Cryptocurrency is back in a big way, that much has become abundantly clear to me while pottering around the show floor at this year’s Computex show.And it’s making AMD’s 500-series cards pretty thin on the ground.Yeah, yeah, crypto-mining... whatever.These are our pick of the best graphics cards for gamers.There are a bunch of different motherboard vendors at the show, such as ASRock and Biostar, displaying boards specifically designed for mining these crypto-currencies.These are motherboards with more PCIe slots than you’ve seen Half Life 3 rumours.Cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, Litecoin, and any other word+coin you can think of, are basically digital currencies, but the only way new units of currency are generated is by unlocking them from the hidden depths of complicated mathematical equations.The equations are solved, and the currency therefore unlocked - or mined - using the parallel processing power of your PC.You can use a CPU to mine cryptocurrencies, but the GPU inside your graphics card is much better at chewing through the weird mess of maths needed to uncover whatever ‘coin' you’re mining for.

And AMD GPUs are much better at it than Nvidia's.That’s why every single monster mining rig on display on the Computex show floor was rocking anything up to 13 graphics cards, and why most of them were using AMD’s Radeon RX 470.You might think, ’meh, let ’em get on with it,’ but the recent introduction of a different kind of cryptocurrency more easily mined with current graphics cards, called Ethereum, has had an impact on the number of AMD GPUs actually available for us normies to buy.I spoke to a representative from Sapphire, AMD's largest board partner, at the show and he said that, while it’s great for their bottom line, they're not loving it because it’s not really doing anything for the brand.Miners don’t really care who makes the graphics cards, they aren’t that interested in any features board partners have added in to differentiate themselves from the competition, they just want to run the GPU ragged until it dies.We’re so far down the road with mining now that you’re not going to get very far with your own bedroom setup; those days have long gone.

Now mining’s about big commercial system farms with row-upon-row of dedicated mining rigs.And so graphics card companies are seeing these commercial crypto-mining operations buying up thousands of AMD GPUs each month, paying up front, leaving us gamers wondering where all the Radeons have gone.That’s no real issue for the Gigabytes and MSIs of the world - those companies who produce both AMD and Nvidia graphics cards - but if you’re Sapphire, and no gamers can find your cards on the shelves, you might quickly get forgotten.Edited to reflect the introduction of Ethereum, rather than Bitcoin,  is responsible for the recent dearth of AMD GPUs.Did you know that the technology powering the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One already exists on today’s market, albeit in an earlier, less-powerful form?The Accelerated Processing Unit, or “APU”, design integrates a graphics processing unit onto the same die as the CPU, resulting in a faster, more efficient hybrid design.The advantages of building an APU-based system over a traditional build are very narrow.

For those of you seeking to build a low-wattage, low-price, low-end Steam Box or HTPC, APUs are ideal.Additionally, AMD APUs provide a relatively efficient means of mining Bitcoin alternatives, such as Litecoin and Feathercoin.On the downside, for use as either a Steam Box or mining rig, an APU system won’t give much in the way of cutting edge performance – it will however, provide a great balance between wattage, performance and price.asic bitcoin calculatorSystems using the fastest APU components will cost around $450, or a bit more if you have a VAT tax in your region.fidelity bitcoin fundOn the cheaper end, an APU system can come in for around $200.bitcoin france interThis article presents three build variations on the APU, ranging in price from $200 to $400.litecoin wiki hardware

These machines can provide value-oriented performance in the areas of Scrypt hashing (cryptographic coin mining), as a Steam Box or as a low-wattage, silent HTPC.Additionally, it explains the requirements of building an AMD APU PC.APUs deal with three build options: First, they can coordinate their graphics with a discrete processor in what’s known as “Dual Graphics”.silk road bitcoin guideSecond, fast RAM offers tremendous benefits to an APU’s frame rendering rate.litecoin payment modeThird, overclocking is generally a bad idea.Advertisement When I selected the components for my Steam Box/mining rig back in October of 2012, the best APU technology was AMD’s “Trinity” architecture.Since then, the “Richland” upgrade released, which offers a moderate improvement in performance over Trinity.Richland will likely support Dual Graphics with a Radeon 7750, making it vastly superior in performance compared to the older architecture.

Readers should know that they can build an even faster system for a similar amount of money.Here’s essentially what my Steam Box and mining rig looks like (it includes a combo deal): (prices accurate at the time of writing) Running two simultaneous instances of GUIminer guiminer - An Extensive Tool For Bitcoin Mining guiminer - An Extensive Tool For Bitcoin Mining As of late there's been a been a great buzz going around about Bitcoin, the latest P2P digital currency.One of the main activities of getting Bitcoins is through a process called mining.No need... Read More , it has a maximum hashrate of around 280 KH/s, which nets me around 7 Feathercoins per day and .80 Litecoins.At the current exchange rate, I make pennies per day, an absolutely horrid waste of my time.Profitable mining with an APU is possible with Dual Graphics and a newer APU build, since it will have a much higher hashrate at the same wattage.But in short, there are some serious drawbacks What Disadvantages Are There To Bitcoin Mining?

What Disadvantages Are There To Bitcoin Mining?Several times since the beginning of this decade, Bitcoins have been slowly but surely been causing a (good) disturbance in the way people think about currency.If you don't know yet what Bitcoins are, then... Read More to mining with APUs.For gaming, it handles more recent games at 1080p without much issue.I played a bit of Metro2033 at high detail settings in high definition and it ran at a near seamless 40+ FPS.However, the unfortunate reality of APUs and Dual Graphics is that if the developer did not program with Dual Graphics in mind, some games will be basically unplayable at high resolutions.Overall, I feel as if I really got my money’s worth out of my homemade Steam Box.On the downside, the A10-5800K is something of a power hog for an APU.A combination of Richland with Radeon 7750 graphics would have been a much better choice.For those concerned about power consumption, you can build an extremely small, 96% efficient, low-noise, low-watt HTPC using an APU.

Because APUs don’t rely on a discrete graphics card, it’s possible to trim off all the extra components and run the computer with only the bare necessities.Once you break under the 200 W barrier, picoPSUs become viable power supply options.A picoPSU is an entirely solid state power supply with efficiencies over 96%, meaning it possesses the capability of converting 96% of wall current, with only 4% wasted.The average power supply converts at around 70% efficiency, wasting 30%.(prices accurate at the time of writing) Total power consumption on this particular build comes out to about 100 W, at max draw.You could easily use a cheaper picoPSU at around 120 W and reduce the price by another $20-40.I’ve over-provisioned as a precautionary matter – and to keep power efficiency as high as possible.The absolute cheapest gaming machine you can build could cost around $200.While it won’t be playing Crysis 3, it makes an excellent platform for playing slightly older games from your Steam collection.

(prices accurate at the time of writing) Here’s an example of Resident Evil 6 being played at console resolution: This particular build is expandable, consumes about 150 W at max draw, and extremely cheap at less than $200.It will play a lot of older games and will do streaming media without issue.AMD’s APU provides an excellent balance between performance, wattage and price.No other CPU can create a system as cheaply and as power efficient.On the downside, a stand-alone APU can only play games at console resolutions, with low to medium graphics detail.For casual gamers and HTPC users, this is an ideal computer build, as they can be designed to run extremely quietly, with very little issues.For those of you interested in building your computer, MakeUseOf provides a variety of guides and manuals.I also wrote an article on several sites that can automatically build your computer for you Save Time & Money!The 4 Best Sites For Automatically Building a PC Save Time & Money!