Motherboard Manufacturer, ASRock, Set to Release GPU-based Crypto Miners
ASRock is set to release a total of four GPU graphics cards that have been designed specifically to mine cryptocurrency. This makes ASRock the newest entrant to the rapidly expanding market of crypto mining hardware manufacturers that already includes names firms like Bitmain and Canaan.
Cryptocurrency mining has become an integral part of the overall crypto market as the value of cryptos increased several folds in 2017. The process involves enormous computing power to solve complex algorithmic functions in order to authenticate crypto transactions thereby creating new ‘coins’ in the process.
The ASRock Phantom Gaming Series
The announcement of the new crypto-focused graphics cards was made during the unveiling the company’s new line of five graphics cards as part of its Phantom Gaming Series. This represents the first foray of the company into the graphics card business. The new graphics cards are based on the AMD RX series.
According to LL Shiu, the CEO of ASRock, the company is delighted to be teaming up with AMD. He described AMD as being a reliable and strong partner and that there were plans for future collaborations targeted at developing more technologically advanced products.
According to the company insider, of the five newly released graphics cards, four of them are dedicated to crypto mining only with the fifth card, the RX570 8G OC being the only gaming card in the line-up. A rundown of the specs shows that they have been designed to offer seamless functionality and improved efficiency. The company is yet to reveal any word on pricing as well as the expected release date for the graphics cards.
With bitcoin mining becoming virtually monopolized by large-scale ASIC mining, attention seems to have shifted to other cryptos like ether, monero and vertcoin that can be mined with GPU mining hardware units. The sale of GPU graphics cards has even been shown to contribute a significant portion of the revenue of graphics card makers like Nvidia and AMD.
Crypto Mining Consolidation
This move by ASRock seems to indicate a consolidation of its efforts in the crypto mining arena. In 2013, the company produced cryptocurrency mining-specific motherboards. ASRock is trying to capitalize on the increase in demand for crypto mining GPUs. Gamers, on the other hand, will be hoping that the release of these four crypto-mining targeted GPUs will solve the shortage problem that has been caused by the crypto-fueled monopoly of GPU hardware of the past few months.
This announcement by ASRock comes just as Bitmain, the largest bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer unveiled its own ASIC miner for Ethereum.
While there is no word yet on how the development team at Ethereum will handle the move by Bitmain, it is worth pointing out that a successful implementation of ASIC mining for Ethereum which turns out to be profitable will absolutely blow GPU miners out of the water just like in the case of bitcoin. Already, Monero and Siacoin have taken steps to make sure that their blockchain is immune to ASIC mining.
