# Which platform to mine for efficiency?



## mrthanhnguyen (Jun 16, 2021)

I have intel 10900k and 5950x. Which one should I put 2x 3090 to mine btc? Which one use less power? Thanks.


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## oldwalltree (Jun 16, 2021)

10900k TDP 125w vs 5950x TDP 105w


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## The red spirit (Jun 16, 2021)

Both have adjustable TDP, but Intel's adjustments are better implemented. If you disable some cores and adjust TDP, as long as you don't mine with CPU, both are fine. I personally would use 10900K, leave 6 cores enabled and set PL1 to 25 watts, PL2 to 30 watts and Tau to 16 seconds.


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## yotano211 (Jun 16, 2021)

mrthanhnguyen said:


> I have intel 10900k and 5950x. Which one should I put 2x 3090 to mine btc? Which one use less power? Thanks.


mining btc only works with ASIC machines. graphics cards stopped being profitable mining btc maybe 8 years ago. 
It depends on the coin you are mining. Tell us what coin are you thinking of mining. 
If its ETH, the processor will not be used. I can mine ETH with a dual core processor from 3-4 years ago and still get the same mining speed of a 10850k.


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## ShiBDiB (Jun 16, 2021)

yotano211 said:


> mining btc only works with ASIC machines. graphics cards stopped being profitable mining btc maybe 8 years ago.
> It depends on the coin you are mining. Tell us what coin are you thinking of mining.
> If its ETH, the processor will not be used. I can mine ETH with a dual core processor from 3-4 years ago and still get the same mining speed of a 10850k.



This, monero is the big cpu coin from what I know. Bitcoin is a waste unless you have an asic, ether will be a waste soon as well once they go to PoS.

If you're spending scalper prices on those 3090's right now with the plan being mining, you're in for a rude awakening.


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## Zach_01 (Jun 16, 2021)

mrthanhnguyen said:


> I have intel 10900k and 5950x. Which one should I put 2x 3090 to mine btc? Which one use less power? Thanks.


Won’t make much of a deference which CPU you’ll use to mine with GPUs. On a GPU mining system the CPU is almost idling completely on a modern multi core system. So really has no meaning. Both CPUs are idling pretty low on power.
It all comes to rest of system power usage. This can’t be determined by me right now. It depends on a lot of things. Still the differences won’t be that significant. Even 20-30W more or less is really nothing. It’s about 15-20KW/h per month difference.


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## phill (Jun 16, 2021)

Use a dual core Pentium or Celeron based system, they seem to work well


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## delshay (Jun 16, 2021)

yotano211 said:


> mining btc only works with ASIC machines. graphics cards stopped being profitable mining btc maybe 8 years ago.
> It depends on the coin you are mining. Tell us what coin are you thinking of mining.
> If its ETH, the processor will not be used. I can mine ETH with a dual core processor from 3-4 years ago and still get the same mining speed of a 10850k.



I know nothing about mining but I have a question.

You said you can mine on dual core. What processor is this?


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## yotano211 (Jun 16, 2021)

I used to use the g3900 and g3920. Those where about $35-40 3 years ago. I didn't mine with the processor, I mined with only the gpu, some of my mining machines had 8 gpus, most had 6.

Put the 2nd 3090 on the 5950x machine and mine btc with it. You should make maybe negative $1.50 per day mining btc with 2 gpus.


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## Zach_01 (Jun 17, 2021)

phill said:


> Use a dual core Pentium or Celeron based system, they seem to work well


This is the best way for efficiency but when you have already 2 systems...
I have x2 3900G based mining systems. These systems use about ~40W without counting GPUs. The 3900G has a constant avg usage/load of ~20%.


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## Hardcore Games (Jun 17, 2021)

I have noted on other forums that many are discovering its not worth it to get into mining as the big ops tell me the writing is on the wall


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## ShiBDiB (Jun 17, 2021)

Hardcore Games said:


> I have noted on other forums that many are discovering its not worth it to get into mining as the big ops tell me the writing is on the wall



It's not worth buying hardware specifically to mine right now. If he already has the 3090's he can grind out some ether before it goes PoS. 

Anyone buying regular GPU's right now to mine will more than likely not even break even.


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## Mescalamba (Jun 17, 2021)

Profit from mining is basically close to none, unless you have electricity for free.

Even 2x 3090 does like 10 USD daily, best case scenario?

Thats how much.. one hour work equivalent?


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## mrthanhnguyen (Jun 17, 2021)

2x 3090 do almost $20/ day, but system draws 750w-800w from the wall. Dont know how to calculate cost of power per day.


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## ShiBDiB (Jun 17, 2021)

mrthanhnguyen said:


> 2x 3090 do almost $20/ day, but system draws 750w-800w from the wall. Dont know how to calculate cost of power per day.


Your electric bill will have the cost per whatever and then most crypto mining calcs have an input for that.

If it's $20 a day pre electric, I'd guess between 8-12 post. So an hour at a less than minimum wage job a day.

And that all goes away soon when ether goes pos.


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## yotano211 (Jun 17, 2021)

mrthanhnguyen said:


> 2x 3090 do almost $20/ day, but system draws 750w-800w from the wall. Dont know how to calculate cost of power per day.


