Following Ethereum's transition to Proof-of-Stake in September 2022, GPU-mineable cryptocurrencies are a much smaller market than they were during the 2021 peak. The remaining PoW chains accessible to GPU miners include Ravencoin (KAWPOW), Ethereum Classic (Etchash), Ergo (Autolykos2), and various smaller chains.
VRAM requirements vary by algorithm: Etchash and similar Ethash variants typically need 5-8 GB and grow over time as the DAG file expands. KAWPOW and similar algorithms have lower VRAM requirements. Hash rate depends heavily on memory bandwidth and core clock, with mining-tuned firmware typically yielding 10-15% efficiency improvements.
Datacenter GPUs are generally a poor mining investment: their hash-rate-per-dollar is substantially worse than consumer cards, and most pools and miners are optimized for consumer GPU architectures. Power efficiency and electricity cost dominate the profitability calculation more than raw GPU price.