Mining income on GTX 1660, 1660 Ti AND 1660 SUPER in 2022

GeForce GTX 1660 series video cards are developed based on NVIDIA Turing. The devices have the highest performance, which is not much inferior to the GTX 1070. The line includes video cards released in 2022: GTX 1660, GTX 1660 Super, GTX 1660 Ti. GPUs in this family are great for popular games and mining. By selecting the optimal overclocking parameters for mining for the 1660 card, you can significantly increase the profitability of cryptocurrency mining. The GTX 1660 Super video card is of greatest interest to miners, based on its initial technical characteristics and overclocking potential.

Characteristics of video cards

For those interested in technical indicators, you should pay attention to the table below.

Which gtx 1660 to choose for mining

Memory plays a special role in the mining of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, so the low-end GDDR5 model will be the most unprofitable option. At the same time, the Ti and Super models initially show very similar performance, and the latter is also cheaper. But this was before the sharp growth of BTC, and now the situation with prices is completely unclear.

mining
option that will suit you in terms of price, and remember that in terms of performance they go in this order:

• 1660;
• 1660 Super;
• 1660 Ti.

Speaking of vendors, you should pay attention to proven brands that offer good cooling:

• MSI;
• Gigabyte;
• Palit;
• ASUS.

When purchasing, you should pay attention to the cooling system - it must be original and in 100% working condition. We will not go into the topic of choosing a video card for mining in 2022, but will only say that a 30-60 minute test in the FurMark donut will be enough to see the temperatures and general condition:

• the temperature should not rise above 70-75°;
• there are no artifacts on the screen;
• The fans are not very noisy.

Special drivers for mining from Nvidia and AMD

Actually, they are created not only for mining, but the SEOs asked to include this phrase in the title.

Video cards are very powerful things; they are literally packed with computing processors. The architecture on which GPUs are built is designed to perform a huge number of operations simultaneously, or in parallel. For example, they are used in training neural networks, processing ML models, rendering frames for a VR headset, and creating videos.

These calculations are specific, they require their own protocols and directives for optimal operation. This is how drivers for video cards appeared, adapted for individual tasks. For example, drivers are specially optimized for mining, but only for AMD; Nvidia has created a separate “Optimize for computing” mode in the video card control panel.

According to legend, the video card will be able to work with neural network models with conventional drivers, but it is still better to tighten the screws with a screwdriver.

Mining performance of GTX 1660 6GB versions

Everything is clearly presented in the table:

As you can see, the Super and Ti versions show similar results almost everywhere, which is achieved by using modern fast GDDR6 memory. The hash rate depends on the vendor, but still the differences between them are at the level of 5%.

Since the price of Bitcoin is constantly changing, and this directly affects the value of altcoins, it is therefore impossible to say with certainty what the indicators will be at a certain time. But there are many working mining calculators on the network that will allow you to determine the potential income of a specific line at a given electricity tariff. Current situation:

The most logical thing in 2022 will be mining on Nvidia GTX 1660 Super or Ti on Ethereum.

GTX1660S hashrate when mining cryptocurrencies using various algorithms with PoW consensus

To fully use GTX1660S video cards, you first need to correctly install Nvidia drivers no lower than version 441.08 dated April 23, 2022.

When mining using popular algorithms at stock core and memory frequencies, the GTX1660S video card shows the following results:

• Ethash – 26-27 mh/s;
• Zhash – 36-38 sol/s;
• CuckooCycle – 4.3-4.5 G/s;
• Cuckarood29 (GRIN) – 4.8-5.2 G/s;
• Beam – 25 sol/s;
• Lyra2v3 (Vertcoin) – 34-35 mh/s;
• X16 family – 12-16 mh/s;
• lyra2z – 2.5-3 mh/s.

The GTX1660S video card uses dynamically changing the core frequency depending on the voltage. It can operate at core voltages from 625 to 1025 mV (frequencies from 300 to 1950 MHz), which allows optimizing power consumption and, if necessary, significantly reducing temperatures.

