The most efficient GPU right now! Spoiler alert: RTX 3070 Ti Laptop (+ our TOP 3)
Which graphics card is the most efficient for mining, in other words the one that gives the best hashrate per watt consumed? In this video (in French), we answer the question with the benchmarks from the hashrate.no website, present the card that comes out on top, the RTX 3070 Ti Laptop, with its strengths and limits, and then give our top 3 most efficient GPUs.
Video from early April 2023: the figures below date from that time. See "What about today?" at the end of the article.
Efficiency depends on the coin you mine
There is no single answer: a card's efficiency varies a lot from one algorithm to another. An AMD RX 6800, for example, is nothing special on Kaspa, but it is very strong on Ravencoin or Radiant and merely decent on Flux. On Ergo it runs at around 120 MH/s for 114 W, whereas an RTX 3070 gets close to 170 MH/s for similar power draw. So always compare cards on the coin you want to mine.
The tool: hashrate.no benchmarks
To compare cards, we use the hashrate.no website, which has added a number of new features:
- The GPU profitability table, where you enter your electricity price (we entered $0.13 per kWh, roughly EDF's Tempo rate in France). Unsurprisingly, the most profitable cards are NVIDIA's RTX 4000 series; the RTX 4070 Ti turns out to be very efficient and to draw less power than had been announced;
- The ASIC and FPGA sections: not much on the ASIC side, but a few FPGAs, specialised computing cards that can also mine and perform very well on Kaspa;
- The Coins page: for each coin, the network statistics (hashrate, difficulty, block reward) and how they have evolved;
- The Benchmark section of each coin, the most useful one here: it ranks cards by raw hashrate and by efficiency, like the Excel spreadsheet we shared in an earlier video.
The ranking by algorithm
Leaving FPGAs aside, here are the most efficient cards. The "Laptop" models use chips designed for laptops, mounted on standard graphics cards; we had tested the RTX 3070M (or Laptop), which was very efficient for mining Ethereum at the time.
- Kaspa: RTX 3070 Ti Laptop, then RTX 3060 Laptop, RTX 4070 Ti and RTX 3070, often described as the most efficient card of the 3000 series;
- Ergo: the RTX 3070 Ti Laptop well ahead of the pack, then the RTX 3060 Laptop and the RTX 4070 Ti;
- Flux: the RTX 3070 Ti Laptop far in the lead, ahead of the RTX 3060 Laptop and the RTX 4070 Ti, with a few AMD RX cards ranking well;
- Ravencoin: once again the RTX 3070 Ti Laptop, then the RTX 3060 Laptop; many AMD RX cards do well;
- Nexa: the RTX 3070 Ti Laptop leads, closely followed by the RTX 4070 Ti;
- Dynex: an algorithm that relies heavily on memory. The Laptop models stay in the top 5, but the RTX 4000 series dominates, probably thanks to faster memory.
The RTX 3070 Ti Laptop in detail
This model is not new, but it was hard to find. It has 8 GB of Samsung GDDR6 memory, unlike the desktop RTX 3070 Ti, which uses GDDR6X, a type of memory that tends to run hot and draw more power. Its performance as listed on hashrate.no:
- Kaspa: 520 MH/s for 50 W, far less power than an RTX 3070;
- Ergo: 137 MH/s for just 65 W, slightly less than an RTX 3070 (about 170 MH/s) but with much lower power draw;
- Ravencoin: 30 MH/s for 97 W.
It is a fairly basic card with two fans, but it does the job: since it draws little power, it does not run hot and does not need sophisticated cooling.
Strengths
- A price of about €400 including VAT at the time of filming;
- The best efficiency on the GPU market and a very good balance between price, hashrate and efficiency;
- Samsung memory, and a card that stays cool.
Weaknesses
- Resale: these are unbranded cards, harder to sell on to gamers. They really are mining cards, to keep for a long time or to resell to other miners;
- Drivers: the RTX 3070M required specific NVIDIA driver versions (460, 470), not the latest ones. So we avoid mixing these cards with more recent ones in the same rig. This remains to be checked on the new model;
- Warranty: only three months, not two years. These cards are not bought from wholesalers in France: they are assembled in China.
That said, we have had no problems to report with our RTX 3070M cards, which have been running for quite a while.
Our top 3 most efficient GPUs
- RTX 3070 Ti Laptop (also called RTX 3070 Ti M): the card that looks like the most efficient of the moment, at around €400;
- RTX 4070 Ti: a latest-generation card with good efficiency, but more expensive, at around €900 to €1,000, a little more than double the price;
- RTX 3070M (Laptop), already presented in an earlier video.
Our advice: go to hashrate.no, open the Coins section, look up the coin you want to mine and check which graphics cards are the most efficient for it.
What about today?
Kaspa ASICs (IceRiver, then Bitmain's KS series) arrived in 2023 and made Kaspa mining with graphics cards marginal. More broadly, since Ethereum moved to proof of stake in September 2022, GPU mining earns very little, and the figures in this video are out of date. The criterion it highlights, efficiency (the hashrate you get per watt consumed), is still the most important one when choosing a mining machine.
To go further, read our RTX 3070M review. To mine Kaspa today, browse our Kaspa miners and estimate their profitability with our Kaspa profitability calculator, or contact us for advice before you buy.