The AMD Ryzen 9 7950X processor seems to have become the latest highly sought-after PC component by crypto miners. The AMD Ryzen 9 7000 series Zen 4 processors feature support for the AVX-512 instruction code which is used to mine Qubic crypto currency. Bitcoin has once again been on the rise in the last 24 hours leading to an unexpected demand for AMD’s flagship processor. As is somewhat normal for the cryptocurrency market things have been a bit volatile due to miners selling off during peak trading but in turn, inventory for the CPU had briefly disappeared from online retailers, only to reappear at higher, scalped, prices.
Headline from Coindesk:
“Bitcoin’s Wild Four Hours: New Record of $73K, Tumble to $69K, Rebound to $71K, $360M in Liquidations”
Industry insider MEGAsizeGPU, who is often known for hardware info leaks, was one of the first to spot the absence of AMD’s top-end CPU. Not long after their first post it was discovered that the 7950X is capable of Qubic crypto-mining due to its 256-bit FPU which supports AVX-512. Adding further to the attractability of using the processor that had previously been seen at under $600, is the known fact that AMD products can often be underclocked while retaining much of their performance and thus using less power which in turn can increase potential profits. As stated though, the processor has since reappeared on Newegg but at higher prices.
Now I understand, 7950X is the king in Qubic mining. https://t.co/r8Uo79B6C6
— MEGAsizeGPU (@Zed__Wang) March 12, 2024
However, at least at the time of this writing, it seems that scalping for the Ryzen 9 CPU hasn’t fully caught up to Amazon, yet, since it can still be had at around $600. Interestingly its X3D counterpart, whose 3-cache does not add performance for mining, is slightly less there but it’s possible that should this latest crypto-mining trend continue, inventory for other Ryzen 9 7000 series processors will become sought after as well.
However, as Wccftech notes, the Qubic (QBIC) coin only nets ~$3/day so it’s highly unlikely anyone attempting to turn a profit by jumping in now will reap significant revenue. Someone purchasing hardware from scratch would have to flip their hardware purchases at close to cost soon afterward since bitcoin spikes rarely hold for the 200-300+ days it would take to make their money back. On the other hand, for those keeping an eye on used parts, this could present an opportunity to pick up the flagship processor at a significantly lower cost if they don’t mind the risks involved in obtaining hardware that’s been used for mining.
Intel unaffected
Those looking at using Intel processors to mine Qubic are said to be out of luck. This is due to Intel having dropped support for the AVX-512 instruction set beginning with its Alder Lake CPUs. That line had initially supported the instruction set but was disabled after Intel requested motherboard manufacturers to issue a BIOS microcode update. It has been said, per unnamed sources to Igor’s Lab, that this was due to the feature causing Alder Lake sales to encroach upon Intel’s enterprise Xeon offerings. Meanwhile, jokes are already being made that AMD’s upcoming Zen 5 processors, which could offer up to twice the performance level for AVX-512, will now be offered in LHR (low-hash-rate) editions following the NVIDIA’s precedence with the last crypto-mining craze.
Zen5 LHR 🥲
— Kepler (@Kepler_L2) March 12, 2024