Nvidia, a leader in GPU computing, is once again on an offensive against cryptocurrency mining – specifically Ethereum mining, which they plan to actively put a damper on as the year progresses. This latest move is a follow-up to an announcement made in February.
The effect of the recent digital assets boom have rippled into other markets. Amid a global semiconductor shortage, the increased investor appetite for cryptocurrency has in turn applied extra strain on the GPU supply chain – as a direct result of the sharp spike in crypto mining activities.
Because a single cryptocurrency mining ring would typically run on multiple GPU – as opposed to a gaming desktop which commonly use one GPU per PC – the resulting imbalance tends to leave Nvidia’s core business, gamers, wanting when crypto miners use their deeper pockets to empty the shelves of newly released GPUs.
Likely due to the infancy of the digital assets market, Nvidia has opted to aire on the side of caution – favouring the gaming market over crypto miner demand for their GPU’s.
“To help get GeForce GPUs in the hands of gamers, we’re taking additional measures by applying a reduced ETH hash rate to newly manufactured GeForce RTX 3080, RTX 3070 and RTX 3060 Ti graphics cards. These cards will start shipping in late May.” Reads the original bog post.
What To Expect Moving forward
First of all, crypto miners who got their hand on the RTX 30 range’s earlier releases will not be affected by Nvidia’s choice to reduce the ETH hash rate on their newer GPUs – in future, this should serve as a reminder of how early birds might catch fatter worms.
The second ripple effect we can expect to see is a steep rise in the price of the earlier RTX 30 models on the resale market.
This may also have an impact on the company’s stocks due to a reduction in demand. At the time of writing, Nvidia (Nasdaq, NVDA) stock was down 1.06% – while Ethereum (ETH) was down 14,51% against the dollar.
