Ethereum has been exploding lately, with the rise in price driving AMD cards in the market near extinct. Just a couple months ago RX 400 & RX500 cards could be found in the low $200 range, but with the large demand drying up the marketplace you will be lucky to find anything in the mid $300s.
These graphics card prices along with the POS (proff of stake) proposals always looming is enough to turn many rookie miners away.
But fear not, there is an alternative!
There are two limiting factors to Ethereum mining.
- The DAG file rendering cards with 2GB of Vram unusable (DAG continues growing, soon 3GB will not be enough).
- The current shortage of AMD graphics cards.
Alternative #1: Zcash (ZEC)
Zcash is a Nvidia holy grail when it comes to mining. The Equihash algorithm has proven to be a powerful combination with Nvidia cards. It is one of the very few algorithms where Nvidia cards actually outshine their AMD competition. Hashing ranges of 300H/s on a GTX1060 all the way up to 750H/s on GTX1080ti. In comparison a RX480 hashes around 300 H/s
Alternative #2: Zencash (ZEN)
Just like its older brother Zcash (ZCL [zclassic] is a fork of ZEC and ZEN is a fork of ZCL), Zencash runs on the Equihash algorithm which I mentioned above. This means Nvidia cards will perform excellent.
If you plan on mining and are being discouraged due to the rise in ETH difficulty along with the shortage of AMD cards, be sure to give the coins mentioned above a try, they will not disapoint!