Earning money from mining using a video card: profitability assessment and review of popular programs

This earning of cryptocurrency on a video card continues to be more and more popular every year, because probably everyone wants to extract money out of thin air. A real and easy opportunity to earn extra money on a desktop computer, if you don’t have enough personal savings to buy something, just leave the computer turned on before leaving for business, and it will start earning money completely automatically without your participation.

Earnings are made on the power of the computer and the priority leans towards the video card rather than making money on the processor, but this also depends on the selection of the preferred cryptocurrency; each coin uses its own algorithm for the operation of various applications.

This is what professional earnings look like using a video card.

And this is a homemade farm assembly, which is also not cheap at home.

General information about making money on a video card

The conversation about making money on your own hardware started with mining. As soon as Satoshi Nakamoto launched his Bitcoin, many users who saw potential in this currency used their PC resources to mine it. At first it was processors and hard drives, but in the end it all came down to one thing - video cards. They produce the most output and are often the most powerful part of the PC.

But now it’s no longer possible to mine Bitcoin on your video card, so you have to look for alternative ways to earn money. Let's figure out in this article how you can make money on your video card in 2020, whether it is promising and which video cards are suitable.

Automatic earnings on the Internet on a computer

Now let's turn to mining systems, or programs for working on a video card. You will need to select one and put it on your device.

1. WMzona . Don't be surprised if you read the name of one of the mailers. That's right, this mailer has a section in the menu called “mining”. Go there and you will quickly find the program for your video card.
2. LTCraft . This is a company that has not been operating for very long, but is worthy of attention. There is no difficulty in getting started; registration is completely simple. Next, download the program itself, launch it, configure it as stated on the website, and close it.

There will be one caveat in this activity: do not use several mining programs at the same time. Otherwise, you risk the video card overheating and complete failure. You can test the programs one by one and choose one that brings more income when working with your video card.

How much money will you receive? Of course, the amount of income will be small, because you don’t need to do anything. You won’t get enough to live entirely from a video card, but it will be enough for the Internet and mobile communications.

How to increase income from mining? Take advantage of the referral program offer - yes, this also exists on the program websites. And even if your video card is not powerful enough, you can make money by spreading the word and inviting others to make money with their video card.

Which video cards are suitable for making money?

This question can be answered in different ways. In order to earn 10 - 20 rubles per day, almost any video card comparable in power to the Nvidia GeForce 1050 TI will do. 7th generation cards and similar ones will no longer be able to produce any competitive power, so their earnings will be around 8 - 9 rubles per day, at full load.

The pre-top configuration, that is, 1060 - 1070, can produce about 20 - 30 dollars per month in profit if you engage in mining. On other services that also use the resources of your cards, the profit will be slightly less. That is, you should not expect that you will receive at least 1,000 rubles a month on an old video card.

If you are not going to create a mining farm and, in general, professional cryptocurrency mining, then it is more logical to use the Nvidia GeForce 1050-1070 line. Video cards will bring a small profit per month, from 500 to 1,200 - 1,300 rubles, depending on the service.

Top video cards in 2020 for making money

Top video cards that are suitable for making money online, in terms of price/quality ratio, for 2020.

MSI Radeon RX VEGA 64

AMD Radeon RX 580

GeForce GTX 1060

GeForce GTX 1070

GeForce GTX 1080 Ti

Radeon Fury X

Services for making money on video cards

Now there are several services on the network that provide the opportunity to earn money on their video cards.

Wmzona is an old mailer that several years ago expanded its capabilities, changed its design and gave users the opportunity to earn money not only by viewing ads and completing tasks. Earning money on a video card depends on the complexity of completing tasks (i.e., on the power of the card itself). It depends on the settings of the equipment, video card, system load, etc. Getting started is simple: install the program, go through the basic setup procedure, leave it running, and make a profit.

LtCraft is the same service that uses the resources of your PC for mining. There are no special differences from the previous option, except that you can also use the resources of your processor if you have a weak video card. With top-end video cards you can earn up to 3,000 rubles per month.

IPUservice is no longer about video cards, but it is worthy of mention. As the developers say, they do not engage in mining, but use your processor for their own calculations. It’s hard to guess what they actually do, but they pay regularly. On a normal processor you can earn up to $1 per day - 30 per month. Quite a normal result. Judging by the statistics, the number of payments has already exceeded $500,000.

None of the services have any problems with withdrawing money. They do provide an opportunity to get paid for using your equipment. The only problem is that the payout amounts there are very small.

