Graphics card mining machine purchase guide

Regarding Ethereum mining, Zhikuang University introduced "Is Ethereum mining a good business?" and "What is the difference between Ethereum mining and Bitcoin?" Our view is also very clear: with medium- and long-term hedging, Ethereum mining is a very good investment option for fiat currency; if it is judged that the medium- and long-term trend is rising, you can choose to hoard coins.

Today we are going to talk about how to choose a mining machine if you want to participate in Ethereum mining.

01 Graphics card market landscape

The mainstream machine for Ethereum mining is the graphics card mining machine. The graphics cards for Ethereum mining are nothing more than A cards and N cards. A card is the common name for AMD graphics cards, and N card is the common name for Nvidia graphics cards.

Let me briefly introduce the market structure of discrete graphics cards. Currently, there are only two upstream manufacturers of discrete graphics cards, AMD and NVIDIA . It is difficult for other third parties to survive in this field. The core GUP design of discrete graphics cards is monopolized by these two upstream manufacturers.

Of course, in addition to these two, there is another manufacturer that designs GPUs - Intel, but what Intel makes is a GPU that is integrated into the CPU, called "core graphics card", which is different from a discrete graphics card.

The most technologically advanced GPU chip design for independent graphics cards is firmly occupied by AMD and Nvidia. In order to obtain greater production capacity and profits, the two major graphics card technology manufacturers authorize the production and processing of graphics cards into finished products and sales to downstream graphics card manufacturers.

The downstream relatively low-end graphics card manufacturing market presents a pattern of competition among many manufacturers . These downstream manufacturers get GPU chips and video memory from AMD or NVIDIA, and then design PCB boards, circuits, heat sinks, etc., and finally make finished graphics cards, affix their own trademarks, and earn profits. There are many such graphics card manufacturers, and users have classified graphics card manufacturers. Those with a relatively good reputation include Sapphire, Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, Dylan, Zotac GALAXY, Colorful, etc. Of course, not all product models of graphics card brands with a good reputation are good. The models generally recognized by users are generally high-end graphics card models .

02Customized and assembled machines

Generally speaking, there are two ways to obtain graphics card mining machines. One is to buy a customized machine, and the other is to buy graphics cards and platforms and assemble them .

Customized machines are branded machines. Currently, the mainstream customized graphics card machines in the industry include Langshen Miner, Xindong Miner, and Panda Miner. The characteristic of customized machines is that mining machine manufacturers look for graphics card processing manufacturers to produce graphics cards that meet their own requirements. Such graphics cards generally only retain some functions necessary for mining, and other functions not related to mining will be castrated . This also leads to the fact that such graphics cards cannot be used for other things except mining, and basically have no residual value .

Of course, customized machines also have their advantages, which are mainly reflected in two aspects.

One of the benefits of customized machines is that they have better stability. The difficulty of operation and maintenance is basically the same as that of ASIC machines, and the operation and maintenance threshold is lower and more convenient .

In addition, some customized graphics card mining machines are made to be about the same size as professional mining machines for Bitcoin mining, such as Wolf God's B3 mining machine. This type of graphics card mining machine can get relatively cheaper electricity prices . This starts with the business model of the mining farm. The mining farm takes electricity in bulk from the power station and sells it to the hosting users to earn the difference. The more power-consuming the machine is for each hosting position, the more difference can be earned, and the shorter the payback period of the mining farm. Compared with the ASCI mining machine for Bitcoin mining, the graphics card machine not only has lower power consumption, but also is generally several times the size of the ASIC machine. Hosting such a graphics card machine will reduce the power consumption per unit position of the mining farm, so the mining farm will have price discrimination against graphics card machines, and the electricity bill will be higher than that of ASIC machines . The size of some customized machines has been made to be about the same as that of ASIC machines, and there is a chance to get cheaper electricity prices, which is more advantageous than larger assembled machines.

The graphics card mining machine Langshen B3 is about the same size as an ASIC mining machine

Assembled graphics card machines generally use normal graphics cards. Even if they are not used for mining, they can be recycled and used in other industries such as games, with higher residual value . Assembled graphics card mining machines mainly consist of three parts: graphics card, platform and power supply. The platform integrates the motherboard, memory, hard disk, etc. The platform is equipped with a graphics card and connected to a power supply, and then mining can be carried out.

The size of the assembled machine is larger than the mainframe of the desktop computer

Compared with customized machines, assembled graphics card machines are more troublesome to operate and maintain, and require more professional operation and maintenance personnel to manage them.

To summarize:

Customized graphics card machines use customized graphics cards. After continuous technical iteration and debugging by customized machine manufacturers, the performance is more stable and the operation and maintenance is more convenient. The machine is smaller and can get relatively cheaper hosting electricity prices. Customized graphics cards only retain the functions required for mining, and other functions are castrated, with basically no residual value.

Assembled graphics card machines are assembled with normal graphics cards, platforms and power supplies. If they are not used for mining, the graphics cards can still be used in other industries and have a higher residual value. Assembled machines are relatively less stable and require more professional operation and maintenance personnel to manage. They are also larger in size, so they need to pay higher hosting electricity prices.

03How to choose a graphics card mining machine

After understanding the graphics card market and the two types of graphics card machines, should miners choose a custom machine or an assembled machine? Should they choose an A card or an N card? You can make a decision based on the following aspects.

