Sapphire Technologies to Release Cryptocurrency-Specific GPUs, Not for Other Purposes

Golden Finance News - Recently, computer hardware company Sapphire Technologies announced that they will release a series of "headless" graphics cards for cryptocurrency miners, no longer targeting the traditional gamer customer base.

(Sapphire Technologies will release a cryptocurrency-specific GPU Source: Golden Finance)

Sapphire Technology hopes to take advantage of the recent huge wave of global demand for GPUs

Sapphire Technology has become the first company to produce a range of graphics cards specifically for cryptocurrency mining. Sapphire is a Hong Kong technology company founded in 2001. The company’s GPUs have a wide range of applications and are widely used in AMD’s graphics processing units. Sapphire Technology also claims to be the first company to release a video card with a clock speed of 1000 MHz.

(Investing in application-specific integrated chip mining hardware may increase hardware expenses Source: Golden Finance)

Sapphire Technology hopes to capitalize on the recent surge in global demand for GPUs by becoming the first manufacturer to sell graphics processors directly to cryptocurrency mining companies. The graphics cards do not feature a display port, which means the GPUs cannot be used for any purpose other than cryptocurrency mining.

Although Sapphire Technology produces specialized graphics processing units for cryptocurrency mining, the technology it uses can reduce the price of manufacturing GPUs, but this makes it impossible for miners to resell their graphics cards to the second-hand gaming market when they upgrade their hardware in the future. Sapphire Technology will reportedly release five different graphics processors, two of which integrate Samsung-branded memory chips. Sapphire's dedicated GPUs are currently only available for pre-order.

(Sapphire Technology hopes to take advantage of the recent huge wave of global demand for GPUs Source: Golden Finance)

Some in the crypto community are skeptical of Sapphire’s dedicated GPUs

A lot of mainstream news reports recently have involved the sharp rise in the value of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which has led to a sharp increase in GPU demand, resulting in a widespread shortage of graphics processing units in many countries. The GPU shortage has also caused many retailers to charge a large difference in prices for popular graphics processing units, with reports from Russia claiming that GPU prices have increased by 80%.

Additionally, some cryptocurrency organizations have been skeptical of Sapphire’s dedicated GPUs, arguing that investing in application-specific integrated chip (ASIC) mining hardware may provide a higher return on investment for hardware spending given the singular nature of Sapphire’s graphics processing units.

As Bitcoin nears early majority mainstream adoption, we may see many GPU manufacturers start advertising graphics processing units to crypto mining companies as more and more industries look to profit from the rapidly expanding cryptocurrency economy.