At the moment, the market for premium video cards is experiencing a serious shortage. It is almost impossible to buy anything from the new line of Nvidia RTX 3000 – that is, the RXT 3060, 3070 or 3090 – and if possible, then at a price that is several times higher than the official one.
The problem is also confirmed by the representatives of the manufacturer, however, judging by their statements , gamers, not miners, are responsible for the lack of video cards. Perhaps, in this case, it is worth buying a laptop with a new video card, which are available, and mining on it? And if so, how much will the device pay off? We answer all questions.
First, a little explanation of the situation. The RTX 3000 is Nvidia’s newest line of graphics cards featuring cutting-edge specs, including a redesigned design. The updated family of video cards was announced on September 1, 2020, when the company’s employees showed the world the RTX 3070, 3080 and 3090. And although several months have passed since then, it is almost impossible to buy new items without any problems.
The reasons for the deficit are simple: the devices produce excellent hash rates, that is, the computing power for mining . And since they can handle a lot of computation, it makes a lot of money when mining cryptocurrency. To illustrate, we show the profitability of mining on the top model Nvidia RTX 3090, which is calculated by the 2CryptoCalc calculator .
We get $ 14.5 per day and $ 435 per month. Unsurprisingly, miners are actively hunting for this device, as well as for other video cards in this line.
It is also worth noting that the RTX 3000 series graphics cards show excellent performance in games, so gamers also had a hand in the lack of graphics cards on the shelves.
In mid-January, Nvidia expanded its range of new series and graphics cards to its line of RTX 30 graphics cards for laptops. The announced prices for the RTX 3060, 3070 and 3090 were $ 999, $ 1299, and $ 1999, respectively.
Since there are laptops with new products in stock, the miners had a completely logical question. Perhaps you shouldn’t sit out the stage of shortage of video cards without video cards and buy laptops with some kind of RTX 3070 ? For example, start mining on them, pay off, get a profit and then get rid of the device?
In addition, they already do this: here is an example of a farm made of new laptops that mine cryptocurrency.
The answer to the question about the need to buy laptops with RTX 3000 is simple: you just need to take a laptop in stock and calculate its payback.
Payback on laptops with Nvidia RTX 3070
We checked various sites with models and settled on an ASUS TUF Dash F15 FX516PR-AZ019 laptop . It has a 15.6-inch display, an Intel® Core i7-11370H processor , 16 GB DDR4 memory and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 graphics card. That is, the characteristics will be enough not only for mining, but also for gaming in top games after mining cryptocurrencies.
The price of the device is 145,990 rubles, and the model is actually available.
Note that many laptops are significantly more expensive. For example, for these MSIs they will ask 190 and 160 thousand rubles.
And this ASUS costs 192 thousand rubles.
The video cards themselves cost in the region of 110-120 thousand rubles, that is, not much cheaper.
As a result, we take our ASUS. Let’s move on to the 2CryptoCalc calculator and calculate the profitability of mining on the RTX 3070. Note that since the cost of electricity is different for everyone, the platform does not take into account this category of expenses. So the bottom line will be less than the income.
It is also worth noting that the hashrate of a video card in a laptop may differ depending on the build, cooling, and even the design of the laptop.
Select one Nvidia RTX 3070 and press the calculate button.
The most profitable cryptocurrency to mine is Ethereum , which has held the top spot for many months. The reason is the growing rate of the coin – on the eve it set a historical maximum at $ 1826.
At the current difficulty rate and ETH rate, our laptop will be able to earn $ 7.34 per day and $ 220.29 per month. The last amount is transferred to 16 350 rubles.
Accordingly, an ASUS laptop for 146 thousand rubles will pay off within less than nine months. Naturally, this is not three weeks, that is, the payback will have to wait a bit.
But there are two important points to note here:
- the Ethereum exchange rate may rise, which is why the income of miners in dollar and ruble equivalents will grow. Accordingly, payback can happen faster;
- a laptop is not an ASIC miner that is exclusively dedicated to cryptocurrency mining. You can also work on it, watch movies or play: moreover, with such characteristics, it will be possible to do it for many years to come. Finally, in which case the device can be sold for good money.
Note that the payback of video cards is approximately the same – and sometimes even more. At the same time, a laptop is a full-fledged device that copes with a variety of tasks, which cannot be said about a video card. In addition, it is not easy to assemble farms from video cards: it requires experience with computer components and a lot of time.
Plus, for the video card to work, it needs to buy a monitor, motherboard, processor, hard disk and RAM – and these are additional costs, due to which the price of a video card for mining will approach the cost of a laptop. So the idea of buying a laptop exclusively for mining is good – especially for beginner miners.
The amount of initial investment can increase by 1-2 thousand rubles, because it is advisable to buy a home fan for a mining laptop. Naturally, given the current mining profitability, this is insignificant money.
Should you buy a laptop for mining
A laptop is a good option for mining in the current conditions of scarcity, which allows you to mine Ethereum and make money. Note that recently there have been much more people who want to contact mining, which is evidenced by the growth of the 2Miners mining pool .
On November 18, 2020, there were 11 thousand miners on it. And now – almost three months later, the number of miners exceeds 24 thousand. The reason is obvious: mining cryptocurrencies is now more profitable than ever.
In addition, miners’ earnings increase due to network congestion and commissions that users pay. We checked the latest data: in February, the share of transaction fees in the total income of Ethereum miners is 53.49 percent, that is, users are actively using the network and are forced to pay more funds for transfers that go to miners.
The remaining percentage of income is provided by a fixed block reward, which is 2 ETH.
We recommend joining the mining pool 2Miners . The pool has eighteen supported cryptocurrencies, different mining modes and an intuitive interface along with clear instructions for starting cryptocurrency mining.