ASRock to enter graphics card market?

[formulav8]

Article at DigiTimes

Motherboard player ASRock reportedly will enter the graphics card market in April and focus mainly on supplying AMD-based products, according to some market watchers.

With the increasing shipment proportion of high-end motherboards and rising sales for its IPC and server products, the company's EPS for 2018 stands a chance of returning to NT$9 (US$0.31) if cryptocurrency mining can maintain its momentum, the market watchers noted.​

ASRock had consolidated revenues of NT$9.21 billion for 2017 with net profits of NT$469 million and EPS of NT$4.02, up dramatically from 2016's NT$1.39. The company also decided to distribute dividends of NT$4 in cash.

As for January, ASRock reported consolidated revenues of NT$915 million, up 21.54% on month and 35.05% on year with net profit of NT$69 million and EPS NT$0.57.​

However, the company had not been performing well prior to 2017, only shipping less than four million motherboards in 2016 or less than half the volumes shipped in earlier years.

ASRock's performance pick-up in 2017 was mainly due to Gigabyte Technology's business re-organization, which gave ASRock an opportunity to significantly increase its shipment proportion of mid-range to high-end motherboards, while strong demand for its cryptocurrency mining motherboards also helped boost its sales in the year.​

At the same time, ASRock has seen increasing sales for its server and IPC motherboards, which helped reduce its reliance on the consumer motherboard business whose revenue share went down to only around 70% at the end of 2017 from 85% in 2016, the market watchers said.

Since AMD so far has shown no sign of planning for a capacity expansion, ASRock's entry into the graphics card market is expected to affect AMD's GPU supply to other graphics card vendors.​

 

[EXCellR8]

I'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing, considering that the yields will be further divvied up between vendors. I like ASRock products, though, so if some kind of miracle occurred and their discrete GPUs became available for a reasonable price then I'd be all for it. Chances of that occurring though... basically 0 to 0.1%

Worst case scenario they start bundling cards together with their mining boards to be a one-stop shop for the mining heretics to grab up high end parts.

 

[n0x1ous]

Curious if this is more like a Diamond multimedia where its basically just reference cards with a sticker or a more full featured partner doing custom stuff

 

[Krteq]

...its basically just reference cards with a sticker...

Most probably this... or dedicated mining cards without outputs

 

[Despoiler]

I think it will be good for AMD. It's another player that has dedicated customers who might give AMD a shot.

 

[mdram]

cant give em a shot if theres nothing out there to buy

 

[Krteq]

cant give em a shot if theres nothing out there to buy

Whaaa? Everything AMD produced in fabs is selling to AiBs and everything they brings to market is selling like a hot cakes these days... you know, mining fewer

 

[mdram]

Whaaa? Everything AMD produced in fabs is selling to AiBs and everything they brings to market is selling like a hot cakes these days... you know, mining fewer

thats the problem, they sell out so quick, its hard to find anything

 

[DrMrLordX]

ASRock has done very well with their motherboards lately. If they can bring the same quality to AMD's dGPUs then great.

That being said, I think it's an odd time to get into the business of repackaging AMD's graphics chipsets for sale on custom PCBs. Their consumer dGPU business would be mostly dead were it not for miners. Vega is . . . look, I like mine and all, but I have to say I am very disappointed that there is no 12nm Vega refresh or anything of the sort. Instead we have to wait for 7nm, and all we get then is more Vega?

Maybe ASrock will hold out until Navi is available?

 

[Krteq]

There have been some contract signed between ASRock and Sapphire recently, so those cards could be Sapphire Radeons with different stickers.

