Courtesy of @I_Leak_VN
Everyone already knows that crypto miners are causing a shortage of the newest graphics cards in addition to the pre-existing shortage, but now large-scale mining farms are causing power outages. In Iran, authorities investigated the cause of the power outages and found that the root cause was GPU mining farms consuming large amounts of energy.
Mining has gotten so bad that cities are facing power cuts due to insane energy consumption in major mining operations
These are not just some average mining farms run by a miner, they are complete industrial-grade operations that have been transferred from China to Iran. In Iran, energy is produced at a cost of 1.8 cents per kilowatt hour and sold more than ten times more than the public, but miners can get it for 2.2 cents per kilowatt hour. Not even China can match these prices, so miners moved their operations to Tehran because it is the most economical.
Courtesy of @I_Leak_VN
After investigations, Iranian authorities concluded that there are 14 huge crypto mining operations in Iran that consumed 300 megawatts, but at full capacity they can consume up to 450 megawatts. For reference, this amount of energy can supply a city with a population of 100,000. All of this makes Iran the sixth most popular destination for crypto mining in the world.
The cards used on mining farms are not specially constructed mining cards; are normal consumer cards. Many suspect that Nvidia and its partners sell plates directly to miners, and Nvidia has said nothing about it, so we assume that they are not opposed to this. Laptops are now being purchased to use their GPU in mining operations. At this point, anything with a modern GPU, miners will try to get their hands on it.
It is an unfortunate time for people trying to build a PC because getting their hands on a GPU is almost impossible because of the original scarcity, which is now made worse by a boom in crypto mining, as well as increased rates. You not only have to compete with the money changers, but you also have to compete with the miners to get the newest graphics cards and hope that Nvidia and its partners do not sell them directly to the miners.