AMD and Nvidia Dive Into the Graphics Card Mining Business

AMD and NVIDIA are both facing problems with the stock of their power efficient and cost effective graphics cards due to the popularity of cryptocurrency mining. In order to satisfy the demand for such solutions and prevent shortages of gaming cards for normal customers both AMD and NVIDIA are planning to announce special editions of their popular graphics cards designed specifically for cryptocurrency mining.

NVIDIA is said to launch GeForce GTX 1060 with GP106-100 GPU, a custom edition for mining. This card would lack display connectors and most likely it would not support any gaming at all. According to our sources, these cards, unlike normal editions, would only have 90 days warranty. The good news is that these cards will be cheaper than the same models for gamers. These cards will be sold by add-in-board partners.

AMD is also planning Polaris based model for mining, except the details are yet unknown.

NVIDIA Allegedly Readying Headless Pascal Crypto-Mining GPUs For Ethereum, Bitcoin And Others
The so-called cryptocurrency market is booming, or at least parts of it are. One of the most popular digital currencies is Bitcoin. It recently topped the $3,000 mark for the first time since its debut in 2009, and had you owned just $27 worth at that time, you'd be sitting on $15,000,000. While volatile, the price just keeps going up over time. This has kept the mining market alive, and NVIDIA reportedly plans to capitalize on it by releasing specialized Pascal cards tuned specifically for digging up crytocurrencies.

News of NVIDIA's plans can be found all over the web, though most reports trace back to a couple of sources. One is a tech site called Goldfries that claims it received word that a dedicated mining GPU is in the works and that it will arrive around the middle of next month. These specialized graphics cards will not have any display outputs because they're not meant for gaming, graphics work, or anything that requires a monitor.

At least one of the GPUs is said to be based on NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card with 6GB of GDDR5 memory. It will stick to reference clocks with base and boost clockspeeds set at 1,506MHz and 1,708MHz, respectively, though add-in board partners may opt to overclock. The card will take up two expansion slots, just as a regular GeForce GTX 1060, and will be backed by a three-month warranty. Pricing is expected to be around $200, which is around $50 less than the regular variant.

As you can see, it doesn't look like the gaming variant. It features a custom PCB and has a passive cooling solution that consists of a finned aluminum block. There is no active blower on this card; keeping it cool will require adequate airflow in a chassis and/or an open-air configuration.

It's also said that NVIDIA is working on a mining card based on its more powerful GeForce GTX 1080 GPU. NVIDIA is also sticking to reference clocks with this one—1,60MHz base and 1,733MHz boost—though it remains to be seen if its AIB partners offer overclocked models. Either way, these cards will be optimized for cryptocurrency mining. Pricing will start at $350, versus $499 for gaming models.

Mining P106-6G:

NVIDIA P104-100 “GTX 1080” With 8 GB GDDR5X – Starting at $350 US

The NVIDIA P104-100 model utilizes the same design as the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080. It delivers much higher efficiency and is fine tuned for crypto mining purposes. While the cards will ship with different clock speeds, the base model is tuned to operate at 1607 MHz base, 1733 MHz boost, 10 Gbps GDDR5X speeds along a 256-bit bus.

Power will be provided by a single 8-pin connector and TDP is rated at 180W. The base models will be shipping with a price of just $350 US while the one that is listed by Inno3D (P6D-N104-1SDN P104-100 Twin X2 8GB GDDR5X) has a price of $370 US which is much lower than the $499 US price of regular gaming variants.

It is stated that NVIDIA P104-100 cards will be able to hit mining rates of up to 60 MH/s with some modified VBIOS and further chip tuning but that remains to be seen.

NVIDIA P106-100 “GTX 1060” With 6 GB GDDR5 – Starting at $200 US

The NVIDIA P106-100 model utilizes the same design as the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060. It delivers much higher efficiency and is fine tuned for crypto mining purposes. While the cards will ship with different clock speeds, the base model is tuned to operate at 1506 MHz base, 1708 MHz boost, 8.0 Gbps GDDR5 speeds along a 192-bit bus.

So the question is to wait for the mentioned new cards or to move on with the current models on the market.

Sources:

• https://news.bitcoin.com/amd-and-nvidia-enter-into-the-graphic-card-for-mining-business/
• https://videocardz.com/70162/amd-and-nvidia-preparing-graphics-cards-for-cryptocurrency-mining
• https://hothardware.com/news/nvidia-allegedly-readying-pascal-crypto-mining-gpus-ethereum-bitcoin
• http://wccftech.com/nvidia-pascal-gpu-cryptocurrency-mining-price-specs-performance-detailed/
• http://www.expreview.com/54980.html