How to Mine on GPUs Without Going Broke

Mining used to be a goldmine — until Ethereum dropped PoW, and the crypto crash wiped out profits. Now, many GPU miners are stuck with expensive rigs and shrinking returns. But is the game really over, or are there still ways to mine without burning cash?

To understand where mining stands today, we need to look at how it all started. GPUs quickly became the go-to choice for crypto mining because they handle massive parallel computations far better than regular CPUs. This advantage fueled the "cryptocurrency boom," when video cards vanished from store shelves overnight. Back then, mining was so profitable that a GPU rig could pay for itself in just a few months. Cryptocurrency mining was extremely profitable, so investments in the purchase of video accelerators paid off in 3 – 5 months.

One of the main currencies for mining at that time was Ethereum aka ether or ETH. But in the fall of 2022, ETH switched to a new PoS algorithm, so it became impossible to mine this coin. Along with this, there was a rapid drop in crypto token prices due to the collapse of the FTX exchange. These events reduced the profitability of mining in general. But how are things now? What coins can be mined on market-available GPUs, how profitable is it, is it realistic to make money on them at all? Today we consider how to mine crypto on video cards without losing money and going broke.

GPU Mining After Ethereum’s PoS Shift: Is It Still Worth It?

It’s no longer possible to mine ETH on GPUs, but many other altcoins can still be mined profitably on them. Thus, so-called GPU farms are still active. Many miners are counting on the future altcoin season and the bull market. They mine cryptocurrencies with the hope that their prices will eventually rise. And this strategy could be successful. For example, bitcoin has recently reached the price of 100 thousand dollars. And the price of ETH is also growing, pulling the prices of many popular altcoins along with it.

How Ethereum’s Shift to PoS Reshaped Cryptocurrency Mining Hash Rates

After ETH transitioned to PoS, miners reconfigured their equipment to mine similar coins that work on the same protocol that ether had before. DOGE, Litecoin, and ETH Classic are the most popular among them. After that, their total hash rate increased because of the much higher competition between miners. So, it's becoming more and more difficult for each of them to earn from mining.

The complexity of mining directly depends on what computing power is now serving the network. The more video cards are currently mining any given coin – the lower the probability that the user will be able to form a reward block. This indirectly affects the value of the listed tokens. In most cases, the more complex the mining – the more valuable the coin. Since this market is autonomous, the price of coins almost does not depend on outside factors.

Ether Classic (ETC) hash rate has grown the most. ETC is a fork of ETH, which retained the old protocol. So, this coin can be mined on GPUs. You should consider coins like DOGE, Litecoin, and ETH Classic as a stable and reliable source of passive income.

Top Cryptocurrencies You Can Mine with GPUs

GPUs are versatile in many ways and support more than 30 encryption algorithms that various blockchains run on. This means they can be adapted to mine a wide range of cryptocurrencies. But whether this will be profitable and whether the revenues will cover all the power costs is an open question.

The only requirement is that the blockchain of the token of interest should work using the PoW (Proof-of-Work) algorithm. In this case, new blocks and chains are formed by the calculations performed.

There are a lot of tokens that can be mined, more than 10 thousand. But most of them are so-called shitcoins. They are tokens that cannot be sold due to absence of demand and are not traded on major exchanges. Of course, some of them may be liquid in the future, but the chances of this are minimal.

You can consider mining memecoins, based on the ETH network. They often show growth of tens of thousands of percent. DOGE and PEPE are great examples of such successful coins. But many new memecoins have been launched since then. And it’s virtually impossible to predict which of them will grow. Memecoins mining turns out to be a kind of game of luck. You can spend years in vain, or you can hit the jackpot.

Most Profitable Coins to Mine with GPUs

There are special services that allow you to monitor in real-time what cryptocurrencies and on what equipment are most profitable to mine. But as for 2025, in terms of performance special mining devices aka ASICs significantly exceed the capabilities of video cards. ASICs are cheaper (considering computing power), take up less space, and have less power consumption.

