News Sapphire Doesn’t Want Cryptominers Buying Its Graphics Cards Either

[Admin]

Sapphire is frustrated that crytominers end up with its gaming graphics cards.

Sapphire Doesn’t Want Cryptominers Buying Its Graphics Cards Either : Read more

 

[superop]

I signed up literally so I can respond to this "news article".

Let me be plain. this is stupid. and I am sick of seeing these articles, Linus comments, reviewers comments, etc.

I have been for 15+ years and will continue to be a PC GAMER first and foremost. and I love gaming and playing wow, COD, and many other games. Overclocking, tinkering with rasberry devices, yeah I am a tech geek or whatever you want to call us. probally very similiar to a lot of readers of this site whether we sign up on the forums or not.

ALSO, I am a fan of a FREE market economy, and when I buy something, I can DO WHATEVER I WANT WITH IT, within the law and reason of course.

SO a LOT of people including myself have been hearing about mining and while I don't take it SERIOUSLLY, It does interest me as someone who went to school for electronics, and then programming.

SO GUESS WHAT. I downloaded nice Hash Miner thanks to reading about it on Toms Hardware and when I am NOT gaming, at night when my computer is just sitting there doing nothing and has zero other use besides being a paper weight, I am using the hardware that I PAID FOR to do some mining.

SUE ME.

right? topic almost seems comical to me as a educated, and free thinking human being. my computer still runs cool and quiet and is liquid cooled. and the fan even at 40% keeps my 5700 nice and cool under 70c and quiet while I sleep. why wouldn't I want an extra 2-3 bucks a night after electricity cost?

Why does Sapphire or anyone else for that matter care what I do with the hardware they I PAID FOR, and supporting their business with. Next you can tell me i can't se my video card to run architecture programs because its made for gamers? or i cant encode 4k video or stream using my video card cause its made for gaming? or maybe i can't use it to run multiple monitors for work cause its a gaming card.

come on. this whole argument and bias against miners is a joke. yes there is a higher demand for a prodict. so be mad at nvidia and amd for not making nearly enough for a product that is in demand.

my 2 cents and have a great day everyone

 

[gg83]

I signed up literally so I can respond to this "news article".

Let me be plain. this is stupid. and I am sick of seeing these articles, Linus comments, reviewers comments, etc.

I have been for 15+ years and will continue to be a PC GAMER first and foremost. and I love gaming and playing wow, COD, and many other games. Overclocking, tinkering with rasberry devices, yeah I am a tech geek or whatever you want to call us. probally very similiar to a lot of readers of this site whether we sign up on the forums or not.

ALSO, I am a fan of a FREE market economy, and when I buy something, I can DO WHATEVER I WANT WITH IT, within the law and reason of course.

SO a LOT of people including myself have been hearing about mining and while I don't take it SERIOUSLLY, It does interest me as someone who went to school for electronics, and then programming.

SO GUESS WHAT. I downloaded nice Hash Miner thanks to reading about it on Toms Hardware and when I am NOT gaming, at night when my computer is just sitting there doing nothing and has zero other use besides being a paper weight, I am using the hardware that I PAID FOR to do some mining.

SUE ME.

right? topic almost seems comical to me as a educated, and free thinking human being. my computer still runs cool and quiet and is liquid cooled. and the fan even at 40% keeps my 5700 nice and cool under 70c and quiet while I sleep. why wouldn't I want an extra 2-3 bucks a night after electricity cost?

Why does Sapphire or anyone else for that matter care what I do with the hardware they I PAID FOR, and supporting their business with. Next you can tell me i can't se my video card to run architecture programs because its made for gamers? or i cant encode 4k video or stream using my video card cause its made for gaming? or maybe i can't use it to run multiple monitors for work cause its a gaming card.

come on. this whole argument and bias against miners is a joke. yes there is a higher demand for a prodict. so be mad at nvidia and amd for not making nearly enough for a product that is in demand.

my 2 cents and have a great day everyone

I think miners don't buy just one card they buy many of them. I get your point though. I think Companies are bothered because if/when the mining boom busts they will be left with extra inventory after trying to meet demand. It's a rock and a hard place for everyone involved. I thought people had to buy ASIC machines to mine bitcoin anyway. I think ethereum is changing so you can mine it with GPUs soon too. The big farms pay way over MSRP directly from the manufacturers, right?

