Rare NVIDIA Non-LHR RTX 3080 Prebuilt Mining Rig

LHR Nvidia 30-series GPUs, or Lite Hash Rate graphics cards to give them their full title, were designed by Nvidia specifically to limit the effectiveness of the cards for crypto mining purposes. The hope was that this would curtail the demand from miners for the cards, leaving more for actual gamers and therefore help to bring about GPU price drops from the ridiculously high market prices of the last year or so.

Although we have begun to see signs of a turnaround in the general GPU market (as far as Nvidia’s cards are concerned at least), Non-LHR graphics cards continue to be in very high demand, even with the current crypto crackdown in China.

Non-LHR Mining Rigs In Vietnam

As in many countries, some Vietnamese retailers have recognized the lucrative potential of the Non-LHR market and have become specialists in selling non-LHR pre-built crypto mining PCs.

One particular retailer Nguyenconpc has been spotted using piles of a particularly rare GPU in their crypto mining rigs, the photos of which you can see below.

GUNDAM Collector’s Edition ASUS RTX 3080 PreBuild

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The ASUS ultra-rare GUNDAM series (inspired by the hugely popular and influential Japanese anime series with giant flying mech suits) are very hard to come by, even in today’s GPU shortage climate. Relatively few of this series were ever made by ASUS, and if you want to buy one on its own you’re likely to have to fork out around $2,300 on ebay or elsewhere.

This begs the question of how Nguyenconpc managed to come by them in such seemingly large quantities, and also may bring pain to the hearts of fans of aesthetic gaming builds, seeing them simply chucked into utilitarian mining rigs to be used up and burnt out (a tragic waste of a beautiful card, alas!).

The Beginning Of The End For The GPU Shortage?

Regardless of the above, we may soon be seeing a reduction in even inflated LHR prices. The upcoming shift to proof of stake mining in cryptocurrencies, along with the clampdown on mining activities in China (by far the biggest source of crypto mining activities and the biggest market for crypto mining GPUs), will soon see an end to the astronomical graphics card prices we have become used to, though it may be some time until market prices fully return to normal. Read our piece on GPU shortage Solutions to learn more.