The increased crypto adoption in the past year has made a massive impact on adjacent industries. The gaming industry, in particular, has been facing intense pressure for the production of gaming GPUs. Crypto Miners continue to battle with gamers in purchasing GPUs. Consequently, this creates a high demand that is somewhat insatiable.
In the first half of 2021 alone, crypto miners purchased 25% of the GPUs. These miners are using several graphic cards at one time to come up with a powerful machine for mining crypto instead of gaming.
This article will revolve around why miners insist on using gaming GPUs. However, we shall look into how crypto mining works first:
How Crypto Mining Works
Mining involves computers to tackle complex mathematical puzzles known as proof of work (POW). The POW requires the transaction to be accurately validated, and the miner is rewarded with coins. Solving these puzzles demands great experimentation and mistakes that prevent a human being from executing himself.
The head-to-head aspect of mining is a crucial part of this process. All miners have the equal opportunity to answer these problems, with the first-come, first-serve rewards being paid. It means you get all the benefits if you are the first problem to solve. It also makes it possible for other miners to stop and move on to the next block.
The competitive nature of mining only adds to the necessity for a computer to handle these puzzles and allows them to solve them more quickly than anybody else. The most normal desktop PCs were sufficient to perform such processes when miners first started bitcoin mining. However, when more is mined, the problems become more complex.
Miners need to invest in potent GPUs and Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) to keep up (ASICs). GPUs and ASICs are known to potray faster rates than CPUs, all while using less energy.
GPUs Have a High Power
As already noted, crypto mining involves using computer power to solve complex cryptographic equations with cryptocurrency rewards such as Bitcoin or Ethereum. The rates at which computers can solve these equations to mine cryptocurrency depend on the computer hash rate, which in turn depends on the machine’s power.
Cryptocurrency miners use gaming GPUs to create computer rigs that contain numerous graphics cards. The stronger the GPUs, the quicker the hash rate. In contrast to gamers, crypto miners often buy several GPUs at a time, and stock levels are declining even more.
Graphics processing units are more effective than CPUs and ASICs in performing such tasks; high-end GPUs are therefore bought nearly as soon as they are available. Crypto mining interests are so vital that cyber cafés and server farms have switched to crypto-currency mines as far as Iran and China.
GPUs Have High Speed
Cutting to the chase, GPUs are much faster for mining coins when compared to CPUs.
However, you should note that CPUs perform a wide range of activities. On the other hand, GPUs primarily function for rendering graphics, restricting their flexibility to perform many tasks.
They are not flexible, making them only effective for intricacies that can be solved using graphics processing as the hardware can only work in specific ways. In turn, it makes them efficient at solving complex algorithms at a higher speed. GPUs can carry out relatively straightforward computational duties but then do a tonne of them simultaneously, making them well suited for the task at hand – mining.
Although a GPU mines far faster than a CPU, the mining speed is still a small percentage of the total compared to the overall mining power of the Bitcoin network.
GPUs are More Profitable
The hash rate for the Bitcoin network is currently relatively high. GPU mining is not guaranteed to bring any profits anymore. It is because you compete with other miners to try and solve a block throughout the mining process.
You are at a disadvantage if these other miners run on quicker gear since your hardware can only make a fixed amount of guesses in a certain timeframe. The stronger the GPUs, the faster the hash rate, and the faster you may make a profit.
However, even with this information, it is not easy to predict how much you can earn from mining. There are a lot of factors that change dynamically, such as the cost of electricity varying from country to country. Other factors include the type of cryptocurrency you choose, the price, and the initial buying costs.
To this effect, many websites are providing detailed analyses of the most profitable GPUs using mining calculators. Depending on the electricity rate and the hardware, the websites develop an average profit range you can use to gauge the best GPUs to use.
GPU Mining Overclocking
Overclocking is a method of increasing mining hardware performance. In terms of mining, it comes in handy to increase profits. However, note that it could be the leading cause of rig crashes; hence miners need to be careful when employing it.
Miners access the hardware BIOS and change the clock settings to calculate more processes each second. With most manufacturers, once you have tampered with the BIOS, there is no warranty provided.
When it comes to GPUs, applying the modest overclock can increase the coins mined in a day and, at the same time, lower the GPU wattage hence reduced electricity cost. Also, when done correctly, GPUs run cooler. Miners have to, however, research intensely to get it right without destroying the GPU.
Conclusion
Intensive mining can degrade the lifespan of GPUs more than regular gaming use. Cryptocurrency mining is frequently performed 24/7 at the maximum power output for the card, raising the heat generated by the components and maintaining their cooling fans at peak speed constantly. In addition to the wear and tear of electrical components, the mechanical element of the fans is often the first to emerge.
For this reason, it’s probable miners would need to refill their stock of GPUs more regularly than gamers, adding extra strain to the supply chain.
Meanwhile, since the demand for GPUs has been rising, companies such as Nvidia have been working to compact this. Nvidia announced earlier that they would create a particular unit for dealing with cryptocurrency mining alone. It will reduce the competition between gamers and miners for high-end graphic cards.
