Video card vendors expect GPU mining boom will continue

Sources in the upstream supply chain confided to DigiTimes that video card vendors are upbeat about continued strong demand from cryptocurrency miners. Initially, some thought this was a development that would subside quickly but now graphics card makers are increasing orders for NVIDIA and AMD GPUs.

Gigabyte, MSI, TUL, Colorful an Galaxy have reportedly all seen a big spike in sales volume. Earlier this year, ASUS was one of the more conservative companies in terms of cryptocurrency expectations but now the company expects the mining trend will continue until at least the end of 2017.

DigiTimes also has a bit of commentary about how video card makers are profiting from the GPU mining boom. The site claims Gigabyte is now earning more money from video cards than motherboards for the first time:

Thanks to the strong graphics cards sales, several graphics cards vendors such as TUL and Sapphires saw their operations turn profitable in the second quarter, while MSI and Gigabyte also saw significant incomes from related businesses in both the second and third quarters. Gigabyte's profits from the graphics card business also surpassed those from the motherboard segment for the first time, the sources stated.

The unexpectedly strong demand from Ethereum miners severely disrupted traditional sales channels, and resulted in big price increases for gamers. Hopefully, the extra supply will be able to get things back towards more normal levels.

Below is a 1-year chart of the price of Ethereum.