Numbers show upcoming RTX 3050 isn't worth it for mining

Daniel Sims

Daniel Sims

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Why it matters: When Nvidia unveiled the desktop RTX 3050 at CES at the beginning of this month, some probably assumed crypto miners would snap up most of them just like they have other new GPUs. However, recent hash-rate analyses suggest the budget card isn’t for mining blockchain.

According to VideoCardz's Chinese sources, the RTX 3050 comes with Nvidia's Lite Hash Rate algorithm, which drops its hash rate from 20 megahashes per second to 12.5 MH/s, consuming only 75 watts. Twitter user @wxnod posted similar results in a separate analysis, showing 13.66 MH/s at 57w. Those numbers are well below reported hash rates of similar cards like the GTX 1060 or Radeon RX 570.

VideoCardz calculates that it could take 500 days for a 3050 to break even at its $250 MSRP. Most GPUs sell for almost double the price these days so that break-even date could increase to over two years.

Recently, AMD intentionally shipped its latest entry-level GPU--the RX 6500 XT--with only 4GB of RAM to discourage miners, but reviews haven't been kind to it for mining or gaming. If reports of the 3050's low hash rate prove true after its January 27 launch, or if the algorithm isn't cracked, it could become the entry-level card of choice for 1080p gaming with ray tracing and DLSS. The lower-end model of Intel's Arc Alchemist series might be a competitor with its own RT and DLSS analog.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/93088-numbers-show-rtx-3050-isnt-worth-mining.html

 
Also in the news is another huge loss for crypto and eth. Big enough that it might not recover in under a week which means the 3050 might survive the initial launch at least IF AND ONLY IF Nvidia comes out of the gate with sufficient initial stock.
 
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It doesn't matter, atm Miners are sitting upon the profits of many months of mining, so it doesn't really matter if it's efficient for mining or not, Miners will still buy these cards and set them to mine regardless just b/c they can as they have the cash to spare.
 
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Achaios said:
It doesn't matter, atm Miners are sitting upon the profits of many months of mining, so it doesn't really matter if it's efficient for mining or not, Miners will still buy these cards and set them to mine regardless just b/c they can as they have the cash to spare.
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Nop, they will not buy them. They`re expansive for what they can do, so, ROI is extremely shitty. Moreover, they`re late. ETH is with one foot in the grave right now and when it finally crashes beyond profitability, miners will actually start selling their gear not buying. This card is another quick cash grab for nVidia, an overpriced piece of sh!t and if the crypto market trend will not miraculously change, they will be selling them for under 80 bucks and give you a bonus blowj0b.
 
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Problem is those few cards not good for mining now get hammered by pent up gaming demand so they're just as hard to get probably

kudos to nvidia for including decent ram for once as amd has all along meanwhile techspot says nothing covering for 3k nvidia cards with 8gb ram not enough out of the box for 4k rt, and runs articles actively obfuscating that nvidia cards do not have enough ran out of the box for the last decade or so.
 
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The miner that buy from me the RX570 8GB, told me that moding the card will make it run
from 24MH to 32MH@120W. He was quite happy to pay 400 Euro for the card.
If this card is a LHR around 14MH and if the gaming perf is like 2060 and the price is good can make some gamers real happy.
But I'm afraid the price will be at least double the MSRP.
 
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What is not worth today can be worth tomorrow. if crypto was not so highly priced it wont be worth even for better GPUs but same as the crypto desperate owners hope for the price, do miners as well. ask someone who started mining on rx570 5 years ago
 
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Well crypto had another crash yesterday so here's hoping distributors and retailers get caught hawking overpriced low end garbage when the higher end cards drop in price. It might teach them something but I doubt it.
 
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These numbers look odd - how do we get to 13.66 MH/s @ 57W from the 33.54 @ 110W the lhr v2 3060 gets (Minerstat) ?

Did nVidia improve LHR for the 3050Ti or are these numbers just pre launch PR ? If it‘s the former, that would be good.
 
