Discussion RDNA 2 Mining Cards from Saphire

GodisanAtheist

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Nov 16, 2006
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This is kinda odd to me. It made sense for NV to spin up their old 12nm products to meet mining demand, or even current consumer demand, but for AMD partners to use the current gen RDNA 2 chips smacks a little odd.

This move sort of feels like Saphire is letting everyone know that RDNA 2 consumer chips just are not moving at the rate they they expected them to (inventory is piling up on store shelves) and now they have a bunch of N22 chips and N23 chips that they need to move through other means.
 

uzzi38

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Oct 16, 2019
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This is kinda odd to me. It made sense for NV to spin up their old 12nm products to meet mining demand, or even current consumer demand, but for AMD partners to use the current gen RDNA 2 chips smacks a little odd.

This move sort of feels like Saphire is letting everyone know that RDNA 2 consumer chips just are not moving at the rate they they expected them to (inventory is piling up on store shelves) and now they have a bunch of N22 chips and N23 chips that they need to move through other means.
Miners are willing to pay more for the cards than consumers are, and they buy them in bulk too.

It's got nothing to do with them moving or not moving on shelves, they've been selling directly go miners for months now.
 
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LightningZ71

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Mar 10, 2017
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Given how highly thought of the 5700xt is for mining, I'm kind of surprised that it isn't currently being produced for mining in special editions.

EDIT: Nevermind, I missed that they already make the X070 based on the 5700 chip...
 
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GodisanAtheist

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Miners are willing to pay more for the cards than consumers are, and they buy them in bulk too.

It's got nothing to do with them moving or not moving on shelves, they've been selling directly go miners for months now.

- But why not just sell them standard consumer cards in that case? Or Consumer cards with a modified BIOS? Have shipments "fall off the truck" and end up on mining farms.

Seems silly to open up a whole new production line for mining cards and remove components like display out if RDNA 2 cards were servicing all markets in their retail consumer form.
 

jpiniero

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Oct 1, 2010
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Seems silly to open up a whole new production line for mining cards and remove components like display out if RDNA 2 cards were servicing all markets in their retail consumer form.

It might be binned for chips where there was a defect in the display controller... but this is more likely AMD/Saphhire trying to minimize the used market in the event of a mining collapse.
 

Justinus

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Oct 10, 2005
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- But why not just sell them standard consumer cards in that case? Or Consumer cards with a modified BIOS? Have shipments "fall off the truck" and end up on mining farms.

Seems silly to open up a whole new production line for mining cards and remove components like display out if RDNA 2 cards were servicing all markets in their retail consumer form.

Mining oriented cards can easily have different warranty terms/lengths/no warranty at all meanwhile a consumer card is practically impossible for them to prove failed due to mining related reasons instead of gaming/poor case airflow/etc.
 

GodisanAtheist

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Mining oriented cards can easily have different warranty terms/lengths/no warranty at all meanwhile a consumer card is practically impossible for them to prove failed due to mining related reasons instead of gaming/poor case airflow/etc.

-But the cards will be priced at 750 Euro and 550 Euro, which is ballpark what the 6700xt and 6600xt go for right now anyhow. Why the heck would a miner buy them?

Could be defective chips as Jpinero mentioned, but it just seems odd.

As the small fry in the discreet GPU market, you'd think AMD would want their GPUs in whatever computer will take them.
 

Shmee

Memory & Storage, Graphics Cards Mod Elite Member
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It seems to me that these cards aren't really worth it to anyone, not at those current prices. Based on the article, they really aren't that good for mining compared to to a 5700(XT) or a 6800, or even a 6700XT. Maybe if the prices are reduced, then people will buy the mining cards. For now though, regular cards are better for both gaming and mining.
 

Stuka87

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Dec 10, 2010
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Sapphire is doing it because the cards are most likely cheaper to manufacture, but are being sold for the same price. And while they may not be a "deal" for miners, if they are the only option because retail cards are sold out, they will sell.
 

IntelUser2000

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Oct 14, 2003
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I haven't seen a single "miner" card that is cheap enough to justify the purchase. They have to be cheaper than regular GPUs yet they are much more expensive. You could get GTX 1070 for the GTX 1060 equivalent mining GPU.

So maybe in essence it allows them to sell it for higher price than it's already selling at. It might be 750 Euros MSRP but it'll go for much higher meaning much higher than non-mining badge cards.

Also the slide says "Linux-only".

Seriously who buys these?
 

waffleironhead

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Aug 10, 2005
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This is kinda odd to me. It made sense for NV to spin up their old 12nm products to meet mining demand, or even current consumer demand, but for AMD partners to use the current gen RDNA 2 chips smacks a little odd.

This move sort of feels like Saphire is letting everyone know that RDNA 2 consumer chips just are not moving at the rate they they expected them to (inventory is piling up on store shelves) and now they have a bunch of N22 chips and N23 chips that they need to move through other means.
Id like to see those shelves.
 

Accord99

Platinum Member
Jul 2, 2001
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Dopey miners?

Does anyone know what happened to the custom made mining boards( ASIACS ?) that they would buy or make instead of using GPUs because they mined better?
As Ethereum is mostly memory bandwidth limited and requires a fair amount of memory, it isn't as easy to build an ASIC that can beat a GPU in Ethereum as easy as they do in Bitcoin. Especially as new GPU flagships often adopt the latest memory tech first.

And it could be ASIC manufacturers also fell for the "Ethereum POW will be over next year" shtick that's hung over Ethereum mining since it started and didn't see the ROI.
 

IntelUser2000

Elite Member
Oct 14, 2003
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Great on just reading the sentence you want to read and not the rest.

These aren't worth it at all for the miners, unless you are in the rumored category where you are a massive farm and they give you extra discounts - even then they better give massive discounts since you need discounts just to have it equal to gaming cards in perf/$(nevermind the loss of warranty, and no resale value).

I am a miner and I haven't seen a single "mining-oriented" card worth it for purchase. They need to be cheaper or get out!

As Ethereum is mostly memory bandwidth limited and requires a fair amount of memory, it isn't as easy to build an ASIC that can beat a GPU in Ethereum as easy as they do in Bitcoin. Especially as new GPU flagships often adopt the latest memory tech first.

That's just it. There are ASICs for Ethereum that performs well, and they aren't just multiple RX 470s on a single board or something. But they need high performance memory subsystem, meaning you can have 10x the compute performance but the algorithm would ask "Where's ma memory?" and you need to stick expensive modules, or lots of modules.

In addition to needing massive memory bandwidth, Ethereum requires lots of memory. Can't go with bargain 512MByte HBM modules, nope. You need 5GB minimum now.

So now the "ASIC" manufacturers are going against the constantly advancing GPU manufacturers that naturally put higher performing memory subsystem.