Bitcoin Mining Tests On 16 NVIDIA and AMD GPUs 403
Vigile writes "For users that have known about the process of bitcoin mining the obvious tool for the job has been the GPU. Miners have been buying up graphics cards during sales across the web but which GPUs offer the most dollar efficient, power efficient and quickest payoff for the bitcoin currency? A series of tests over at PC Perspective goes through 16 different GPU configurations including older high-end cards through modern low-cost options and even a $1700+ collection with multiple dual-GPU cards installed. The article gives details on how the mining programs work, why GPUs are faster than CPUs inherently and why AMD seems to be so much faster than NVIDIA."
Misleading Article (Score:5, Interesting)
Given that the difficulty increases exponentially [googleapis.com] you're not going to be making their calculated B$/day for the whole year, so while the quickest to pay of is 70 days if the difficulty increases at the usual rate, you'd probably want to add on another month or two.
For the ones taking nearly half a year to pay off at the current rate, you'll probably spend closer to a year before you'll even break even.
I get it (Score:4, Interesting)
Factoring in energy costs... (Score:3, Interesting)
I've always thought Bitcoin was stupid, but let's do some more analysis on the energy costs here, which this site really should have included.
The best GPU perf/watt was the 5870x2 (Ares OC) at 1.584 (Mhash/s)/watt. Not sure where they got their total watt figures from, but from a review site, it is 500W [pcper.com], unoverclocked. This site says it's 50W more overclocked. I'll be generous and not include this since the CPU isn't being taxed as much. So 500W power consumption.
So, typing 500 watts * 1 year * (10 cents / (kilowatt*hour) [eia.gov]) into Google: about $482. Taking their $1,666 one year profit figure (mining profits - cost of card), it is now really a cost of $1,184. Which isn't as bad as I thought it'd be.
They didn't include the effect of increasing difficulty on decreased mining speed, but theoretically the currency should become more valuable as it goes on.
Re:Why should we care? (Score:4, Interesting)
Interestingly bitcoin is working despite all the arguments for or against it. The only valid question with regard to the viability of bitcoin as a currency today, is "Is it a currency today?" and the answer is without question YES.
Aside from the uses, for which there are now many (I have personally paid for survives, from freelancers around the world with bitcoin), approximately 7200 new bitcoins are introduced into the supply every day, and yet the value of the bitcoins has be rising over the past months. Even lately with the price off it's highs the constant influx of new bitcoins is not causing the bitcoin to lose significant value.
Fairness of early adopters doesn't enter into it. Early adopters helped to lay the foundation of the security which backs bitcoins, and were compensated for that service. You can participate and be compensated for that service too.
I would love to have been an Apple stock, gold or even U.S. dollar early adopter. But just because I wasn't doesn't me I should adopt now.
If you don't like the idea of it as a currency, or a commodity, then just think of it as a software tool that allows you to move money electronically without friction (unlike any other monetary device in the world), and therein you will find it's value.
Re:Thank god (Score:3, Interesting)
It is designed for rewarding early investors. It even has a built-in diminishing return per investment.
Wow, just like stocks!
- The value of bitcoins can only increase as long as there is an influx of new investors who are willing to purchase them.
Wow, just like stocks!
- You're encouraged to find new investors in order to drive up the value of your (meager) holdings (and the substantial holdings of early players).
Wow, just like stocks!
- Once it bursts, there will be little to no value to recover, because there are no real assets reflecting the investments.
Wow, just like stocks whose issuers go bankrupt!
If it makes you happy to play this game, by all means go ahead, but do yourself a favour and don't invest more than you can comfortably afford to lose.
Wow, just like stocks!
I'm as nerdy and liberal as they come
Ah, that's why you don't like stocks. Those evil pyramid schemes that just enrich the folks that got in on the ground floor, require sustained interest to gain value, motivate their holders to promote them, and leave you with nothing if it all goes bust.
(Don't bother listing the differences between stocks and bitcoins -- yes, they exist, but the two are not different *with respect to the issues you just grounded your argument on*.)
Re:Thank god (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes, the stock market, or rather capitalism is pyramid based gambling too. It's just less so than Bitcon, due to multiple reasons:
The majority of companies having actual assets.
The majority of companies paying out dividends.
Companies you invest in differ - some are unique.
Bitcoin is like a stock market with a single stock, for a company with no assets, and paying no dividends. Would you rush to pour your money into that?