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GPU and Motherboard OEMs Readying Components Optimized For Cryptocurrency Mining (hothardware.com)
MojoKid writes: With the popularity of upstart cryptocurrencies like Ethereum on the rise and the value of well-established currencies like Bitcoin steadily increasing, there is new-found interest in cryptocurrency mining. As such, there is another run on AMD and NVIDIA GPUs, which is driving up prices. In an effort to prevent the same kind of GPU shortages that happened in the past, reports have surfaced claiming that AMD and NVIDIA are both readying stripped-down graphics cards, specifically targeting cryptocurrency miners. At Computex, ASRock also announced a new motherboard targeted at cryptocurrency miners, the ASRock H110 Pro BTC+. The ASRock H110 Pro BTC+ is packing 13 PCI Express slots -- twelve x1 slots and one x16 slot -- to accommodate as many graphics cards. ASRock didn't specify pricing or when the H110 Pro BTC+ will be available, however. And the reports that AMD and NVIDIA graphics card for mining will be made available sometime at the end of the June are as yet unconfirmed.
I played with bitcoin mining a couple of years ago back when BTC prices were around $7. At that point it was just about at the point where it was not economical (power costs) to compete in mining with GPU based hardware - the shift to FPGA and ASIC was just beginning. Today is it even economically feasible to generate enough hash power with GPU based hardware? If so, what has changed? Sure the BTC price is 300-400 times higher, but GPU speed hasn't increased by two orders of magnitude, and there is lot more mining competition for a relatively fixed amount of mining rewards / transaction fees.
Of course back when I was playing with it I purchased a couple of hundred dollars worth of graphics cards, mined about the same amount value in bitcoins, sold them and came out about $50 ahead - I was pretty proud of my self back then. Probably should have saved those 50 BTC...