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Irata said:
These numbers look odd - how do we get to 13.66 MH/s @ 57W from the 33.54 @ 110W the lhr v2 3060 gets (Minerstat) ?

Did nVidia improve LHR for the 3050Ti or are these numbers just pre launch PR ? If it‘s the former, that would be good.
Click to expand...

Wait until the miners soak up all the cards from scalpers and we'll get real usage numbers. ;-)
 
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The specs on this thing already stomp the 6500xt. literally no clue what amd was thinking with that "gpu." Perhaps I can consider THIS GPU for my 5600g rig/a "budget" alder lake build.
 
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Even if miners don't join the party, just the scalping by the respective AIB partners and retail outlet is enough to result in hyper inflated prices. Take the disastrous RX 6500 XT as an example, where the MSRP is USD 199. In my country, the cheapest price I saw the RX 6500 XT is around USD 265. The most expensive ones from the likes of Asus (TUF series) is coming up to 350 USD before taxes. That is almost closing in on 2x MSRP for a very bad card and a mid range model. Since they already know that demand for any Nvidia card is going to be high, you can be sure the RTX 3050 will likely cost 2x MSRP easily. At launch day, they may sell you a few at a price lower than their expectations, but will surely bump it up. The fact that most of the cards are LHR and yet still very expensive shows that the prices have been artificially inflated to fuel manufacturers' record profits.
 
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The 3050 will find a nice warm home in some sub-$1000 prebuilt that some overworked, underpaid parent needs as a "my first computer" for their Minecraft/ Roblox/ Sims playing pre-teen.
 
I found the answer. Make the companies use hundreds of layers of bubble wrap so for us gamers that buy the card it takes hours and miners that buy thousands of cards it would equal weeks to unwrap ;-) They can hire others but it will cost miners more money.
 
Once again acting like mining is the source of the shortage. Why is the subtext always so ignorant of the current climate? A semiconductor shortage and scalpers are the cause, not miners.

Cards that are useless for mining are hard to come by. PS5 has been hard to get for a year, I suppose that's cause of mining too?

As long as there's a semiconductor shortage and shops let people use bots to buy the stock before anyone else can, there will be slim pickings.

Maybe if people stopped paying the scalper prices and over inflated partner card prices things wouldn't be as bad. I'd be surprised if miners were even 10% of the problem. Hell miners are probably buying from the scalpers too.

Even car manufacturing is suffering from the semiconductor shortage.
 
If the reasonably-priced versions of the horrible RX 6500 XT (I don't know why it has an XT) sold out in a day despite prices being too high, so will these.

AMD should have named it the "RX 6500" and then made an "XT" model with PCI-Express v3.0 x8. The way they have it now makes the "XT" meaningless.

I may hate nVidia but at least they know that you should always start with a base model number and add to it later. You never see a Ti version of anything without a base model to precede it.
 
AMDGeForceRX3090 said:
An impact, sure.
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A serious and majority impact.
AMDGeForceRX3090 said:
But articles like this always put it as the primary cause
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That's because it is. With the current collapse of cryptocoin values, the prices of GPU's have already started to drop. Prices for used cards especially are falling. If the cryptocoin market was not responsible for GPU prices and shortages, the prices would remain, but they're not.
AMDGeForceRX3090 said:
But articles like this always put it as the primary cause, which it's easy to see that it isn't.
Click to expand...
That's an opinion, one that flies in the face of current known information.
 
ZedRM said:
A serious and majority impact.

That's because it is. With the current collapse of cryptocoin values, the prices of GPU's have already started to drop. Prices for used cards especially are falling. If the cryptocoin market was not responsible for GPU prices and shortages, the prices would remain, but they're not.

That's an opinion, one that flies in the face of current known information.
Click to expand...
4GB cards are useless for ether mining and they all sell out too. A PS5 can't be used for mining and that sells out. What does that tell you?
 
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