Ethereum Asic Miner's impact on GPU

cryptominer007cryptominer007 Member Posts: 4
Hi All,
I have been reading quite recently about Ethereum ASIC miners due to be released soon. If it happens, does it kill all GPU based ethereum mining? Or both will survive?
Appreciate any thoughts.

Thanks!

Comments

  • Ericjh801Ericjh801 Utah, USAMember Posts: 371 ✭✭✭
    It really depends on the specs of it, if it does exist. There's been speculation for months that BITMAIN has created an Eth machine (not technically an ASIC). We will see what they release and how many. There are plenty of other coins you could mine with your video cards too though profits will not be what they are for ETH. We will see....
  • cidmocidmo Member Posts: 446 ✭✭✭
    edited March 2018
    from the specs they released this wont be bought by anyone other than very large farms
    its like buying a titan V for mining, a positive ROI period would take an extended amount of time
    compared to even the high prices of GPU atm
    but as with erics statement
    normally if u hear an announcement for asic they have already been mining for months
    and the increase in network hash rate does not completely correlate with asic
    the increased net hash seems more from all the new miners right after the spike
    and then continued to get worse because eth held its price better than most coins throughout the dip
    so personally i dont think they exist yet
  • Ericjh801Ericjh801 Utah, USAMember Posts: 371 ✭✭✭
    The video out there right now shows 1500 MHS (1.5GHS) and assumes 800-1300W. That's insane compared to GPU"s if it's real. That equals roughly 48 GPU'S. Should be interesting.
  • cidmocidmo Member Posts: 446 ✭✭✭
    yea i didnt see that video, could u link it?
    the specs i saw was basically an FPGA with access to around 70GB of DDR3
    with really only about 2x the performance of a 1070ti per watt
    if these specs have changed i would be even more suspect that its a FUD announcement
  • Ericjh801Ericjh801 Utah, USAMember Posts: 371 ✭✭✭


    That will show the original on his talk.
  • cidmocidmo Member Posts: 446 ✭✭✭
    ahh yea the 800 watts is just his speculation
    not actual specs that makes sense
    yea by all means anyone can program a FPGA to perform better than a GPU
    but to get 1.5Gh would require many memory bus'
    which would put this well over $10k
    and after the xmr asic i doubt anyone will be itching to drop money to bitmain
  • cryptominer007cryptominer007 Member Posts: 4
    The Btimain ETHEREUM ASICS are out now..

    https://shop.bitmain.com/product/detail?pid=00020180403174908564M8dMJKtz06B7&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=e3-announcement

    That's from the official bitmain site. 800W and 180 MHS @ 800 USD seems to be a clear shot winner. Unless Vitalik Buterin does something, this is a thing to worry.. isn't it?

  • Ericjh801Ericjh801 Utah, USAMember Posts: 371 ✭✭✭
    Clear shot winner isn't the words i'd use. It's nothing super special. $800 USD + $200 USD Shipping + $100 PS so $1100 in. It equals about 6 RX 580 cards. if RX 580's were at normal retail it would be $1374 for the cards and they have resale value. Yes it is better, but it's also 3.5 MONTHS OUT before you get it. Lot can happen in 3 months. And yes they might try to hard fork around it, but depending on how it's setup, it might be able to have a firmware update that fixes it. I don't see it as a huge threat. If it was 1.5GHS for 800$ and 800W then hell yeah that's crazy.
  • JukeboxJukebox Member Posts: 640 ✭✭✭
    Hashrate/power ratio is the same as on GPUs. That's all you need to know.

    Price is no big matter.
    E3 posted so cheap (800$) just because it almost impossible to resale, and do not forget about hardfork.
  • Ericjh801Ericjh801 Utah, USAMember Posts: 371 ✭✭✭
    Depending on how it's designed, it might be firmware updatable to manage a hard fork and continue to mine just like a normal GPU. No one really knows and won't know until end of July when they ship. Who wants to wait 3.5 months for this crap? Oh well, will see how it ends up.
  • JukeboxJukebox Member Posts: 640 ✭✭✭
    Ericjh801 said:

    Depending on how it's designed, it might be firmware updatable to manage a hard fork and continue to mine just like a normal GPU. No one really knows and won't know until end of July when they ship. Who wants to wait 3.5 months for this crap? Oh well, will see how it ends up.

    If so - it need to be not an ASIC but something FPGA based. But I can say for sure it's not FPGA - there's no efficient FPGA for that price.
  • Ericjh801Ericjh801 Utah, USAMember Posts: 371 ✭✭✭
    True FPGA would be way more than that. who knows what's inside the box though. No one will know for 3 1/2 more months.
  • rb3rgrb3rg Member Posts: 4
    edited April 2018
    Ericjh801 said:

    Clear shot winner isn't the words i'd use. It's nothing super special. $800 USD + $200 USD Shipping + $100 PS so $1100 in. It equals about 6 RX 580 cards. if RX 580's were at normal retail it would be $1374 for the cards and they have resale value. Yes it is better, but it's also 3.5 MONTHS OUT before you get it. Lot can happen in 3 months. And yes they might try to hard fork around it, but depending on how it's setup, it might be able to have a firmware update that fixes it. I don't see it as a huge threat. If it was 1.5GHS for 800$ and 800W then hell yeah that's crazy.

