Soon, AMD could follow NVIDIA in offering its own line of crypto mining-specific graphics cards, which are based on the RDNA GPU architecture. It is said that the new graphics cards will feature the first-gen RDNA architecture, and those cards will be primarily designed to manage blockchain crypto-mining algorithms.
This is not the first time an AMD graphics card has come out, which seems to target crypto miners. In October, Videocardz reported that an AMD Navi 10 GPU was spotted in Linux Kernel patches. This graphics card doesn’t feature two important technologies, preventing it from being a gaming card, DCN (Display Core Next) and VCN (Video Core Next).
Another new AMD RDNA 1 GPU-based graphics card is now in the rumors, and it is said to be based on the Navi 12 SKU. It is mentioned within the Linux patch from 3rd March that this particular SKU lacks VCN capabilities. Michael Larabel, the editor of Phoronix, informs that AMD is going to declare soon about Bitcoin Crypto Mining GPUs based on first-generation RDNA graphics chips.
Michael Larabel said-
“Handle new NV12 SKU” – This change is in reference to Navi 12 coming to market and doesn’t support Video Core Next (VCN) video support as it’s going to be a headless SKU. Details on this headless Navi 12 SKU remain light and haven’t heard anything about it recently from AMD. This may be similar to the previously reported on Navi 10 “Blockchain” graphics card. That “blockchain” SKU added to the Linux driver at the end of last year also disabled the DCN and VCN driver paths since it’s obviously headless. Given NVIDIA just announced their CMP mining cards perhaps AMD will soon be announcing these Navi 1x Bitcoin mining SKUs…
If AMD makes its own lineup of crypto-mining graphics cards, then it is expected that they will limit the hash rate on existing or upcoming gaming graphics cards to handle the mining market. But for now, we have to wait for further information on these cards.