 

[CryptoUnchained]

Don't forget folks, once the mining cycle pops there will be 2 billion cards for sale on the used markets, unless..... Everyone is full of it and there is pathetically low supply. C'mon it's pretty obvious that the supply is low, if it wasn't there'd be way more than 200 cards for sale on ebay.

 

[Phaaze88]

I think ethereum is changing so you can mine it with GPUs soon too.

Ethereum is moving away from that towards ASICs. Supposedly it goes into effect at the end of this year.
It won't be as profitable for the masses to mine with gpus - some of them have 'their panties in a bunch' over it. You know, the price wall knocks many people out of ASIC mining.
It was the same deal with Bitcoin at first; once it moved to Proof of Stake, it was ASIC or bust - or you buy and trade it, I guess.

Don't forget folks, once the mining cycle pops there will be 2 billion cards for sale on the used markets, unless..... Everyone is full of it and there is pathetically low supply. C'mon it's pretty obvious that the supply is low, if it wasn't there'd be way more than 200 cards for sale on ebay.

I was thinking this too at first, but now I'm a bit worried.
The value of coin is so high that when a crash does happen, it may not be hard enough, and people will still continue to mine.
That's not going to stop the big scale mining ops at all, but for the smaller scale, like folks with a few cards in their basement or something - they may keep on going too.
Bitcoin is around 60k(last I checked). How hard is it going to have to crash for the small-time miners to go, "O crap!", before they dump their cards on the 2nd hand market?

 

[daworstplaya]

I signed up literally so I can respond to this "news article".

Let me be plain. this is stupid. and I am sick of seeing these articles, Linus comments, reviewers comments, etc.

I have been for 15+ years and will continue to be a PC GAMER first and foremost. and I love gaming and playing wow, COD, and many other games. Overclocking, tinkering with rasberry devices, yeah I am a tech geek or whatever you want to call us. probally very similiar to a lot of readers of this site whether we sign up on the forums or not.

ALSO, I am a fan of a FREE market economy, and when I buy something, I can DO WHATEVER I WANT WITH IT, within the law and reason of course.

SO a LOT of people including myself have been hearing about mining and while I don't take it SERIOUSLLY, It does interest me as someone who went to school for electronics, and then programming.

SO GUESS WHAT. I downloaded nice Hash Miner thanks to reading about it on Toms Hardware and when I am NOT gaming, at night when my computer is just sitting there doing nothing and has zero other use besides being a paper weight, I am using the hardware that I PAID FOR to do some mining.

SUE ME.

right? topic almost seems comical to me as a educated, and free thinking human being. my computer still runs cool and quiet and is liquid cooled. and the fan even at 40% keeps my 5700 nice and cool under 70c and quiet while I sleep. why wouldn't I want an extra 2-3 bucks a night after electricity cost?

Why does Sapphire or anyone else for that matter care what I do with the hardware they I PAID FOR, and supporting their business with. Next you can tell me i can't se my video card to run architecture programs because its made for gamers? or i cant encode 4k video or stream using my video card cause its made for gaming? or maybe i can't use it to run multiple monitors for work cause its a gaming card.

come on. this whole argument and bias against miners is a joke. yes there is a higher demand for a prodict. so be mad at nvidia and amd for not making nearly enough for a product that is in demand.

my 2 cents and have a great day everyone

Congrats, I think you missed the whole point of the article.

 

[BogdanH]

Congrats, I think you missed the whole point of the article.

..actually he didn't.
I'm not a miner and I don't consider myself as gamer either. But that doesn't mean I'm not interested on buying graphic card.

What I think has become a pathetic joke is, how manufacturers & sellers (try to) "symphatize" with gamers about not being able to deliver graphic cards to them -at the same time however, they're happy to sell to miners. Which is understandable: who pays more and buys in chunk, will get it first.
Manufacturers & sellers know that at some point mining demand will decline, so they just need trying to stay "in touch" with gamers.. for time when that happens (and market gets flooded with used cards).
What a hypocracy.

And except of only few reviewers, nobody has a courage to call this farce by it's name.

 

[bigdragon]

This PR spin isn't working anymore. Sapphire can claim they want to get their cards into the hands of gamers the same as Nvidia, AMD, Asus, EVGA, and others are claiming. I see zero action being taken to actually follow through with these claims. If these companies seriously want to get their products into the hands of gamers, then start taking action to do just that.