Top discrete solutions from AMD are considered the best among GPUs used for mining. Although cards from Nvidia, especially 4090RTX and higher, are not inferior. You can use tensor kernels on such GPUs, which are adapted for neural calculations.

In 2025, tokens like KAS, ALPH, BTCZ, and ETC are the most profitable.

KAS (Kaspa)

KAS is a token based on the GhostDAG blockchain. The key feature of this network is the ability to form several blocks that can coexist in parallel. So, every miner can count on his reward even without connecting to the pool.

This token has been traded on the largest cryptocurrency exchanges for quite a long time. The main advantage of this blockchain is the fast speed of transaction confirmation. Its algorithm is borrowed from ETH but has no disadvantages of the latter.

ALPH (Alephium)

This project is known as a segmented blockchain with support for L1 solutions. This means that a whole separate ecosystem can be created based on a cell. In this case, the main algorithm will be used for transaction confirmation and blockchain assembly. ALPH is traded on major cryptocurrency exchanges.

An additional feature of ALPH is the low power consumption of the blockchain operations. ETH was widely criticized for high power consumption. The liquidity of ETH is now undoubted, but this trail of negativity behind them has strengthened.

BTCZ (BitcoinZ)

Although the name of BTCZ is similar to BTC, this is a completely different coin. Its key features:

• the network provides the possibility of constant token mining
• pre-markets and presales were not held
• the network is resistant to ASIC, i.e., it is adapted for GPU mining exclusively.

BTCZ works on the Zhash protocol. But the price spread of BTCZ on decentralized exchanges is significant, and the total volume of trading is small. Currently, this coin isn’t particularly popular among the community. But this may change in the future if the price of the token grows significantly. It's worth taking a closer look at BTCZ and making bets on its prospects.

ETC (Ethereum Classic)

ETC is the most profitable coin to mine right now. It is a fork of ETH, which did not switch to the PoS algorithm. So you can still mine ETC with video cards and ASICs. Most ETC miners have many years of successful mining experience.

ETC is traded on almost all major cryptocurrency exchanges. Its average capitalization is around 3 billion dollars. The price is gradually increasing, as the complexity of mining grows over time. So now there is a kind of deficit of ETC on the market. And many traders are actively buying this coin. Large investors are also interested in buying ETC. They largely influence the market value of the token. Many experts agree that ETC is the most reasonable to mine. While mining is possible, ETC can bring hefty profits.

Dual Mining with GPUs: Best Coin Combinations for Maximum Profit

It is impossible to predict how much a token will cost and whether it will be in demand in the future. This way, mining a single coin isn’t optimal. That’s why pools with dual mining appeared. In this case, computing power is evenly distributed, and the user simultaneously mines two tokens at once. This allows you to work faster, get rid of the need to install several high-performance video cards on your computer at once, and simplify the initial setup of the equipment. Some of the most popular token pairs for mining are:

• ERG+KAS
• ETC+ALPH
• ETC+KAS

Although the potential profitability in this case is reduced, the risk of losses while mining on video cards is significantly reduced. It turns out to be a simple scheme, a stable small income with minimal risks.

Such mining requires the top solutions, including flagship lines of graphics cards from AMD or Nvidia.

Low-performance GPUs are not an option, because many pools have a minimum required hash rate for the connected equipment. And this problem is getting worse over time. When buying new graphic cards, they remain relevant for mining cryptocurrency tokens for only a couple of years. After that, it is mandatory to update the farm. If this is not done, the miner will constantly be in losses. The only option to get income is to wait for the season of altcoins.

Mining on Old GPUs

The profitability of mining on outdated graphics cards is significantly lower because the complexity of computing in blockchains is constantly growing. This means that more electricity is required to solve the same amount of tasks. The number of tokens that the user receives as a reward decreases.

In top video cards, energy efficiency is much better. So, for every kilowatt*hour of electricity spent, the miner receives more profit.

Again, there are special online services that allow you to find out how much income different GPUs bring when working with different encryption algorithms. Currently, mining on GPUs of GeForce 1070 tier and above is profitable. And older GPUs bring virtually zero profits.

