"Everyone Mining: Step-by-Step Guide on How to Earn Thousands Monthly with Your Idle Graphics Card"

A graphics card from 5 years ago can still earn 15 RMB per day now.

(This article is authorized reprint from BlockBeats, titled "Teaching you how to earn thousands of RMB per month by mining with idle graphics cards.")

On one hand, global semiconductor production has plummeted, while on the other hand, the prices of cryptocurrencies continue to rise. Decreased production capacity coupled with increased demand has led to a continuous surge in graphics card prices.

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The main reason for the increased demand for graphics cards is the skyrocketing price of Ethereum. As Marx said, once there is a proper profit, capital becomes daring. If there is 10% profit, it will be used everywhere; with 20% profit, it becomes active; at 50% profit, it ventures; for 100% profit, it dares to trample on all human laws.

Not only are desktop graphics cards out of stock, but laptops equipped with RTX 3080 and RTX 3070 mobile graphics cards have also been bought out by miners. In addition, on second-hand platforms, a large number of individual users and scalpers have also joined the frenzy of buying and selling graphics cards. The second-hand prices of some graphics cards produced many years ago even exceed their initial launch prices.

Today, the profits from graphics card mining have exceeded the imagination of most users. For idle graphics cards, without considering the cost of the card, this could be a business with over 1000% profit.

BlockBeats will provide detailed explanations from the perspective of users with idle graphics cards on the preparatory work, earnings, risks, and subsequent impacts of mining.

Preparation

Currently, Ethereum 1.0 uses the "Ethash" mining algorithm, which is a memory-intensive algorithm. The DAG file generated during mining is directly stored in the graphics card's memory. This means that the graphics card's memory needs to be larger than the size of the DAG file during mining.

Currently, the DAG file is larger than 4GB. Therefore, mining Ethereum requires a graphics card with at least 5 GB of memory. Due to the growth of the DAG file, a 5GB graphics card can no longer mine Ethereum on a Win10 system and needs to switch to Win7 or a mining-specific system. The following are the graphics cards that ordinary players may currently hold and use for mining:

In order to conduct more detailed mining tests, this test by BlockBeats uses the Yeston GTX 1070 Ice Dragon Super Edition and the Ying Tong RX 5700 XT, with the mining software being "Easy Miner". Most mining software includes fees, so besides Easy Miner, you can also choose software such as minerOS, open-source miners, PhoenixMiner, Bminer, lolMiner, NBMiner, etc., based on personal preference for mining.

After preparing the graphics cards and mining software, users also need to choose a mining pool. This test will use the "Spark Pool," which currently has the largest computing power on the Ethereum network, as the test mining pool.

The reason for choosing a mining pool is that it is almost impossible to mine successfully alone. The purpose of a mining pool is to combine everyone's computing power to mine together.

Mining Profitability Exceeding 1000%

Yeston GTX 1070 Ice Dragon Super Edition

The GTX 1070 is a graphics card based on the Pascal architecture released by NVIDIA in 2016. As a graphics card that has been released for nearly 5 years, its default Ethereum mining hashrate is 25 MH/s with a power consumption of 122 W.

Based on the current Ethereum network difficulty, the GTX 1070 can mine approximately 0.001435 ETH per day. Calculated at a rate of $1800 per ETH, this translates to a daily output of around 16 yuan. At the same time, with a power consumption of 122 W and electricity cost calculated at 0.5 yuan, the daily electricity cost is approximately 1.5 yuan, resulting in a net daily profit of 14.5 yuan. With the graphics card cost being negligible, the profitability rate exceeds 1000%.

On a well-known second-hand platform, the price of a GTX 1070 is around 2100 yuan. Purchasing a second-hand GTX 1070 for mining under the current difficulty and price conditions would have a breakeven period of about 145 days. Therefore, it is not recommended to purchase solely for mining purposes.

Ying Tong RX 5700 XT

The RX 5700 XT is a graphics card based on the RDNA 1 architecture released by AMD in July 2019. Its default Ethereum mining hashrate is 54 MH/s with a power consumption of 180 W. In this test, the daily average hashrate is approximately 46 MH/s with a power consumption of 110 W due to power consumption limitations.

