Bitcoin causes shortage of Nvidia and AMD graphics cards
The shortage of the latest GeForce RTX 3000s is not about to end. In addition to the difficulties in sourcing components, Nvidia must also deal with cryptominers, who buy entire stocks of graphics cards to mine Bitcoin and Ethereum, two virtual currencies at particularly high prices currently.
As you may know, the latest GeForce RTX 3070, 3080 and 3090 cards are in an unprecedented shortage situation. Blame it on the difficulties experienced by the manufacturer in obtaining the components necessary for their manufacture, on extremely high demand… And on cryptominers.
In recent weeks, Bitcoin has seen its price explode, even exceeding the symbolic bar of $ 50,000 for a BTC. This unprecedented popularity is linked to several recent announcements. Finally, renowned companies have decided to trust the queen of cryptocurrencies. This was the case of Tesla, who bought $ 1.5 billion in Bitcoin, or even of Paypal and Mastercard who confirmed the future possibility of paying in BTC or with other cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin’s good health has had a trickle-down effect on other virtual currencies. It is necessary to remember that Bitcoin, unlike the vast majority of other cryptocurrencies, is not “cultivated” using graphics cards, but with an ASIC (a device dedicated exclusively to this task).
Despite this detail, the explosion in the price of the queen of cryptocurrency has a beneficial impact on the popularity of other currencies. In fact, cryptominers have flocked to the latest graphics cards from Nvidia, which offers ideal computing power for mining. As an example, an American bought 78 GeForce RTX 3080 and 65 GTX 1080 Ti to mine cryptocurrency. As a result, he manages to pocket $ 900 a day, or the tidy sum of $ 27,000 per month.
More recently, miners have decided to step up a gear. Unable to buy graphics cards individually, cryptominers have fallen back on the latest laptops equipped with RTX 3060. This is why we have seen circulating on the web photos of Ethereum farms made up of dozens and dozens of Laptops. As a reminder, the price of this virtual currency is also in excellent shape, for go from € 100 to € 1,275 in just one year.
The shortage persists on e-commerce sites
You just have to go to the various merchant sites to see the shortage for yourself. Whether on Amazon, LDLC or Hardware.net, the latest generation GeForce RTXs are all out of stock. The same goes for previous cards from the manufacturer, like the RTX 2060, the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti. Even the GeForce 1050 Ti, launched in 2016, are nowhere to be found.
This unprecedented situation prompted Nvidia to take radical decisions. Indeed, the company intends to reissue RTX 2060 and GTX 1050 Ti to meet part of the demand. In addition, the manufacturer will reduce the performance of RTX 3060 to prevent cryptominers from pouncing on them. A new range of cards dedicated to mining, CMPs, will be launched between the first and second quarters of 2021.
Source: BFM
