Anyone who's been paying attention to the PC market as of late knows that it's a tumultuous time to be a hobbyist or gamer on the lookout for a new GPU. Stocks of Nvidia and AMD graphics cards have been in short supply, even with GameStop announcing it would start selling PC hardware in stores. With people blaming cryptomining for the shortages, one company has had the temerity to boast about how many GPUs it's purchased.
In a recent report, a company known as Hut 8 Mining Corp., who are known for cryptomining Bitcoin currency, have confessed to spending the equivalent of $30 million securing a huge supply of the latest Nvidia GPUs. A quick bit of math shows that that's more than 18,500 graphics cards based on the CMP chip, or around $1,600 per GPU. That is, arguably, an extortionate amount to pay for PC hardware.
These cards, called Cryptocurrency Mining Processor (CMP) cards, are specifically designed for those wishing to engage in mining online currency. Both AMD and Nvidia announced recently their desires to start making and selling GPUs for cryptomining. The idea being that this will take the heat off miners buying up hardware that people want for gaming instead. Nvidia also said it would start issuing GPUs with mining limiters as standard to stem the onslaught of products being bought up by miners.
However, the report indicates that Hut 8 Mining will not be using its thousands of recently purchased cards to mine for Bitcoin. Instead, it may switch its efforts to Ethereum instead based on what these specific cards are capable of. Either way, with the company still waiting on its order to be fulfilled, which could be completed by May 2021, it shouldn't matter too much to PC gamers how many it buys, so long as it keeps gaming hardware untouched for other customers to buy.
The recession still seems to be biting deep in terms of how difficult it is to get hold of new GPU tech. With stocks expected to be in short supply right up until next year, all gamers and hardware enthusiasts can do is sit and wait. The Nvidia 3000 series, and AMD's equivalent, is likely to be a sought after piece of hardware once they become available again. With the likes of Hut 8 Mining now turning its attention to crypto-based GPUs, it looks as though the plan to divide the market into two could pay dividends in the end, especially for gamers.
Source: PC Gamer