Graphics cards are basically located inside your computer as a mini computer. Graphics cards have their own supporting hardware, including their own graphics processor, power supply, RAM and cooler. You can see the graphics processor as the GPU among the technical specifications of the computer. Just as the processors, the CPU, are the brains of the computer, the GPU is the brain of the graphics card. When it comes to graphics cards, two major manufacturer brands come to mind. Apart from NVIDIA and AMD brands, which are the largest manufacturers, Intel can actually be counted as the third largest manufacturer. Although they are in this ranking because they integrate graphics cards into their processors, they still cannot compete with NVIDIA and AMD in this regard.
Graphics cards are basically used to reflect the images on your computer to the screen in the best way, to give the best image with fast transitions. We want it to perform at its best and not slow down our work when playing games or doing high-performance tasks like video editing. However, graphics cards have been used in a different way in recent years. With the spread of cryptocurrencies, some users want to use their computers to mine cryptocurrencies. This process requires a powerful graphics card. Here are some interesting facts about graphics cards and cryptocurrencies:
How Graphics Cards Help Cryptocurrency Mining
After the rise of Bitcoin, which has been the subject of news in recent years, crypto mining is among the most talked about topics all over the world. Although it experienced a sharp decline in the following years, it continues to maintain its place on the agenda.
Mining is among the topics that everyone is most curious about when it comes to crypto money. In parallel with this, the interest in graphics cards is also increasing. Because the graphics card is one of the most needed hardware in cryptocurrency mining.
Cryptocurrency mining was initially done using processors and other central processing units. However, the limited processing speed and high power consumption were very inefficient. There was no point in using the processor, as there was too much difference between the power spent and the return of the issued cryptocurrency. However, graphics cards, which offer multiple advantages over the processor, take cryptocurrency mining to a different point. Even a standard graphics card can process an average of 800 times faster than the processor.
The mining process involves similar types of repetitive calculations. In each attempt of these calculations, the device constantly enters different codes by changing only one digit and tries to decode the crypto money transfers. Graphics cards are produced by equipping them with a large number of Arithmetic Logic Units responsible for performing mathematical operations. Thanks to these, it becomes able to perform more calculations at the same time. This makes it work more efficiently in the cryptocurrency mining process.
What is the Difference Between Processor and Graphics Cards?
Every standard computer has a processor that acts as the manager of the entire system. This processor is responsible for the operation of all programs and software installed on the computer, starting from the operating system. Even if you are using Office programs, games or simply watching a video on your computer, the processor controls the whole process.
The video card, on the other hand, is only responsible for the display functions. Its main function is to perform the creation of visual effects and 3D graphics and to control this process. In this way, processors do not have to deal with the small details of video processing processes. Graphics-intensive tasks such as video editing, game viewing, and decoding and generating code of 3D animations are all handled by the graphics cards. So, to make an analogy, if we call the unit that manages an entire organization as a processor, graphics cards become the department that deals with a special unit of this organization. According to this definition, when you want to watch a video, we can say that the processor opens the video playback program, and after the program is opened, it leaves the task to the video card to display the images properly.
How Cryptocurrency Mining Works?
The system, which started with Bitcoin and is commonly referred to as cryptocurrency mining, is called the way the coin is created. This process also validates and protects transactions on the blockchain. Simply put, computers compete with each other to solve an arbitrary but difficult puzzle. The computer that first solves the puzzle, that is, the password, by trial and error method, is successful and gets a certain share of this success. Then this process starts again. The issue of how long it will take is said to be until the cryptocurrency being mined is finished.
What Kind of Graphics Card Should You Have for Cryptocurrency Mining?
Choosing the best graphics card for cryptocurrency mining does not mean buying the most expensive graphics card on the market. For this, it is necessary to consider some issues when choosing a graphics card. Efficiency is the most important factor of any graphics card for cryptocurrency mining. In other words, it needs to have the highest hash rate by consuming as little electricity as possible.
As it is said for cryptocurrency mining, you do not need to make a very high investment. It is enough that the hash rate of the video card you buy covers the crypto money and electricity bill you will sell. Most of the time, the cost of the video card is also taken into account. However, since you have the chance to sell the video card as second hand later, it is not so decisive to take this into account.
For example, the NVIDIA GeForce 3060 Ti, an incredible graphics card for gaming, is also excellent for mining cryptocurrencies. It cannot be said that this graphics card has the highest hash rate, but it can give you a good start with its affordable price and smooth operation. The 60 MH/s hash rate stands out as it is higher than many video cards on the market. But the most important feature of cryptocurrency mining is that it can control the heat output and does not get hot right away. This keeps energy consumption lower. So you can enjoy high efficiency.
If you want to invest in cryptocurrency mining and earn higher profits from this business, you can choose NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 graphics cards. GeForce RTX 3090, the graphics card with the highest mining performance, draws attention with its hash rate of 121 MH / s. It is one of the most powerful graphics cards ever produced in the market. With the GeForce RTX 3090, you can earn serious income even when you mine cryptocurrencies for a month. However, it is recommended to buy this graphics card especially if you want to do this job. Because even for gamers, a very high level video card and games do not need such a good one.
There are not only NVIDIA graphics cards for cryptocurrency mining. You can easily use AMD branded graphics cards for this. The AMD Radeon RX 6600 graphics card offers an impressive hash rate for its market price. With the hash rate of 28 MH/s, you can still earn profits because the energy consumption is less from the mining operations you do.
There are many graphics cards on the market. Many of them also have a high hash rate. This makes them all attractive when it comes to cryptocurrency mining. As long as the graphics card you are considering to buy makes more money than it consumes to run your computer, you continue to earn. When you leave it running continuously for a few months, you save a certain amount of crypto money. Until then, when the energy cost occurs, you can pay out of your pocket. However, when you sell your cryptocurrency, you have the chance to subtract all the costs. It should be noted that the cryptocurrency market is a financial market, albeit decentralized. It’s important to keep track of the crypto you’re mining as prices are constantly going up and down. Because when you sell the amount of crypto accumulated in your account at the right time, we can increase your income.
