Post
Topic
Board CPU/GPU Bitcoin mining hardware
Re: Scrypt ASIC / SHA-256 combo miners Pics details
by
gmaxwell
on 27/01/2014, 21:27:35 UTC
your comparison is wrong. look at the first post of this thread. this ASIC is just a little bit energy efficient and generate just a little bit less heat than gpus. But the asic is two times expensive than gpus.
and remember, gpus have a second hand market.
The energy efficiency advantage isn't small— it's similar to the improvement early Bitcoin asics achieved over GPUs— and don't forget the secondary costs (PSUs, motherboards and slots, etc.) that these miners will reduce.  The price is a product of the manufacturers pricing of an exclusive bleeding edge part— these are not chips which costs more to produce than GPUs by any means— even absent competition you can expect the pricing to eventually achieve whatever amount allows them to sell a metric boat load of them and the power efficiency will drive GPUs out of the market. This is my prediction at least.

GPUs had their advantages but they did for Bitcoin too, the story is pretty similar and GPUs are irrelevant today for SHA256 mining.