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The Fascinating World of GPU Mining: RX 580 vs. MSI 1660 TI

Welcome to another fascinating discussion on one of the most intriguing aspects of blockchain technology: mining on Graphics Processing Units (GPU). Specifically, we will focus on a comparative analysis featuring the RX 580 Sapphire Nitro and the MSI 1660 TI, two of the industry’s most acclaimed GPUs. This article will help hobbyist miners and those interested in starting their crypto mining journey to make informed decisions when acquiring mining equipment.

Understanding the GPUs: RX 580 Sapphire Nitro & MSI 1660 TI

The RX 580 Sapphire Nitro and the MSI 1660 TI are two major players in the GPU mining scene. Featuring impressive hash rates and low power consumption rates, these GPUs are staples for miners worldwide. This article will use an RX 580 and an MSI 1660 TI for benchmarking, power consumption analysis, and cost-effectiveness calculations to provide more insightful knowledge to miners. These cards were pulled from a mining rig built on a Revtech board for the tests.

RX 580 Sapphire Nitro

The Sapphire Nitro RX 580 is an 8 gig card running on micron memory. Although the precise version used for the tests is the Sapphire Pulse RX 580, the Nitro variant is incredibly similar and can deliver nearly identical performances. Among its numerous features, the RX 580 Sapphire Nitro comes with dual BIOS, making it user-friendly for miners.

MSI 1660 TI

On the other hand, the MSI 1660 TI is a 6-gig card also operating on micron memory. Similar to the RX 580, it’s suitable for mining and highly popular among miners. Despite its variance, including the Ventus and the Gaming X versions, its performance remains consistent. Even though it’s slightly older than the RX 580, it remains a formidable contender in the GPU mining landscape.

Evaluating Costs and Availability

As of September 21st, 2021, acquiring new GPUs is a considerable challenge due to the supply and demand imbalance. Therefore, purchasing secondhand cards becomes not only a reasonable option but a more sensible one. After searching extensively on Facebook Marketplace and eBay, the RX 580 was found to be cheaper than the MSI 1660 TI, both for new and pre-owned versions. However, prices may change based on availability and the retailer’s discretion.

Mining Performance: Ethereum, Ravencoin, and Ergo

After establishing the cost and availability of the GPUs, the next consideration in GPU mining is the mining performance. This was tested on three different coins: Ethereum, Ravencoin, and Ergo to provide a broad picture of each GPU’s capabilities.

For Ethereum mining, the MSI 1660 TI showed better performance than the RX 580, considering electricity costs and efficiency rates. Despite having a higher profit rate, the RX 580’s high power consumption made it slightly less profitable than the MSI 1660 TI.

For Ravencoin, the 1660 TI also proved to be the better option. Although both cards showed close results in profitability per day and break-even days, the 1660 TI had a slight edge due to its lower electricity cost, leading to a slightly higher profit rate.

However, the tables turned with Ergo mining. Despite the 1660 TI boasting a lower power consumption than the RX 580, the 580 proved to be the more profitable choice for Ergo mining.

Final Thoughts

The competitive analysis between the RX 580 and the MSI 1660 TI presents interesting insights for miners. The choice between these cards depends significantly on the preferred coin for mining, availability, and budget. Both cards showcase admirable performances, contributing to their status as staples in the mining industry.

For Ethereum and Ravencoin mining, the 1660 TI comes out on top, due to its higher efficiency and lower power consumption. On the other hand, for those inclined towards Ergo mining, the RX 580 has a slight edge despite its higher power consumption.

Therefore, when it comes to selecting between these two GPUs, the special considerations, individual mining preferences, and circumstances should guide your decision. Ultimately, both the RX 580 and the 1660 TI can make amazing contributions to your mining rig.

