700,000 graphics cards that shipped in the first quarter went to cryptominers

[midian182]

A hot potato: How much of an impact did cryptominers have on the graphics card market during the first quarter? Quite a lot, according to a new report. It’s estimated that 700,000 high-end and midrange gaming cards that shipped in Q1 went to miners—about $500 million worth of product.

Analyst Jon Peddie Research writes that those figures mean 25% of all graphics cards shipped between January and March ended up being used to mine crypto. The company looks at the attach rate of AIBs (add-in boards) to PCs, which had fallen as low as 25% before recently jumping to 50%, and uses the difference between the trending normal attach rate and the current rate to calculate the mining use of AIBs.

JPR makes the assumption that most miners already own dedicated rigs and buy cards for them, though some amateurs do buy entire systems for mining. The company admits its formula isn’t as precise today as a few years ago due to the global component shortage that has seen scalpers and miners using bots to buy cards in bulk before selling them on eBay.

While cryptomining has been a major factor behind the increasing price of graphics cards, by up to 70% in some cases, it’s not the only reason. The massive surge in demand, most of which stems from the pandemic, has resulted in component shortages that have pumped up the cost of GDDR6 memory, capacitors, etc. A recent report forecast that GDDR6 prices would rise by 13% this year, inflating cards’ retail selling price even further.

JPR does note that Nvidia is trying to push miners away from its mainstream gaming cards by releasing its Cryptocurrency Mining Processor (CMP) line while adding a hashrate limiter to the RTX 3060, RTX 3070 Ti, and RTX 3080 Ti. The company is also replacing the RTX 3060 Ti, RTX 3070, and RTX 3080 with LHR (Lite Hash Rate) models. Hopefully, we'll start seeing the results of this strategy soon enough. AMD, however, has publicly stated it has no problem with its RDNA 2-powered cards being used for mining and does not plan to limit their performance in the same way as Nvidia.

Image credit Yevhen Vitte

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/90076-700000-graphics-cards-shipped-first-quarter-went-cryptominers.html

 

[bviktor]

This might finally convince people that the issue is not miners, it's the f*cking scalpers.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

How many crypto deniers want to now claim that cryptocurrency mining isn’t a problem?

Scalpers know that in the PC market they can get obscene amounts of money for GPU.

Even the PlayStation and Xbox scalpers aren’t this bold.

 

[VaRmeNsI]

This might finally convince people that the issue is not miners, it's the f*cking scalpers.

Scalpers provide a service, they make products immediately available (for a higher price) were they would otherwise be scarce.

 

[kimo1]

Come on Elon, say the magic words.

 

[paul1122]

Scalpers provide a service, they make products immediately available (for a higher price) were they would otherwise be scarce.

sarcasm at it's best.

 

[Geralt]

Scalpers provide a service, they make products immediately available (for a higher price) were they would otherwise be scarce.

We should thank them for their help then. Sh***

 

[Kosmoz]

AMD, however, has publicly stated it has no problem with its RDNA 2-powered cards being used for mining and does not plan to limit their performance in the same way as Nvidia.

But you don't say why?

Because RDNA 2 is made by design only for gaming and already has the half the hashrate Ampere has, so there is no need to limit anything.
Unlike nvidia who just likes to appear to fix this issue when in fact they sell directly to miners and make CMP cards for them only, instead of more RTX ones for everyone.

nvidia's biggest joke: "we care about gamers".
*meanwhile they launch 3070Ti - an overpriced $600 GPU with only 8GB Vram in 2021 and the 3080Ti Extra Margin Last Minute Price Hike $1200 Jensen Scalper Edition - Linus approved.

Let's have a good laugh now with Jensen all together! Ha-ha.

 

[VaRmeNsI]

sarcasm at it's best.

Try reading Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell.

 

[StrikerRocket]

This might finally convince people that the issue is not miners, it's the f*cking scalpers.

Still, 25% of a product category is not something to be ignored...

 

[punctualturn]

I can see evil lord Jensen himself making the deliveries to the crypto clients and then pretending to do something for the gamers.

And no, I dont have a problem with miners, I have a problem with the BS that nvidia marketing team keep pushing and the drones keep repeating.

 

[Okami]

How many crypto deniers want to now claim that cryptocurrency mining isn’t a problem?

Scalpers know that in the PC market they can get obscene amounts of money for GPU.

Even the PlayStation and Xbox scalpers aren’t this bold.

yeah miners arent buying scalped cards as it directly affects ROI, most scalped cards are bought by "gamers"

 

[wiyosaya]

Try reading Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell.

So, you could care less how much you pay for a GPU as long as you get one? Good luck with that.

 

[Xex360]

But you don't say why?

Because RDNA 2 is made by design only for gaming and already has the half the hashrate Ampere has, so there is no need to limit anything.
Unlike nvidia who just likes to appear to fix this issue when in fact they sell directly to miners and make CMP cards for them only, instead of more RTX ones for everyone.

nvidia's biggest joke: "we care about gamers".
*meanwhile they launch 3070Ti - an overpriced $600 GPU with only 8GB Vram in 2021 and the 3080Ti Extra Margin Last Minute Price Hike $1200 Jensen Scalper Edition - Linus approved.

Let's have a good laugh now with Jensen all together! Ha-ha.

The RX6800 has similar performance to the 3070 while consuming less, RDNA2 is memory starved for mining at arguably for gaming, as they are the fastest in lower resolutions but Ampere with higher bandwidth claims back the leadership at 4k.

 

[Dimitriid]

They didn't "went" to miners as if they had minds of their own. They were sold to miners.

Not by retailers most likely, but by distributors or AIB partners themselves.

