As a follow-up to my previous post, I managed to grab another 3090, but this time opted for quite the upgrade with an EVGA RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra Gaming.

Now, I wanted to use all three of my cards to mine with, the PNY 3090, EVGA 3090, and an EVGA 1660. The overall build was a failure, to say the least, but I wanted to share why I have given up mining after several frustrations with using powered GPU riser cables and issues with my second PC comprised of used parts. While I still mine with my single EVGA 3090, I sold the rest of my cards (not scalped) but still made a decent profit as I purchased the PNY 3090 at MSRP when it was much lower than it is now.

New Part List

• EVGA GeForce RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra Gaming
• Seasonic PX1300 Platinum Power Supply
• TUF Gaming X570-Pro (Wi-Fi 6)
• AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
• NZXT Kraken X63 AIO 280mm
• 3 DeepCool RF120 RGB Fans
• 3 Noctua 140mm NF-A14 iPPC-3000 PWM, Heavy Duty Cooling Fans (3000 RPM)
• Noctua 80mm NF-A8 PWM Premium Quiet Fan (2200 RPM)
• DeepCool 80mm Fan mounted on an old Intel stock CPU heatsink (mounted on GPU)
• DeepCool THETA 20 PWM 100mm CPU cooler (mounted on GPU)
• 32GB Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro DDR4-3600
• Samsung 970 EVO SSD 1TB – M.2 NVMe
• WD Blue 1TB HDD
• Phanteks Evolv ATX Case
• (Main Monitor) Gigabyte G32QC 32″ 165Hz 1440P Curved
• (Secondary Monitor) Acer 31.5” 1080p 60hz
• (Third Monitor) TCL 4k 55″ TV

Once I got the powered GPU riser cables, I could only successfully get my PC to boot with one 3090 and 1660, which I mined with for some time. My original plan was to use my other PC comprised of spare parts to hold the PNY 3090 and the EVGA 1660, but I ran into several issues leading me to drop the side project.

Now, I must say, the PNY 3090 was a fantastic miner, giving me 122 MH/s at around 82* Celsius (VRAM); I did not even have to turn up the GPU fans that much. My new EVGA 3090 FTW3 mines at the same MH/s, but the temps average around 86* Celsius, with fans at 85%.

In the end, I paid $1600 for my PNY 3090, mined around $1500 in Bitcoin with it, then sold it for its current MSRP, $2000. I purchased the EVGA 3090 at around $1800, but it should pay itself off relatively soon. I got the GTX 1660 for free after upgrading my father’s PC and sold it for $300.

Why I Gave Up

So, why did I end up not continuing to pursue using all three cards to mine with? Well, several reasons. During the build, my ROI (return of investment) kept increasing as the used parts in my second PC kept failing (they were quite old). I had to purchase a larger 1300w power supply, and the heat generated from my PC was quite prevalent. Also, the headaches I endured while attempting to run 3 GPUs off my single main PC was not worth the time, and I decided that mining 24/7 with my main rig was not recommended. To top it all off, EIP-3554 will be coming soon, rendering mining Ethereum not profitable.

Since this mining project started as just a college assignment for my blog, I decided my mining days were over, at least when attempting to increase my monthly income dramatically using three GPUs. I will now only mine with my single EVGA 3090, only until it becomes not profitable anymore.

Overall, I learned quite a bit about this industry, and have been able to pay off several home improvements with my Bitcoin.