GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) or ‘video cards’ are still in-demand.

If you’re a pc gamer and you’re trying to buy a graphics card recently, you might have noticed that it's very difficult to find a good inexpensive one. Cryptocurrency miners have inflated the hardware market for gamers by buying high-end graphics cards just for mining. Now we know about how much those people spent on graphics cards. According to a new report from Jon Peddie Research, cryptocurrency miners bought over three million graphics cards worth $776 million in 2017.

JPR president Dr John Peddie said that cryptocurrency miners have increased the demand for GPUs last year. But maybe there is some good news for gamers. Gaming still remains the single biggest market for GPU sales. Peddie said that gaming has been and will continue to be the primary driver for GPU sales, augmented by the demand from cryptocurrency miners.

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But because the demand for GPUs is now so high, thanks to cryptocurrency miners, Peddie believes that prices will remain high at least in the near future. He also advised that gamers can offset those costs by mining when not gaming, but prices will not drop in the near future.

Widespread crypto-mining has been pretty beneficial for at least one of the companies who make graphics cards. The GPU manufacturing company, AMD, experienced an increased market share at +8.1% because of he high demand from cryptocurrency miners. AMD’s chief rival, Nvidia decreased its market share by 6% and Intel decreased by 2% this quarter. So, it’s good news for AMD which has been in fierce competition with Nvidia with its line of GPUs in terms of gaming performance. It’s also worth mentioning Peddie’s analysis that says overall GPU shipments decreased by 1.5% from the previous quarter despite the increased demand. So, they are actually making less graphics cards despite the fact that they’re selling much much more of them. Peddie predicts that the demand for GPUs will eventually decrease because of extreme volatility in the cryptocurrency market. He said that they expect demand to slacken from the miners as margins drop in response to increasing utilities costs and supply and demand forces that drive up and add in board prices.

[A dedicated motherboard for mining (from the second video below)]

To put the whole thing in perspective, there have been 3 million sales just for cryptocurrency mining. It could mean that even those whore are only a bit techie have started to try mining. It’s actually a widespread thing. They have collectively spent millions of dollars on GPUS for cryptocurrency mining alone. It’s still analogous to a gold rush where people rush into mining wherever there could be gold, without any long term plans. Now, it’s a little bit weird that they spend loads of money on graphics cards. Even gamers might find it difficult to do it on the sidelines. The market is just too volatile that not all mining days are profitable, even if you have the best optimal setup and low electricity costs.

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On the other hand, it’s good for GPU manufacturers. Who wouldn’t want to be is such position where the business can sell much more than what they can make? I guess the only reason why they don’t seem to ramp up production is that they recognized the hype in crypto-mining and deemed it unsustainable. They still cater and prepare more for demands thrown at them by PC gamers. The outlook may be a little bit bad for gamers because of the soaring prices the increased demand has produced.

At least in theory, GPU manufacturers must continue to improve their graphics cards to prepare for future changes in processing demands. -Not only for gaming but for crypto-mining as well. In effect, they might find a way to actually help sustain the demand from crypto-miners by producing better graphics cards suitable for mining and in turn, helping sustain the ‘rush’. They should also be prepared to face possible new competitors since businessmen see the demand and may find a hole to fill in.In fact, I should say that the best time to enter the GPU manufacturing business is today.

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Retail outlets started selling packages of six GPUs or so, because many customers look for package discounts. Have you seen an actual box of six cards sold as one item? Nobody needs such number for gaming on a single PC. So, obviously, demand from miners has created such packages. I won’t be surprised if I see someone advertising a graphics card not as a graphics card but as a cryptocurrency mining board. If you’re not involved, it’s pretty interesting to know. If you’re a gamer, this news probably annoys you, knowing that you’ll have to spend more in order to upgrade your gaming rig. If you’re a miner, if you still want to try mining at this point for the first time, despite the uncertainty and high investment, I recommend you watch these videos to see how a mining rig is set up and how much profit one can get.