The explosion of Ethereum (ETH) in recent months has caused devices capable of mining this cryptocurrency to be in high demand. With ETH prices still reaching peaks, most new GPU models released by AMD and Nvidia have been snatched up by cryptocurrency miners in large quantities. Meanwhile, the prices of various used GPU models have skyrocketed in a short time.
However, the GPU shortage situation will somewhat ease in the near future, with the emergence of a ‘monster machine’ from Bitmain (China). According to this leading global cryptocurrency mining equipment manufacturer, they are preparing to launch a dedicated ETH mining machine called the Antminer E9.
Antminer E9 – a dedicated ASIC mining machine for ETH mining from Bitmain, with power equivalent to 25 RTX 3090s combined.
Bitmain Antminer E9 is an ASIC mining machine (short for Application Specific Integrated Circuit) specifically designed for mining ETH. Notably, the hash rate – a parameter used to evaluate ETH mining power – of the Antminer E9 is also very high, reaching up to 3 GH/s.
For comparison, this mining power of the Antminer E9 is equivalent to 25 NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090s (which have a hash rate of around 120 MH/s on the 3090) or 32 RTX 3080s (94 MH/s on the 3080) combined.
Compared to Nvidia’s current CMP mining GPUs, the power of the Antminer E9 is equivalent to 115 CMP 30HXs (26 MH/s on the 30HX model). Although the power consumption of the Antminer E9 is quite high, reaching 2556W, it has excellent efficiency, at just 0.85 J/M.
With such power consumption, the Antminer E9 could earn about $236 per day with electricity costs of only about $13 for each kWh (the average electricity cost in the US).
Of course, if the hash rate of the machine truly reaches 3 GH/s as Bitmain advertises, the Antminer E9 will become the most powerful ASIC mining machine on the market today. It even outperforms the Linzhi Phoenix, which is considered the highest profit-generating ASIC machine in the world today, with an ETH mining hash rate of 2.6 GH/s. The Linzhi Phoenix consumes up to 3000W.
This allows the Antminer E9 to have a mining efficiency that is 15.3% faster and 14.8% more effective. Of course, ‘you get what you pay for,’ the selling price of this ASIC machine will certainly not be cheap.
According to some unverified information, the Antminer E9 could be sold for over $20,000 per machine. Some sources even speculate that it could go up to $30,000. For comparison, the Linzhi Phoenix is priced between $11,300 and $13,700.
Will the dedicated ETH mining machine help cool down the GPU market?
From the perspective of cryptocurrency ‘farmers’, if the price of the Antminer E9 falls between $20,000 – $30,000, the payback period would be approximately 85 to 127 days. This is certainly a much better investment than buying 25 RTX 3090s, which would cost around $75,000 on the secondary market, with a payback period of up to 311 days – assuming low electricity prices and the value of ETH remains unchanged.
Looking at these numbers, the Antminer E9 seems like an extremely attractive item for the cryptocurrency mining community. A question arises: Will the emergence of dedicated mining machines like the Antminer E9 be seen as a solution to the graphics card shortage?
In the context of ETH prices still reaching peaks, most new GPU models released by AMD and Nvidia have been snatched up by cryptocurrency miners in large quantities.
According to Wccftech, the answer could be yes or no. If Bitmain can produce the Antminer E9 in large enough quantities, this machine will significantly help alleviate the graphics card shortage. Instead of using graphics cards to mine ETH, miners will opt for more powerful and efficient ASIC mining machines. As a result, end users will be able to get their hands on the latest GPU models.
However, if we analyze from a practical perspective, Bitmain is very likely unable to produce the Antminer E9 on a large enough scale due to the global semiconductor shortage.
It should also be noted that the Bitmain Antminer E9 will have to compete with NVIDIA’s CMP cryptocurrency mining GPUs. However, whether this line of machines can capture a large market share is still uncertain. Without a firm hold on the market, Bitmain will not risk producing the Antminer E9 in large quantities.
This means that users should look forward to the event of ETH transitioning to version 2.0, which is predicted to make mining ETH with GPUs ‘a thing of the past’ when the PoS protocol is implemented. At that time, a large number of used GPUs may be released en masse by miners to recover capital, causing the prices of many GPU models to drop sharply.
Reference: Wccftech