These three services will not allow you to really make money on your video card. And in general, mining becomes profitable only when you do it directly, with good equipment and your own mining farms. A single PC simply does not have enough capabilities to make any profit, which means that you have to unite in groups.

The most obvious disadvantage of the merger is the service commissions. Profit is distributed according to the invested capacity, but the main problem is that part of it goes into the pocket of the one who provides the opportunity to earn money. That is, you would already receive very little money, but you will receive even less due to service commissions.

A few more words about cryptocurrencies. A single PC will not have enough power for the most popular cryptocurrencies, that’s for sure. But in order to mine promising altcoins, you can use even somewhat outdated video card models. This cannot be considered as income, because if you mine crypto on an old PC and do it in normal volumes, it often costs less than a few cents.

This is a kind of investment option in a new crypt. You can buy it on the exchange or mine it on your own PC. The result won't change much. It's just that in one case you will spend money, and in the other - video card resources and time.

This is probably the only noteworthy way to make money on your own video card. This way you can get the Nth number of the new cryptocurrency, perhaps after some time it will rise in price, and your efforts will be justified. However, there is a small catch - you never know which crypto will take off. Hundreds of ICOs enter the stock market every month, dozens of cryptocurrencies are launched every week.

And it’s simply unrealistic to know which asset will be received positively by the market and which one will become a scam a week after its launch. Therefore, this is a kind of game in the dark. You don’t know which crypto will be in demand, you place a bet, mine it, and if everything is successful, you are “on the horse.” Judge for yourself, those who invested in Bitcoin have long been millionaires. Who knows, maybe a second Bitcoin is on the way.

Mining bitcoins using a video card - making money for the lazy

If you look at the question superficially, then mining cryptocurrency using a powerful video card really seems like a typical example of passive income: install it, set it up, and the money drips into your account on its own.

This is partly true, but do not forget that any passive income must be earned. Mining cryptocurrency, that is, earning bitcoins using a computer, is becoming more and more difficult every year.

Why? The answer is simple - because the number of bitcoins on Earth, like gold, is limited , and there are more and more people who want to receive them. The mine is getting deeper, and the technology is becoming more complex.

Therefore, even experienced miners lose their profits. Only those who engage in industrial mining have real profits - that is, they invest really substantial money in farms.

Don't forget that Bitcoin has no physical form, and by "mine" I mean using computers to calculate the code.

Bitcoins, like other electronic currency, cannot be deposited into the system through terminals and banks. Cryptocurrency is formed and lives exclusively online. It cannot be cashed, it can only be exchanged at exchange offices for the cash equivalent of the currencies of many countries.

The miners of Bitcoin, like any other cryptocurrency, are called miners. And the process itself is mining.

An indispensable condition for mining is the presence of a powerful video card, the same thing that only gamers needed 5-7 years ago. However, some smart person thought of using the card’s computing abilities to extract virtual money.

This has opened up new prospects for making money online. At the dawn of mining, not only gamers, but also ordinary users could freely mine crypto coins - all they had to do was install a special program on their computer.

But today, even with the help of the most powerful PCs, individuals are unable to cope with crypto-tasks. Therefore, miners unite into communities - “pools”.

This is what serious industrial-scale Bitcoin farms look like

A pool is a site where you can register in a community of miners and collectively mine bitcoins . Earnings are distributed between participants by the system according to the characteristics and capacity data of each user’s equipment.

And yet, miners’ earnings are falling. The mining system is a solution to complex cryptographic problems. When a cryptographic problem is solved by the joint efforts of miners in the system, then a new block of information is formed, which is assigned to the previous one - this is the blockchain functioning system.

For the formation of one block, a reward is paid - 25 bitcoins . Since more and more people want to earn bitcoins using a computer, the reward goes to the one who solves the problem faster. In such conditions, competition becomes tougher, and this directly affects income!

And yet, owners of powerful video cards have certain prospects. And even a small amount of Satoshi (bitcoin kopecks) is a good profit, given the constantly growing cost of this cryptocurrency.

Making money with a video card: practical tips

If you still want to make money on your video card, I have prepared 2 tips for you that will help you work longer. You won’t earn more, but at least you won’t kill your hardware in six months.

1. Constantly check the temperature of the video card.

Since the video card will operate at maximum, it is quite possible that it will become hotter. Even in video-intensive games, a good graphics card will not be used at 100% of its capacity. And in applications for making money, it is consistently used “to the fullest.”

