My First 10500 Coins: How I Started Mining on a Budget GTX 1660 in 2026

1660 NEXA

If you think crypto mining is only for people with massive server rooms and $2,000 GPUs, I have a surprise for you. Today, I officially started my journey using a GTX 1660 (6GB).

While the “experts” might say this card is too old, I’m currently pulling in roughly 15,000 Nexa coins a day while staying at a freezing cold 52°C. Here is the exact blueprint of how I set it up, the Afterburner tuning I used, and the two major “bugs” I had to squash to get it working.


1. The Coin: Why I’m All-In on Nexa

In 2026, the mining landscape is crowded. I chose Nexa because it’s a Layer-1 blockchain built for massive scale (10 billion transactions a day!). Plus, with the first Nexa Halving coming up in June 2026, I wanted to stack as many coins as possible before the rewards get cut in half.

2. The Setup: MSI Afterburner Tuning

This is where the magic happens. The GTX 1660 is a “hidden gem” for the NexaPow algorithm because Nexa cares more about your GPU Core than your memory. By slowing down the memory, I saved power and kept the card cool.

Afterburner

My “Sweet Spot” Settings:

  • Core Clock: +150 MHz (This is the “engine” that drives your hashrate).

  • Memory Clock: -502 MHz (Underclocking here saves power and reduces heat!).

  • Power Limit: 80% (Gives the card enough “juice” to boost without wasting electricity).

  • The Result: A stable 25.05 Mh/s at a rock-solid 53°C.

3. My Secret Weapon: unMineable

I use unMineable because it’s the easiest gateway for beginners. It lets you point your hardware at Nexa and get paid directly with zero hassle.

Pro Tip: You can actually lower your mining fees by using a referral code. Instead of the standard 1% fee, you only pay 0.75%.

Join my mining team here to get your 0.75% fee discount:

[https://www.unmineable.com/?ref=U-FP8WMW]

(Or use code: U-FP8WMW in your miner settings!)


4. Troubleshooting: The Two “Bosses” I Had to Defeat

I almost quit twice during this setup. If you are seeing 0 Mh/s or your speed keeps dropping, here is how I fixed it:

Bug #1: The “Zero Hashrate” Fix (Pagefile)

If your miner shows 0 Mh/s, your Windows isn’t giving the GPU enough “virtual” space to handle the Nexa algorithm.

  • The Fix: I went to Advanced System Settings > Performance > Virtual Memory and manually set my Pagefile to 16GB (16384 MB).

  • Note: You must restart your computer for this to take effect!

Paging

Bug #2: The 300 MHz “Power Trap”

Suddenly, my speed plummeted. My Core Clock was stuck at 300 MHz because the Nvidia driver “fell asleep” during mining.

  • The Fix: Open the NVIDIA Control Panel > Manage 3D Settings > Power Management Mode and select “Prefer Maximum Performance.” This forces the card to stay at full speed.

Nvidia


5. The Results

After just 15 minutes of stable mining, I hit 155 coins. Fast forward a little longer, and my balance is already over 466. At this rate, I’m looking at 10,000 to 11,000+ coins every single day.

Unminer

Final Verdict: Don’t let your old GPUs gather dust. With the right tuning and a little patience, you can still be a part of the decentralized future.

Are you ready to start stacking? Let me know your hashrate in the comments!

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