Based on the reduced hashrate and power consumption calculations, the 5700 XT can mine approximately 0.00264 ETH per day, equivalent to around 30 yuan. The electricity cost is about 1.5 yuan, resulting in a daily net income of 28.5 yuan.

On second-hand platforms, the price of the 5700 XT exceeds 5000 yuan, with a breakeven period of approximately 170 days, longer than that of the GTX 1070. Therefore, it is not recommended to purchase for mining purposes but to fully utilize idle graphics cards.

Risks

For users with older graphics cards on hand, using them for mining would be a good choice. Unlike what most people may think, mining Ethereum does not damage the core of the graphics card. As Ethereum uses the Ethash algorithm, it requires constant access to memory. Therefore, the hardware most susceptible to damage when used for Ethereum mining is the memory. However, repair and replacement of graphics card memory are now available in Huaqiangbei.

BlockBeats does not recommend ordinary users to purchase graphics cards specifically for mining. Buying second-hand old graphics cards means lacking official after-sales service. Additionally, it may be difficult to resell them in the future.

Based on current Ethereum prices, network difficulty, and civilian electricity costs, it would take 200 days for an RTX 3080 (approximately 12000 yuan) to fully recoup its cost. Considering the subsequent second-hand discount rate, it may only take 100 days of mining to break even.

Of course, for users who want to purchase the latest graphics cards without paying a premium, mining may help reduce the premium further.

Mining Income May Decrease by 20% After July

On March 5th, EIP-1559 was officially included in the Ethereum "London" hard fork upgrade, scheduled to launch in July. EIP-1559 aims to reduce transaction fees by introducing fixed fees and a burning mechanism. Miners speculate that after EIP-1559 is implemented, Ethereum mined by miners daily may decrease by 20%-30%.

According to actual tests by BlockBeats, mining transaction rewards account for about 45% of total mining rewards. Once EIP-1559 is implemented, the impact on mining income may be more than just 20%.

Additionally, individuals using idle graphics cards for mining need to pay attention to the mining pool's minimum withdrawal amount. Some mining pools require a minimum of 0.1 ETH to be mined before withdrawal, so multiple people can mine with the same address or choose a mining pool that directly deposits into a trading platform address.

For users with idle graphics cards, using them for mining in the current heated graphics card and cryptocurrency market can be a good thing. However, if purchasing high-priced graphics cards specifically for mining, a more rigorous profit and loss calculation may be necessary.

Still Unable to Buy Graphics Cards at Retail Prices in the Short Term

Seeing the heat in the mining market, NVIDIA and AMD also want to get a piece of the market. NVIDIA stated that all future high-end 30 series graphics cards, including the RTX 3060, will have Ethereum mining restrictions, and they will also launch mining-specific graphics cards without video output ports. According to leaked images from VideoCardz, the highest-spec mining-specific card has a hashrate of 86 MH/s, with the lowest at 26 MH/s.

However, some users found that the RTX 3060, which has Ethereum mining restrictions, can achieve full-speed mining after flashing with the recent GeForce developer driver 470.05. It is reported that the RTX 3060 requires a display output and needs to be used in a PCIe x8 or higher channel to achieve full-speed mining. According to tests, the RTX 3060 has a hashrate of about 46 MH/s for full-speed Ethereum mining.

When most professional mining clusters mine, they use adapter cables to expand multiple interfaces and connect 8 graphics cards through a motherboard for mining. The RTX 3060 requires a PCIe x8 or higher channel for full-speed mining. Also, the full-speed driver is still from NVIDIA's official source. Some users jokingly refer to this as "NVIDIA's welfare for ordinary users to participate in Ethereum mining."

Evidently, NVIDIA's series of actions show that they do not care about the types of users buying graphics cards. As the top-viewed YouTube tech channel Linus Tech Tips has mentioned, NVIDIA does not care about gamers. Launching mining-specific cards will not alleviate the graphics card shortage crisis. On the contrary, in limited production capacity, launching mining-specific cards will reduce the shipment volume of normally used graphics cards.

This also means that buying graphics cards at retail prices is still a distant prospect.