If you can boast of a computer with a good video card, then you can start mining bitcoins right now. However, in order to increase profits and do this professionally, we recommend purchasing several video cards (optimally from 4 to 6) and assembling your own farm for mining cryptocurrency.
By installing several video adapters, you can increase the performance level of your computer, which will count much faster because... It is video cards that provide all the computing power for mining (for most algorithms).
It’s worth clarifying right away that in 2022, mining of the most popular cryptocurrencies became industrial and for 95% of ordinary users (whose investments do not exceed $100,000), the most profitable format for investing in cryptocurrency is its direct purchase on the exchange. It is on the stock exchange, not in the exchanger because exchanges charge much lower commissions, provide maximum liquidity, and most importantly are safe to use.
The reliability of a cryptocurrency exchange is primarily determined by the trading volume and the number of users. By all key metrics, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world is Binance. The site has the largest cash turnover and supports transfers in rubles from Visa/MasterCard and payment systems QIWI, Advcash, Payeer .
For a safe and convenient purchase of cryptocurrencies with a minimum commission, we have prepared a rating of the TOP 5 exchanges that support deposits and withdrawals of funds in rubles, hryvnias, dollars and euros:
| # | Exchange: | Website: | Grade: |
| 1 | Binance (Editor's Choice) | https://binance.com | 9.7 |
| 2 | Huobi | https://huobi.com | 7.4 |
| 3 | Exmo | https://exmo.me | 6.9 |
| 4 | OKEx | https://okex.com | 6.5 |
| 5 | Bybit | https://bybit.com | 6.3 |
Especially for beginners, we have prepared a detailed guide: How to buy Bitcoin on a crypto exchange for rubles?
Is it possible to mine Bitcoin?
Only special equipment – ASICs – can mine Bitcoin. It is impossible to attract Bitcoin on video cards; they can only mine altcoins, such as:
- Ethereum
- Ethereum Classic
- Monero
- Grin
- Zel
- Beam
- Many other PoW coins
However, you can mine Bitcoin in two ways:
- Pseudo mining
- Mining via NiceHash
What is pseudo mining? This is when you mine any other coin on your video card, for example Ether, and sell it on the exchange in exchange for Bitcoin.
NiceHash is a special program. By launching it, you mine different coins, different algorithms, and receive payments immediately in Bitcoin! This is very convenient, especially for those who want to accumulate BTC coins.
Watch the video to find out if NiceHash is reliable and how to set it up.
What is hashrate?
The mining process depends on many parameters, but the main and determining role is played by the so-called hash rate. In short, this is the mining speed measured in H/s (hash per second).
In a little more detail, hashrate is a characteristic whose value is determined by the technical capabilities of the video card: core frequency, memory frequency, video memory capacity. The cryptocurrency Etherium (Ether), for example, requires more than 2 gigabytes of video memory, otherwise it practically cannot be mined.
The hashrate is not the same for all cryptocurrencies, as they operate on different algorithms. The same video card can mine one cryptocurrency well, but be practically useless for another.
For example, the Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB card mines well coins that work with the Lyra2REv2, DaggerHashimoto and Equihash algorithms, but is not suitable for those who decide to mine with NeoScrypt and CryptoNight:
Some algorithms even have their own numerical parameters. Equihash efficiency is measured in “sols” (Sol/s). This is also a hashrate, but 300 H/s is not equal to 300 Sol/s. There is a proportion between them that is also worth taking into account.
It is the hashrate that plays the most important role in choosing a video card and currency for mining.
How much can you earn on 1 video card?
In order to understand how much you will receive per day from 1 video card, you need to use the Whattomine online calculator.
Select your video card from the list of suggested video cards. For example, you have 1 2080 video card. Place the number 1 next to it and click on it so that it lights up green (video cards from Nvidia light up green, and from AMD video cards light up red). Next, scroll down the page and click on the “Calculate” button.
A list of coins will open, where the following will be written:
- Coin name
- How many coins per day will you receive?
- How much will you receive, taking into account the deduction for electricity and without (clean and dirty)
Also, in the same way you can see how much you will earn with another video card.
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. It’s worth remembering that you need a video card not for gaming, but specifically for mining. A very important indicator in it is the number of shader units. Radeon has more of these than Nvidia. Accordingly, it will be a little faster to process a transaction or block from the chain.
The faster your video card, the greater your chances of winning a reward. If you are not mining solo, but in a pool, then you will provide more shares, and accordingly, you will receive a little more Bitcoin than when using Nvidia.
