Mum, I am a miner…

What factors to consider when choosing your hardware

VRAM. One of the significant factors is GPUs VRAM performance: the bigger the capacity, the better hash rate you will get. So your VRAM in best conditions should be no less than 4GB.

Memory type. If you still thinking which video card to choose for mining cryptocurrencies than its better to pick something with the memory of the DDR 5 standard to enjoy the benefit of best balance between energy consumption and productivity.

Memory Bus Width. It is worth selecting hardware with 256-bit bandwidth rather than 128-bit bandwidth whose productivity is worse. Mining speed on video cards with smaller bandwidth is much lower, and mining from scratch on this video card is close to impossible.

Cooling. Productivity and lifespan of your hardware will depend on the temperatures at which it is operating, as heat is what kills components. You can always use air cooler on the GPU and that way cool air gets blown into the case and compensate with a few more case fans for even better cooling. Radeon cards, on the other hand, have much better thought through an active cooling system and a lower wearing off rate from extended continuous operations such as mining.

Overclocking Option. A well-chosen overclocking tool could be an impressive way to get your card running at an invigorated pace. Correct video card acceleration can give you the additional benefit of 20–40% from the original power, but then setting up could be more time consuming and fine tuning should be left to the experts. Don’t forget that in some cases earning rate may suffer too. The decision whether to use them or not should be made in respect to the type of video card you are using and its overall behavior during mining.

Best GPUs for cryptocurrency mining

Another critical factor to consider is an investment in returns, as today’s competitive environment presses miners to get more from all the available resources. Below are the best cards at the moment, chosen concerning their balance between returns on investment, hashing power and price. Do be aware that the list of top hardware will depend on the cost of Ethereum and may differ from day to day, but the GPUs discussed will be worth mentioning for a while.

Palit GeForce GTX1080 TI GameRock Premium Edition 11GB

This hardware has plenty of cooling performance, nice unique looks and is among the fastest graphics card your money can get you. The noise level in the standard factory tweaked OC mode is measured at 42 Dba. Usually that would be considered quite noisy, but in reality, it really isn’t, the four fans create a kind of turbulence, which is picked up by specialised equipment, but not so much by the human's ear. This unique cooling system helps to keep the temperature under the max of 70 degrees while mining. Overclocking is not possible on this card, but then you don’t need it as it already operates at the maximum capacity with only 25-35 MHz left on that GPU base clock frequency. 

ASUS Radeon RX 570 Strix ROG-STRIX-RX570-4G-GAMING 4.0 GB Mid Range

This stylish video card with Aura RGB lighting shows even better performance than any previous model. ASUS reinforced overall reliability by integrating into this card some premium alloy components, what significantly enhance efficiency. Premium components reduce power loss and achieve cooler thermal levels. The manufacturer says that with this card you can enjoy a much cooler and quieter performance. Cooling technology features direct-GPU contact heat pipes that should transport even more heat away from the GPU, for a cooler mining performance, but in fact, it does heat up quite a bit. But on the whole, it’s a wonderful product. Special patented wing-blade fans deliver maximum airflow and greater static pressure over the heat sink, but at the same time are almost inaudible. When the temperature is below a set level, the fans stop completely.

GIGABYTE Radeon RX Vega 64 Gaming OC 8.0 GB Enthusiast

It's AMD at its best and as fast as Nvidia's GTX 1080 or faster. This Video Card is designed to operate at incredible clock speeds, and memory system shatters the limitations of traditional GPU memory. Enhanced geometry engine can efficiently process millions of polygons, which is extremely useful for mining and is helping to boost FPS. In this case Gigabyte paid close attention to the level of cost, leaving out RGB lighting effects and other gimmicks, instead, it’s all about performance. The slight tilt of the fans and wave shape are meant to create more efficient airflow, therefore improved cooling. As a whole, it’s a good investment and is worth every penny.

ASUS ROG Strix Radeon RX Vega 56 OC Gaming 8.0 GB OC Enthusiast

ROG Strix RX VEGA56 gaming graphics cards are packed with exclusive ASUS technologies, including all-new MaxContact Technology that is 2x more contact with GPU for improved thermal transfer, and Patented Wing-Blade IP5X-Certified Fans for maximum airflow and longer fan lifespan. These Ryzen processors offer the best balance between performance, price, and availability. This GPU also supports bridgeless CrossFire for when you want to use more than one GPU simultaneously, what is excellent news for miners. It uses a precision machine to shave and form a surface that makes up to 2X more contact with the GPU than traditional heat spreaders, which in turn means more heat is transferred from the GPU and whisked away.

Palit GeForce GTX1070 Jetstream 8.0 GB High End

The revolutionary Palit JetStream series of graphics cards features advanced innovative cooling and optimized product design to deliver the ultimate performance. Inspired by the power of jet engines, the TurboFan Blade generates a powerful air stream and air pressure together with Dual Fan design cooling performance is improved even further. The GPU is well cooled, and the temperature is easily kept below 70 even at 50% fan and all of this — at a very low noise level. The color lighting from RGB LED can be changed in accordance with graphics temperature. The temperature can easily be identified by different colors from the external appearance of the graphics card. As for design, it is more on a minimalistic side, but it fits well for miners.

In conclusion, we want to say that that well-chosen hardware is essential, but not all. Don’t underestimate the significance of a well-chosen multicurrency mining pool (which will help you mine the most profitable crypto coin at that moment in time) , a trustworthy profit switching algorithm (that will protect you from price drops) is also a must-have. The last but not the least is suitable hardware monitoring tools that can prolong the life of your equipment and improve its performance. Whalesburg platform is the one that can provide all of that under one roof. Also by storing all the statistics about your hardware in the cloud in real-time, Whalesburg will enable a massive range of features including one-click large-scale overclocking, troubleshooting, push notifications, income reporting, and forecasting.