Strategic Partnership with SAPPHIRE Technology
PC Gamers across the globe expect an optimal balance between performance and price when choosing their equipment. Both ASRock and SAPPHIRE have a proven track record in delivering award winning products that gamers truly need. To strengthen the demand for our superb product portfolios, ASRock and SAPPHIRE are announcing a strategic technology partnership that will focus on the performance and features that gamers deserve. Both companies will work together to launch cutting edge motherboard, CPU, and VGA card configurations that respond to market demand, whilst at the same time delivering superb price/ performance value.

https://www.asrock.com/news/index.asp?id=3580

 

[IRobot23]

Yet, we are still not seeing decent sub 200$ ITX or mATX X370 boards from anyone (except ASUS ITX)

 

[Krteq]

Well, it seems those are not only relabeled Sapphire cards

ASRock Teases ‘Phantom Gaming’ Graphics Cards

 

[sandorski]

There have been rumours of new Vega cards coming. They'll probably be bought up by Miners, but....

 

[Despoiler]

There have been rumours of new Vega cards coming. They'll probably be bought up by Miners, but....

Vega supply is actually pretty good right now. Newegg has had stock for months and Amazon for weeks. The problem is Newegg is still price gouging. The way online retailers set their prices is they have bots that check their competitors. The prices stay equal because their price match policies. That is unless one deviates lower by some percentage. Then the prices will lower or rise. MSRP really only sets the initial price assuming good supply.

 

[sandorski]

Vega supply is actually pretty good right now. Newegg has had stock for months and Amazon for weeks. The problem is Newegg is still price gouging. The way online retailers set their prices is they have bots that check their competitors. The prices stay equal because their price match policies. That is unless one deviates lower by some percentage. Then the prices will lower or rise. MSRP really only sets the initial price assuming good supply.

Still not enough Supply. Gotta bring the prices down. That said, there are murmurs about the end of GPU Mining, at least for Ethereum.

 

[Despoiler]

Still not enough Supply. Gotta bring the prices down. That said, there are murmurs about the end of GPU Mining, at least for Ethereum.

What are you talking about? Newegg has had no less than 60 of Vega 64 and 60 Vega 56 for 2 months. Supply isn't bringing the prices down now. I explained why.

As far as Ethereum, proof of stake isn't a murmur. It's been coming for awhile. It's planned for this year and the difficulty time bomb next year.

 

[sandorski]

What are you talking about? Newegg has had no less than 60 of Vega 64 and 60 Vega 56 for 2 months. Supply isn't bringing the prices down now. I explained why.

As far as Ethereum, proof of stake isn't a murmur. It's been coming for awhile. It's planned for this year and the difficulty time bomb next year.

Supply hasn't lowered Price, the Price won't lower until Supply reaches a certain level.

 

[Despoiler]

Supply hasn't lowered Price, the Price won't lower until Supply reaches a certain level.

Nice infinite horizon argument. If there has been 120 Vega cards available for 2 months....how much more supply is needed to lower the price? The price should go lower if cards aren't being sold, but that isn't happening. See my first post on why.

 

[jpiniero]

Demand is weakening but miners are still buying. It's more like only within the last week or two that V56/64 has become actually available but things still are going out of stock. Give it another week or two.

 

[sandorski]

Nice infinite horizon argument. If there has been 120 Vega cards available for 2 months....how much more supply is needed to lower the price? The price should go lower if cards aren't being sold, but that isn't happening. See my first post on why.

Price hasn't fallen because at this time it is worth holding the inflated Price. IOW, people are willing to pay those Prices because they have difficulty finding the cards. Newegg having X Cards doesn't show their Sales volume, assuming the listed Stock is even accurate. Nor does it indicate the Stock of its' competitors which also Supply cards to the general consumer. I suppose they might just be price gouging at this point, but the amount of evidence of that seems too limited.

 

[EXCellR8]

There have been rumours of new Vega cards coming. They'll probably be bought up by Miners, but....

ASRock also has the 500 series mining cards on deck also, which I really hope is just a trend that's phased out across all manufacturers. The price on the Vega cards is coming down slightly but I agree with those stating that the following few weeks will show the decline of price inflation. The Sapphire NITRO Vega 64 was available on Newegg recently for $800 I believe. My guess is that those have already been sold off though.