AMD destroys Nvidia at Bitcoin mining, can the gap ever be bridged?

[hokies83]

Source http://www.extremetech.com/computing/153467-amd-destroys-nvidia-bitcoin-mining

If you typically follow GPU performance as it related to gaming but have become curious about Bitcoin mining, you’ve probably noticed and been surprised by the fact that AMD GPUs are the uncontested performance leaders in the market. This is in stark contrast to the PC graphics business, where AMD’s HD 7000 series has been playing a defensive game against Nvidia’s GK104 / GeForce 600 family of products. In Bitcoin mining, the situation is almost completely reversed — the Radeon 7970 is capable of 550MHash/second, while the GTX 680 is roughly 1/5 as fast.

 

[Keysplayr]

I guess if it hasn't by now, it never will. I think NV is focusing in other areas. Cancer research, resource exploration, aerospace, etc. Crunching bitcoins prolly not high on da list. But you never know. I highly doubt they will even try to bridge any gap there.

 

[homebrew2ny]

Just curious, but would not the only metric to matter be power consumption per bitcoin?

 

[Elfear]

I didn't realize the Titan had outstripped the 680 so much with mining.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Probably not because Nvidia isn't after that market.

 

[alcoholbob]

I didn't realize the Titan had outstripped the 680 so much with mining.

That's because the 680's compute performance was heavily stripped down; the 580 is much closer to the Titan.

 

[Eureka]

Honestly I think bitcoins has been the strangest fad to have happened in recent times. Burning tons of energy to mine encrypted currency for black and gray market transactions with no inherent value.

The algorithm itself is interesting, however.

 

[bluesquare07]

LMAO this guy got so mad that his tri fire 7970s suck. So he posted this

 

[cmdrdredd]

LMAO this guy got so mad that his tri fire 7970s suck. So he posted this

Wow...what? The guy you're referring to is actually running SLI GTX 680s.

You sound like you're from Gamefaqs/gamespot half the time, they post stuff like this all the time in their forums.

 

[Keysplayr]

LMAO this guy got so mad that his tri fire 7970s suck. So he posted this

Ok, dude, this is lamer than anything you've accused AMD fanboys of doing. Knock it off already.

 

[sandorski]

Honestly I think bitcoins has been the strangest fad to have happened in recent times. Burning tons of energy to mine encrypted currency for black and gray market transactions with no inherent value.

The algorithm itself is interesting, however.

It's a fad I wished I got into 2 years ago

 

[hokies83]

I have Both 680s and 7950s.

 

[Dankk]

LMAO this guy got so mad that his tri fire 7970s suck. So he posted this

Good lord man. Did you join AnandTech for no purpose other than slinging mud?

It's a fad I wished I got into 2 years ago

Ditto. I seem to remember the "Bitcoin Gold Rush" being in spring 2011. Not so much now.

 

[hyrule4927]

It is also worth noting that once Folding Core 17 is out of beta, AMD will likely also have the performance advantage in Folding@Home.

 

[philipma1957]

I have 7000 in free computer gear, all due to bit coins. Amd should buy bit coins and drive the price up so that people buy their gear to mine. How much has amd spent giving away games when all they need do is keep the bit coin price high enough to justify purchase of an amd gpu.

My 149 list sapphire hd7790 cost me 111 after rebates promos and selling the game that came with it. I put it in my bit coin farm on april 2. I have earned 49 bucks on it in about 16 days. So a 149 dollar card is now around 62 bucks. I do not know how long this will last but unless you are a hard core gamer with money to burn Nvidia is 2x the price of amd.

My hd7990 cost me 899 plus 63 tax on nov 28. I sold the games with it. So it was about 870. It has earned over 600 so cost is 270.

How much is a gtx 690? 999. I do not game at a high enough level, but how many people given a choice would pay 999 for a gtx690 vs 270 for a hd7990? BTW coins are back up to 110 usd

 

[cmdrdredd]

I have 7000 in free computer gear. all due to bit coins. amd should buy bit coins and drive the price up so that people buy their gear to mine. How much has amd spent giving away games when all they need do is keep the bit coin price high enough to justify purchase of a amd gpu.

My 149 list sapphire hd7790 cost me 111 after rebates promoes and selling the game that came with it. I put it in my bit coin farm on april 2. I have earned 49 bucks on it in about 16 days. I do not know how long this will last but unless you are a hard core gamer with money to burn Nvidia is 2x the price of amd.

My hd7990 cost me 899 plus 63 tax on nov 28. I sold the games with it. So it was about 870. It has earned over 600 so cost is 270.

how much is a gtx 690? 999. I do not game at a high enough level, but how many people given a choice would pay 999 for a gtx690 vs 270 for a hd7990? BTW coins are back up to 110 usd

uh....i'm lost

 

[Chiropteran]

It's a fad I wished I got into 2 years ago

The nature of it is that people will be saying this every year until bitcoin either reaches saturation or dies out completely. That is, mining gets exponentially more difficult over time constantly.

 

[N4g4rok]

It's a fad I wished I got into 2 years ago

I've not dug into it at all, but on the surface it sounds too good to be true. How do bitcoins have any actual financial leverage?

 

[Dankk]

I've not dug into it at all, but on the surface it sounds too good to be true. How do bitcoins have any actual financial leverage?

This page has some extremely good information. https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/FAQ#Where_does_the_value_of_Bitcoin_stem_from.3F_What_backs_up_Bitcoin.3F

 

[Eureka]

uh....i'm lost

He's super-miner. One of the few who actually makes a decent amount from mining.

 

[Soulkeeper]

I read something about the radeon SPs supporting the bit shift operations in a single clock cycle (tons of these in sha256), where the nvidia SPs take 2 or 3.
Even if fully optimized the nvidia hardware just isn't as efficient for this task.
Maybe someone else knows for sure, I havn't really looked into it too much.

 

[cmdrdredd]

He's super-miner. One of the few who actually makes a decent amount from mining.

It sounded like an attempt at trolling, talking about AMD spending money giving away games.
The broken english, and the total BS sounding post. I guess when I read it, it just came off as being funny.

 

[Xarick]

I read something about the radeon SPs supporting the bit shift operations in a single clock cycle (tons of these in sha256), where the nvidia SPs take 2 or 3.
Even if fully optimized the nvidia hardware just isn't as efficient for this task.
Maybe someone else knows for sure, I havn't really looked into it too much.

Actually the problem is that for their purposes Nvidia made their hardware more efficient. Which is why it can do 2 or 3 passes per vs AMD which needs 1 per 1. Thus AMD is more efficient at mining due to less efficient hardware. Weird eh.

 

[parvadomus]

AMD's architecture is just much better for this kind of application, thats all.

 

[blastingcap]

Bitcoin mining on GPUs is coming to a close very quickly, so this article came out way too late to be relevant. If you don't have at least an FPGA and preferably an ASIC, you won't be able to compete for much longer regardless of whether you use AMD or NV GPUs.