Biostar condemns an entire shipment of GPUs to mining hell

[mongeese]

Bottom line: Biostar, an OEM that lines its pants with miners' money, has begun advertising a new mining system that comes equipped with eight Radeon RX 580s. It says that it can guarantee availability in large quantities for interested parties, or in other words, it has a lot of GPUs to sell.

Manufacturers have tried to pretend like they're not selling GPUs to cryptominers for the most part. Even Sapphire, which makes GPUs specifically for miners, doesn't advertise them on their site. Both AMD and Nvidia try hard to get their GPUs into the hands of gamers—admittedly for business reasons, not altruistic ones.

Biostar is an unfortunate exception. As VideoCardz points out, it's been making motherboards for mining systems throughout the GPU shortage. In the past, it hasn't had enough GPUs to sell them to miners in bulk, but now the shortage is easing, it apparently does.

It's a shame that AMD is providing Biostar with GPUs. As far as we're aware, it's AMD's policy to prioritize OEMs that sell to gamers, but maybe its hands are tied.

Biostar's new system—which we're not going to name outright because you shouldn't buy one—has eight RX 580s, an Intel G4900 CPU, and 8 GB of DDR4. Biostar's pictures show that the RX 580s are gaming cards with proper cooling hardware and display outputs.

It's a terrible waste, but it could be worse. In our latest GPU price update, we found that the RX 580 was one of the easier to acquire cards and one that was getting close to its MSRP on the second-hand market. It isn't a great deal, but you can at least get one if you want one.

From a cryptomining perspective, the Biostar system isn't particularly appealing. Ethereum's value is continuing to fall even as network difficulty rises. And the RX 580 isn't an ideal miner; it's hot and past its prime.

So, whether you’re a miner or a gamer, we recommend avoiding Biostar for the time being. And, Biostar, please stop sending us press releases for mining hardware.

Image credit: Niclas Illg

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https://www.techspot.com/news/93567-biostar-condemns-entire-shipment-gpus-mining-hell.html

 

[Irata]

Actually, Polaris is a classic mining card - lots of optimizations are available for it.

Admittedly it‘s nowhere near Ampere as far as mining goes.

 

[Nobina]

I don't understand why all the hate for Biostar when every other GPU OEM is doing pretty much the same. Their quality is pretty bad judging by the reviews, that's a legit reason to dislike them, this one not really. I don't like miners either but they have rights to a GPU just like everyone else.

 

[yRaz]

On the upside, dedicated mining cards are stupid. All graphics should at least have an HDMI port so that when it's no longer profitable to mine with the cards they can be sold on the used market. On top of that, they only have so many GPUs and miners are going to buy gaming cards anyway. Having mining cards does nothing but attempt to improve PR surrounding the industry. To make the math easy, lets say AMD can only produce 1,000,000 GPU's a year and 10% of those are dedicade mining cards. Well, suddenly, 100,000 GPUs are taken out of the hands of gamers even if they end up being bought by miners. They just end up as e-waste once they miners are done with them while reducing supply at the same time. I also read an article that mining cards last longer than normal gaming cards because it is thermal cycling that damages the card over time. The solder joints work harden over many thermal cycles and crack, that's why reflowing graphics is a thing

The other thing is that limiting hash rates on gaming cards is stupid. I know many people, myself included, who offset the price of a graphics card by mining. My 1070ti still makes about 80 cents a day after electricity and I've had it for 3 years now. It was closer to $2US when I got it. So long as graphics card mining is still profitable it doesn't matter how much you limit hashrate unless you limit it so much that it costs more in electricity than you make mining. As long as they are money printers they will always end up in the hands of miners.

Gamers should be able to use their hardware how they please. You paid for it, the manufactures made money off of you and they should have no right to tell someone how to use something. It'd be one thing if it was leased, but they aren't.

