It’s well understood by now that the best graphics cards are hard to come by due to the ongoing chip shortage and unprecedented demand from both gamers and crypto miners. However, a recent report by El Chapuzas Informatico (via Videocardz) claims that GPU manufacturer Sapphire is making and selling crypto mining cards.
The report contains images and specifications of two graphics cards, namely the Sapphire GPRO X080 and GPRO X060. The company’s GPRO series of GPUs are billed as products for the commercial market, similar to Nvidia’s RTX A2000 and AMD’s Radeon’s Pro cards. However, the specifications shared by El Chapuzas Informatico specifically highlight the ‘reference Ethash Performance’, which is used to describe a graphics card’s performance when mining the Ethereum crypto currency.
Both cards supposedly use variants of AMD’s RDNA 2 microarchitecture, with the GPRO X080 using the Navi 22 GPU found in the RX 6700 and RX 6700 XT, with an MSRP of €750. Meanwhile, the GPRO X060 uses the Navi 23 XL GPU found in the RX 6600, and costs €550.
We reached out to Sapphire for comment, and it told us that “these are products that are sold specifically through our commercial and server division.” This could possibly explain why neither of the cards are listed on the company’s website, but it’s odd considering that other GPRO products can be readily viewed.
Image credit: El Chapuzas Informatico
To be clear, there’s nothing stopping Sapphire from manufacturing graphics cards specially built for crypto mining, with AMD making no commitment of its own to inhibit the mining performance of its GPUs. Nvidia, however, has installed LHR limiters on its RTX graphics cards that crypto miners are still trying to circumvent.