GPU cryptocurrency mining has been ebbing and flowing over the past couple of years. After an initial GPU mining frenzy a few years ago came and went, it has returned in force. Due to their GPUs ability to mine, AMD is reportedly now running into supply issues once again. The craze has become so large that some AMD Add-in Board (OEM) partners have started to emphasise the mining abilities of their cards.
The first mining craze, mainly driven by Bitcoin hit AMD particularly hard. While the company was getting sales, it was unable to build mindshare among gamers. The cards sold out too quickly and were often priced high due to low supply. The heavy load caused by mining also raised warranty claims. Soon the mining craze died down as ASIC miners supplanted GPU mining. This led to a glut of used AMD cards. At the same time, gamers had gotten used to buying Nvidia and stuck with that brand. Combined with AMD’s other issues, this depressed their GPU sales.
Recently, GPU mining has returned with a vengeance as ASIC resistant currencies like Etherium gained popularity. This has seen RX 500 cards go out of stock more quickly than before and used card prices rise with demand. AMD has been great for consumers by offering more specialised compute power than Nvidia in their consumer models. Unfortunately, it appears that it may be backfiring on them once again.
