Graphics Processing Units, also known as graphics cards or GPUs, have been the keystone in cryptocurrency development for the last couple of years. Their processing methodologies and architectures make them extremely efficient for cryptocurrency mining since they can be programmed to dedicate all their power to decrypting the keys of blocks and doing so by consuming less energy.
Given the constant improvements and releases of new and better architectures in the last couple of years and the recent launch of a new generation of cards by the top manufacturers in the industry (Nvidia and AMD), we will dedicate a piece to explain how exactly are GPUs more efficient than regular CPUs for the mining process, how past launches affected the state of the market, and how the current generation might be the fuel needed for the predicted bullish run that may come in the next months.
Faster, Better, Less Consuming
CPU-based mining existed since the early days of cryptocurrency, given that they are the main functioning units of any computer, where it takes care of the controlling functions of the operating systems and all the programs installed in a machine. Their processing speed is measured in Hz (cycles per second), meaning the number of bits that can be manipulated at least X times per second.
Current units have their speed measured in GHz, and the factory-recommended processing speed is called “Base Clock”. For example, the recently launched Ryzen 9 5900X has a base clock of 3.7 GHz, meaning that it can manipulate 64 bits at a speed of 3,700,000,000 times per second. This makes them incredibly efficient for handling multiple high-level tasks in order to manage the functioning of the entire computer.
On the other hand, GPUs are designed, manufactured and programmed to focus on the rendering of visual effects and 3D graphics, which, when looked at a certain level, end up being visual representations of matrices, vectors and other mathematical operations. However, given their specificity, GPU clocks are regularly lower than those of GPUs, with the newer generation of cards having maximum clocks averaging between 1.71 and 2.2 GHz (for Nvidia and AMD, respectively), but all of their cycles are dedicated to the task at hand, not spread across multiple functions.
This characteristic, along with the use of other technologies like Field Programmable Gate Arrays and Application Specific Integrated Circuits, give GPUs an edge over CPUs for hash calculations, which is why they were popularized for this use during the boom of late 2017.
Recent Years of Ups and Downs
Back in mid-2016, Nvidia shook the GPU market by releasing their GeForce GTX 10 series, composed of three cards (1080, 1070 and 1060) aimed at three different economic targets (with prices of $599, $379, and $249, respectively). Given how Ethereum had launched just a year before and the sentiment that it was more “open” than Bitcoin at the time, the availability of powerful GPUs in a time when miners were less common gave these models, especially the 1060, a particular spotlight among the crypto community, where it is still a very popular piece for mining.
Later, the “crypto winter” of 2018 throttled down the hype for new releases, at least among the farming communities, which made subsequent launches, like Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 20 series and AMD’s Radeon RX 5000 series, slip under the radar until later dates, when prices dropped. These launches also failed to deliver options in the same price range as the older 1060, which discouraged miners to upgrade their setups.
However, we are on the verge of a new bullish run in the cryptocurrency market, fueled by events like the third Bitcoin halving and companies like PayPal implementing cryptocurrency for payments, and 2020 was a year of releases for the two big companies in GPUs. Nvidia launched the GeForce RTX 30 series and AMD unveiled their Radeon RX 6000 series, both of which show massive improvements over the architectures used in their last generation and launched at a time where most enthusiasts might be considering upgrading their setup to reap profits in the following months, despite multiple difficulties in both launches due to reduced stock and lack of prevention towards scripted purchases.
First, we compared two Nvidia products on the same price range: the recently launched GeForce RTX 3080 and a previous-generation GeForce RTX 2080 Super. Being at the same price at launch ($699 and $799, respectively), the only comparison comes in the processing specifications. The older model was able to achieve higher clock speeds, a difference of around 5%, but the architecture of the new model allows it to hold a significantly higher amount of cores (units tasked to handle operations with integers and floating points), which makes it so the total number of floating-point operations that the card is able to perform per second (FLOPS) is nearly 35% higher than the number of the previous generation at a lower price.
On the other end of the spectrum, AMD’s highest-end card for last generation, the Radeon RX 5700 XT, was launched at a price lower than their cheapest current-gen card, the Radeon RX 6800, at $449 and $579 respectively, so a more in-depth analysis should be made regarding profitability and return-on-investment. Given that the 6000 series is quite recent and the availability has been quite limited, there are only a few mining algorithms that have been tested on these cards, but the results are showing hashrates of around 63 MH/s, over last-gen’s 55 MH/s, meaning that a newer card could bring more profit to the miner than the old one. When using similar metrics to the ones used to compare the Nvidia cards, the achievable total number of FLOPS in the newer generation is over 65% higher than the previous one, with the price being only 31% higher.
Furthermore, supposed mining performance posted on the Chinese messaging service QQ argue that the GeForce RTX 3090 (a more expensive model than the one mentioned before) could generate an average of $3.37 per day or approximately $103 per month, with AMD’s RX 6800 reaching about $5.00 per day and roughly $152 per month, meaning that, with the lower price and higher performance, AMD might be the weapon of choice for miners looking to improve their output before the overall market reaches a higher state in the following months.