Sell to gamers on gamer storefronts where accounts can be checked for longevity, number of games owned, hours spent gaming, and other metrics. Limit 1 GPU purchase from any AIB for that account for a period of time. These tools are readily available on Steam, Epic, UPlay, Origin, PSN, XBL, and similar storefronts.

If Sapphire and friends don't want to make deals with gamer storefronts, then put those social media teams to work identifying gamers who still haven't been able to acquire a GPU. Stop wasting resources advertising products that customers can't buy and start putting them into the hands of actual gamers and content creators.

So no, Sapphire, I'm not buying your PR anymore. Saying you don't want miners buying your products means absolutely nothing until it's backed up with action. I have absolutely been abandoned by the GPU vendors and will not spend any more time on product launches that sell out instantly, products that get ripped out of my cart before I can complete checkout (Best Buy, AMD, Amazon, Asus, Zotac), or orders that get voided because of storefront math errors (Newegg).

 

[Giroro]

Linus comments

What's a Linus comment?

Why does Sapphire or anyone else for that matter care what I do with the hardware

Because they want to stay in business after the crypto fad ends. If gamers stop getting new cards then developers stop making PC games for new cards. Then, eventually, nobody anywhere has any reason to buy a GPU. Look at how poorly the "Wii U" sold after Nintendo abandoned their core audience to chase the Wii fad.
Of course for now its really just marketing spin.

this whole argument and bias against miners is a joke.

It's not a joke to anybody with the slightest amount of ethics, mortality, or understanding of the economics behind crypto. Mining doesn't create anything, it takes money away from people and gives nothing in return. It's in the category of fraud, theft, gambling, and money laundering. You aren't making money, you're taking money.
It's unsustainable inefficient waste of the world's resources that only ever existed because of scammers, organized crime, and foreign dictatorships.
And most importantly to an enlightened free thinker like yourself, you are going to lose every cent eventually. That is the only direction a peak speculator market can go. Elon musk has the bankroll play around with pump and dump market manipulation, you don't. You're the mark.
If you were better at this than him, then you would be the billionaire.

my 2 cents

Thanks Jay

 

[LolaGT]

As soon as one tries to insert their own idea of ethics or morality in the discussion they lose any credible position they didn't have in the first place.
No one is more worthy of spending their money on a card except the next guy in line willing to trade the cash, regardless of what they want to use it for.
Any gamers trying to pitch that they have some kind of moral high ground are a laughingstock.

Also, I am sure Sapphire is devastated they are selling every last bit of product they are turning out. They only made that statement because of where the question was posed.
Champagne corks are popping behind closed doors same as every other company selling out as fast as they can produce.

It's not a joke to anybody with the slightest amount of ethics, mortality(sic), or understanding of the economics behind crypto.

 

[vanadiel007]

I signed up literally so I can respond to this "news article".

Let me be plain. this is stupid. and I am sick of seeing these articles, Linus comments, reviewers comments, etc.

I have been for 15+ years and will continue to be a PC GAMER first and foremost. and I love gaming and playing wow, COD, and many other games. Overclocking, tinkering with rasberry devices, yeah I am a tech geek or whatever you want to call us. probally very similiar to a lot of readers of this site whether we sign up on the forums or not.

ALSO, I am a fan of a FREE market economy, and when I buy something, I can DO WHATEVER I WANT WITH IT, within the law and reason of course.

SO a LOT of people including myself have been hearing about mining and while I don't take it SERIOUSLLY, It does interest me as someone who went to school for electronics, and then programming.

SO GUESS WHAT. I downloaded nice Hash Miner thanks to reading about it on Toms Hardware and when I am NOT gaming, at night when my computer is just sitting there doing nothing and has zero other use besides being a paper weight, I am using the hardware that I PAID FOR to do some mining.

SUE ME.

right? topic almost seems comical to me as a educated, and free thinking human being. my computer still runs cool and quiet and is liquid cooled. and the fan even at 40% keeps my 5700 nice and cool under 70c and quiet while I sleep. why wouldn't I want an extra 2-3 bucks a night after electricity cost?

