When you set out to mine cryptocurrency you are presented with two choices: Buy a GPU or buy an ASIC.
An Asic is a terrible computing device, period. While it might be great for mining coins, at some point it has a list of downsides that make it probably the nasties piece of technology ever created outside of the military.
Here is a list of negatives.
It throws off more heat than a fan heater.
It gobbles insane amounts of energy, which can make the device unprofitable fast.
It makes incredibly large amounts of noise, to such an extent it can damage your hearing. It is not an understatement to say even 1 asic makes it sound like you have a small jet plane in the room.
The can only do 1 job, mine a specific coin with a specific algo.
They cost a lot but lose there value in weeks.
They are supplied only when they are worth less to the manufacture to use than it can be sold for, which is often above its potential earning capability.
You can wake up tomorrow and it is worthless.
…. There’s more but you get the point.
On the other hand a GPU, is hot but not furnace hot, eats around 25% the energy of an ASIC, is noisy but won’t earn you a restraining order from neighbours and retain value because gamers like them.
The current top GPU for commercial mining is the 1080Ti. It is the best bang for buck you can get to mine altcoin cryptos. There are more powerfdul ones like the Titan V, but at 30-50% more power you are spending anywhere between 3-5 times the money.
The calculation is how much coin you can mine at the cost of repaying the capital outlay and the running costs. Running costs on GPUs can be much lower than ASIC so it comes down to the cost of repaying the capital outlay of the hardware.
A few months ago you could get $3-5 a day of a 1080ti but with the collapse in value of most altcoins that is down to $1 a day. As such a 1080ti pays back in a just shy of 2 years these days. It was paying back in 4 months last year but as the price has fallen and the number of machines mining has increased so the payback time has ballooned.
The major worry for miners is that their equipment will be obsoleted by new equipment. An ASIC can blow GPU miners out of the water if suddenly an ASIC appears on the scene for a coin that has up to that point be unminable by an ASIC. This recently happened to Monero, which luckily for the GPU and CPU miners forked to a new standard they could change to while ‘bricking’ the ASIC unable to make the change.
The new Nvidia 2080 range is or perhaps it is better stated, was, such a threat. A new generation of GPU that was several times more powerful that the 1080ti would quickly obsolete it as a miner but as it turns out the new hardware is unlikely to produce more than 30%-50% more coins per day and as such will only relegate the 1080ti returns by a third or less.
The cost of the new card or inline with the old 1080 range and likely to be at a premium, this will leave the 1080ti with a long mining life ahead of it, especially if Altcoin prices turn around.
The new 20 range will develop over time but could take at least a couple of years to push the 1080ti into retirement, which is good news for the miners who have invested in rigs, many of which will still have some time to go to get their investment back on the $1000+ a machine they paid at the height of the market earlier this year.
While the mining boom for AMD and Nvidia maybe over, this windfall will return when Crypto makes its comeback.
(I own AMD)