Graph of GTX1660S core frequency versus voltage in the range from 900 to 1060 mV:

Screenshot of one GTX1660S (first card) and three GTX1660Ti when mining Grin in the Gminer program (core overclocking +130 MHz, memory overclocking +730 MHz):

The GTX1660S video card, when mining with downvolting up to 750 mV and overclocking the core at 120-130 MHz and the memory at 700-750 MHz, shows the following results:

• Ethash – 31 mh/s;
• Zhash – 36-38 sol/s;
• CuckooCycle – 4.3-4.5 G/s;
• Cuckarood29 (GRIN) – 4.5-5.2 G/s;
• Beam – 25 sol/s (gminer version 1.69 refuses to work on the GTX1660S);
• Lyra2v3 (Vertcoin) – 34-35 mh/s;
• X16 family – 12-14 mh/s;
• lyra2z – 2.5-3 mh/s;
• MTP - ttminer 3.0.10 does not work, Cryptodredge 0.22.0 - 4 mh/s;
• CryptonightR - h/s (in xmrig-nvidia).

Screenshot of one GTX1660S and two GTX1660Ti when mining on x16rv2 in the TRex program:

Mining Monero using the CryptonightR algorithm in the xmrig-nvidia program:

When mining, the GTX1650S video card shows results lower than the GTX1660S by about 5-10% (the lag is not so noticeable on memory-demanding algorithms).

The payback of the GTX1660S in the current situation on the cryptocurrency market when mining coins such as Ethereum, Ravencoin, Veil and coins based on Equihash family algorithms will be 2.5-3 years at an electricity price of $0.05 per kilowatt/hour.

Undervolting line 1660 - instructions

We install the latest available driver, as this is a prerequisite for achieving the best performance. Download MSI Afterburner - the most convenient way to reduce energy consumption and increase mining income on the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti and other versions.

AMD driver patch: where to download and how to use

Let's say you modified the BIOS of a video card and the drivers for it stopped working or gave errors. For example, error 43.

After modifying the BIOS, use atikmdag-patcher.

This is software that convinces the driver and system that the video card is not a camel and can work. After modifying the BIOS of the video card, run the utility and carry out the patching procedure. []

The utility works very simply - you launch it, a window appears, click “YES” and it does the rest on its own.

What does memory affect?

Depending on the chip manufacturer, the potential capabilities of the GPU depend:

• Samsung – memory frequency +1000, core 0 or -100, powerlimit 60-75%.
• Micron – +850 / 0 or +200 / 100%.
• Hynix – +400 / 0 or -100 / 100% (the worst option).

These parameters are indicated for Etherium mining, and in other cases other settings may be required, which will have to be selected by testing:

• We set the values ​​memory clock + 1000 / core clock 0 / powerlimit 60%.
• We start mining and see the mining speed in 30 minutes.
• We change the indicators in MSI Afterburner and retest.
• We determine the optimal indicators and save them.

Here you will have to play with 3 indicators in order to achieve both complete stability and high speed. If the testing or mining program crashes/freezes, then you should return the powerlimit to 100% and check again. If this doesn’t help, then we gradually reduce the memory frequency in increments of 50. As soon as we reach a stable value, we try to reduce PL. Only then do we turn to the kernel and try to increase it (not always possible). This way we find the optimal value.

Errors when installing AMD drivers and their solutions

Even an insurance policy with a monthly premium does not protect against errors.

But there should be no errors if you are using relatively “modern” video cards, for example, RX 400 or RX 500. Errors will appear when the computer has a video card younger than HD 7700. This is officially “Old” hardware, which is not supported in new driver sets .

How to install drivers on an old video card?

Use SDI. The program searches among available databases for software for video cards that no longer receive official updates. [official website of the program developer]

We recommend using SDI Lite if the farm has online access. For a farm without network access, download SDI Full.

How to solve errors when installing drivers

• Reset the video card overclock to factory settings and repeat the installation.
• Update the MS Visual Basic library [link to set of libraries from 2005 to 2022].
• Disable your antivirus and try installation again.
• Use the DDU utility to completely remove video drivers and repeat the installation procedure. [link to utility]
• Use the official driver from the video card manufacturer's website.
• Remove old drivers via AMDCleanupUtility.exe [link to the utility page on the AMD website]

These are solutions to the most common problems when installing drivers. If the case is unique, it should be described in detail and Googled. Similar questions could have been asked on forums 2 or 3 years ago and a solution could have been found.

The Windows 10 build is a friend for mining.

To avoid problems with drivers, it is recommended to use the Windows 10 LTSC build and its variations, for example, by LeX_6000 or Ovgorsky. LTSC is the branch of Windows that receives the most stable and proven updates and is intended for corporate clients. Automatic updates and spyware modules that could interfere with the operation of the farm have been removed.