The prospect of GPU mining seems very attractive at first glance — imagine if your GPU could not only play the latest video games at the highest framerates, but also bring you steady profits by mining crypto. However, the reality is quite a bit more complicated, as we’ll explain.
In this article, we feature the 5 best GPUs for mining, and explain how much you can currently expect to profit (or lose) when using them for mining. Before that, let’s quickly explain the current state of the GPU mining landscape.
The current state of GPU mining
GPU mining used to be a very popular activity a few years ago, resulting in massive price increases for GPUs due to the overwhelming demand. GPUs were primarily being used for mining Ethereum, which is the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Now, Ethereum no longer uses mining, as it has moved on to staking.
It’s very likely that GPU mining is on its way out and will probably become even less relevant in the coming years. After the Ethereum network transitioned to Proof-of-Stake in 2022, there are almost no relevant cryptocurrencies left that can be mined profitably with a GPU. So, if you’re thinking of GPU mining as a long-term play, you will most likely be left disappointed.
Mining with GPUs is currently not really worth your time, even if you’re paying a relatively low price for electricity such as $0.1 / kWh. Even the GPUs that are capable of mining profitably will generate very small profits.
The upside of the current GPU mining situation is that if you’re a gamer that wants to upgrade your graphics, you can find used a mining GPU for sale at a relatively low price. However, you need to be careful about the condition of the GPU you’re buying, as mining is a very intensive process and a GPU that has been continuously operating at max capacity for a long period of time might malfunction relatively quickly.
The best GPUs for mining
Now that we have some context about the current state of GPU mining, let’s check out the list of the best GPUs for mining. The figures presented below are from November 2023 and assume an electricity cost of $0.1 / kWh. By the time you’re reading this article, the profitability of each GPU will have likely changed.
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti
- Radeon RX 7900 XTX
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090
Price: $2,200
Profitability: $0.17 / day
The RTX 4090 is the flagship of NVIDIA’s GeForce line of gaming GPUs. This GPU is based on the Ada Lovelace architecture and features a whopping 24 GB of RAM, as well as NVIDIA’s ray tracing tech. The RTX 4090 supports resolutions of up to 8K and delivers an unparalleled experience in the realm of gaming.
In addition to excelling in gaming, the RTX 4090 is currently also the best GPU for mining, at least when it comes to GPUs that are available to the regular consumer. However, the profitability of mining with the RTX 4090 is still miniscule, as you can only expect to earn about $0.17 in 24 hours even assuming basically ideal conditions (mining the most profitable coin and only paying $0.1 / kWh for electricity), according to data from WhatToMine.
Buy the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080
Price: $1,100
Profitability: -$0.07
The state of GPU mining is currently so poor that even the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, which will handle the latest Triple-A gaming titles without a hitch, cannot be used to mine profitably at the moment.
This powerful GPU, which sports the Ada Lovelace architecture and 16 GB of extremely fast memory, would currently mine at a loss of $0.07 per day even assuming almost ideal conditions.
Buy the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti
Price: $1,540
Profitability: -$0.27
The RTX 3090 Ti, which was the flagship product of Nvidia’s previous generation of GPUs, will lose about $0.27 per day if it’s used for mining in current conditions.
Of course, the RTX 3090 Ti will still perform very well in video games even though it’s not from the latest generation of NVIDIA’s graphics cards. The GPU sports 24 GB of RAM as well as DLSS technology, which provides a significant boost to gaming performance with the help of artificial intelligence.
Buy the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti
Radeon RX 7900 XTX
Price: $950
Profitability: -$0.29
The Radeon RX 7900 XTX is the flagship GPU from AMD’s Radeon line of gaming graphics cards. The RX 7900 XTX features 24 GB of DDR6 memory, a boost frequency of up to 2,500 MHz, as well as 96 compute units and ray accelerators.
Even though this GPU delivers exceptional performance in games, the RX 7900 XTX currently doesn’t cut it in the highly competitive world of cryptocurrency mining. Even assuming very good conditions, you’ll be losing about $0.29 per day if using the RX 7900 XTX to mine. In theory, if you were able to power your RX 7900 XTX for free, it would generate a mining profit of about $0.59 per day in current conditions.
Buy the Radeon RX 7900 XTX
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti
Price: $850
Profitability: -$0.29
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is the most affordable GPU on our list, although it still costs $850, so it’s not exactly a budget option. The RTX 3080 is based on NVIDIA’s Ampere architecture, and features 12 GB of RAM.
While it should be able to handle practically anything you throw at it from a gaming perspective, the RTX 3080 Ti falls short when it comes to cryptocurrency mining. Assuming electricity costs of $0.1 / kWh, you’ll be losing about $0.29 per day if you use the RTX 3080 Ti for cryptocurrency mining. In an ideal scenario where you don’t have to pay anything for electricity, this GPU would be able to bring about $0.57 in profit per day.
Buy the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti
