GPU Mining: MSI GTX 1080 TI Review (ETH/ETC + SIA, ZEN/ZEC, BTX)
I finally found the time to share with you the benchmark results of my MSI GTX 1080 TI Gaming X.
Quality
So, compared to the Inno3D GTX 1080 TI ichill x3 I had bought before the MSI (and sent back the same day for the following reasons) it is of better quality in every aspect:
- Although mostly plastic, the card feels nice and sturdy. The Inno3D looked cool but its plastic mantle was very thin.
- The ichill x3 had three fans, they ran at 99% pretty soon, but the card still reached 79° C and above pretty soon when mining. The MSI however has only two but larger fans and offers a great fan management reachings slightly above 70° C with much quieter fans running from 50 - 80%.
Power Usage
Without any tweaking the card uses a wopping 250 W when dual mining or mining ZEC and similar coins.
Reducing the power limit can bring a nice decrease of 50 - 110 W.
Benchmarks
- ETH only:
Stock: 31,5 MH/s | using MSI Afterburner: 35,5 MH/s - ETH + SIA:
Stock: 30,9 MH/s ETH, 740 MH/s SIA | using MSI Afterburner: 34,0 MH/s, 990 MH/s SIA - ZEN/ZEC/KMD
Stock: 710 Sol/s | using MSI Afterburner: 755 Sol/s - BTX
Stock: 21,5 MH/s | using MSI Afterburner: 22,8 MH/s
I would mostly recommend to give up about 3 - 7% of the hasrate for a reduction of 15 - 40% of power consumption unless you don't have to pay for electricity at all or can get it very cheap.
I built a mini-mining-rig for my desktop computer.
Here it is, the TI in action. In front you can see the Gainward GTX 1070 - pretty fantastic built quality, although a little slower than the Palit. There is a fourth 1070 running inside my desktop case: A ZOTAC GTX 1070. More about these in my next post.
Conclusion
If you are able to access cheap electricity and don't shy away from spending quite a few bucks for one card, the 1080 TI offers great versatility.
Obviously its main strength lies in the algorithms used by the zk-SNARK coins (ZCash, ZENCash, Komodo...), but if you feel the need to switch to Ethereum you can do so and still dual-mine with some great results.
Other algorithms such as timetravel and timetravel10 (BTX) also score pretty high with NVIDIA cards and especially the GTX 1080 TI.
Still, the GTX 1070s produce less heat, less noise and use 60 - 100W less power while beeing a lot cheaper.
Especially when your goal is to mainly mine any Ethereum and similar coins, you should stick to these or maybe the 1060s. Or - if you are lucky enogh to somehow get one, AMDs RX480s, 470s, 570s and 580s.
Next coming up: A direct comparison of
- Gainward GTX 1070
- Palit GTX 1070
- ZOTAC GTX 1070
Previous related posts:
- My AMD R9 Nano and RX470 built
- Overview of NVIDIA cards
This is a 100% power up post!
Let me know about your mining experiences.
Please comment and share.
Follow me @xwerk. I'm a bad bat! /|\ ^._.^ /|\
UPDATE: I managed to get 35.5 MH/s + 940 MH/s ETH+SIA with my 1080TI
Hey, I'm trying to get into mining and I'd like some advice! Would you mind helping me out at all?
Hi raptorman, I just saw your message, I was on vacation.
Let me know if there is anything you want to know about mining. I am no expert but will try my best to help you out.
Interesting, glad you posted this, my friend just got a gtx 1080 TI a couple of weeks ago and I was wondering what his mining rate would be... I like your build, I'm interested in how you connected a mini mining rig to your desktop, I'd like to see that ! Seems like it would save on parts for building a first mining rig maybe
I just built that "rig" out of wood, there are three PCIe risers coming out of my open desktop case. An additional card is inside the case, I only had 3 risers left ;)
Nice work...Gonna have to work on something like this myself ;D What with all the AMD's way overpriced / out of stock, I might just wait for them to produce/distribute these gpus for mining !
Yeah, also their new Vega card should be coming out soon, this might drop overall prices for GPUs. Although, if the shortage continues this may not change much. GL and report back when you built something.
The NVIDIA mining-only gpus don't seem to be too great, so indeed interesting see zo what AMD comes up with.
I heard that It can make us earn above 5000$ per month.
One GTX 1080 TI? Wanna share how?
good post ;) keep going !!!
Did you know that crypto mining has caused NVIDIA and AMG stock to rise, and ASUS is now producing mining chips
I hear if you set the TDP to around 150 you can get the optimal power usage vs mining speeds with around 600 on ZEC
Yep, that's right. With the MSI, it's even a little above at 610 - 620 Sol/s.
Nice and I imagine those heat levels drop nicely as well
I probably won't be able to post my full 1070 review.. so here is a little spoiler.
Of the ZOTAC, GAINWARD and PALIT cards I tested, the PALIT is by far the best. I easily get 460 Sol/s even when power limit is reduced to ~80. They are really well built (pretty similar to the GAINWARD) and stay around 60 - 65°. Just in case you consider buying a 1070 I definitly would recommend it. ;)