NVIDIA’s gargantuan chokehold on the gaming market could be weeks away from expanding into cryptocurrency mining with rumours of a new Ampere product line.
On March 26 the graphics card (GPU) manufacturer is set to announce a new line of gaming cards codenamed Turing at the GPU Technology Conference (GTC).
But online forums are now alive with the rumour that on the sidelines of the tech show, the company will boldly march into crypto mining.
A rumour spread on 3DCenter stipulates that NVIDIA’s chipsets will move away the Volta micro-architecture adopted in May 2017 for Ampere.
The line could possibly spell an end for the GTX 10 Series, being replaced with the GV104 chips.
The cards are expected to hit retail shelves on April 12, which further hints towards a new product line announcement at GTC 2018.
The chips could power NVIDIA’s GTX 2080 and 2070, two GPUs powerful enough to mine for cryptocurrency.
WCCFTech writer Usman Pirzada speculated: “In any case, the Ampere based NVIDIA GeForce GTX 2070 and GTX 2080 graphics cards should certainly help revive some demand in the industry and will almost certainly run into severe shortage issues as miners pick up the initial batches.
“With most foundries now working at almost peak capacity to serve miners its interesting to see how the next saga of the gaming technology cycle pans out and how companies deal with the rights of the gamers that are being trodden upon by cryptocurrency miners.”
With cryptocurrency mining becoming an increasingly frustrating and intensive process, particularly for bitcoin, mining has taken a toll on PC gamers.
GPU shortages have plagued computer builders in recent months with component prices skyrocketing alongside the bitcoin boom.
High-end GPUs used to power gaming computers have been miners’ best friends since the emergence of bitcoin in 2008.
But with every passing day the bitcoin processing requirements are getting more complex and more power hungry.
In many cases, GPU prices have doubled over the past year as shelves were wiped clean by miners hoping to strike crypto gold.
A mid-range AMD Radeon RX 570 GPU with a retail price of around $200 last spring can now fetch upwards of $300 and $400.
The GPU shortage has also taken a hit on scientists and UFO hunters who said they could not buy the processing cards needed for their research.
Dan Werthimer, chief scientist at the Berkeley SETI Research Center, said: “That’s limiting our search for extra-terrestrials, to try to answer the question, ‘Are we alone? Is there anybody out there?’
“This is a new problem, it’s only happened on orders we’ve been trying to make in the last couple of months.”
Introducing a dedicated line of GPUs for mining could have interesting applications for the market, releasing some of the pressure felt by gamers looking to upgrade their cards.
Earlier this year NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang, stressed that crypto mining is not going away anytime soon.
Mr Huang said: “Clearly, there’s a lot of talk about crypto. And crypto was a real part of our business this past quarter, even though small, overall.”
He added: “Crypto is a real thing – it’s not going to go away.”