Why does Sapphire or anyone else for that matter care what I do with the hardware they I PAID FOR, and supporting their business with. Next you can tell me i can't se my video card to run architecture programs because its made for gamers? or i cant encode 4k video or stream using my video card cause its made for gaming? or maybe i can't use it to run multiple monitors for work cause its a gaming card.

come on. this whole argument and bias against miners is a joke. yes there is a higher demand for a prodict. so be mad at nvidia and amd for not making nearly enough for a product that is in demand.

my 2 cents and have a great day everyone

I want to say something on this wall of text you posted: Why do you bother trying to make 2-3 bucks per night by leaving your computer running at it's peak performance 24/7? The toll this 24/7 load on your system takes will in the long run eat away any profit you have made. Not to mention the fact I could not be bothered leaving my computer on for hours for 2-3 bucks of profit. That's like what, a free 5 sour gummy bears worth a night?

 

[vanadiel007]

As soon as one tries to insert their own idea of ethics or morality in the discussion they lose any credible position they didn't have in the first place.
No one is more worthy of spending their money on a card except the next guy in line willing to trade the cash, regardless of what they want to use it for.
Any gamers trying to pitch that they have some kind of moral high ground are a laughingstock.

Also, I am sure Sapphire is devastated they are selling every last bit of product they are turning out. They only made that statement because of where the question was posed.
Champagne corks are popping behind closed doors same as every other company selling out as fast as they can produce.

He is right though. Crypto is only worth something because you can exchange it for real world currency. That was never supposed to happen. The idea behind it was to replace currency with a new digital currency. Not to exchange the digital currency for USD. The whole digital currency market has moved itself far away from it's moral high ground, by those who introduced the whole system behind the exchanges that give crypto value. Truth is it has only value because you can exchange it for hard traditional cash. Without that, nobody would bother with it because what are you going to buy with your bitcoins? You don't buy anything with bitcoins, you sell them for USD. In effect you sell out the principles behind it and you sell out your own morality.

 

[spongiemaster]

What a hypocracy.

And except of only few reviewers, nobody has a courage to call this farce by it's name.

There's no hypocrisy here. I'm sure most people feel bad for starving children. Just because you're not trying to feed every one of them, doesn't make you a hypocrite. You're not required to fix every problem you feel bad about to demonstrate your sympathy is genuine. Most people know what is going on, there's no reason to call out companies for making smart business decisions. As a gamer myself, I'm not sure what the entitlement attitude is among some of you, but companies like Asus don't owe you anything because you want to play computer games.

 

[vanadiel007]

There's no hypocrisy here. I'm sure most people feel bad for starving children. Just because you're not trying to feed every one of them, doesn't make you a hypocrite. You're not required to fix every problem you feel bad about to demonstrate your sympathy is genuine. Most people know what is going on, there's no reason to call out companies for making smart business decisions. As a gamer myself, I'm not sure what the entitlement attitude is among some of you, but companies like Asus don't owe you anything because you want to play computer games.

Without people who want to play computer games, Asus, Sapphire etc would be 90% smaller than they are today. They rely heavily on gamers and the gaming industry to make a healthy profit margin. Most people would have never heard of them if it was not for gamers. Gamers are the hand that feeds them. Cutting off the hand that feeds you is not a good idea.

 

[Sergei Tachenov]

ALSO, I am a fan of a FREE market economy, and when I buy something, I can DO WHATEVER I WANT WITH IT, within the law and reason of course.

This, this, and freaking' this!

I'm really sick of things like Android phones, where it's the maker that decides what I can, and what I can't do with my device. I want to have precise time on a device that has at least THREE potential sources of time? No, that's not going to happen because, guess what, the maker decided I'm not allowed to have precise time on my device for “security reasons”. WTF? In 2021? I want to look at some app's config files to figure out why it doesn't work as I think it should. No, no, what a crazy idea. You're not allowed to look at your app's data, it's your app's data after all, not yours! Screw them.

That's why, being a tech geek, a nerd, a computer enthusiast or whatever you call it, love good old PCs so much, where you have full power not only over software, but over hardware as well. You just do what you want. Within the law, of course, but that goes without saying.

I really like AMD approach on this situation. They say they're not going to block any workloads, they just make their GPUs for gaming, optimize them for gaming, but it's our business what we actually do with them. This makes perfect sense to me.

 

[bigdragon]

Without people who want to play computer games, Asus, Sapphire etc would be 90% smaller than they are today. They rely heavily on gamers and the gaming industry to make a healthy profit margin. Most people would have never heard of them if it was not for gamers. Gamers are the hand that feeds them. Cutting off the hand that feeds you is not a good idea.

