Life after Pearl: which coins still pay on an RTX 5090 and at what power price
Almost every GPU rig is pointed at Pearl (PRL) right now, and for good reason: it pays the most. But Pearl is a young coin whose price and difficulty swing hard from week to week, so it is worth knowing what your card does if Pearl stops paying. We took the WhatToMine figures for the RTX 5090 on 8 November 2026 and worked out the electricity price at which each coin only covers its power bill.
What an RTX 5090 earns today
WhatToMine numbers, daily, with electricity at $0.10 per kWh:
- Pearl: 415 TH/s at 560 W, $8.68 revenue, $7.34 profit.
- Quantus (QUAN): 1.80 GH/s at 600 W, $6.04 revenue, $4.60 profit.
- Epic Cash (EPIC) on ProgPow: 85 MH/s at 360 W, $2.15 revenue, $1.28 profit.
- Qubitcoin (QTC): 5.00 GH/s at 300 W, $1.92 revenue, $1.20 profit.
- Zano (ZANO): 85 MH/s at 360 W, $1.17 revenue, $0.31 profit.
- Ravencoin (RVN), for comparison: 85 MH/s at 360 W, $0.38 revenue, a $0.48 loss.
The power price where each coin breaks even
Divide daily revenue by daily consumption in kWh and you get the highest electricity price at which mining still covers the bill. This number is more useful than profit at $0.10, because it tells you straight away whether a coin works at your tariff.
- Pearl: about $0.65 per kWh.
- Quantus: about $0.42.
- Qubitcoin: about $0.27.
- Epic Cash: about $0.25.
- Zano: about $0.14.
- Ravencoin: about $0.04.
What this means in practice
Quantus is the real backup. Its revenue is about 70% of Pearl's, and it stays in the black even at expensive tariffs. The catch is power: at 600 W it draws more than Pearl, so check that your PSU and cooling have headroom.
Qubitcoin and Epic Cash are a second tier. They earn roughly a quarter of Pearl's revenue but are still positive at most home tariffs. Qubitcoin runs at only 300 W, which matters in a hot room or on a weak power supply.
Zano and the KawPow coins are not a fallback. Zano barely breaks even above $0.14 per kWh, and Ravencoin loses money at almost any home tariff.
Before you switch
- Work out your real tariff, including night rates, and compare it with the break-even figures above.
- Keep a Quantus config ready in your miner so you can switch in minutes, not hours.
- Judge your speed by the hashrate the pool reports. The miner screen can be optimistic, especially on young algorithms.
- Recheck every few days. These figures are a snapshot of one day: coin prices and difficulty change constantly, and the ranking can flip.