1. Static payback period

The payback period is the most important indicator for choosing a graphics card . The payback period of the machine can be calculated based on the static daily output, power consumption, electricity cost, machine cost, and operation and maintenance cost of the machine. The shorter the static payback period, the better. The static payback period is affected by factors such as the price of the currency, the difficulty of the entire network, and network congestion. There is a potential risk in calculating the payback period based on static income, and hedging can effectively reduce this risk .

Miners can choose whether to hedge based on their own circumstances and judgment. If miners want to obtain certain returns denominated in fiat currency, hedging is a very stable choice. If miners judge that the price of the currency is on an upward trend in the medium to long term, they can choose to hoard the currency.

2. Mining machine residual value

Graphics card mining machines have a high residual value, which is a safety cushion and an important part of the miners' income. This is a key factor to consider when mining with graphics cards.

If the payback periods are basically the same, the assembled machine has a higher residual value than a customized machine with castrated functions, so the assembled machine should be given priority.

If you are comparing between assembled computers, under the circumstance that the payback period is basically the same, try to choose graphics cards with high performance and more recent release time from first-tier graphics card brands . Such graphics cards have higher residual value.

If the differences in various indicators are not big, and you have to choose between A card and N, you are more inclined to choose N card. Relatively speaking, N card can mine more currencies . If you don’t mine Ethereum, you will have more other options.

There are many brands of graphics cards. If other conditions are not much different, it is recommended to choose a high-performance, recently released graphics card model from a first-tier graphics card brand.

Incomplete list of A- and N-card first-tier graphics card manufacturers

There are many complex factors that affect the price of graphics cards. This article only introduces several common factors. For example, the release of new graphics cards will also affect the price of graphics cards, just like electronic products such as the iPhone. When a new generation of iPhones is released, the previous iPhones will be reduced in price, and the most serious reduction is often the next generation of products. This rule is the same for graphics cards. Generally speaking, the release of a new generation of graphics cards has the greatest impact on the price of new products. When choosing a graphics card, you need to pay attention to the release plan of new products by graphics card manufacturers. For example, the RTX 30 series, which will be launched in the middle of this month, is twice as fast as the previous generation, but the price is the same. After the release of the 30 series graphics cards, the price of some models of the 20 series graphics cards has dropped by about 30%.

In addition, the residual value of graphics cards will also be affected by supply and demand . After Ethereum completely switches to PoS mining, it is inevitable that a large number of graphics cards will be sold off in the market, which will inevitably have a great impact on the residual value of graphics cards. Of course, the specific progress and time nodes of Ethereum's transition to 2.0 have not yet been determined. If the mining machine can mine steadily for two years, it is not so important whether there is residual value of graphics cards as a safety cushion .

3. Operation and maintenance capabilities

Assembled graphics card mining machines have a high threshold for operation and maintenance. Abnormal power outages and other situations may cause assembled machines to malfunction. If you mine by yourself and do not have such operation and maintenance capabilities, assembled machines are not recommended. If it is hosted in a mining farm, when choosing a machine, try to choose a mining farm with graphics card mining machine operation and maintenance capabilities. With the operation and maintenance capabilities of assembled graphics card mining machines, the essence of choosing a custom machine or an assembled machine becomes to judge which machine has higher returns and a shorter payback period.

4. Pay attention to video memory capacity

When choosing a mining machine, pay special attention to the size of the video memory, especially for second-hand graphics card mining machines. During the Ethereum mining process, a DAG file will be generated. The mining process will always call and update this file, and the file will increase at a rate of about 520M per year. By the end of this year, the file size will exceed 4G, and mining machines with 4G video memory space will not be able to mine, so mining machines with 4G video memory size cannot be selected. It is best to choose a mining machine with a memory size of 6G or more. In addition, it should be noted that some mining machines are marked with a video memory size of 5G, but the actual available space is only about 4.5G, which not only affects the mining life of the mining machine, but may even cause frequent machine failures .

04 Conclusion

Now is a very good time window for Ethereum mining. How to scientifically select a mining machine is very important. This will greatly affect the payback period and investment income of mining. The following aspects are mainly used to select a graphics card mining machine.

First, look at the payback period . The electricity cost of graphics card mining is relatively low, and there is a high safety margin. When choosing a graphics card mining machine, first consider the payback period and select the graphics card mining machine with a short payback period.

Second, choose a mining machine based on the operation and maintenance capabilities of the mine and the electricity price of the hosting. This is mainly for small miners. Consider choosing a customized machine or an assembled machine based on the operation and maintenance capabilities of the hosting and the electricity price of the hosting. Of course, BigWave has recently launched the Ethereum joint mining business. Miners can completely hand over all mining-related matters such as the ore dressing machine and the ore dressing field to the professional team and just sit back and enjoy the benefits.

Third, the residual value of the graphics card is an important component of the income and a safety cushion. If the payback period and other factors are not much different and the operation and maintenance capabilities are sufficient, choose a card with a higher residual value. Specifically, try to choose a high-end graphics card from a first-tier brand and choose an N card between an A card and an N card.

Fourth, pay attention to the video memory of the mining machine and choose a graphics card with a video memory size of 6G or more.

Risk warning : The content of this article is only the author’s personal opinion, does not represent the views or position of Zhikuang University, and does not constitute any investment opinion or recommendation.