That hand has not only been cut off -- it's also be chucked into a wood chipper and then set on fire at this point. Asus, Sapphire, and competitors are like Epic Games when they dumped all over PC gamers during that stint as an XBox-focused developer, or Disney when they decided they wanted to remake Star Wars for a whole different fanbase. Gamers are no longer necessary.

If Sapphire seriously wanted to sell their GPUs to gamers, then they could find a way. Dumping GPUs on Amazon -- where a single account can buy dozens of cards a day -- or on Newegg -- where gamers are told to use 1 Shuffle account but scalpers and miners have dozens -- isn't working. Blocking workloads is not a solution, but changing the places cards are sold absolutely is. We've been dealing with stock issues on AMD GPUs for 5+ months now.

My first Sapphire GPU was an ATi 9600 Pro. My last was an RX 580 8 GB.

 

[Sergei Tachenov]

If Sapphire seriously wanted to sell their GPUs to gamers, then they could find a way.

I doubt it. It's not like every gamer has a Gamer's Passport. And even in a crazy world where it's true, what could stop a True Gamer from re-selling the card right away?

I hear all the crazy ideas of selling strictly one GPU per person (sounds very Soviet to me), but that's not going to work either. Miners will just hire many people who'll gladly buy those GPUs and then give them to miners for a reasonable fee.

None of this works. Only ramping up prices does, unfortunately, which is exactly what we see.

I also heard a crazy idea to make it a lottery, so only the lucky ones can buy GPUs for reasonable prices. That's another Soviet idea. I work hard, I earn a lot, and then some lazy arse wins that lottery and gets that GPU for a song? Really? That's fair? I don't think so.

 

[zodiacfml]

can't believe Sapphire said this considering they're the most popular AMD cards for miners during the previous crypto boom. They appear to be selling directly to industrial crypto miners back then.

 

[cryoburner]

Look at how poorly the "Wii U" sold after Nintendo abandoned their core audience to chase the Wii fad.

A big problem with the Wii U was that it was not targeting the Wii crowd enough. A lot of what sold the original Wii was the bundled Wii Sports, something groups of people could play together at gatherings, while showing off what the unique controllers could do, allowing the console to become popular through word of mouth. The Wii U didn't have that. There was no new Wii Sports title even available for purchase on the platform until they started trickling out Wii Sports Club minigames, sold individually through their online marketplace, a full year after the console's launch. The basic version of the console, which was priced $50 higher than what the Wii launched for, didn't include any bundled game whatsoever. For yet another $50, the premium bundle added some more internal storage and a copy of Nintendo Land, but that mini-game collection didn't really have the appeal for "non-gamers" that Wii Sports had.

And on the hardware side of things, the Wii U didn't even include a Wii-style motion controller in the box, instead expecting people to use existing MotionPlus controllers from the Wii for any games that required them. Its main gimmick was a large touchscreen, but it came at a time when tablets were already doing that better in many ways, and at lower prices. It wasn't a standalone portable device either, with the touchscreen controller needing to be within range of the main console, and often games required an external screen to function.

The marketing had major issues too. With a name like Wii U, it wasn't clear to consumers whether it was a new console, or just some kind of expensive touchscreen add-on for the aging Wii, leaving many unsure of what it was intended to do that their existing Wii and tablet/smartphone didn't already do. Announcing that they were discontinuing many of the Wii's online services right after the Wii U launched didn't instill much faith in the longevity of the new device's services either.

The Wii U had a lot going wrong with it from many perspectives even before it launched. It might not have really been the gaming device long-time Nintendo fans were hoping for, but it wasn't really targeted properly at the wider Wii audience either.

As for exclusively targeting the "core" Nintendo audience, Nintendo tried that with the Gamecube, and that console also sold poorly. Nintendo ended up having to officially drop its price to $99 (half its launch price) not even two years after the console came out. Actually, up until the Wii, Nintendo's console sales had been decreasing every generation since the NES. The NES sold around 62 million units worldwide, the SNES around 49 million, the N64 around 33 million, and the GameCube under 22 million. It's clear that Nintendo's console sales were on a steep downward descent, and something had to change to keep them viable in the console space. Then, the Wii came along, and managed to sell over 100 million units, making it Nintendo's best-selling console hardware ever. The Wii U obviously didn't sell well at around 14 million units, but looking at Nintendo's console sales trends prior to the Wii, those numbers were right in line with what might have been expected of a GameCube successor.

