AMD Ryzen Threadripper pays for itself in one year with Monero mining

At the moment, there's a rush on video cards as cryptocurrency miners want to get as many cards as possible. Despite the significant price pressure in the crypto markets, it seems there are still a lot of folks who have high hopes for the future value of crypto coins.

Could there soon also be a rush on processors? HardOCP tested the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X processor and discovered that it's pretty good at mining Monero using the CryptoNight algorithm. At current parameters, a miner can earn back the $999 price of this Threadripper chip in under one year.

Of course, the profitability of CPU-based mining is not as high as GPU mining. The logistics are more complex too. While you can mount multiple video cards in a single mining rig, a single consumer motherboard accepts just one Threadripper processor. And it's not like those X399 motherboards are cheap, a single board will cost you at least $320, and then you also need additional hardware too. WCCF Tech has some interesting background info over here.

In fact, when it comes to mining on Ryzen Threadripper, AMD has actually acknowledged it and provided more insight at how Threadripper is so efficient at mining. According to AMD’s technical marketing manager, Damien Triolet, the reason that Threadripper does so well is not because it is faster than GPUs in mining, it’s due to architecture suited algorithms and by that, he is referring to CryptoNight.

In a response to PCGamesN, AMD technical marketing guy Damien Triolet revealed that Threadripper is so good at mining because it has a lot of cache memory:

“With 32MB on Threadripper we can run 15 threads very fast, and for CryptoNight that could allow Threadripper to get almost the same ballpark as RX Vega. Vega can go higher, but then you have to tweak memory and stuff like that. But, if you’re not tweaking Vega, Threadripper can be within the same ballpark, and it will be much faster than a 1080 Ti for example in CryptoNight.”