Crypto Miners Strike Again, Now AMD Ryzen Is Buying Up
Morrissey Technology – In the past, crypto miners bought up GPUs until they were scarce on the market, now it’s the turn of AMD Ryzen processors to be bought up by crypto miners. Currently, AMD Radeon GPU supplies are starting to become scarce again, with demand continuing to increase in China. However, with the value of Bitcoin and Ethereum continuing to increase, crypto miners continue to increase their production.
Namely by buying all AMD Ryzen CPUs in large quantities, which makes the stock scarce. The processor that is being targeted is the Ryzen 9 7950X, which is one of the fastest desktop processors for gaming or productivity purposes. This processor is sought after because it is optimal for Qubic mining thanks to its support for the AVX2 and AVX512 instruction sets, which are essential for many crypto mining rigs, as well as its overall efficiency.
Using an AMD processor is also more profitable than using an Nvidia GPU because the price is cheaper. Crypto miners can make twice as much profit using the 7950X FOR4D compared to the RTX 4090, partly because the RTX 4090 is much more expensive.
The difference in profit comparison will be higher when AMD releases a CPU with the Zen 5 architecture, which will only be mass produced in 2024. This is because Zen 5 reportedly has two times higher AVX512 performance than Zen 4 which is used by the 7950X.
Zen 5 is expected to begin production at TSMC between April and June, while mass production will only begin in the next quarter. Mainstream class Zen 5 CPUs will use a core called “Nirvana”, while server class CPUs and the like will use a Zen 5c core called “Prometheus”.
The 7950X shortage was revealed by MegasizeGPU via the @Zen__Wang account on X. This shortage occurred almost at the same time as the Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange rates increased, which both skyrocketed.
“The 7950X is out of stock everywhere. What’s going on? Is there a special need for this CPU, or has it been discontinued,” he wrote in X.
“Now I understand. The 7950X is the king in Qubic mining,” he continued in another post.