During her keynote speech at Code Conference 2021, AMD CEO Lisa Su answered a question about the role of the cryptosphere in the company’s business. According to her, the demand for the manufacturer’s video cards, which are used for the extraction of altcoins, plays an insignificant role in the formation of AMD’s revenues.
In this case, Su is confident , that the company and further should not be given much attention to the sector. Let’s talk about what is happening in more detail.
Recall that AMD is one of the key manufacturers of video cards used by cryptocurrency miners along with Nvidia. The rulers are distinguished by a variety of choices and a wide range of characteristics. If you have an AMD or Nvidia graphics card, the 2CryptoCalc calculator will help you check its profitability .
2CryptoCalc yield calculator interface
To work with it, it is enough to indicate the model of your own equipment and find out the most profitable cryptocurrencies for mining. All setup instructions can also be found on the site.
Hashrate and profitability of mining on AMD Radeon Vega 56
AMD does not count on cryptocurrencies
This year, the video card market has seen huge demand due to the rapid growth in the price of Ethereum and other altcoins, as well as the number of people willing to mine them. The lack of equipment has caused discontent among gamers – the main audience of manufacturers of components for personal computers.
That is, AMD was at a crossroads: it had to satisfy the giant requests of miners and become dependent on the volatility of the cryptocurrency market or continue to maintain regular customers. As you can see, the choice fell on the second option.
AMD CEO Lisa Su
According to Decrypt , AMD’s main competitor, Nvidia, even began to fight against large purchases of video cards by miners due to artificial restrictions on equipment for mining cryptocurrencies. True, these restrictions have already been circumvented . To somehow meet the demand, the company even released a line of specialized Nvidia CMP hardware , created exclusively for mining.
In addition, the company has lowered the hashrate of certain video cards to make them less attractive to miners. Such devices are labeled with the identifier «Lite Hash Rate» or «LHR». Fortunately, getting the most out of LHR video cards is still possible. This will help our new overclocking guide for such devices paired with the Gminer miner.
During her speech at the conference, Su noted that the crypto market is “very volatile,” that is, subject to dramatic changes. This is the main reason that encourages AMD to support gamers, not miners. In addition, many experts note that the ban on Bitcoin mining in China in May this year will entail restrictions for altcoin miners in the country, which should flood the market with cheap video cards.
Note that China was primarily popular among Bitcoin miners: the country even accounted for about 65 percent of the network’s total hashrate, that is, its computing power. The reason for this was cheap electricity, which was not considered environmentally friendly. In addition, the production of various ASIC miners for mining cryptocurrencies is located in China – and this is also a factor in the country’s popularity as a hub for miners.
Crypto farm
True, there is one problem: the Chinese commercial giant Alibaba announced this Monday that from October 8, it will not be possible to display mining equipment and accessories on its trading floors. In addition, a ban on the sale of Bitcoin, Ethereum , Litecoin and some other altcoins will come into force .
The new ban on the sale of iron will involve its own fines. All retailers that continue posting graphics card ads on Alibaba platforms after October 15 will face the threat of being banned, advertising restrictions and other sanctions. In addition, the moderators will ensure that mining-related goods are not sold under the guise of other categories.
We believe that this position of the head of the video card manufacturer is quite understandable. Still, there are much more game lovers all over the world than miners. And the mining of cryptocurrency is somehow a seasonal trend, the popularity of which decreases during the so-called bearish cycles – that is, the fall of the coin market. It is likely that AMD’s support for gamers will not end with these words. Perhaps cryptocurrency miners should wait for the new restrictions that Nvidia representatives have already introduced.
