Best GPU for mining and gaming in 2020

There has been a lot of discussion about what GPU is the best for mining in 2020. We will answer this question once and for all in this post where we will explain why the answer to this question is not as straight forward as one might think.

Whether you are experienced miner already owning a few rigs or a beginner looking for tips on what GPU to buy or maybe a gamer deciding on what GPU to buy to be able to have a decent gaming experience while still being able to mine when not gaming, we will try to answer all of your questions below.

We will split the categories into 2 categories:

• Best GPU for Gaming and Mining
• Best GPU for mining only

It is worth to note, that the results might vary in your country. We used prices of GPUs from Germany stores, with TAX included.

TL;DR

• RX 580 8GB for gaming and mining on a low budget (under 200€).
• RX 5700 XT 8GB or RTX 2060 Super for gaming on a medium budget (under 500€).
• Radeon VII or RTX 2080 Ti for a high budget (above 500€).
• RX 570 8GB, Radeon VII or RTX 2060 Super, for mining only. It depends entirely on your electricity costs!

Best GPU for Gaming and Mining

We will split this category into three subcategories:

• Low budget (under 200€)
• Medium budget (under 500€)
• High budget (above 500€)

Low budget

Mining

AMD RX 580 8GB remains one of the best low budget mining and gaming GPUs. Its price varies from 180€ to 200€. While it earns moderate 0.50€ per day and mines mostly Ethereum. It uses around 120W when mining Ethereum. The only potential competition could be RX 570 4GB, but the card will not be able to mine Ethereum in late 2020, making it ineffective for mining. There is pretty much no competition to RX 580 8GB in under 200€ when it comes to mining.

Gaming

While GTX 1650 Super does perform a bit better when gaming, there is no noticeable difference between the two. Proving again, that RX 580 8GB is the best mining & gaming GPU for 2020 under 200€.  It can easily run at 1440p with 60FPS for less demanding games like Overwatch. 

Sapphire RX 580 8GB (source: www.sapphiretech.com)

Conclusion

🏆RX 580 8GB🏆 is the absolute winner in the low budget category. It can provide a satisfying gaming experience even for all games that are on the current market while still stays profitable.

Medium budget

While there is pretty much no competition in the low-budget category, there are 2 very good GPUs up to each other in the medium-budget category. The team red is represented by RX 5700 XT 8GB and team green is represented by RTX 2060 Super.

We used the NiceHash comparison calculator to compare the mining performance of both cards.

Mining

When it comes to mining, RX 5700 XT 8GB earns about 0.75€ per day in March 2020, while RTX 2060 Super earns about 0.55€ per day. That is approximately a 30% difference in daily returns. 

It is worth to note, that RTX 2060 Super mines 5 different algorithms(GrinCuckarooD29, GrinCuckatoo31, DaggerHashimoto, X16Rv2, and BeamV2) but RX 5700 XT 8GB only mines 1 algorithm (DaggerHashimoto). Which makes RTX 2060 Super more stable and secure.

Both cards use approximately the same power. Between 125W to 150W when mining.

Gaming

It is well known that the NVIDIA card is a goto GPU when it comes to mining. Historically, the NVIDIAs GPUs outperformed AMD. This is not the case it this comparison. RX 5700 XT 8GB outperforms RTX 2060 Super by up to 20% in some games.

Both cards will work great on 1080p/120fps and 1440p/60fps when gaming, even on high settings. 

RX 5700 XT 8GB Founders Edition (source: www.pcgamer.com)

Conclusion

The final decision is up to you. While the 🏆RX 5700 XT 8GB🏆 might look like an obvious choice, since the profits are higher and it performs better than RTX 2060 Super, you want to have GPU that is flexible when it comes to mining different algorithms. Remember, RX 5700 XT 8GB will most likely mine just DaggerHashimoto(Ethereum) while 🏆RTX 2060 Super🏆 can mine different algorithms and be profitable at it.

High budget

In this category, we will focus on RTX 2080 Ti and Radeon VII. Both cards are flagships in both team green and team red. One has better performance when mining and the other one has better performance when gaming.

We used the NiceHash comparison calculator to compare the mining performance of both cards.

Mining

When it comes to mining, surprisingly, Radeon VII is the winner. With around 1.05€ daily profit against RTX 2080 Ti with only 0.75€ per day. The reason for this is high hashrate on the DaggerHashimoto algorithm(Ethereum). Both cards use about the same power, around 220W, depending on the algorithm and overclocks.

Very similar to the medium-budget category, Radeon VII is better performing on one algorithm, while RTX 2080 Ti is able to mine multiple algorithms, making it less prone to changes. 

Gaming

RTX 2080 Ti is the absolute winner when it comes to gaming. It can achieve 20% to 30% more FPS in certain games. Especially when gaming on 4K or 1440p resolution. Radeon VII is still more than decent gaming GPU, which will run pretty much every game on ultra settings and 120FPS or more on 1080p. It slightly falls behind with some games on 1440p and 4K resolution. 

AMD Radeon VII (source: www.pcworld.com)

Conclusion

If you are in favor of gaming and don’t mind spending a couple of hundred € (or $) more for the basically best gaming GPU on the market then 🏆RTX 2080 Ti🏆 is the right pick for you.
If you do not mind a bit lower FPS than RTX 2080 Ti, but still decent (not low at all), then the 🏆Radeon VII🏆 is the right way to go.

Best GPU for mining

When it comes to building a dedicated mining GPU rig and choosing the GPUs, there are no needs for a GPU to have high frame rates when gaming, since the GPU will not be used for gaming. 

