Best GPUs for FLOP mining: official weights and the 16GB floor

There are no published FLOP earnings for any card, because the network is not live yet. What Flop has published is a participation floor and a set of planning weights. The miner and validator economics FAQ says "the minimum miner spec is any GPU with at least 16GB of VRAM" and that "there is no whitelist of approved models." The official miner revenue model then gives each listed device a starting reward weight relative to an NVIDIA H100 SXM at 1.00. Those weights are "rough planning ratios," and live rewards are supposed to use measured, verified compute instead.

This page ranks the listed NVIDIA cards that meet the 16GB floor by those official starting weights. It is not a profitability ranking, and it is not financial advice. All calculator figures come from a draft page stamped October 5, 2026, which we rechecked on November 14. Our mining profitability guide explains the calculator's assumptions, and our home GPU mining guide covers consumer cards in more detail.

A device appearing in the calculator does not mean today's software runs on it. The current miner manual documents one runnable path: "a Docker-capable NVIDIA VM or owned Linux host."

What counts as "best" on this page

1. The card must meet the published 16GB VRAM floor, or we flag it.
2. We order NVIDIA cards by the official starting weight versus an H100 SXM.
3. We keep AMD, Intel and Mac presets in a separate section, because the current miner manual only documents an NVIDIA host.
4. We do not estimate returns, electricity cost or resale value. Flop has not published real earnings.

The testnet that earns miner airdrop weight is targeted for November 24, 2026, "subject to readiness" (timeline FAQ). Devnet mining earns nothing.

Data-centre NVIDIA cards

These are the highest official starting weights, and they are the cards Flop's headline economics are built around. The FAQ calls the H100 80GB PCIe "the reference unit the model normalises to, not a floor," and says 16GB "is the participation floor, not the specification behind the headline economics." Headline numbers assume a model of about 117B parameters at 4-bit quantisation, which needs an 80GB-class card.

Device	Starting weight (H100 SXM = 1.00)	30-day cost the calculator starts from
NVIDIA B200	2.28	$4,241 rent (Runpod)
NVIDIA H200	1.00	$3,161 rent (Runpod)
NVIDIA H100 SXM	1.00	$2,153 rent (Runpod)
NVIDIA H100 NVL	0.84	$2,297 rent (Runpod)
NVIDIA H100 PCIe	0.76	$2,081 rent (Runpod)
NVIDIA L40S	0.36	$713 rent (Runpod)

Rental rates in the calculator "were checked 15 July 2026." They are starting inputs you can edit, not a quote Flop will charge you.

On November 8, Arthur Hayes posted that "you don't need to rent crazy high spec GPUs to mine FLOP." The data-centre cards are still the ones with the highest planning weights.

Consumer NVIDIA cards

Each of the RTX 5090, 4090 and 5080 "has at least 16 GB of VRAM, so each meets the published floor," according to the same FAQ. The FAQ also gives rough throughput versus one H100 PCIe, which is a different reference than the calculator's H100 SXM = 1.00 scale. We keep both figures and do not convert them into a single number.

Device	Starting weight (H100 SXM = 1.00)	FAQ throughput vs H100 PCIe	Notes
NVIDIA RTX 5090	0.21	About 0.46	Highest consumer weight in the calculator
NVIDIA RTX 4090	0.17	About 0.36	About a sixth of an H100 SXM in the calculator
RTX 5090 laptop	0.11	Not given	Calculator purchase placeholder $5,000
RTX 4090 laptop	0.09	Not given	Calculator purchase placeholder $3,000
NVIDIA RTX 5080	Not in the calculator table	About 0.25	Meets the 16GB floor, per the FAQ
NVIDIA RTX 3090	0.07	Not given	About a fourteenth of an H100 SXM
NVIDIA DGX Spark / GB10	0.06	Not given	Calculator uses a $4,699 purchase

If you already own a gaming PC, the 5090 is the consumer card with the highest official starting weight in the calculator, then the 4090, then the 3090. The 5080 meets the floor and has an FAQ throughput figure, but it has no calculator weight we can cite. Consumer cards run the default SOFT tier and need no TEE. The FAQ warns that a 16GB card serves smaller models, and "its economics are not a scaled-down copy of the H100 case."

The calculator also lists an RTX 4070 Ti desktop at a weight of 0.08. We do not treat that as a qualifying miner on this page, because a device in the calculator is not automatically above the 16GB floor, and we have no official VRAM figure for that preset to cite.

AMD, Intel and Mac presets

The calculator also lists these starting weights: AMD Instinct MI300X at 1.32, AMD RX 9070 XT desktop at 0.20, Intel Arc Pro B70 desktop at 0.19, MacBook Pro M3 Max at 0.002, and Mac mini M4 Pro at 0.001. Hayes said on November 13 that Flop wants retail users mining with consumer cards and Mac Minis, and on November 14 that "you can use whatever hardware you want to mine," with income depending on "agentic demand for the models your hardware can run."

The current miner manual still documents only a Docker-capable NVIDIA host. Treat the non-NVIDIA presets as planning numbers, and check the official manual before you buy hardware for that path.

What the current software actually runs

As of the November 12 miner manual, the documented setup is Linux, Docker, the NVIDIA driver and the NVIDIA Container Toolkit. Flop's FAQ build guidance reads "Linux first ... Windows to follow." A cloud instance with a single 16 to 24 GB card, such as an NVIDIA L4, "is enough to prove the setup end to end on devnet," per the FAQ, as a configuration test rather than an economics test. Our miner setup guide and devnet miner guide follow the official steps.

FAQ

What is the best GPU for FLOP mining?

Among cards in Flop's official calculator, the NVIDIA B200 has the highest starting weight, at 2.28 times an H100 SXM. Among consumer cards that the FAQ says meet the 16GB VRAM floor, the RTX 5090 has the highest calculator weight, at 0.21. Those are planning ratios, not measured earnings, and no FLOP returns have been published.

Can I mine FLOP with an RTX 4090, 5090 or 5080?

Yes, by the published floor. Flop's economics FAQ says each of those cards has at least 16GB of VRAM. The 4090 and 5090 also appear in the revenue calculator. The 5080 meets the floor and has an FAQ throughput estimate of about 0.25 of an H100 PCIe, but it is not in the calculator table.

Do I need an H100 to mine FLOP?

No. The FAQ says the H100 80GB PCIe is "the reference unit the model normalises to, not a floor," and that any GPU with at least 16GB of VRAM is a valid miner. Headline economics assume an 80GB-class card running a large model, so a 16GB card is not a scaled-down H100.

Can I mine FLOP on a Mac mini?

The calculator includes a Mac mini M4 Pro at a starting weight of 0.001 versus an H100 SXM, and Hayes has said Flop wants retail users mining with consumer cards and Mac Minis. The current miner manual only documents a Docker-capable NVIDIA host, so check that manual before you buy.

See also: FLOP mining profitability · Home GPU mining · How to mine FLOP · Miner setup