29.03.2024

Geforce RTX 2060 video card review for mining: hashrate, setup, overclocking

The release of Nvidia’s new series of GPUs has been eagerly awaited by many. Geforce RTX video cards were called ASIC killers and with their help the greens hoped to seriously squeeze the Reds out of the crypto mining market.

But alas, all these dreams did not come true. The introduction of new technologies has too much affected the price of GPU-devices, and frankly speaking, these models did not demonstrate anything special in comparison with the best Nvidia products of the previous line.

Mining on the RTX 2060 clearly shows that what is important for gamers may not be useful in mining. If at first someone hoped that the appearance of new versions of mining software could really improve the hashing speed of RTX 20 series video cards, now it is already obvious that their hopes were not justified.

Nvidia has released a new line of RTX 30 graphics adapters that are ideal for mining, while the previous series GPU devices remain in the middle. Compared to the 1660Super, they are very expensive and power-consuming, and they lag far behind the 30th line in terms of hashrate. However, with the current exchange rate of ether and other altcoins, even such video cards can be profitable.

Let’s take a look at the characteristics of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 in mining and try to figure out how relevant this model is as a worker.

Specifications

Let’s start with the main parameters of the video card and for clarity, let’s compare it with the workhorse of miners, the GTX 1070 graphics adapter.

GPU Model RTX 2060 GTX 1070
Core TU106 GP104
Process technology (μm) 0.012 0.016
Number of transistors 10800 7200
Core frequency 1365-1680 1503-1683
Memory frequency 1750 (14000) 2000 (8000)
Frequency of shrader units 1365-1680 1503-1683
Number of shrader units 1920 1920
TMU 120 120
Bus and memory type 192-bit GDDR6 256-bit GDDR5
Memory bandwidth (GB / s) 336 256
ROP 48 64
Fill Rate (Mpix/s) 80640
Fill Rate (Mtex/s) 201600
DirectX 12 (12_1) 12 (12_1)
Shaders Model 6.1 5.0
Video memory, Gb 6144 8192
Connection interface PCI-E 3.0 PCI-E 3.0

At first glance, the RTX 2060 is clearly superior when compared to the 1070. True, the amount of memory is less, but this is not critical yet. By the end of 2021, a lot of ether will still go to PoS, and for the production of most other mining alts, 6 GB of video memory is quite enough. But it is not known what will happen next.

Perhaps there will be new PoW coins with higher memory requirements for video cards. However, these are only assumptions, at the moment we have what we have.

The main distinguishing feature of any RTX graphics adapter compared to the previous GTX line is the presence of a tensor core, which allows you to activate the ray tracing function in real time. According to representatives of Nvidia, the video cards of the new line are six times more efficient than the old models. Let’s get started and see the speed of the new miner. You just need to find out which of the manufacturers to give preference to.

Which 2060 graphics card manufacturer should I choose for mining?

Is it possible to say for sure which of the manufacturers released the best 2060 for mining and whether it is worth performing comparative tests for this. There are brands:

  • Armor;
  • Palit;
  • Msi;
  • Gigabyte;
  • Asus;
  • Xfx.

Their productivity is about the same. Mining can be run on any GPU with suitable hardware parameters, but it is better to use full-size models with two fans. There are top mining graphics cards like the ASUS ROG-STRIX-RTX2060-O6G-GAMING, with a triple propeller cooler and a BIOS switch.

Six months after the release of RTX series graphics adapters, «green» updated the lineup, releasing GPU-devices in the name of which have the SUPER prefix. In technical terms, they are not of particular interest to specialists, the changes affected primarily the number of Cuda cores. But the most budget model RTX 2060 underwent a more serious modification.

On the RTX2060 SUPER video card, not only Cuda cores were added, but also 2 Gb of GDDR6 memory and the 192-bit memory bus was replaced with a 256-bit one to increase bandwidth. These global improvements have had a positive impact on the productivity of this device. The RTX 2060S video accelerator comes close to the results of the RTX 2070.

This had a very positive effect on the efficiency of the 2060Super in mining, and if these cards were sold at a lower price, they could very well surpass the 1660 Super in terms of profitability and even compete with the new RTX 30 models. But, in the current situation, it makes no sense to expect price reductions. Even if the manufacturer reduced the purchase price, greedy traders, knowing full well that the digital asset market is now in an upward trend, would continue to sell cards in three ways. Everyone earns the best they can.

What to mine at 2060? The most profitable algorithm

Let’s see how profitable mining of ETH and other cryptocurrencies is in 2060.

Algorithm Cryptocurrency RTX 2060 mining speed Hashrayt
GTX 1070
Hashrayt
GTX 1060
Ethash Mh/s Ethereum 33 31 34
Cuckaroo 29 Gh/s Grin 6.7 4.4 3
Eqihash 144_5 sol/s Bitcoin gold 54 56 39
BeamHashIII h/s Beam twenty 17 ten
Eqihash 192_7 sol/s Zero 22 23 2
ProgPow Mh / s Bitcoin Interest 15.7 12 nine
BCD Mh/s Bitcoin Diamond 24.1 19.9 16
KawPow Ravencoin eighteen fourteen nine
TimeTravel10 Mh / s Bitcore 34 26.5 16.8

As expected, the RTX 2060 in mining was only able to surpass the 1060. Compared to the 1070, there is no big difference in the mining speed, and on some algorithms it even lags behind. There are materials on the network in which even lower indicators of this video card are published.

Some, it is not clear why, test the video card only at the factory parameters, while others faithfully copy the numbers and then consider what mining income brings in 2060 and why so little. There are quite a few tests on YouTube and on the miners’ forums that clearly confirm the numbers indicated in this article. However, even with full overclocking, the situation has not fundamentally changed.

So, what to mine for 2060, a list of profitable crypto coins. Profit per day in US dollars excluding electricity costs:

  • Firo (MTP) – 2,7;
  • Ravencoin (KawPow) – 2.68;
  • Ryo (CryptoNightGPU) – 2,67;
  • BitTubeCash (CuckooCycle) – 2,56;
  • Ethereum (Ethash) – 2,53;
  • Zclassic (EquihashZero) – 2,5;
  • Conflux (Octopus) – 2,31;
  • Zano (ProgPowZ) – 2,3;
  • Swap (Cuckaroo29s) – 2,24;

As the WhatToMine mining calculator  shows, the Ethash algorithm is not the most profitable. Greens have always worked better on xx and zikesh. It’s pointless to launch dual mining at 2060 .

As for the list of profitable coins, if not in a week, then in a month it will be completely different. The market situation is constantly changing, new projects are emerging and crypto-mining software is being improved.

Overclocking and lowering power consumption

The video card has good overclocking potential. Using MSI Afterburner you can overclock it by 20-30%. Recommended parameters for Ethereum:

  • Core Clock 0;
  • Memory Clock +700.

With such indicators, the card gives out 30.5 Mh / s. Some video cards showed 32.8 withstanding overclocking 2060 at the level:

  • Core Clock +150;
  • Memory Clock +1100.

Important!!!  But keep in mind that overclocking does not always increase productivity. You can have a higher speed, but send the same and sometimes fewer shares to the pool than with standard hardware overclocking. And in addition, the farm will periodically freeze, and you will receive a direct loss.

For other algorithms, acceptable overclocking rates are:

  • Core Clock +150;
  • Memory Clock +500.

With these parameters, our graphics adapter should produce a hash rate approximately corresponding to the one indicated in the table. To reduce consumption by 2060, in mining, you can move the Power Limit slider   to the minimum value of +75, on some algorithms this can lead to a decrease in the hash rate.

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