With the Switch, it's a bit less clear, since that device has effectively taken on the role of both their console and portable devices, and their portable devices have always tended to sell well. Combining the two platforms does seem like a good way to allow them to concentrate their resources in one place though.

 

[spongiemaster]

Without people who want to play computer games, Asus, Sapphire etc would be 90% smaller than they are today. They rely heavily on gamers and the gaming industry to make a healthy profit margin. Most people would have never heard of them if it was not for gamers. Gamers are the hand that feeds them. Cutting off the hand that feeds you is not a good idea.

6 months ago there were millions of gamers with video cards. Everyone's video cards didn't die in those 6 months. They can all still play games. Everyone who wants a new GPU hasn't been able to get one, but there are plenty of gamers who have been able to purchase GPU's these past 6 months. The RTX 3060ti, 3080 and 3090 are all on the Steam Hardware survey. This PC gaming is about to dies narrative is idiotic. We would need to see the current conditions continue for a couple more years before any real damage would occur, and that's not happening.

 

[vanadiel007]

6 months ago there were millions of gamers with video cards. Everyone's video cards didn't die in those 6 months. They can all still play games. Everyone who wants a new GPU hasn't been able to get one, but there are plenty of gamers who have been able to purchase GPU's these past 6 months. The RTX 3060ti, 3080 and 3090 are all on the Steam Hardware survey. This PC gaming is about to dies narrative is idiotic. We would need to see the current conditions continue for a couple more years before any real damage would occur, and that's not happening.

I don't think you understand the eco system behind gaming well. Games have a development cycle, and it starts with picking the graphic engine to use. It's a critical pick, that relies on many factors. When you have a new generation video card appear on the market, the previous generation is quickly killed off both in availability and support, to drive game development towards using the new features on the cards. With the current new generation of cards being so sparsely available to gamers, game developers are not going to switch to support it, because the user base is to low. This is turn will delay games using the new technologies, and in turn means future games will be optimized for the new cards, and more for the older (large user base) cards. This will have an effect on everything gaming, including XboX and Ps development.

Nobody says it is dying, many are saying that gamers are fed up with the lack of availability to them from the cards. It has been going on for months now, with no end in sight. The excuses have been poor as to why. In the end it is all about maximizing profit. They should just admit it and move on, instead of trying to blame it on scalpers, miners, supply chains etc...

We put a man on the moon in 1969, I am sure we can figure out how to supply the GPU market properly.

 

[spongiemaster]

I don't think you understand the eco system behind gaming well. Games have a development cycle, and it starts with picking the graphic engine to use. It's a critical pick, that relies on many factors. When you have a new generation video card appear on the market, the previous generation is quickly killed off both in availability and support, to drive game development towards using the new features on the cards. With the current new generation of cards being so sparsely available to gamers, game developers are not going to switch to support it, because the user base is to low. This is turn will delay games using the new technologies, and in turn means future games will be optimized for the new cards, and more for the older (large user base) cards. This will have an effect on everything gaming, including XboX and Ps development.

No, it isn't that important. DX12 is not getting replaced any time soon. Developers tend to target the mass market which is typically a generation or two behind. For the next few years the target is going to be PS5/XBox level performance regardless of what is released on the pc side. No developer is starting a game today targetting a 3080 or faster level card. 1080ti level performance is still uncommon in gaming pc's. And then you have major studios like Blizzard who couldn't careless about cutting edge features and are years behind the technology curve. We have repeatedly in recent years seen developers patch in features like DLSS and RTX after launch. It doesn't matter what they start with.

Dump the hyperbole. Many things are possible if the US gov't is willing to write you a blank check. It cost about $300 billion to put a man on the moon. When placed in context of the overall economy the cost baloons to almost $650 billion today. The US gov't doesn't care enough about you not getting a video card to spend that kind of money.

 

[Quick273]

So, now it's time for my 2 cents.
I am a gamer. However, I also am a miner with a small rig (roughly $100/day) and a stock holder for both Nvidea (GPUs) and AMD (CPUs).
As such, I have been following both sides of the argument.