Put the extra 3090 onto 1 computer, you can use a riser if you want. You want to lower your power draw per graphics card. That will make you pay less in power cost and keep more of the money.


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## Zach_01 (Jun 17, 2021)

mrthanhnguyen said:


> 2x 3090 do almost $20/ day, but system draws 750w-800w from the wall. Dont know how to calculate cost of power per day.


Did you set it up properly? Are the GPU clocks optimized or its just stock?
A 2x3090+rest system should draw maybe less than 400W or around that.

800W = 0.8KW x 1h = 0.8KWh x24h =  19.2KWh/Day
How much is your cost per KWh?
My power provider has a charge of 0.0639€ per KWh. I have to add on that the power grid charges (distribution/maintenance), and VAT at the end.
Roughly the total cost is around 0.13~0.14€ per KWh.
So if I had a system of 800W my cost would be 2.5~2.6€ per day.

----------------------------------------

Right now I have a 3900G system with x5 RX580s and my DD system with 1 5700XT. The total hashrate is 200~210MH/s and the power from wall for both is 900W (680 + 220).
Gross profit is a little more than 10€ per day. Power cost is around 3€, so the real profit is ~7€.

For me it doesn't really matter if the profit is 7€ or 4€ or 10€ per day. What matters is on what price I will sell ETH the next 10y.
For those who want to sell right away yes it matters the current ETH price and what a mining system can mine. For me not at all...
I was mining 3y ago when the mined ETH and power cost was almost equal. I didn't sell it back then. What I mined back then, now is worth more than x10.

So the comments about how mining is profitable today or not are more or less irrelevant. It depends on what you wish to do with it and what price would come the next years.


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## Mescalamba (Jun 17, 2021)

It will be profitable in very long term, but it means you just pay for electricity and keep your ETH/BTC close (not selling till profit is worth it).

But thats the case with mining since almost start.


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## Zach_01 (Jun 17, 2021)

Mescalamba said:


> It will be profitable in very long term, but it means you just pay for electricity and keep your ETH/BTC close (not selling till profit is worth it).
> 
> But thats the case with mining since almost start.


I know it very well, just some are thinking it only with current pricing. Of course you got to have the faith that the price will go up long term...


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## nguyen (Jun 17, 2021)

3090 with full cover WB get ~120MH/s at 280W, that's about 7usd/day at current rate, not worth burning your precious GDDR6X module at all


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## Zach_01 (Jun 17, 2021)

nguyen said:


> 3090 with full cover WB get ~120MH/s at 280W, that's about 7usd/day at current rate, not worth burning your precious GDDR6X module at all


Yes  this is another "issue" we did not cover so far in this thread. GDDR6X modules are the most power hungry and most hot of all. And its getting even worse on 3090s because at the back side (of PCB) VRAM modules do not have a real heatsink. At least not on stock/AIB cards. So the backside modules get real hot and this is heating the PCB in that area and the GPU side VRAM modules get hot too, not as bad as the back but still. It's uncomfortable situation.
Don't be surprised if you see 100+°C on VRAM junction temp (see HWiNFO64 sensors only mode) on a 3090.

If someone wants to mine on 3090s, then should lower GPU clock (significantly) and also VRAM clock to drop below 100°C, and deal with the reduced hashrate.
VRAM modules usually have max operating temp of 100~110°C depending on type and manufacturer specs.

My 5700XT's regular GDDR6 has a max operating limit at 110°C and even OCed ( +5~6%) I manage to keep them around 80°C. with 60% fan speed at 28~30°C ambient.

Max clocks of MSI 5700XT GamingX are GPU: 2100MHz, VRAM: 1750MHz and I keep them at GPU: 1250MHz, VRAM: 1850MHz with 53MH/s no BIOS modification.


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## delshay (Jun 17, 2021)

Radeon VII has the highest bandwidth of all cards. Does anyone know how this card performs

EDIT: Answered my own question, found this link AMD Radeon VII | NiceHash


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## mrthanhnguyen (Jun 17, 2021)

My currect mining setup pulls 700w-750w from a wall so maybe $3 a day for power bill. 2x 3090 earns $16 a day then $13 a day after electric. So around $400/month at current coin price.


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## yotano211 (Jun 17, 2021)

mrthanhnguyen said:


> My currect mining setup pulls 700w-750w from a wall so maybe $3 a day for power bill. 2x 3090 earns $16 a day then $13 a day after electric. So around $400/month at current coin price.


Make sure you put the other 3090 into the same desktop.


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## The red spirit (Jun 18, 2021)

Zach_01 said:


> This is the best way for efficiency but when you have already 2 systems...


No, he already has two chips. It's far more sensible for him to disable cores in BIOS and set PL1 / PL2 low on them than buy some low end chips.


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## ShiBDiB (Jun 20, 2021)

mrthanhnguyen said:


> My currect mining setup pulls 700w-750w from a wall so maybe $3 a day for power bill. 2x 3090 earns $16 a day then $13 a day after electric. So around $400/month at current coin price.



Your estimates are a bit high, most calculators put 2x 3090's at ~$13 a day before counting electricity.

This is assuming you don't use the computer for anything else.. Even then you're probably still better off reselling those 3090's right now while the market for them is high.


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