanced Avalonminer 1166 model, its energy efficiency of 47J/GH does not look very convincing compared to competitors, for example, the same Bitmain Antminer S19 Pro with an energy efficiency of 29.5 J/TH.

Consider the news from Canaan in more detail. 

Bitmain Antminer T19 - new SHA-256 ASIC miner 84TH/s

At the end of February 2020, Bitmain introduced a new generation of its SHA-256 ASIC miners S19 and S19 Pro. The announcement of a cheaper version of Antminer T19 was delayed this time for several months, as announcement and sale began only in early June. As before, the T-series has worse energy efficiency compared to the S-series, but at the same time it has a more affordable price.

The choice of video cards for cryptocurrency mining in 2020

We offer you to familiarize yourself with our annual analysis of the video card market and their application for cryptocurrency mining in 2020. In this analytical review, we will consider all currently relevant video card models for mining, consider their characteristics, prices and possible payback of equipment for 2020.

Over the past 2019, the video card market has undergone significant changes, as AMD released the RX5000 generation video cards based on the new RDNA architecture, and Nvidia in response released the updated RTX2000 line of video cards with the SUPER prefix while lowering the price of regular versions. Those. over the past year, the choice of video cards has become much larger, which can also complicate the choice of video cards for assembling mining rigs. Moreover, the choice between the lowest hash price and the best energy efficiency on the market is now the most relevant.

Modification of Bitmain Antminer S9 Low Power Mode and Dual - extend the life of outdated ASIC models

ASIC miners Bitmain Antminer S9 after halving bitcoin sharply lost their relevance, because Almost all mining income began to go to pay electricity bills even at a cost of 0.03 USD per kilowatt. As a result, now you can buy such an ASIC miner for 50-60 USD along with a power supply. If you are also the owner of such devices, then do not rush to get rid of them, because you can still get from this ASIC income of 0.3 USD daily at a price of electricity 0.03 USD.

Payback of Bitmain Antminer S9 after halving Bitcoin in 2020

After the Bitcoin halving on May 11, 2020, the cost of the first cryptocurrency not only did not increase, but even decreased on the contrary compared to the local peak of 10,000 USD before the hawking itself. Considering that the reward for miners fell by half from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC, now mining income also almost halved from 19,000,000 USD per day to 9,000,000 USD per day. And the most difficult thing now is miners with old equipment of the Antminer S9 level and its analogs manufactured since 2016. We conducted a small analysis of the payback of Antminer S9 in modern realities and as it turned out, S9 can still be profitable for its owners, but not for everyone.

Bitmain Antminer Z15 a new generation of ASIC miners for the Equihash algorithm

Bitmain announced the sale of a new generation of ASIC miners for the Equihash mining algorithm - Antminer Z15. On this algorithm, the most popular is the Zcash cryptocurrency. The first shipments of Antminer Z15 are scheduled for late June 2020 at a price of 15.160 yuan (2150 USD) with an APW7 power supply and 14660 yuan (2070 USD) without a power supply. Antminer Z15 has a hash of 420 Kheshes, which is 3 more than the previous generation Asic Antminer Z11 has 135KH. At the same time, power consumption remained at about the same level in 1510W instead of 1420 in Z11. Information on Antminer Z15 is now available only on the Chinese version of the site, which did not stop selling the entire first batch of ASIC miners in less than a day. You can calculate the income of the new ASIC miner on the website of the mining calculator Profit-mine.com

Futurebit Apollo LTC Pod Asic miner and full litecoin node for scrypt algorithm

Futurebit has been manufacturing ASICs since 2016, the first product was USB scrypt Asic miner MoonLander. In 2020, the company offered for sale the Apollo LTC Pod ASIC miner with a hash rate of 100-135MH/s using the same scrypt algorithm. In addition, Apollo LTC Pod can operate as a FULL NODE Litecoin cryptocurrency, for this the device supports USB drives of various sizes. Apollo LTC Pod is by far the most energy-efficient Scrypt asic miner since its energy efficiency parameter is 1W/MH in economy mode and 1.4W/MH in Turbo mode.

The current hashrate of video cards for 2020

In 2020, as before, new cryptocurrencies with "revolutionary" mining algorithms for the GPU continue to enter the market, but like in previous years, the leader remains the Ethereum cryptocurrency mining algorithm - Dagger Hashimoto or simply ETHash. Mining algorithms based on Equihash, MTP, RandomX are also very popular. Of the new algorithms that have appeared over the past year and have gained popularity, it is worth noting variations of Cuckoo, BeamHash and ProgPow. These are the cryptocurrencies GRIN, MWC, SWAP, Beam, Sero, BCI. The remaining new and revolutionary cryptocurrencies could not interest miners in the long term.

New ASIC Miner Models: MicroBT WhatsMiner M30S + 100 THS and M30S ++ 112 THS

MicroBT has announced new models of ASIC miners for mining Bitcoin (BTC): MicroBT WhatsMiner M30S +, which offers a hash of 100 TH/s and M30S ++ with a hashrate of 112 TH/s. In doing so, MicroBT added competition to the previously announced Bitmain devices, the Bitmain Antminer S19 and S19 PRO devices.

Presumably, 100 Terahash/s WhatsMiner M30S + will have an energy efficiency of 36 J/Terahesh, while consuming 4300 watts, while a model with a higher price and improved energy efficiency with a hashrate of 112 TH/s - WhatsMiner M30S + will show 31 j/TH and 3472 watts.