Mining, and not Gaming, Compelled ASRock to Enter the Graphics Market

When we first reported news of ASRock entering the graphics market with a focus on AMD Radeon GPUs, the story included a theory that crypto-currency mining was the primary driver behind the company's move. ASRock in its press-deck announcing its new Phantom Gaming series graphics cards late Wednesday, inadvertently confirmed that theory. While the cards are branded Phantom "Gaming," the press-deck slide detailing the lineup is prominently headlined "Mining" besides "Radeon 500 Series VGA." Our GPU Database curator also mentions that the cards' designs bear striking similarities to coolers from Chaintech, the OEM that supplies to Chinese VGA brands such as Colorful. Strangely enough, ASRock still went with "gaming" branding, and gave the cards proper display connectors, so it's hedging its bets on both gamers and miners.