It is completely understandable that gamers are upset with miners due to buying up as much of the current stock of GPUs as possible. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it isn't a train.
Bitcoin and Ethereum are both currently PoW (Proof of Work). Put simply, that means that both of them require some sort of GPU's computational power in order to mine. Now, Bitcoin has SO many people mining it that the difficulty to create one block has and will remain astronomical and a complete fools errand to mine with a video card. If you aren't using multiple ASIC's, dont even bother trying to mine Bitcoin because the profit just isn't there. That means $0 in video cards being used there. Which brings us to Ethereum which currently has a difficulty low enough that GPU's can still be used to mine it. That's where I believe most of the video cards are going. Yes, there are ASIC's out there that will mine it but the cost of one is just stupid expensive. So, when you have a miner running and basically printing digital money on a daily.... Miners dont seem to mind spending 2-3x the MSRP for a video card. Now here's where the light at the end of the tunnel comes into play. Keep in mind, the tunnel is pretty long but getting shorter by the day. The people that developed Ethereum are currently working on Eth 2.0 and the whole network will be transitioned over to PoS (Proof of Stake). To put it simply, it's like putting your Eth in a savings account (Min deposit of like 32 Eth) and earning interest on it. Once it becomes PoS, no more mining can be done bringing the video card sales to mine Eth down to $0. Until that happens (supposedly a year from now) though, people will continue to mine Eth as much and as fast as possible. Now there are still quite a few altcoins out there that can be mined once Eth goes PoS. However, none of them are currently worth as much. Meaning the crypto mining "craze" should slow down.

With the pandemic causing people to stay at home and businesses to close down, there just isn't the work force to harvest and process silicone. No silicone means GPU shortage. You just have to remember that the pandemic will eventually end, people will go back to work, and companies will start producing more video card. Meanwhile the video card companies are laughing all the way to the bank to deposit money from gamers and miners alike.

 

[blacknemesist]

I signed up literally so I can respond to this "news article".

Let me be plain. this is stupid. and I am sick of seeing these articles, Linus comments, reviewers comments, etc.

I have been for 15+ years and will continue to be a PC GAMER first and foremost. and I love gaming and playing wow, COD, and many other games. Overclocking, tinkering with rasberry devices, yeah I am a tech geek or whatever you want to call us. probally very similiar to a lot of readers of this site whether we sign up on the forums or not.

ALSO, I am a fan of a FREE market economy, and when I buy something, I can DO WHATEVER I WANT WITH IT, within the law and reason of course.

SO a LOT of people including myself have been hearing about mining and while I don't take it SERIOUSLLY, It does interest me as someone who went to school for electronics, and then programming.

SO GUESS WHAT. I downloaded nice Hash Miner thanks to reading about it on Toms Hardware and when I am NOT gaming, at night when my computer is just sitting there doing nothing and has zero other use besides being a paper weight, I am using the hardware that I PAID FOR to do some mining.

SUE ME.

right? topic almost seems comical to me as a educated, and free thinking human being. my computer still runs cool and quiet and is liquid cooled. and the fan even at 40% keeps my 5700 nice and cool under 70c and quiet while I sleep. why wouldn't I want an extra 2-3 bucks a night after electricity cost?

Why does Sapphire or anyone else for that matter care what I do with the hardware they I PAID FOR, and supporting their business with. Next you can tell me i can't se my video card to run architecture programs because its made for gamers? or i cant encode 4k video or stream using my video card cause its made for gaming? or maybe i can't use it to run multiple monitors for work cause its a gaming card.

come on. this whole argument and bias against miners is a joke. yes there is a higher demand for a prodict. so be mad at nvidia and amd for not making nearly enough for a product that is in demand.

my 2 cents and have a great day everyone

You missed the point. You are using 1 GPU, the problem is when you have factories running hundreds or thousands of GPUs or people that buy 2,3 or 4x the amount they should.
Let me put it like this : if I eat 10x more than the normal person to the point where people are starving is it not a problem? But if I keep my food and eat it tomorrow with the next meal I am not hurting anyone.

This crypto crap as a business is cutting access to chips that would go into real world actually useful applications like AI for cars. Currently chip manufacturers produce a certain capacity of chips per manufacturing type and arquitecture and expanding these lines is expensive to say the least and a poor investment because outside of crypto crysis there are no shortages on chips.