That is why install the GPU-Z or AIDA64 utility on your computer. Launch it, see to what degrees the video card has heated up. If the temperature constantly exceeds 80 degrees, then it is necessary to work on the cooling system. If this is not done, there is a high risk that in a month or two it may simply burn out.

2. Try to use your own used card.

The payback period for one video card in mining is 1 year. If this is a top card, then about one and a half.

3. Do not overload your computer.

If you use your PC to earn money, try not to load it with anything additional. Even the enabled browser will use resources, which means:

• Your earnings will decrease.
• Wear will increase.

That is why I recommended using old video cards and PCs in order to make money on them. If you have upgraded your hardware, you can sell your old one or use it to make money. Both options will be quite profitable. The first one is even more reliable.

If you make money on used hardware, carefully monitor the temperature and make a good cooling system, it is quite possible to recoup the cost of a video card in a year or two. Depending on what service you use to earn money.

Mining on a video card using Ltcraft

Ltcraft is a resource where, in addition to mining, they earn money by viewing advertisers’ websites. Today it employs more than 100 thousand users. To get started, the first thing you need to do is register on the service. The process is simple: come up with a login and indicate your email. The login password will be sent to it.

Next, go to your account and download a special program, as well as a settings file for your computer. If the antivirus complains, add the miner to the exceptions. After this, launch the start.bat application. If you have completed all the steps correctly, the following window should appear on your screen

If a black window appears at the end, then everything is configured correctly

Thus, the earning algorithm in this case is simple:

• register;
• install the program;
• we get money.

A prerequisite is that the video card drivers must be the latest. Therefore, check them and, if necessary, update. Also, to ensure that the video card does not fail due to overheating, you must additionally install a special program, for example, SpeedFan. It will monitor the status of the card and automatically adjust its speed and temperature.

You can track your first earned money in your personal account. It also shows the speed at which the computer performs calculations. It is convenient to withdraw received funds to your WebMoney wallet. Moreover, the minimum amount for withdrawal is only 50 kopecks. Also, earned funds can be exchanged for VKontakte votes.

To make money on a video card using the Wmzona website, you will need to follow similar steps - register and install the software. The program for downloading is easy to find in the “Earn - Mining” section.

If you can’t configure the process correctly, you can indicate the model of your video card on the forum and experienced users, as well as the service administration, will help you select the optimal parameters.

Profitability and payback

In our articles we have already looked at the payback of mining, provided current data for 2020, and it was clear that a video card pays for itself in an average of 150 - 200 days, excluding electricity. That is, this is a plus or minus of annual investments, and after 10 months you can already start making a profit.

But that was almost a year ago and in the context of mining farms. Now everything has changed, the deadlines have increased, the legislation still stands still, and earnings from video cards have decreased significantly.

Judging by the reviews, you can earn 3,000 rubles per month on pre-top video cards like 1080 TI, which can be found for 70,000 rubles. This is quite small, especially considering that in a year it will begin to generate less profit, because the algorithms are constantly becoming more complex.

That is, the real payback period for such a video card will be 2 - 2.5 years. A single PC with such a video card will pay for itself in 3 years if it is constantly idle. It's just a waste of money. If you want to make money passively on video cards, study mining, build your own farm and mine cryptocurrency.

Or use cloud mining services. But you are unlikely to be able to make money here, simply because the hardware wears out, becomes obsolete and can no longer cope with the same amount of work in a year. It is precisely because profits will gradually fall that I said that it is worth using your own used equipment, which is only suitable for selling second-hand.

Questions and answers

• What do you need to start mining on video cards?
• First you need to calculate the profitability of this process based on what costs are planned for the equipment. Then purchase the hardware, assemble the farm, download the software.

• Is it necessary to overclock video cards?
• Yes. This must be done carefully, but this process can add up to 40% to profitability.

• Why join a mining pool?
• To get regular profits, it is better to earn a few tens of cents every day than to wait for years for one “lucky ticket” in the form of a full block reward.

• How to choose suitable video cards?
• The WhatToMine website provides an up-to-date rating of the most profitable cards at the moment. Our article describes devices that have been performing well in mining for several years or months now. When choosing, you should focus on cost, amount of memory, and the most effective algorithms.

• Why is mining on video cards better than on ASIC?
• Many miners find this process much more interesting and also useful for decentralizing the network. Unlike ASICs, GPU mining does not disrupt the ecosystem.

• How much money do you need to start mining?
• You can meet 350,000 rubles, it all depends on the selected video cards and their quantity. This is the main cost item. You should also remember that every month you will have to pay a considerable amount for electricity. Take all this into account in your preliminary calculations.