And one interesting case I'd like to bring up that is the exception rather than the rule. I know an AI researcher that has 8 2080's because they're cheaper than quadro cards. I know they aren't the best but they work just as well as the quardo cards for his application. He mines with it when it isn't in use to offset the cost of electricity and he says he runs it almost for free. For a startup company an extra $100/m in electricity is a big deal.

 

[Sausagemeat]

Selling products to miners isn’t a crime or even immoral. AMD or Nvidia don’t owe us anything, they can sell to the highest bidder, it’s not like gamers won’t buy a GPU again. Gamers arent entitled to graphics hardware. At least Biostar aren’t trying to deceive the entitled gaming community like the other OEMs are.

And sure I don’t like the high prices generated from the demand. But demonising miners, who have just as legitimate a use of this hardware than gamers do isn’t going to help anything

 

[bviktor]

"Both AMD and Nvidia try hard to get their GPUs into the hands of gamers"

Nope, not in the slightest. All they do is literally just lip service. Nothing else.

And how could you blame them? Money does not stink. It's utterly irrelevant whose money they get. The product is flying off the shelves, that's all that matters, from a business perspective.

 

[yRaz]

Selling products to miners isn’t a crime or even immoral. AMD or Nvidia don’t owe us anything, they can sell to the highest bidder, it’s not like gamers won’t buy a GPU again. Gamers arent entitled to graphics hardware. At least Biostar aren’t trying to deceive the entitled gaming community like the other OEMs are.

And sure I don’t like the high prices generated from the demand. But demonising miners, who have just as legitimate a use of this hardware than gamers do isn’t going to help anything

Gamers need to mine on their graphics card when they aren't in use, they're money printers. Just to point out how dumb gamers are, they're ignoring free money. It adds up at the end of the year. After 3 years of having my 1070ti, the card has paid for itself and made me about $1000 after the cost of electricity. I try to get about 5 years out of a rig, I could probably get $2000 out of a gaming computer over 5 years. $2000 could pay for a really nice gaming rig

 

[Edster]

Reality is, are 580s really that sought after by gamers anyway?

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Gamers need to mine on their graphics card when they aren't in use, they're money printers. Just to point out how dumb gamers are, they're ignoring free money. It adds up at the end of the year. After 3 years of having my 1070ti, the card has paid for itself and made me about $1000 after the cost of electricity. I try to get about 5 years out of a rig, I could probably get $2000 out of a gaming computer over 5 years. $2000 could pay for a really nice gaming rig

Believe it or not, most people dont want to turn their hobby into a speculative market. They're not dumb, no dumber then hobbyists who restore classic cars not using them for uber, or hobby pilots not making US mail runs.

Many people simply want to enjoy their hobby without speculative crypto bros driving prices to the moon for their latest meme coin scam that has 0 real world value until converted to fiat currency. Much of the crypto market is a Greater Fool scam wrapped up in the veneer of "da futah".

 

[yRaz]

Believe it or not, most people dont want to turn their hobby into a speculative market. They're not dumb, no dumber then hobbyists who restore classic cars not using them for uber, or hobby pilots not making US mail runs.

Many people simply want to enjoy their hobby without speculative crypto bros driving prices to the moon for their latest meme coin scam that has 0 real world value until converted to fiat currency. Much of the crypto market is a Greater Fool scam wrapped up in the veneer of "da futah".

at 80 cents a day I'm not really speculating and you ALREADY SPENT THE MONEY ON THE GRAPHICS CARD. I'm not saying buy graphics cards to mine, I'm saying mine on the graphics card you already bought. Best case scenario you get a free computer after a few years, worst case your electricity bill goes up by $5 a month. You're saying no to free money

 

[Phaetos]

Money does not stink.

Never worked retail where someone pulls it out of their shoe or boulder-holders, eh? Or from a pocket lined with bags of the magical green herb?

 

[mgwerner]

So Techspot, a blog creative by and promoted for market demand, is mad at a company promoting and selling a product to meet a market demand.........

 

[Avro Arrow]

The only significant difference between BioStar and everyone else is that BioStar is at least being 100% honest about it. It's kinda hard to condemn them for transparency.