What is Vertcoin?
If you don't know about Vertcoin already, check out https://vertcoin.org/ for more info. It's basically an ASIC resistant fork of Bitcoin that has been around since 2014.
What type of cards to buy?
The algorithm used by Vertcoin is currently Verthash, which mostly uses the memory clock of your graphics card. You can mine with any card that has at least 2GB of ram. In the current climate of overpriced cards the best ones for Verthash are 3-4GB cards like the 1060 3GB, RX 470 4GB, p106-090 3GB.
Why these cards and not lots of 2GB cards? The 2Gb cards are generally efficient but get an extremely low hashrate. Instead of a normal 6 card rig you would want about 20 of these cards to make a rig that earns at a reasonable pace. Add in the cost of extra risers and cables and these cards become almost as expensive as the 3-4GB cards which give 3-5 times the hashrate. £100-150 per card is reasonable.
Personally I managed to find 6x p106-090 mining cards, being sold off cheap by what I assume was an old ETH farm for a total of £600. This gives a hashrate of around 2.2MH, drawing only 330w. This is a better hashrate than a single 3090.
How should I power the cards?
Instead of spending a lot of money on expensive ATX power supply units, I prefer to use a mini ITX 250w PSU (around £7) to power my motherboard and SATA, then a 750w HP server PSU (around £12) with a breakout board (around £10).
You can link the first PSU to the breakout board with the 4 pin fan connector, and by doing this both power supply units will turn on at the same time.
What motherboard to use?
Ideally you want a mining specific board with at least 6 PCIE slots, but if you are on a budget or want to simply lower ROI you can use much cheaper boards, along with a 4way PCIE splitter. These don't work on all motherboards but I've had good success with old boards like the Dell Optiplex 3100 MT (around £20), which has 4 PCIE slots.
I use the first three slots as normal, then use the last slot for the 4 way splitter with another three cards attached to that. This board won't take a 7th card though.
Should I overclock?
You should try increasing your memory clock, lowering the power limit and undervolting your core clock, to reach the most optimal hash/watts ratio.
Don't aim for the maximum amount of hashrate, aim for the most power efficient.
Which miner should I use?
If you are just mining casually on your gaming PC, the One Click Miner will be a good option. If you have a dedicated rig, or multiple cards then the command line based Verthash Miner is a much better option, and will give you far more control over things. Other miners that support the Verthash algorithm currently are SRBminer and SPminer. SRBminer is for AMD cards and I haven't tested it, but with SPminer I get a huge 20%~ increase in hashrate compared to VHM but at the cost of an extra 5w per card, and an extra 12w on my CPU. This works out okay for many cards but not so much for 1 or 2 cards. I also get 1-2% rejected shares in SPminer, 0% in VHM.
What pool should I use?
Since writing this article I built my own pool in July of 2021, it's been up around a year now, at the time of writing this, and I will obviously recommend you use my pool at acidpool.co.uk and have edited out the pools I previously recommended.
How much profit will I make?
At the time of writing this a rig with 6x p106-090 cards will make me around £65 a month profit, and cost me around £50 in electric. This is based on an extremely expensive UK electricity rate though of £0.19 per kWh. Rig cost around £750.
If you live in the USA, or better still India, your profits will be much higher.
Just to clarify that is around £115 a month total, £65 profit, £50 electric.
What wallet should I use?
I'd advise using the standard Vertcoin Core wallet from https://vertcoin.org/.
How can I monitor the wattage on older cards?
Some older cards, for example the 1050 Ti doesn't report the power consumption in most miners. You can use something like HWiNFO: https://www.hwinfo.com/.
To get an accurate reading of the total power draw, use a watt meter at the wall.
Conclusion
If you intend to mine VTC exclusively, don't go for overpriced 30xx cards. They will be wasted on Verthash and are much better suited to ETH. If you have these cards already or intend to buy them anyway, you could always mine the most profitable coin, then exchange for VTC somewhere like https://southxchange.com/.
The best bang for buck cards are the cheapest 3-4GB cards you can get your hands on, but be wary of cards that eat a lot of power such as the R9 290x. Cards with a larger bus width will also give a better hashrate on this algorithm in some cases.
If you can avoid buying expensive motherboards and other parts for your rig it's a great way to lower ROI and make the experience much more profitable and fun.
Update: 19/04/2021
After a price increase on VTC to over $2 from $0.70 profits on this rig are greatly improved. Though as more miners come aboard the difficulty is getter higher.
As things stand at the time of writing this we are much better off, but things may level out a bit soon, everything is very volatile right now. VTC completely took over RVN for profitability and is currently even more profitable than ETH on a lot of graphics cards. How long this will last is anyone's guess, fingers crossed!
If you liked this article, you know what to do.
Wow so much info! Nice posts man keep it up!