Nvidia Requests Retailers To Sell GPUs To Gamers Instead of Miners

To counter the vast GPU shortages hitting the market due to the boom of crypto-currencies like Bitcoin and Etherum; Nvidia is asking its partner retailers to stop selling its graphics cards to miners.

Graphics cards are constantly running out of stock in major retailers on a global scale and graphics card prices have seen a price hike of double and triple their original manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP). The mining boom has seen cards like the Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti going for over 1500$ despite, almost double its 700-800$ retail price.

This shortage of GPUs has made many sell their graphics cards in the second-hand market to miners and return a 100% percent profit while doing so. The company now wants its graphics cards to go to gamers instead and it’s trying to implement that by directly selling on its website and requesting their retailers to only sell up to 2 cards per person.

In a statement made to ComputerBase.de, Nvidia said “For NVIDIA, gamers come first. All activities related to our GeForce product line are targeted at our main audience. To ensure that GeForce gamers continue to have good GeForce graphics card availability in the current situation, we recommend that our trading partners make the appropriate arrangements to meet gamers’ needs as usual”.

Although Nvidia can’t force retailers to follow their recommendations, it can at least ensure by direct-selling on their official website that gamers will be able to get their hands on their GPUs one way or the other. Thus, controlling who gets the graphics cards and making sure it doesn’t get into the hands of miners.

The exponential growth in the value of crypto-currencies like Bitcoin (which has seen a rise of tenfold from last year) and Etherum and made GPU mining extremely lucrative with miners willing to pay a premium for the best hardware.

In case you’re wondering why miners and their fierce demand for GPUs aren’t seen as beneficial by Nvidia, it’s because miners have no real loyalty. To them, a GPU is just a tool to make money. They don’t really care about whose behind the GPU. And as soon as the crypto market crashes or mining doesn’t become profitable anymore, they will dump their GPUs and move their business elsewhere.

As a gamer or a miner, what do you think of Nvidia’s latest move to limit GPUs to gamers? Is it a positive one or a negative? Let us know in the comments below.

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