NVIDIA is recently finding in a bit of a bind regarding having overordered one of the critical components for their new RTX 40-series. They appear to have used their very strong sales number from before the crypto winter to guestimate their future need.
What does this mean for NVIDIA
Simply put they ordered a ton more 5mn wafers than they are ending up needing. Due to the influx of used GPUs stemming from sales because of miners fearing what the Merge will bring to GPU mining. And the Bear Market wreaks havoc on profits for mining in general, not only GPU mining. This and the increasing electricity cost have led to many people simply offloading their older GPUs at what is close to bargain prices. Especially compared to the price craze that was surrounding GPUs a little over 6 months back. And not to mention the looming economic recession probably means that not many gamers are looking to upgrade their PCs to the next-gen GPUs.
https://twitter.com/chiakokhua/status/1542733213730508800
- chiakokhua
This left them with little choice, they reached out to the producer of the 5nm wafers looking to cancel their order of surpluses wafers. And the producers simply said, no go on that.
They did however leave NVIDIA with an out, they said they could delay the first shipment three months or even up to Q1 2023 and allow them to find others to buy the excess wafers.
Who that might be is anyone's guess. As AMD is probably in a similar situation to NVIDIA. And most phone manufacturers are scaling down production as well.
How will this impact GPU miners
What will happen after the Merge is likely going to be a race for the most efficient setups. This means that there will probably be an influx of older or less efficient GPUs flooding the market the closest time after the Merge. And I would guess that most minable crypto prices will take a hit as well. Leaving only the most efficient setups able to mine with a profit.
And one possible out for efficiency could be buying the next-gen GPUs, the RTX 40-series. But now with them looking to be delayed for as long as possibly Q1 or even Q2 of 2023. It is looking like the GPU mining will end up being a like bit of the wild west.
But then the new RTX 40-series is rumored to be very power-hungry, so they might very well end up being the savior for efficiency as I think they could be. And we might see a surge in price for older efficient GPUs like the 1660 and 5700.
What are your thoughts on this mess NVIDIA has gotten itself into? Is it well deserved or do you just want a new GPU? And what do you think will happen with GPU mining after the Merge? Please share your thoughts on this in the comment section down below.
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