Miners and speculators stole 700,000 video cards from gamers in the first quarter

According to analysts from Jon Peddie Research, in the first quarter of this year approximately 25% of dedicated video card shipments– called AIB, Add-In Board – are over in the hands of miners and speculators: we talk about approx 700,000 pieces between medium and high range for a value of 500 million dollars.

The analysis, difficult and certainly not complete by the analysts’ own admission, try to estimate a phenomenon which exists and which is not totally traceable, driven in particular by Ethereum mining, whose algorithm (pending the transition from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake) is well suited to the capabilities of dedicated video cards, together with the cryptocurrency run in the last year – from $ 240 to $ 4000 in May, although today it dropped to $ 2500. Earnings that have led many mining farms and amateurs to throw themselves into it, trying to make a profit, thus draining video cards from the gaming sector, an area to which they are mainly addressed.

Jon Peddie Research explains that the prevalence of AIB cards within PCs dropped from 100% in the 1980s (when all PCs had an additional card to display images on the screen) to 34% in 2014, before the previous crypto boom. which from 2016 to 2018 led to a jump to 70%.

“More recently, we have seen the attachment rate (the presence rate of AIB cards in PCs) drop to 25% and then climb back to 50%. We calculated the use of AIB cards by mining as the difference between the normal trend and the current rate. The assumption that miners have dedicated systems and not bought a new PC to go mining. For the most part, this is true, although some amateurs buy PCs for mining, “write the analysts.

However, the number of 700,000 units cannot be written in stone, and Jon Peddie Research reports that the investigation cannot be accurate “due to the general shortage of components” which led to the introduction of “buying bots scouring the web for AIB card inventories and, when they find them, they buy them immediately. Bot owners take AIB cards, link them to their farm, raise their price, and trade them on eBay. And some miners will buy them from eBay sellers. Not only new AIB cards but also last generation “.

In addition to bots, too the increase in component costs of a video card – in addition to the GPU – has led to inflating prices. “This includes GDDR memory, the second most expensive thing on an AIB card. Then there are the voltage regulators, capacitors and other miscellaneous parts. They have all increased, some by as much as 70% since the beginning of the year. supply and demand, plain and simple. Some people say that due to the increase in consumer demand from working from home. And yes, there is some, but not 70%. And even if it was due to that phenomenon, this demand should by now be satisfied “.

“The speech made mainly concerns professional miners, the model used has no way of tracking down players or others who occasionally do some mining“, analysts conclude. Bots, speculators and miners have therefore drained hundreds of thousands of gaming GPUs from the shops and caused the prices to rise incredibly – but that was already known.

Nvidia at the moment the only one that is trying to do something among the producers. The US company is trying to divert professional miners to CMP cards that use GPUs not intended for gaming video cards. At the same time, it has created a performance limiter in cryptocurrency mining and is trying to roll it out across all its models.

AMD, on the other hand, has decided not to take countermeasures. Several shops and stores around the world have tried to stem the phenomenon by requiring the purchase of one card per user, and some moreover only in the store, however those who want to speculate always seem to find a way to do so. The situation is not destined to change drastically this year, it is hoped that from 2022 a glimmer of light will begin to appear, but alas this is more a hope than a belief.