Which video card to choose - performance on different algorithms

Knowing how to make money on a video card, the future miner faces a difficult choice between one or another video adapter, which must be purchased for a homemade farm.

We wrote more about choosing the optimal GPU adapter model here; be sure to read the material before making a purchasing decision. Here we have selected the best options, taking into account the cost-benefit ratio. For ease of perception, we present the information in the form of a table.

Table of performance of video cards in mining using different algorithms:

The models shown in the table pay for themselves much faster than their analogues and, judging by the reviews of experts, are the best choice for mining in 2020. For example, GTX 1070/1060 and RX 480/470 will pay for themselves in 5-6 months. Also, do not forget that mining cryptocurrency is becoming more and more difficult every day, but its value is constantly growing, which allows you to maintain the necessary balance, attracting new people to mining.

The most popular solutions for cryptocurrency mining are those from the red camp - AMD. This is due to the design features of video cards, which is why users primarily buy solutions such as Radeon RX 470 and higher. However, today the gap in mining power for video adapters from Nvidia is not colossal, so popular models such as the GTX 1060 and higher are selling like hot cakes.

By the way, there is a conspiracy theory about increased interest in cryptocurrency on the part of video card manufacturers, since Nvidia is preparing specialized video cards for mining called P104-100 and P106-100. These solutions differ from classic video adapters in that they do not have video outputs, are equipped with poor cooling and have a limited warranty. That is why it is still more cost-effective for an ordinary user to purchase a top-end solution in the form of the same GTX 1070, because it can always be sold to a gamer, thereby partially recouping its initial cost.

Calculation of the payback of video cards

GPU: Payback: Without electricity/energy:

As you may have noticed from the table above, the most profitable for mining at the moment are the Nvidia Geforce GTX 1060 3gb and Radeon RX 470 4gb video cards. It is worth noting that this is only true at the moment and on the currently most profitable Equihash algorithm; what will happen next, what algorithms will appear in the future and how these video cards will behave on them is not known.

If you are interested in mining profitability right now, then you can choose the Geforce GTX 1060 if you are a fan of Nvidia or the Radeon RX 470 if you prefer AMD GPUs. To calculate the profitability of mining, cryptocurrency mining calculators for GPUs are used (the data in them can vary greatly even within one day, since the exchange rate can change dramatically).

Overclocking video cards to increase hashrate during mining

Increasing the performance of GPU cards for mining is an integral part of setting up a farm. Overclocking can be done using special programs running from the operating system; for this we recommend MSI Afterburner. Also, overclocking a video card can be achieved by flashing the BIOS.

We talk in detail about all overclocking options here; there are also video instructions for AMD and Nvidia cards (their overclocking principles are slightly different).

Useful recommendations for choosing a video card for mining virtual currency

To mine cryptocurrency, regardless of its type, a similar algorithm is used, so the recommendations for selecting a video card that is suitable for mining will be the same. Which video card is best for mining? The recommendations below will help you avoid mistakes when purchasing equipment:

1. The amount of video memory is very important. As already mentioned, competition among miners is growing rapidly, and each of them is trying to earn more. That is why the point of self-sufficiency of equipment is so important. The mining process requires constant energy costs, which is why the income from the card must fully cover the costs. The video card memory should be as large as possible, but in order to count on any profit, the equipment must have a minimum memory of 2 GB.
2. Card speed. DDR4 is the best RAM available today. Today, manufacturers are working on creating DDR5 RAM, which will be an improved version of its predecessor. It will be 2 times faster than its predecessor, and its efficiency will be higher and will go on sale very soon.
3. Bus width matters. When mining virtual currency, the memory bus width or bit depth is extremely important. This criterion shows how much data a video card can process per unit of time. If the bit depth is 128, this may lead to a decrease in the speed of virtual money, and in some cases it is completely impossible. For mining, it is better to give preference to video cards with a bus width of at least 256.
4. The cooling quality of the card needs to be analyzed. Many miners often choose Radeon video cards for work because their active cooling system has a high-quality and competent design. Mining is a long process that will go on around the clock until someone interrupts it. It is for this reason that complete cooling is so important when mining, which is very important for long-term operation of the video card.
5. Overclocking capabilities must be taken into account. When overclocking a video card, its power increases by approximately 20-40%. But all this, as a rule, entails a decrease in earnings and additional adjustments. This advice has both positive and potential negative sides, so this recommendation cannot be called a key one.

You should not count on a quick payback on equipment for professional mining.