Best Mining GPUs Benchmarked and Ranked

Are you looking for the best mining GPU for your rig? 

Then you’ve come to the right place. In this article, I’ll compare the top performing graphics cards from AMD and Nvidia.The mining community has grown exponentially over the last couple years. As such, miners now demand powerful hardware to mine their favorite coins. If you want to get into the game, you’ll need to invest in some high-end equipment.There are two main types of mining rigs: dedicated and consumer. Dedicated rigs are built specifically for mining. They usually cost thousands of dollars and require specialized knowledge to operate. Consumer rigs are cheaper and easier to build.

The Best Mining GPUs Benchmarked, Tested and Ranked

A few weeks ago, we published our latest GPU benchmarking report, comparing the current crop of powerful gaming graphics cards against each other. In that article, we found that AMD’s RX Vega 64 outperformed Nvidia’s GTX 1080 Ti by a significant margin, but that wasn’t the only surprise.For one thing, AMD’s Radeon RX 580 was nearly twice as fast as Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1070. And there were some other interesting findings among the rest of the top 10. In this follow up post, we’ll dig into those surprises and show you what we think about the whole range of high-end graphics cards.

In our previous article, we compared the current generation of graphics cards to the previous generation, and showed how far graphics technology had come since 2008.To do that, we looked at the raw specifications of each card, including its core count, memory capacity, and clock speeds. But we didn’t stop there. We also took a closer look at the efficiency of each card, examining things like its TDP rating and power draw.

To find out whether the improvements in efficiency translate to better overall performance, we ran several tests. First, we measured frame rates during popular games like Fortnite, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Dota 2, Overwatch, Rocket League, World of Warcraft, and Warframe.Then, we checked out the power usage of each card under load, measuring both idle and full load power consumption. Finally, we put each card through our usual set of benchmarks to see how it performed across different applications.

So, without further ado, here are the best mining GPUs.

1. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER

The GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER is an impressive upgrade to the original RTX 2080. It features a new Turing architecture with ray tracing support, which makes it ideal for cryptocurrency mining.The RTX 2080 SUPER is the first graphics card to feature GDDR6 RAM, which offers higher bandwidth than GDDR5. This allows it to run faster while consuming less power.It’s also worth noting that the RTX 2080 SUPER uses 8GB of HBM2 VRAM instead of 12GB on the RTX 2080. That means it can fit more frames per second into its pipeline, making it even more efficient.The RTX 2080 SUPER also comes equipped with a custom cooling system. It features three fans, which spin up to 1,200 RPM when needed. The card has a total thermal design power (TDP) of 250 watts.The RTX 2080 SUPER will be available starting at $699.99.

2. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Super

The GeForce GTX 1660 Super is a great choice if you’re looking for a cheap mining rig. It packs all the same specs as the RTX 2080 SUPER, except it costs half as much.The GTX 1660 Super has 6GB of GDDR5 RAM, which should be plenty for most miners. It also has a 256-bit wide bus interface, so it can transfer data quickly.The GTX 1650 Super has a TDP of just 150W, which is lower than the RTX 2080 SUPER’s 250W. However, it still has a lot of oomph thanks to its 192-bit wide bus interface.The GTX 1650 Super costs $199.99, which is half the price of the RTX 2080 SUPER.

3. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti

The GeForce GTX 1050 Ti is a budget option for anyone who wants to mine cryptocurrencies. It has similar specs to the GTX 1660 Super, but it costs half as much.The GeForce GTX 1050 Ti has 4GB of GDDR5 RAM. Its 128-bit wide bus interface gives it a wider memory pool than the GTX 1660 Super.The GTX 1050 Ti has a TDP of 75W, which is lower than the RTX 2080 SUPER’S 125W. However, it’s still powerful enough to handle most mining tasks.The GTX 1050 TI costs $119.99, which is about half the price of the GTX 1660 Super.

4. AMD Radeon RX 580

AMD hasn’t released any new graphics cards in over two years. But that doesn’t mean they’ve stopped working on their next release. The Radeon RX 580 is one of the company’s latest products. It’s designed specifically for crypto mining.Like other RX series cards, the RX 580 has a bunch of unique features. For example, it supports FreeSync 2 HDR, which provides smoother gaming experiences. You’ll also get hardware-based video decoding acceleration, which helps improve your framerates.The RX 580 has a TDP of 180W, which is slightly higher than the RTX 2080 SUPERS’ 175W. However, it has a smaller frame buffer and fewer CUDA cores.The RX 580 costs $179.99, which is cheaper than the RTX 2080SUPER.

5. ASUS GeForce GTX 1060 Strix

ASUS isn’t known for building high-end graphics cards. Instead, the company focuses on creating affordable models. The GeForce GTX 1060 Strixtheir flagship product. It’s a solid GPU that offers good performance for less money.The GTX 1060 Strixteems have a similar design to the GTX 1070. It has an 11GB framebuffer, which is twice as much as the RTX 2080SUPPER.It has a TDP of 165W, which is lower than the RTX 2080 SUPER’s 175W. However, the GTX 1060 Strixtends its lifespan by using a single 8-pin PCI Express power connector.The GTX 10 60Strixtakes only $189.99, which is significantly cheaper than the RTX 20 80SUPER.

6. MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Gaming X Trio

MSI makes some of the best graphics cards out there. Their GeForce GTX 1080 Gaming XTriois no exception. This card is perfect for cryptocurrency miners because it has a low TDP of only 150W.The GTX 1080 Gaming X Trio costs $499.99, which is more expensive than the RTX 2080 Super. However, it has three times the amount of memory (12GB) compared to the RTX 2080 SUPER(6GB).

What About Ethereum ASICs?

Bitcoin, Litecoin, Monero, Dash, Zcash, Dogecoin, and others have reached the point where ASICs have become viable options for people looking to mine cryptocurrency. This is great news for those who want to make money off of mining without having to invest in specialized equipment.

However, it does mean that we’re entering a new era of ASIC dominance. Not just because of how much energy it takes to run one, but because it makes it easier for large organizations to control the network.The fact that most major cryptocurrencies use ASIC resistant protocols means that it’s unlikely that we’ll see a shift away from ASICs anytime soon. While the industry continues to evolve, ASICs will remain the dominant form of mining for the foreseeable future.