Zotac endorsing cryptocurrency mining

There's already been a lot of public outcry from gamers about the poor availability of video cards. A variety of factors are causing these shortages. The biggest issue is the strained foundry capacity and shortages of certain components and substrates, but more recently there's another factor that's aggravating the situation. With cryptocurrencies soaring to new highs on an almost daily basis, there's another frenzy going on to get as many video cards as possible to mine coin.

Cryptocurrency miners are reportedly gathering at the gates of certain add-in board partners to buy up supply and some even go as far as to buy gaming laptops in bulk just for mining.

VideoCardz reports Zotac is now landing itself in hot water as the video card maker is openly endorsing GPU mining. Via a new tweet, the NVIDIA add-in board partner is praising a mining rig with at least eight GeForce RTX 3070 series video cards. Curiously, Zotac is even using #Gaming, #Gamers, #PcGaming and #PCMR hashtags for this tweet. Not a smart idea from Zotac as these cards are nowhere to be found near the MSRP. This will only enrage gamers -- which will once again be the company's biggest customer audience after this mining boom is over.

ZOTAC appears to be switching its business to a mining supplier. On Twitter, the company has published a photo showing a mining rig featuring GeForce RTX 3070 Twin Edge graphics cards. The company even had the audacity to tag the photo #PcGaming, as if this setup had anything to do with gaming. This all happens at the same time as ZOTAC graphics cards are nowhere to be found at MSRP.

An army of #ZOTACGAMING GPU's hungry for coin!

???? IG: @pc.lad#ZOTAC #PcGaming #Gaming #Gamers #Tech #PcHardware #PcComponents #PCMR #PcMasterRace #RTX pic.twitter.com/8vFtgPZvP4

— ZOTAC USA (@ZOTAC_USA) February 16, 2021