But even there you need to keep an eye on what brands of GPUs to buy. There are those models whose memory chips are not resistant to critical loads and fail due to overheating. Such problems were often found in Gigabyte GPUs.

As for video cards that are installed in gaming laptops, they are also very popular. You can mine with their help, it turns out to be profitable too. Some farms are built from the motherboards of such laptops. The prices of laptop GPUs turn out to be slightly lower than for discrete video adapters of the same tier. But the hash rate of laptop GPUs is still lower. Additionally, it should be considered that if the motherboard of a laptop fails, it is much more difficult to repair. A discrete GPU is easier to repair, as there are more spare components available for them on the consumer market.

GPU Mining for Bitcoin: Is It Still Profitable?

Video cards, previously used for ether mining, can also be used for BTC mining. But it isn’t profitable at all. The complexity of the BTC network is so high now that mining will be at least a little profitable only when using ASIC miners. ASICs have processors adapted to work only with the SHA-256 encryption algorithm. ASICs are not suitable for any other tasks.

The cost of electricity when using GPU to mine BTC will be ten times more than the potential income. In general, this option is not worth considering today. It will be possible to return to BTC mining on consumer-grade equipment only when the cost of one BTC is around 1 million dollars.

The comparison shows mining BTC is more profitable if performed on CPUs. But still, the profitability will turn out to be insufficient to cover all costs, including electricity bills. So the profitability of mining BTC without ASICs is virtually zero.

Comparative Table of Coins for GPU Mining

GPU mining is still alive, but picking the right hardware makes all the difference. With Kaspa (KAS), Alephium (ALPH), and Ergo (ERG) leading the way, miners are looking for the best balance between power and profit.

Here’s a breakdown of some of the most profitable GPUs, showing daily earnings, net profit, and estimated payback time.

Heads up: these numbers are just a snapshot. Always check real-time coin prices, mining difficulty, and electricity rates before jumping in.

GPU Mining: Boom or Bust?

GPU mining can be profitable. But not as much as it was when ETH used the PoW protocol. Is it worth starting GPU mining now? Experienced miners say that if you have compatible equipment at your disposal, you can do it. If there is no such equipment, it is much more promising to buy ASICs. But again, this requires access to cheap electricity. In this regard, the best option is to build solar power plants. In Europe, where the price of electricity is many times higher than in Russia and other former CIS countries, many people now do so.

What are the prospects for mining on video cards? It is still difficult to answer this question. Sooner or later the altcoin season should start. However, it is impossible to predict token prices.

FAQ

How to prevent GPU wear from mining?

You can protect the GPUs involved in active mining by:

• lowering the factory frequency of video memory and graphics processor to reduce their mean temperature to at least 85 Celsius degrees;
• performing regular maintenance of video cards, i.e., cleaning dust, lubricating coolers, changing the liquid thermal interface, and modernizing the standard cooling system if possible
• avoiding overclocking of the video card frequency, as the operating life of the GPU is significantly reduced in this case.

The most important thing is cooling. The lower the temperature of memory chips and graphics processors during mining, the longer the equipment will last.

The most extreme method to extend the life of a video adapter is to place it in an oil bath, replacing air cooling with liquid cooling. But this already requires certain technical skills from the miner. And it will be much more difficult to maintain such GPUs in the future.

How can I avoid losing money on GPU mining?

The most important thing is to have a source of cheap electricity and to mine tokens in pairs. This significantly reduces the likelihood of taking losses.

How to mine on a GPU?

The best option is to set up special farms in a separate room with racks where video adapters are placed. These GPUs can be connected via raisers to the computer, where the mining of blocks is carried out. Mining in pools is usually the best solution.

Along with this, you should buy top video cards. Look for suppliers with the lowest prices and pay attention to reviews of considered GPUs. Equipment needs to be reliable.

How can I reduce the load on my graphics card when mining?

There are special programs that allow you to limit hash rate or graphics card performance. However, it is important to consider whether mining will be profitable in the future, given that the GPU performance per each watt of electricity spent will gradually decrease.