Nvidia and AMD, the two major manufacturers of GPUs or graphics processing units have recognized that their equipment is scarce, which would be affecting the activities of many gamers and miners of cryptocurrencies. The shortage has cast all eyes on the laptops with Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 30-series graphics cards that some would be using for Ethereum mining. However, will a laptop really be profitable for mining Ethers (ETH)?
As laptop mining appears to be gaining popularity in China, a video is circulating on social media from that country. In it, a young woman shows how easy and profitable it would be to mine Ethereum on a notebook PC equipped with the new RTX 3060 graphics card.
By plugging your equipment into a Starbucks outlet, The young woman shows in the video how she allegedly mined 0.00053 ETH (about $ 0.89) in about two hours. The amount would be enough to pay for the cup of coffee you consumed during that time. Based on this estimate, digital media point out that there is a possibility that Nvidia’s new laptop has the potential to mine more than 2 ETH per year (about 3,400 dollars at current price).
However, it is to be considered that the young woman in the video does not include the consumption of energy that was needed to mine $ 0.89 in two hours. Electricity in China costs about RMB 0.545, equivalent to about $ 0.084, per kWh, which can mean a higher electricity bill than the number of coins mined .
For GPU mining to be profitable, you will surely need to mine 24/7, but there is also the possibility that equipment is damaged as it is not designed to withstand a permanent heavy workload. It will also be necessary to consider whether with cryptocurrency mining, it is worth exposing a laptop, which can cost between $ 1,000 and $ 2,000.
Nvidia’s priority is gamers
Recently, executives from GPU manufacturer Nvidia pointed out that are not so sure about how much demand their equipment has from cryptocurrency miners .
«We don’t have evidence of how much of the final demand for the RTX 30 series comes from mining. Therefore, we do not believe that it is an important part of our business today. The demand for games is very strong and we believe that it is greater than our current offer “, said Colette Kress, CFO of the company.
In case of determining that indeed the demand for GPUs to cryptocurrency mining is significant, then they would be willing to reactivate the product line of cards dedicated to mining. These eliminate the video outputs that are necessary for gamers, as Kress added. As CriptoNoticias reported, it was in September of last year when Nvidia launched its GeForce RTX 3090, the fastest domestic GPU for Ethereum mining . However, it sold out instantly due to an incredible level of demand. Recently, both Nvidia and AMD, the other major GPU maker, have said they won’t be able to meet consumer needs until after April.