The best GPU for mining would be the one that reaches ROI (return of investment) first. Of course, this does not only depend on the daily income that the GPU generates. There are 3 main factors that come in the play when choosing the GPU for mining:

• Initial cost
• Power usage
• Performance (daily return) 

The best GPU for mining for you depends on your electricity costs.

Check the tables below for the differences in ROI based on electricity costs.

Example of GPU earnings and ROI for the price of 0.02€ per kWh.

	Price in €	power Usage in kW/h	Daily Income	30-day el. costs	30-day Income	30-day Profit	ROI in Months
2080 Ti	1200	0,22	0,7	3,16	21	17,83	67
2080 Super	750	0,22	0,57	3,16	17,1	13,93	54
2070 Super	520	0,17	0,5	2,44	15	12,55	41
2060 Super	400	0,125	0,48	1,8	14,4	12,60	32
2080	500	0,17	0,56	2,44	16,8	14,35	35
2070	420	0,14	0,44	2,02	13,2	11,18	38
2060	350	0,115	0,39	1,66	11,7	10,04	35
1660 Super	240	0,1	0,34	1,44	10,2	8,76	27
1660 Ti	350	0,09	0,36	1,30	10,8	9,50	37
Radeon VII	550	0,22	1,16	3,17	34,8	31,63	17
RX 5700 XT	430	0,15	0,63	2,16	18,6	16,74	26
RX 5700	330	0,15	0,62	2,16	18,6	16,44	20
RX 5600 XT 6GB	300	0,1	0,43	1,44	12,9	11,46	26
RX 5500 XT 8GB	200	0,07	0,3	1,01	9	7,99	25
RX 580 8GB	180	0,13	0,36	1,887	10,8	8,93	20
RX 570 8GB	140	0,13	0,35	1,87	10,5	5,63	16

Example of GPU earnings and ROI for the price of 0.075€ per kWh.

	Price in €	power Usage in kW/h	Daily Income	30 day el. costs	30 day Income	30 day Profit	ROI in Months
2080 Ti	1200	0,22	0,7	11,88	21	9,12	132
2080 Super	750	0,22	0,57	11,88	17,1	5,22	144
2070 Super	520	0,17	0,5	9,18	15	5,82	89
2060 Super	400	0,125	0,48	6,75	14,4	7,65	52
2080	500	0,17	0,56	9,18	16,8	7,62	66
2070	420	0,14	0,44	7,56	13,2	5,64	74
2060	350	0,115	0,39	6,21	11,7	5,49	64
1660 Super	240	0,1	0,34	5,4	10,2	4,80	50
1660 Ti	350	0,09	0,36	4,86	10,8	5,94	59
Radeon VII	550	0,22	1,16	11,88	34,8	22,92	24
RX 5700 XT	430	0,15	0,63	8,1	18,6	10,80	40
RX 5700	330	0,15	0,62	8,1	18,6	10,50	31
RX 5600 XT 6GB	300	0,1	0,43	5,4	12,9	7,50	40
RX 5500 XT 8GB	200	0,07	0,3	3,78	9	5,22	38
RX 580 8GB	180	0,13	0,36	7,02	10,8	3,78	48
RX 570 8GB	140	0,13	0,35	7,02	10,5	3,48	40

Example of GPU earnings and ROI for the price of 0.10€ per kWh.

	Price in €	power Usage in kW/h	Daily Income	30 day el. costs	30 day Income	30 day Profit	ROI in Months
2080 Ti	1200	0,22	0,7	15,84	21	5,16	233
2080 Super	750	0,22	0,57	15,84	17,1	1,26	595
2070 Super	520	0,17	0,5	12,24	15	2,76	188
2060 Super	400	0,125	0,48	9	14,4	5,40	74
2080	500	0,17	0,56	12,24	16,8	4,56	110
2070	420	0,14	0,44	10,08	13,2	3,12	135
2060	350	0,115	0,39	8,28	11,7	3,42	102
1660 Super	240	0,1	0,34	7,2	10,2	3,00	80
1660 Ti	350	0,09	0,36	6,48	10,8	4,32	81
Radeon VII	550	0,22	1,16	15,84	34,8	18,96	29
RX 5700 XT	430	0,15	0,63	10,8	18,6	8,10	53
RX 5700	330	0,15	0,62	10,8	18,6	7,80	42
RX 5600 XT 6GB	300	0,1	0,43	7,2	12,9	5,70	53
RX 5500 XT 8GB	200	0,07	0,3	5,04	9	3,96	51
RX 580 8GB	180	0,13	0,36	9,36	10,8	1,44	125
RX 570 8GB	140	0,13	0,35	9,36	10,5	1,14	123

As you can see, RX 570 8GB remains the one with the fastest ROI if your electricity is below 0.03€, once the electricity price is above 0.03€, the fastest ROI GPU is Radeon VII.

Keep in mind, that both of these GPUs mine DaggerHashimoto(Ethereum) only. With current ASICs like A10 and E3 from Innosilicon and Bitmain failing off of the blockchain, the profits will most likely rise in the future. But there is only a matter of time until there are new ASICs developed. The community keeps putting pressure on the devs of Ethereum to implement ProgPow. ProgPow is a new PoW algorithm that should keep the ASICs of the Ethereum blockchain. 

With this in mind, a 2060 Super would be a possible option too. NVIDIA cards tend to be more versatile when it comes to mining different algorithms and coins. 

NVIDIA RTX 2060 Super (source: www.pcmag.com)

Conclusion

If your electricity is free or below 0.03€ per kWh, then🏆 RX 570 8GB🏆 will reach ROI the fastest.  If your electricity is above 0.03€, which is probably more likely, then the winner is 🏆Radeon VII🏆. If you are in favor of NVIDIA GPUs, then 🏆2060 Super🏆 is the best pick for you.