What programs are needed for mining?
For mining you need 2 programs:
- MSI Afterburner
- The miner himself
MSI Afterburner is a program that will allow you to monitor the temperature of your video card, manage coolers, overclock it and reduce power consumption.
Let's take a closer look:
- Click on the "Auto" button and drag the slider from 0-100%. This is cooler management. We do not advise you to set it to 100%; the ideal value is 69%.
- Overclocking by memory and core
- Temp Limit – the maximum permissible temperature for the card; if it exceeds this limit, the frequencies will be automatically reset
- Power Limit – if you lower it, the power consumption of your video card will become less, which means it will be cooler
- GPU temperature of your card. It should not exceed 70 degrees for stable operation of the video card.
Is it worth starting?
You can try it as an experiment. But immediately prepare yourself for the fact that you will not earn a single drop if you use one video card. The number of shares is simply not enough to receive the slightest percentage of the reward.
But if you are not focused on Bitcoin mining as a separate activity, then you don’t even have to take it up. Based on the above, it becomes clear that today and in the future, Bitcoin mining on a video card is already dead. Now this is a huge business, and strong sharks are running it.
Besides the usual difficulty issues, there is another pitfall. The fact is that if someone can concentrate 51% of the power of the entire network, he will dictate the rules for the use of cryptocurrency, as well as mining. After all, other users will be forced to spend much more money on equipment in order to increase their percentage and, accordingly, reduce it.
As a conclusion, we can only repeat ourselves: Bitcoin mining on a video card is no longer relevant. No matter how frustrating it may be, it is impossible to mine the most valuable cryptocurrency without huge investments.
Is mining harmful for a video card?
Mining for a video card is not harmful. However, if you run mining for 10-30 minutes every time you leave the computer, this will most likely harm your card.
Let's give an example: if the light is constantly on, it will most likely fail much later than if you constantly turn it on and off.
It’s the same with the card; frequently turning mining on and off will supply high voltage to the card.
An example of starting mining for a couple of minutes:
It is best to run mining at night, or for a long period of time.
Why are they "fit"
The main indicator in mining is hashrate. In other words, it is the speed of solving a cryptocurrency block function. So, central processors produce less than 1 MH/s, which is incredibly low. The average speed of video cards is 20–30 MH/s. This indicator already gives hope.
In addition, video cards are designed to perform repetitive actions over a long period of time. And mining is just such a task. Therefore, the computing power of the GPU can be used in the mining of cryptocurrencies.
Indeed, at the peak of the development of cryptocurrencies, video cards were very actively used for mining. Manufacturers have also created a product that is focused not on gaming, but on mining. This product was slightly different in performance and was cheaper than game cards.
They were also actively exploited for Bitcoin mining. Then its network complexity was not so high, video cards paid for themselves very quickly and brought good profits. Everyone who more or less understood the technical details turned on their home computer and started mining.
Mining on PC: setup for Nvidia video cards
Let's start with settings for video cards from Nvidia. First, we need to select a profitable coin for mining.
To do this, go to the Whattomine website and select the desired video card, for example 2060 (put the number 1, select it and click on the Calculate button.
Next, scroll through the page below and see the most profitable coins for mining. At the time of writing, these are the following cryptocurrencies:
- Swap(XWP)
- Zcoin(XZC)
- Zel
- Grin-CR29
The most profitable coin is Swap. But before we start mining it, go to the coinmarketcap website. There we insert the Swap coin into the search.
The Swap coin page will open. Scroll below and see where it is trading.
As you can see, the coin is traded on only 3 exchanges, but trading volumes are available only on 1 exchange - BKEX. This is not very good, firstly, the exchange itself is not very popular, and secondly, if you store coins not on the exchange, but on a wallet (official or multicurrency) and if this exchange is hacked, then trading on 2 the remaining ones are unlikely to be large and you will not be able to sell the coins you mined.
However, if you are not going to hold coins (not sell them for a long time), but drain them every month or week, then you can consider mining such a coin.
But for long-term mining, it is better to consider more or less reliable coins (such as Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Monero, Beam, Zel and others) and reliable exchanges (such as Binance, Huobi and some others).
Read detailed reviews about exchanges on our website.
However, from those listed in the screenshot above, we would advise you to mine the Zel coin instead of the Swap coin, since it is traded on more exchanges.