    $ 1374 for 6 x RX580 ??
    1374/6 = $ 229 / card.
    Where can you find it ?
    Realistic,
    6 x RX580 + MB + PSU + RAM + CPU + cables.... ~ $ 2300 at least, not taking the job to put all together, frame, headache etc. while ASIC is plug & play.
    So 180MH for $ 800+100 yeah no way GPU can beat unless a hard fork comes out.
    Shipping is not $200. You overpriced the ASIC stuff and under-priced the GPU
  • Ericjh801Ericjh801 Utah, USAMember Posts: 371 ✭✭✭
    Your right 1374 isn't going to work for a GPU miner. You can find used RX 580/480 for 250ish right now. That puts you at 1500.00 for video cards, plus misc, so around $2k you could be in at 180MHS. Bitmain just released another batch of E3's at $1800. Why bother on those at all thougH? Can build GPU rig for close enough. $800 was probably an alright deal, but waiting 3.5 months for it? Why? Yeah hard pass either way from me.
  • cryptominer007cryptominer007 Member Posts: 4
    Price is definitely cheap with ASIC miner compared to GPU. No way $800 comparable to $3000(6 GPU cost at current price) especially when we are getting the same hashes for ASICs as GPUs. That's why I thought it's a clear shot winner. But we have few more months to wait and see how it performs. But as long as the GPU based ETH mining lives on, am happy.. :)

    On a side note, I think bitmain is also worried that if ETH is hard forked, their machines may become obsolete; that's one of the reasons they are marketing that those ASICs are absolutely NON-REFUNDABLE.
  • Ericjh801Ericjh801 Utah, USAMember Posts: 371 ✭✭✭
    Exactly the same thing just happened with their X3 which they've removed from their website. Monero forked and they are now paperweights before people even get them though there are other coins they can mine with them. 6 GPU rigs are no longer 3000 to make, can easily make a used 6x 480/580 RX rig for around $2000 now. Prices are falling, people are getting scared and dumping cards all over the place. I even found a RX 480 for $200 locally. The new $1800 E3 isn't worth it though, at 800 it was okay but 1800 it isn't.
  • techtottechtot Member Posts: 339 ✭✭✭
    The problem is , if Bitmain can sell them for $800, then they are making them for even cheaper, meaning they have been and will be mining at price per MH advantage over the rest of us.
  • Ericjh801Ericjh801 Utah, USAMember Posts: 371 ✭✭✭
    Yes they have. There's nothing we can do about it though. People are going to buy them if there is money to be made. Bitmain might make 10000 of them and mine with them for months before selling them, how do we stop that? You don't.
  • techtottechtot Member Posts: 339 ✭✭✭
    Yeah, if the price of eth goes up, it is worth it to keep mining at difficulty levels close to what we have now, but soon as diff rises too much or price goes down, it's time to start mining Vertcoin, and other true ASIC resistant coins. It looks like the dev's aren't going to change the algo..unfortunately.
  • Ericjh801Ericjh801 Utah, USAMember Posts: 371 ✭✭✭
    The sad thing right now is that bitmain is probably already mining with them so when they do come out, i'm not sure the dif will change that much. Depends on how many they make. Eth has a huge hashrate already, so not sure it will make that much of a dent. If they have 10,000 units, that's the equiv of 60,000 video cards which sounds like a lot but still really isn't compared to how many are made/released/etc.

    Will see how it goes. I'd pickup one if they are cheap enough at the time, but i'm not preordering for a late july delivery.
  • CaliciteCalicite Member Posts: 44
    edited April 2018
    techtot said:

    It looks like the dev's aren't going to change the algo..unfortunately.

    There is still active discussion about it. We can try fight for it.
    If you care let dev's know your ideas and suggestion.
    Maybe CarbonVote can help?

    https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/8bkkv1/asic_resistant_hard_fork_discussion_overview/

  • Ericjh801Ericjh801 Utah, USAMember Posts: 371 ✭✭✭
    I thought the main guy for ETH said he didn't want to fork. Who knows. Will see how it goes down.
  • rmhrmh Member Posts: 410 ✭✭✭
    Ericjh801 said:

    I thought the main guy for ETH said he didn't want to fork. Who knows. Will see how it goes down.

    Vitalik does not want to fork because of caution and because the dismantling of mining is a clear goal of ethereum from the beginning and luckily the progress is advanced at now.
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