Can an Ethereum miner successfully replace NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 GPUs in crypto mining? Bitmain says yes and introduces the Antminer E9 Ethereum miner.
Chinese mining company Bitmain has released a teaser of the upcoming Antminer E9 Ethereum miner. Although it did not specify a date, the company said that the Antminer E9 will be released very soon.
Antminer E9 could solve the problems that gamers have been facing lately. If cryptominers turn to this new ASIC miner, they might stop buying NVIDIA products, putting an end to the lack of graphics cards. This is of course a hypothetical scenario. In addition, the shelves will not be filled at once, as crypto miners are not the only reason for the lack of cards. However, there may be more stock in the market.
The Antminer E9 reportedly delivers an Ethereum hash rate of up to 3 GH/s, which is equivalent to mining enabled by 32 NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 graphics cards. If Bitmain lives up to its promise, the Antminer E9 will be the fastest available ASIC miner and will even surpass Linzhi’s Phoenix Ethash ASIC miner providing up to 2.600 MH/s.
Bitmain did not reveal many details about the Antminer E9. But some information suggests that the Antminer E9 will not only be faster than the Phoenix miner, but also more energy efficient. The Antminer E9 miner is said to consume 14.8% less energy.
Obviously, an ASIC miner equivalent to 32 NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 graphics cards will not be cheap. Various speculations have been made on Twitter and some of them say that the miner could cost over $20.000. The Linzhi Phoenix miner is sold between $11.300 and $13.700. Even at $30.000, the Antminer E9 could be a very good choice for mining farms, as GeForce RTX 3080 graphics cards start at $2.500 and the 32-card market can reach $80.000.
On the other hand, NVIDIA may not be very happy with the release of such a miner, as its graphics cards are currently in demand. In the fourth quarter of 2020, a large percentage of the company’s revenue came from crypto mining-related sales.
In addition, Nvidia recently introduced Cryptocurrency Mining Processor products that focus on Ethereum mining.
Of course, the Antminer E9 miner will not significantly affect Nvidia’s crypto mining business, unless the Ethereum miner is mass-produced. It will certainly be a challenge given the global shortage of electronic components, which affects all industries.
