Just yesterday we saw one of the most flashy cryptocurrency miners with lots of RGB and 143 graphics cards. It was a rig with 70 GeForce RTX 3080 GPUs and 73 GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GPUs and could earn about $ 900 a day. Bitcoin and Ethereum have risen in price astronomically, and so has the mining craze. Aside from the soaring prices of Bitcoin and Ethereum, we are also facing the current shortage of the latest silicon from Nvidia and AMD.
The astronomical rise in the price of cryptocurrency has started another mining craze that has led to severe GPU shortages and price rises
Before the value rose, Bitcoin was stable at around $ 10,000, but in October the price of Bitcoin soared and reached $ 20,000 in December. Over the past week, the price has risen to almost $ 35,000, which is absolutely incredible. With the rise in the price of Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies have seen the same thing happen. Ethereum has experienced a value increase of 500% since the beginning of 2020. At the beginning of 2020, Ethereum was priced at about $ 200 and rose to $ 400 in August. In November, it continued the upward trend in the price of $ 600, and just last week it was over $ 1000.
Graphics cards were very short before this rise in the value of the cryptocurrency, but now the demand for high-quality graphics cards is greater than ever before. The latest silicone from Nvidia and AMD has been little available with scalpers that could sell it for double the MSRP, but now, to release the cards, you are going to compete with miners, scalpers, bots and other players. Upcoming cards like the RTX 3080 Ti will be even harder to get now after the rise in cryptocurrency prices.
In addition to the current shortages, consumers will now be competing with miners to get the latest hardware from Nvidia and AMD.
The profit from mining at the moment is incredible, because every GPU of the current generation has a break-even point of less than 250 days, if the prices of these cryptocurrencies remain stable.
With the price of $ 0.10 per kWh for calculations, the cryptocurrency gain is quite large. Tom’s Hardware has calculated the profitability of these charts, but one thing to note is that the break-even point is calculated using the MSRP. At the moment, it is almost impossible to get a GPU at MSRP, so the break-even point for cards purchased above MSRP is the purchase price divided by the daily profit.
| Component | $ per day | Power $ per day | Profit per day | Time to break even |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GeForce RTX 3090 ($ 1499) | $ 10.80 | $ 0.80 | $ 10.00 | ~ 150 days |
| GeForce RTX 3080 ($ 699) | $ 8.80 | $ 0.60 | $ 8.20 | ~ 85 days |
| GeForce RTX 3070 ($ 499) | $ 5.45 | $ 0.40 | $ 5.05 | ~ 99 days |
| GeForce RTX 3060 Ti ($ 399) | $ 5.40 | $ 0.40 | $ 5.00 | ~ 80 days |
| GeForce RTX 2080 Ti ($ 1199) | $ 5.35 | $ 0.55 | $ 4.80 | ~ 250 days |
| GeForce RTX 2080 Super ($ 699) | $ 3.80 | $ 0.50 | $ 3.30 | ~ 212 days |
| GeForce RTX 2070 Super ($ 499) | $ 3.60 | $ 0.40 | $ 3.20 | ~ 156 days |
| GeForce RTX 2060 Super ($ 399) | $ 3.50 | $ 0.30 | $ 3.20 | ~ 125 days |
| GeForce RTX 2060 ($ 299) | $ 2.85 | $ 0.30 | $ 2.55 | ~ 117 days |
| Radeon RX 6900 XT ($ 999) | $ 8.05 | $ 0.55 | $ 7.50 | ~ 133 days |
| Radeon RX 6800 XT ($ 649) | $ 7.00 | $ 0.50 | $ 6.50 | ~ 100 days |
| Radeon RX 6800 ($ 579) | $ 5.75 | $ 0.40 | $ 5.35 | ~ 108 days |
| Radeon RX 5700 XT ($ 399) | $ 5.00 | $ 0.40 | $ 4.60 | ~ 87 days |
| Radeon RX 5700 ($ 349) | $ 4.80 | $ 0.40 | $ 4.40 | ~ 79 days |
| Radeon RX 5600 XT ($ 279) | $ 3.35 | $ 0.30 | $ 3.05 | ~ 91 days |
Although CPU exploitation is possible, it is far from optimal. CPU mining has a higher cost associated with very little room for profit. In a mining craft, a person can run multiple GPUs on one CPU, but for CPU mining, the person needs multiple systems to mine with multiple CPUs. The best way to mine is to use single GPUs. The most profitable people within the crypto-mining scheme are not the miners but actually those who provide equipment for the miners.
The crypto-mining craze has returned, and therefore the GPU shortage will continue until the price of cryptocurrencies falls. For all the gamers who are looking for the latest graphics cards, you should now compete with miners and bots for the upcoming versions. The shortage of AMD CPUs seems to be slowly coming to an end, which is currently the only good news about this situation.