IS GPU MINING STILL PROFITABLE? - Mining Adventure Part 1
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Graphics card stock has long been tapped out due to cryptocurrency miners, but does what they're doing make any sense? Let's find out. Sign up for Crunchyroll today at crunchyroll.com Massdrop's AKG K7XX headphones are available now at $199.99 USD for a limited time: dro.ps Buy Graphics Cards! Amazon: geni.us Newegg: geni.us Discuss on the forum: linustechtips.com Our Affiliates, Referral Programs, and Sponsors: linustechtips.com Linus Tech Tips merchandise at designbyhumans.com Linus Tech Tips posters at crowdmade.com Our production gear: geni.us Twitter - twitter.com Facebook - @LinusTech Instagram - @linustech Twitch - twitch.tv Intro Screen Music Credit: Title: Laszlo - Supernova Video Link: youtube.com iTunes Download Link: itunes.apple.com Artist Link: soundcloud.com Outro Screen Music Credit: Approaching Nirvana - Sugar High youtube.com Sound effects provided by freesfx.co.uk
IS GPU MINING STILL PROFITABLE? - Mining Adventure Part 1 explores whether consumer and small-scale enterprise hardware can still be used to mine cryptocurrencies in a realistic, profit-focused way. The video begins by framing the mining landscape, noting that GPU supply has been drained by miners and that Bitcoin mining with a single casual setup is no longer practical for the average hobbyist. The team then assembles a sizable rig using 10 GPUs and multiple CPUs, highlighting the engineering challenge of fitting high-end hardware into a chassis and the power requirements this entails. Once booted, the hosts measure initial power draw and discuss the central tradeoff: more calculations per watt translate into higher profitability, but electricity costs remain a major gatekeeper. They introduce NiceHash as a marketplace to benchmark profitability across different algorithms and hardware, which allows them to estimate real-time earnings before electricity costs and payouts. The narrative also covers thermal considerations, with temperatures tracking around 70 to 82 degrees in a densely packed rig, and the team acknowledges air conditioning costs as a factor to quantify in future analyses. By the end of the segment, they reveal that the initial $5,000 setup would take several years to break even under their assumed conditions, and they pivot to exploring optimized configurations in a follow-up, with a plan to compare results against a larger 19-GPU build. Overall, the takeaway is that profitability depends on hardware efficiency, electricity costs, and market stability, making mining an increasingly selective and strategic pursuit rather than a guaranteed money-maker.
Topics · technology · cryptocurrency · hardware
Questions answered
- What hardware did the team assemble for the mining rig in this video?
- The team assembled a high-end rig featuring five GTX 1070s, four GTX 1080s, and a single GTX 1080 Ti, paired with two Xeon processors and a motherboard with many PCIe lanes to accommodate the GPUs.
- What marketplace do they use to benchmark profitability and why?
- They use NiceHash because it pairs buyers and sellers of hashing power, runs a benchmark to determine which algorithm is most profitable for the available hardware, and provides a real-time earnings estimate before electricity costs with daily payouts.
- Is the initial setup considered profitable based on their early analysis?
- No, the initial $5,000 configuration would take about four and a half years to recoup the upfront cost at around $11 per day in profit, not accounting for air conditioning or market stability, so they plan to optimize the setup in a follow-up video.