Using a graphics card to get bitcoin? Why not use Blender to create game, CG, etc?

General Forums Blender and CG Discussions
#1

Hi, Blender Artists. Sorry if I’m wrong in the category in this forum. I want to ask about bitcoin, Most people use graphics card (or GPU) and Blender (or 3d other software) to make Game, Movies, animation, etc.
I also use Blender, to make Game for PC and android.:D:D
I’m also having a project that I’m working on, creating a 3d map app for android. The app is aimed so that people will not get lost in the building we call “Pasar” in Indonesia:yes:, almost the same as the market, I use blender and unity3d.

I have no problem with the existence of bitcoin, litecoin, etc. I am also happy if the cost of server and cloud using bitcoin. Lately many people are doing Ethereum / Bitcoin Mining, get coin with a lot of transaction processing on the computer. I have no problem with that. But the problem is they use the graphics card as a transaction processor. They are not using it for blender, Render farm, medical computer. Even they changed the PCI Express x16 to be smaller (x1 / x2 I do not know). They do not use the graphics card feature completely. The result is stock runs out in the computer market for some graphics cards.

They need a graphics card to speed up the performance of processing transactions. That’s okay, no problem. I just do not understand, why use a graphics card for processing.

If most people can get a coin that way, okay no problem.

My friend and I used a graphics card with Blender to create games, animated movies, CG,
Is it possible I have less income from people using graphics card to get bitcoin?

Sorry question unrelated to blender
Thank you

#2

Graphic cards are used for creating digital coins (bitcoin) and block chains (ethereum, which is not a coin but can be exchanged for).
They use graphic cards because their parallel calculation force is much larger then a CPU.
And as they have a lot to calculate they do it in parallel.

I dont think your income is lower because you create a game that depends on graphics cards.
On average these coins and blockchains are not housed inside gamer pc’s
And on a larger scale this only drives up the race for creating faster GPU’s.
Though if you want to get the latest graphic cards then keep a good eye on your local shop.
Because the guys who run miners easily buy 50 or more graphic cards at once, and you might have more difficulty to get good ones.
On the other side the average gamer neither has the best graphic cards, so instead of fancy build your games efficient code wise :wink:

#3

The entire reason people are doing this is that they expect profit from it. GPUs nowadays are general purpose processors, they don’t have that much graphics-specific stuff on them. If you are using Cycles to render, you also are not using the graphics features “completely”. It doesn’t really matter.

This whole sell-out won’t last for two reasons:

  1. The more people do the mining, the less profit there is for every one
  2. The cryptocurrencies are booming now, but there will be a crash eventually, which makes mining less profitable (or even unprofitable)

Eventually, only those players with the lowest power cost will be able to stay profitable.

How long the sellout lasts mostly depends on price development of the cryptocurrencies. If a sudden crash lowers the price drastically, you might find a lot of surplus GPUs on ebay…

Is it possible I have less income from people using graphics card to get bitcoin?

I don’t see how that would have a significant impact on your income.

#4

The only way to profit from bitcoin mining is by having a dedicated machine for it running 24/7. These machines have certain graphics cards that work faster with the mining algorithm. Not only that but you need to make sure that your electricity costs running the machine is less than the bitcoins it brings in.

You are better off buying and trading in bitcoin rather than mining it yourself. Most people who mine seriously have a farm of some kind and live in a place where electricity is cheap. Mining bitcoin as a hobby probably isn’t worth the trouble to be honest, you’ll probably barely make a profit.

#5

@RealityFox

Nobody is mining Bitcoin with GPUs anymore, specialized devices have been made for them, which are vastly more efficient than GPUs.

The current craze is about Ethereum, which is about “smart contracts”. Somehow, certain investors seem to believe that trusting programmers with writing contracts as code is the way of the future, even though bugs in the contracts can cause millions of (the equivalent of) dollars to be irrecoverably lost.

If mining for Ethereum wasn’t highly profitable at the moment, people wouldn’t be buying up all those GPUs. How long it stays profitable is unknown.

full disclosure: I hold a position of DOGECOINS, the only truly future-proof cryptocurrency.
https://www.okchanger.com/cryptocurrency/preview-file/1712

#6

Radeon R9 295X2
The Radeon R9 295X2 has by far the highest hash rate (46.0 MH/s) of the Ethereum GPUs on the market and will cost you $600. It has a power cost per day of about $1.44, a return per day of about $1.61 and a cost per MH/s of $13.04. This gives a return per year of $586.43.

Thanks, Radeon r9 295x2 is the fastest graphics card before nvidia pascal exists, according to the bitcoinworldwide.com website, the graphics card give $ 586.43 per year, if the miners want to make a profit, they have to buy it a lot, that means they must have enough money.

Different from my friend, my friend get profit from youtube
$ 100- $ 200 per month, so I think it’s more efficient to work than a bitcoin miner that needs a lot of money,

#7

That information is extremely outdated (and thus useless) and your conclusion is wrong. I’m assuming you didn’t really read (or understand) what I wrote.

According to this site, the AMD card that is now sold out everywhere (RX 480) gives a profit of $4.66/day at a power cost of $0.43/day (at $0.12 per kWh) at a current Ethereum price of $327. It used to sell new for $199 but now is worth $400 used on eBay. The R9 295x2 yields $7.94/day at a cost of $1.44/day.

This is extremely profitable, however the more people that get into the mining, the less profit there will be for everyone, so that profit won’t last. Ethereum price also fluctuates heavily. You can barely predict profit for a month, much less a year. If you have one of these GPUs, it might be more profitable to sell it right now.

Different from my friend, my friend get profit from youtube $ 100- $ 200 per month, so I think it’s more efficient to work than a bitcoin miner that needs a lot of money,

That’s not really comparable at all. If you don’t have the money, of course building a mining rig is out of the question. Now that all those cards are sold out, it’s a bit late anyway. However, if you bought in early your mining farm probably would’ve already paid for itself and you could eventually sell the GPUs or use them for rendering.

#8

Wow, that’s cool, if I can mine ether with rx 580, I can work part-time without disturbing my main job but I’m not lucky, I only get one rx 580 nitro, but I am gratefully got it, I can not use it for mining , Because i also use it for my work but okay i will try it,

thank you

#9

There is even a Bitcoin out there that uses the blockchain network to create a super computer.
One of its tasks will be rendering… and yes they mean Blender rendering.