Currently, the most powerful consumer graphics card to mine Ethereum is the Nvidia GTX 1080Ti, which has a price tag of around $970 but let's round that out to $1,000. Trust me, rounding out won't make a difference. At its most efficient, the GTX 1080Ti can mine ethereum at around 50 megahash per second (MH/s).
If you combined two GTX 1080Tis, you could get around 100 MH/s for $2,000.
And there are even more costs associated with graphics card mining that aren't necessary with ASIC mining. When mining with a graphics card, you need a full computer, including the motherboard, processor, RAM, and power supply units, and even a copy of the Windows operating system which can add several hundreds of dollars to the cost on top of the graphics cards themselves.
Meanwhile, Bitmain's E3 ethereum mining device costs $2,150 and can mine at 180 MH/s. So the Bitmain E3 mining ASIC is 80% more efficient for about the same price as two GTX 1080Ti graphics cards, which is significantly more efficient.
And you don't need to buy separate computer parts for ASIC mining. All you need is a web browser to control the ASIC mining devices. So you can use your current laptop, whether it's a Mac or Windows computer, or even your mobile device. You don't necessarily need to buy extra parts.
To top it all off, the Bitmain E3 mining device also draws less power for the same hash rate, which means lower electricity bills.