We choose the Stex exchange because it is popular, its trading volumes are large and it is generally simple and intuitive.
Read the review of the STEX exchange on our website: how to use, registration, trading, deposit/withdrawal, creating a wallet and much more.
After you have registered on the exchange and received its wallet, you need to download the mining program.
How do you know which program is right for you? Very simply, under each coin on Whattomine the coin algorithm is written:
As you can see, the Zel coin has the ZelHash . Now go to our website in the program section. Click on the “ GPU Algorithms” and look for the ZelHash algorithm in the list that appears.
Click on it, miners who mine this algorithm will automatically appear.
In our case, 2 miners are suitable for this algorithm (Zel coins):
- GMiner
- lolMiner
Download any of these 2 miners. Unzip the archive into a folder convenient for you and open it.
In the folder you will find Bat files already fully configured and ready for mining, for different pools. All you have to do is change the digital wallet to your own.
To do this, right-click on the Bat file and click on the Edit button.
Next, in the text document that opens, change the digital wallet to yours, received on the exchange.
Then save the clock document and run the batch file. The mining process will start.
The process of starting mining is the same for other video cards, select a card, click “Calculate” and select the best coin, and then download a miner for it on our website.
Economic strategy
Even when choosing video cards of the same generation, there are differences in profitability. Let's continue the comparison of the tenth generation Nvidia GTX: the 1060, 1070, and 1080 are good at mining Etherium and ZCash currencies, but the 1080 does it better than anyone else, producing 27 MH/s.
However, 1080 costs much more - twice as much as 1060. Therefore, you need to develop your own economic strategy.
If you have confidence in the future and the stability of a particular cryptocurrency, then you can invest and buy several 1080. They will take longer to pay off, but in the future they will bring greater profits.
1060 is the choice of a realist who prefers a minimum of risks and quick payback. They mine worse, but are cheaper in themselves, which means they will break even faster.
Thus, the choice of a particular video card is the result of calculating payback and profitability. But this is just the beginning.
The number of video cards is also an interesting question. What is better - 5 weak cards or 3 powerful ones for the same money? Let’s say that both of them produce approximately the same total hashrate.
Here it is better to be guided by energy consumption. As a rule, video cards of the same generation have approximately the same level of power consumption. This means that the fewer video cards, the less you need to pay for light.
On the other hand, if the “socket” is free, that is, someone else pays for it, then why not buy more cheap video cards?
Entering payment information
You need to provide the pool with information about where you should transfer your mining profits. On the Slush Pool website there is a menu item “Settings”, where you can go to “Payouts” and click on the “Add wallet” button. There you need to insert the public key for payments. Paper wallets are worth mentioning separately. In your Electrum wallet you will be able to see the sender addresses. After filling out the table, do not forget to save the changes.
Many mining pools allow you to specify after what number of mined bitcoins you should pay. This is important because large amounts of crypto coins should not be stored online. At the same time, transaction fees on the Bitcoin network have now become quite high. Splitting payments too small will make transactions more expensive. Plan such things wisely, weigh everything and calculate it.
conclusions
Despite the late start in the mining industry, Nvidia Corporation products confidently occupy their rightful share in the mining market. As of September 2022 and data from open statistics, green cards already account for 39 percent of all video cards, although in 2022 they were less than 25 percent. Of these, more than 90 percent are still cards of the 10xx family, that is, the new 20xx cards are just entering the battle, and a possible mass transition of miners to the next 30xx series is just around the corner.
The versatility in the choice of algorithms leads to a much smaller gap in profitability between top algorithms and alternative ones for Nvidia cards according to 2Cryptocalc, and the choice of effective algorithms itself is much wider.
We hope that a small starting educational program from this article will help novice miners get maximum profits without damaging or overheating their video cards.
Registration in the pool
Go to the Slush Pool website and select “Account Registration”. It is in the upper right corner. Create a username, provide an email address, and set a password. After which you will have to confirm your registration via a letter that will come from the site. After this, your account will be activated and you can begin the mining process. Users on the site are called “workers.” It is believed that it is necessary to create separate accounts for each device.
Selecting a mining pool
The next stage will be choosing a pool. It is difficult to act as a lone miner; you will need expensive and powerful equipment, which still needs to be configured correctly.
Further steps to connect to the pool will be discussed using the example of Slush Pool; it is one of the most popular in the world. The procedures for connecting to pools are quite monotonous; you can connect to other companies in the same way.
