ASRock Reportedly Diving Into GPU Market With A Focus On Radeon

For better or for worse, the explosion of cryptocurrency and crypto mining has affected the PC components market significantly – and not to mention the consumers who want those products. Consumers have a hard time finding the graphics card they want, and companies have a hard time getting enough product out the door.

While the limelight in this situation is on GPUs, every PC component maker stands to gain by taking advantage of the changing market conditions. That includes ASRock, which had a great 2017 on the motherboard front, which isn’t too surprising given the company’s speed at jumping in before things really took off. Its H110 PRO BTC+ motherboard (below) is a prime example of how the company is exploiting this new side of the market (yes, that’s thirteen PCIe slots!).

Nonetheless, whether you’re a crypto or ASRock fan, you may be pleased at the idea that the company is planning to enter the GPU market, according to industry tracking publication DigiTimes. The sole focus, at least at first, would be on AMD’s Radeon GPUs, which are hot items for mining currencies like Ethereum. In some circles, they’re also used for gaming.

In recent years, ASRock’s overall motherboard shipments have gone down, but the company’s server and IPC motherboard business is on the rise. Should the crypto craze continue, which ASRock appears to be banking on, the company could easily gain market share simply for the lack of general availability. The company shouldn’t have any trouble selling out everything it has, at least for the foreseeable future. That said, it’s not clear how quickly the company will be able to begin spinning out GPUs, as it’s not exactly a trivial matter.

Usually with news like this, I could say something like “consumers will gain; more competition is better”, but let’s be real: the GPU market is in a rough state right now. Companies are loving it, but many are still without a GPU to plop in their rig unless they want to pay exorbitant prices. But, as crypto mining rose as quickly as it did, there’s no telling how long it will continue being so lucrative. At the same time, it may very well only get stronger. It’s unpredictable, so for either consumer or company, diving in is a risky proposition.