Bitcoin Crosses $7K, Ethereum Aiming for $200: AMD Graphics Cards About to Disappear?

It has been a while since the mining boom got over, but some of the after-effects are still not completely over. Just look at NVIDIA’s stocks- after reaching an all-time high of nearly $300/share, they took a severe beating and are now down by around 30% in the sub-$200 territory. AMD had a similar fate, but the damage was less prominent due to the surging CPU sales and Intel’s 14nm chip shortages only helped. After showing a downward trend for almost a year, cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ethereum have started picking up, with the former crossing the $7,000 mark and the latter aiming for $200. So does this mean we are headed towards another graphics card drought?

Well, as you might already have guessed, it’s too early to tell. In my opinion, it’s quite unlikely. After last year’s high which was followed by an oversupply of discrete GPUs from both NVIDIA and AMD, both chipmakers will be wary and better prepared if it comes to it. Secondly, although Bitcoin and Ethereum prices may have somewhat stabilized, they are still nowhere near the $20K mark that triggered the mining frenzy last year.

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However, if a cryptocurrency does (somehow) manage to smash records, miners will be aiming for Radeon cards, as they are both cheaper as well as better suited to the task, with the recently launched 7nm Radeon VII becoming the most efficient card at Ethereum mining. NVIDIA’s GTX 16 series Turing cards might also get some attention but only after the Polaris-based RX 500 series parts become rarer. This will only drive desperate gamers into buying the more expensive RTX 20 series cards which don’t really serve much of a purpose when it comes to mining. But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, this is after all the worst case scenario, and chances of it becoming a reality are rather slim.

Anyway, what are your opinions on this? Are you a miner or a gamer? What do you expect will happen?

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