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About the Author: Mike Izzo

44 Comments

  1. Outstanding video. Well played. Having trouble running a mixed rig. Rx580 /1660. Seems whenever I pull an rx to replace with a 1660, I have problems seeing cards, trouble shoot and hours later end up having to reflash a fresh version of hiveos.
    1660 = 31.2mh@68w
    RX 580 = 38-29mh@ 90-100w

  2. MSRP only works when it is regulated with an iron fist by the manufacturers. There just isn't any manufacturers today who have scruples is the problem. I remember when companies used to proactively go after sellers who jacked the prices over MSRP but over the last decade it seems they went the other way and went after sellers who undersold (dumping). Current prices for cards is ludicrous and someone somewhere needs to come in with a sledgehammer as no single card should cost 1x-4x the price of an entire new computer as that shows MAJOR gouging.

  3. RX4xx/5xx 4GB cards are even better when it comes to break even on ERGO. They mine similar hashrates at the 8gb cards, have low power consumption, and can be had for $180-$200 on the used market. I've been stacking ERGO for months on them.

  4. I would recommend the RTX 1660 super by a company like Colorful, you can buy these new and not used on Newegg and in Return don’t just have a longer lifetime there the card will work accurately without you having to replace broken fans or to replace the Thermal pads or paste. Its not just the spare parts which cost money, but your time is worth a certain amount of money. Especially if you have plus 50 cards running you can simply not afford trying to save 2/400$ in the purchase price, bc in the time that you will use these used cards you won’t be doing nothing but repairing one card after the other. That does nit mean that you can have bad luck with a brand new ‘lemon’ card there you will have to replace the thermal pads & paste too. But that is mostly a problem with third party RTX 3080 TI and 3090. But if you watch enough youtube videos then you should know which cards you have to think twice before you buy them. At least unscrew them and inspect the placement of the thermal pads and paste bc especially on eBay you only have 30 days to demand at least a price reduction or even the complete return of such cards.

  5. The 1660 s/ti has much better gaming proformance a few more bigger alt algos.

    But being better on gaming proformance alone (not even metioning vr stuff, nvec and the much better decoder [8+k h265 vs 4k h265]) should make them worth considerably more on the far end of this peek when ever that is.

    Also the oc is a bit more straightforward on the 1660's

    I feel like the power play is stock up on 1660s/ti rn and then flip to rx when prices correct.

    Remebr pre 30series the rx cards where arround $100 where the 1660s was more like $300.

    Finally the 1660 not s/ti was always considerd not a great card.

  6. Since I got all my graphics cards for free (14 of them) it is just based off of electricity cost for me. Overall I find the Nvidia cards more robust than the Radeon cards. More algos to mine and to be honest they run cooler and seem to be better made. I do love my RX 5700 however, just have to be gentle, seem fragile. The 6Gb vs 8Gb is a plus for the Radeons over the 1660S and 1660Ti's I have but for now they run at less power.

  7. I have 4x 570 4gb and they were mining Ravencoin at 14.5mh/s, 6 days ago i rebooted the rig and now they only make 10mh/s. I reinstaled Hive os, updated the drivers, changed OC and cant get my 14mh/s back, any idea how to fix it?

  8. Both suck on Windows you can agressively reduce the watts an rx6600xt for example runs with 50 watt on daggerhashimoto phoenix miner with 30mh/s, I got an RX560D/XT down to 25 Watts and got like 15mh/s.

  9. I've been getting around 30Mh/s with my Pulse 580 on ETH and TRM but using very basic OC of CC 1130 CV 800 MC 2150 nothing else (I just started with Hive two days ago LOL) My card has Hynix Memory though. I tried your OC settings and it crashed pretty quick. For the MC on AMD am I supposed to using half for that setting like 1075? Also loved the video…Would like to see one on going through all these settings and what they do, and where to get the modded BIOS for cards.

  10. Nvidia and AMD really need to produce wayyy more cards if miners like you are buying this many of each card like this just for mining. (No offense, I see how mining might be a cool hobby, just impossible to get any cards..)

  11. I went a slightly different route and have been grabbing RX 480 8GB cards. Not only are they slightly cheaper, but you can reflash these into 580's. Not to mention I'm pulling on average 31 mh per card bios modded. Helps too that I've got about 40 solar panels at home so energy usage is also slightly offset.

  12. I'm about to build a second rig and I was debating what to use and I'm going with RX580. I'll add a new one once I pay off the last (got two right now.) Glad you did this incaase I wanted to mix in the 1660's with them.

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