Purchases of graphics processing units (GPUs) by cryptocurrency miners helped sales during the fourth quarter of 2020, according to graphics and multimedia research firm Jon Peddie Research (JPR).
In a press release on Wednesday, JPR said GPU shipments rose 20.5% in the fourth quarter compared to the previous quarter and 12.4% year-on-year.
The increase in sales, mainly due to a shift of coronavirus to work from home offices and increase in indoor related activities such as video games, was also promoted by the mining of cryptocurrency.
“The pandemic has distorted all models and predictions, as well as the gold rush in Ethereum,” JPR said.
JPR president and founder Jon Peddie said that while there is speculation that cryptocurrency may cause a renewal of demand for GPUs, the power consumption of high-cards greatly reduces the payout. ”
Furthermore, “Ethereum, the best suited coin for GPUs, will soon be using version 2.0 and making GPUs obsolete,” Peddie said. ‘One would be very foolish to invest in an expensive, power-consuming business [GPU] for crypto mining today. ”
GPU vendors like Nvidia have struggled to keep up with the rising demand for devices that can exploit everything from multimedia delivery to the latest game titles and although they do not like it.
The demand of the crypto industry is accused of making the latest graphics cards scarce for the everyday retail consumer. Nvidia recently responded by modifying high-end map software drivers to make mining less effective. The firm would rather offer a dedicated mining unit.