Best GPU for Mining Ethereum in 2018

What is the best GPU for mining ethereum in 2018? This question comes up a lot in the comments. Of you've decided to build a rig using my GPU Mining Rig Build Guide this article should clear up any questions you have about the best currently available graphics cards for mining ethereum.

 

 

When choosing a GPU for mining, you want a good balance of low power usage (assuming you pay for electricity) and great hash rates. I’ve listed my recommendations below in the order of what I would buy if I was building a rig today.

5 Best GPU’s for Mining

1. Nvidia GTX 1070 / 1060 - The  Nvidia GTX 1070   is what I’ve been putting in all the rigs I’ve built for folks since about April of 2017 when all the AMD Rx 4 and 5 series cards sold out and doubled in price on secondary markets. It can mine at 30Mh/s while sipping only 100 watts of electricity. After testing several models, my favorite is the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 Windforce OC (model # GV-N1070WF2OC-8GD). It has a twin fan design and seems to run cooler than most of the other 1070 models I’ve tested. If that model is unavailable, any twin fan designed 1070 will work well. Blower models like the Gigabyte 1070 Founders Edition mine at the same hash rate, but need more supplemental cooling like a box fan pointed at your mining rig. I’ve linked to Amazon above, but be sure to check eBay as well for availability since Amazon often limits the number of GPU units you can purchase.  I’ve had several people ask about the NVIDIA GTX 1060 6GB . Though not my first choice, this GPU can be overclocked to mine at 24.7 Mh/s while only pulling 80 watts of power. 

2. AMD RX 580 / 570

AMD video cards used to have a significant edge over Nvidia for cryptocurrency mining. This is no longer the case. the AMD Rx 580 and AMD Rx 570 are both great choices. The Rx 480 does 29Mh/s and the Rx 570 does 27Mh/s. I’d also recommend checking on eBay if Amazon is out of stock.  Regarding which models to buy, just make sure they are the twin fan designs from any of the Sapphire, Asus, Gigabyte or MSI brands. They are well built and run cool and efficient compared to some others. Amazon often limits the number of GPU’s to 3 per customer, so if you plan to build a 6 GPU rig, I would recommend getting the six pack that is usually listed here and here. This particular pack of special edition GPU’s are overclocked already and ready to mine at maximum hash rates out of the box.

 

3. Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti

This video card can be tweaked to run up to 32Mh/s when mining Ethereum. However, it really shines when mining Zcash at 715 sol. It tends to cost a fair bit more than the 1070, though. The Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti would be my choice if the previous 4 GPU’s listed were unavailable or if my primary goal was to mine Zcash.

 

4. AMD RX 480 

This video card is the older brother to the RX 580. For some cryptocurrencies, the AMD RX 480 actually outperforms the RX 580, but I put it at number 3 on the list since it is discontinued and somewhat difficult to find other than on the used market. My favorite model, of course, is the AMD Sapphire RX 480 Nitro+(Model #11260-20-20G). 

5. AMD RX 470
Even harder to find than the RX 480 is the AMD RX 470. A year ago, this was the absolute best card for mining. With a slight BIOS mod, it can do 29Mh/s while pulling 140 watts. Just like the other AMD cards listed, my favorite model is the AMD Sapphire RX 470 Nitro+ (Model #11256-10-20G).

There are other video cards like the higher end R9 series from AMD that I’ve chosen to not include here simply because they are an older generation of video cards and use a lot of power by comparison. I’ll be updating this list of GPU mining video cards regularly as new cards from both AMD and Nvidia are released.