Rows of the latest model laptops, much sought after by the gaming community, have been found in China being used to mine cryptocurrencies.
At the tweets posted on Wednesday, the images show a room full of “several hundred” gaming laptops, reportedly equipped with Nvidia RTX 30 series graphics processing units (GPUs). WCCTech, a computer and gaming publication, said laptops shown in the tweets come from the Chinese manufacturer Hasse and are being used to mine encryption using the in-demand Nvidia cards.
As something of a player’s nightmare, some laptops seem to have their casing stripped to provide ideal cooling for hard-working GPUs.
State-of-the-art GPUs are preferred by cryptocurrency miners because of the greater processing power of the cards to process the mathematical tasks required for mining. While bitcoin mining requires specialized processors called ASICs, cryptocurrencies like Ethereum’s ether can still be mined in GPUs.
Gamers also want these state-of-the-art cards, because they increase graphics performance and are generally the easiest component to update on a computer to keep up to date with the latest game titles.
Typically, technology retailers and distributors place purchase limits on the number of highly sought-after products to distribute evenly. The tweets indicate that an agreement may have been struck between the laptop retailer, distributor or manufacturer and the mining entity for a mass order, according to the WCCTech report.
Basic laptops sell for $ 999, while more sophisticated models are expected to hit shelves for a recommended price of $ 1,999, according to the report. If the images and video are indeed authentic, the value of the newly created mining operation can reach hundreds of thousands of dollars at street prices.
Nvidia recently said it could restart production of dedicated GPUs for cryptocurrency miners, if there is demand. However, he downplayed the possibility that miners are devouring their overall stock, saying that players are running out of supplies.