We need to start calling out these people on whatl they did and are doing and stop using weasel words like "Cards went to miners" no they didn't go anywhere: you sold them to them. You chose to sold them to them, over your customers that you supposedly value.

 

[sickb0y]

Scalpers provide a service, they make products immediately available (for a higher price) were they would otherwise be scarce.

I think you’re onto something there Sherlock. One more Lysol injection and I think you’ll crack the case.

 

[Lionvibez]

Nice that is 700k GPU's that were never sold to Gamers that need them.

Sounds great for the manufacturers pockets and the miners and a total loss for everyone else. Very healthy for the market........

 

[Beerfloat]

Nice that is 700k GPU's that were never sold to Gamers that need them.

wut

Sounds great for the manufacturers pockets and the miners and a total loss for everyone else. Very healthy for the market........

Demand far outstrips supply. Prices rise. More fabs get built. Healthy capitalism.

 

[terzaerian]

Nice that is 700k GPU's that were never sold to Gamers that need them.

Sounds great for the manufacturers pockets and the miners and a total loss for everyone else. Very healthy for the market........

You might try reading the source article.

The attach rate model has no way to tease out gamers or others who may occasionally do some mining.

Not everyone who mines is running a farm.

The RX6800 has similar performance to the 3070 while consuming less, RDNA2 is memory starved for mining at arguably for gaming, as they are the fastest in lower resolutions but Ampere with higher bandwidth claims back the leadership at 4k.

As AMD mining cards go, the king is still the Radeon VII. Good luck buying one used, though, as they go for more than brand new cards.

https://www.whattomine.com/gpus

 

[gamerk2]

wut



Demand far outstrips supply. Prices rise. More fabs get built. Healthy capitalism.

Not in this case; building these fabs costs tens of billions of dollars, and take years to get up and running. Nevermind the necessity of a *very* highly trained workforce, which limits how many personnel you have access to. So in this case, building more production capacity really isn't possible; you'd have to take supply away from some other product to create additional headroom.

Even on long timescales, the demand isn't there to justify building said fabs to fill a short-term crunch.

All scalpers are doing is artificially reducing supply then reaping the results of prices rising due to said decreased supply.

 

[punctualturn]

All scalpers are doing is artificially reducing supply then reaping the results of prices rising due to said decreased supply.

That one is very simple to resolve...dont buy sh!t from them!!

But we have these entitled "kids" that have more money than brains whom must have personal satisfaction ASAP that will keep the scalpers rich.

I was lucky to get a Series X at MSRP for my gaming needs and the rest has to work on my gtx970 (I feel dirty having to use that) until I can get an AMD gpu at MSRP.

 

[terzaerian]

That one is very simple to resolve...dont buy sh!t from them!!

But we have these entitled "kids" that have more money than brains whom must have personal satisfaction ASAP that will keep the scalpers rich.

I was lucky to get a Series X at MSRP for my gaming needs and the rest has to work on my gtx970 (I feel dirty having to use that) until I can get an AMD gpu at MSRP.

I don't think the scalper situation is really going to resolve until supply normalizes, and I don't think we've yet reached the nadir for disruption to global supply chains from the pandemic yet; it's going to get worse before it gets better.

Until then, the only option seems to be to find the scalper closest to current retail price, which, if Microcenter is any indication, is also increasing.

 

[Beerfloat]

Not in this case; building these fabs costs tens of billions of dollars, and take years to get up and running. Nevermind the necessity of a *very* highly trained workforce, which limits how many personnel you have access to. So in this case, building more production capacity really isn't possible; you'd have to take supply away from some other product to create additional headroom.

Even on long timescales, the demand isn't there to justify building said fabs to fill a short-term crunch.

All scalpers are doing is artificially reducing supply then reaping the results of prices rising due to said decreased supply.

Yes in this case. This wakeup call has been ringing for years, and only now should suddenly be considered urgent? Is it healthy that almost all of the world's advanced semiconductors are now produced in two south-east Asian conflict zones?

 

[Beerfloat]

They didn't "went" to miners as if they had minds of their own. They were sold to miners.

Not by retailers most likely, but by distributors or AIB partners themselves.

We need to start calling out these people on whatl they did and are doing and stop using weasel words like "Cards went to miners" no they didn't go anywhere: you sold them to them. You chose to sold them to them, over your customers that you supposedly value.

They might have sold them to the highest bidders and to those willing to contract large quantities. That's business sense. Like those manufacturers that decided to allocate their wafers to CPUs instead of GPUs, and to APUs and console ****. We can call those out too, right?

 

[Dimitriid]

They might have sold them to the highest bidders and to those willing to contract large quantities. That's business sense. Like those manufacturers that decided to allocate their wafers to CPUs instead of GPUs, and to APUs and console ****. We can call those out too, right?

I'm not disputing that: they're entitled to do exactly that if they want to. Nvidia and AMD or any of their partners can do just that there's nothing "Illegal" about it.

The issue is just trying to keep it a secret and wanting consumers to believe miners are just a form of store scalper that grabs all inventory quickly but doesn't resells but just mines.

It's the misrepresentation here that bothers me: If they'd be willing to be honest about just selling the cards to miners directly because they're willing to pay more, up front and buy in bulk quantities then just tell people that's what's going on with AIB partners and distributors.

But this is something we all know, we have actual evidence of this going on but none of the people involved on the AIBs and distributors admits to it.

Why? I ultimately don't know. I'm not even going to speculate about them wanting to not ruin their image with customers I just know they're not being upfront about becoming very rich and moving enough product to solve the demand issue most of their traditional end user customers are experiencing.

That's all: we know consumers cannot compete with miners. They just don't , no matter what they'll lose that battle and they'll just have to deal with the consequences of a continued shortage. But being lied to on top is just extra insulting and patronizing.