
Just yesterday, we saw one of the flashiest cryptocurrency mining rigs with plenty of RGB and 143 graphics cards. It was a rig featuring 70 GeForce RTX 3080 GPUs and 73 GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GPUs and is able to profit around $900 a day. Bitcoin and Ethereum have risen astronomically in price and so has the mining craze. On top of having the prices of Bitcoin and Ethereum skyrocket, we also are facing a current shortage of the latest silicon from Nvidia and AMD.
The Astronomic Rise In The Price Of Cryptocurrency Has Started Another Mining Craze Resulting in Severe GPU Shortages & Price Hikes
Before the rise in value, Bitcoin was stable at around $10,000, but in October the price of Bitcoin started to skyrocket and hit $20,000 in December. This past week, the price rose to close to $35,000 which is absolutely incredible. With the rise in the price of Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies have seen the same happen. Ethereum has seen a 500% rise in value since the beginning of 2020. At the start of 2020, Ethereum was priced around $200 and rose to $400 in August. In November, it continued to the upward trend in price hitting $600, and just this past week, it was priced over $1000.
Graphics cards were already very short in supply before this rise in cryptocurrency value, but now the demand is higher than ever for high-end graphics cards. The latest silicon from Nvidia and AMD was already short in supply with scalpers able to sell them for double the MSRP, but now to get the cards on release, you’re going to be competing with miners, scalpers, bots, and other gamers. Upcoming cards like the RTX 3080 Ti will be even harder to get now after the rise in cryptocurrency prices.
On Top Of The Current Shortages, Consumers Will Now Be Competing With Miners To Get The Latest Hardware From Nvidia And AMD
The profit from mining at the current moment is incredible with every single GPU from the current generation has a break-even that is under 250 days assuming the prices of these cryptocurrencies remain stable.
Using the price of $0.10 per kWh for the purpose of calculations, the cryptocurrency profit is quite great. Tom’s Hardware has done the calculations for the profitability of these cards, but one thing to note is that the break-even is calculated using the MSRP. At the current moment, getting a GPU at MSRP is nearly impossible, so the break-even for cards purchased above MSRP will be the purchase price divided by the daily profit.
Component | $ per Day | Power $ per Day | Profit per Day | Time to Break Even |
---|---|---|---|---|
GeForce RTX 3090 ($1499) | $10.80 | $0.80 | $10.00 | ~150 days |
GeForce RTX 3080 ($699) | $8.80 | $0.60 | $8.20 | ~85 days |
GeForce RTX 3070 ($499) | $5.45 | $0.40 | $5.05 | ~99 days |
GeForce RTX 3060 Ti ($399) | $5.40 | $0.40 | $5.00 | ~80 days |
GeForce RTX 2080 Ti ($1199) | $5.35 | $0.55 | $4.80 | ~250 days |
GeForce RTX 2080 Super ($699) | $3.80 | $0.50 | $3.30 | ~212 days |
GeForce RTX 2070 Super ($499) | $3.60 | $0.40 | $3.20 | ~156 days |
The Astronomic Rise In Cryptocurrency Prices Will Extend The GPU Shortages |