GPU (Graphics Processing Unit)

A GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) is a processor designed for parallel computation — originally for rendering graphics, later adopted for general-purpose tasks including cryptocurrency mining.

Why GPUs are used for mining

Mining requires performing the same hash computation billions of times per second. GPUs excel at this because they contain thousands of small cores optimized for parallel workloads — unlike CPUs, which have fewer but more powerful cores suited to sequential tasks.

GPU vs. ASIC

Property	GPU	ASIC
Flexibility	High — can mine many algorithms	None — fixed to one algorithm
Efficiency	Moderate	Very high
Cost	$200–$1000+	$500–$10,000+
Resale value	High (gaming market)	Low (mining only)
Lifespan	5–10 years	3–5 years

GPU mining today

After Ethereum's Merge in 2022, GPU miners moved to other coins. Popular GPU-mined coins include:

• Ravencoin (RVN) — KawPow
• Conflux (CFX) — Octopus
• Iron Fish (IRON) — Blake3Fish

Major GPU manufacturers

• NVIDIA
• AMD
• Intel

See also

• ASIC
• FPGA
• Hashrate
• Ethereum Classic