The first in the row of to be released RTX series 30 graphics card is, of course, the GeForce RTX 3080, and something very ominous is happing in Asia; miners already have obtained many cards, and they want them badly s the mining compute capacity of 115 MH/s is triple that of the RTX 2080. 

In the photos below originating from the Chinese forum Baidu, there are users actually who managed to get hold of several cards (before launch). It's staggering to see as photos are showing RTX 3080 cards in piled up in stacks. The fact that the cards already have been sold is weird, but more worrying is that a new mining craze might ignite shortages, and this will drive availability for consumers down and prices up.

Miners that mine Ethereum, as you can see in the screenshot for the RTX 3080 achieves a computing power of 115 MH/s, nearly three times faster than an RTX 2080 that is capable of 35 to 40 megahashes per second. No values for energy consumption are given, the 3080 seems theoretically more efficient if one contrasts the tdp of both cards with the hash rate. Mining cryptocurrency in Asia is quite profitable, given the relatively low energy costs.

A few years ago, the cryptocurrency boom ensured that AMD's Radeon RX 480/470 and Radeon RX 580/570 had increased in price for months because they were used for mining systems. Nvidia also increased its sales so significantly due to demand. Operators of colossal mining farms do not buy their cards from the shop around the corner but purchase them directly from distributors or even the manufacturers themselves. For smaller shops and especially for end customers, this can result in more insufficient availability or increased prices.