I'm failing to parse what the issue the OP is complaining about is about.

Might be they're spewing nonsence and I'm just not grokking it.

The easy cure to the "SATA power for risers" limit is DON'T USE SATA TO POWER RISERS.

The other option is to make sure you have a RELIABLE method to drop the TDP of the cards under 50 watts (remember that the voltage conversion circuitry on the riser will ALSO eat a few watts) - which means don't run Windows on the machine since ALL of the available software that can set TDP on Windows has been known to get "stuck" on occasion.

 MOLEX or PCI-E powered risers should work fine - and since you aren't using the PCI-E power connectors to power cards, you should have plenty available for SAFE riser power usage.

It seems very odd that the original article talks about a deal between Samsung and TSMC - since both operate their own foundries.

I suspect some information didn't get turned up that would shed REAL light on whatever is actually happening.

All "Founder Edition" cards are manufactured by Nvidia.
That's the ONLY cards they make for consumers.

I can't tell because the new wallet keeps CRASHING before it can synch.

 (edit) It finally synched, after 4 crashes along the way.

Or could it be that the "second batch" WAS Bitmain's "internal mining use" machines and they decided to dump them out while there was still a market for them?

 Nah....


 They dropped the price BECAUSE profitability died - VERY OLD pricing tactic on the part of Bitmain.

Given the crazy shortages on higher-end cards, I decided this was a good time to try playing with a 1050 and a 1050 ti to see what kind of efficiency I can get them to, so I ordered one of each (EVGA single-fan models) from Newegg a few minutes ago.

Worst case, they'll replace a couple of my existing 9xx series cards in my "old gaming machine"....

Tentatively, they'll probably end up on my B250 as "padding" to 1 or 2 1080 ti cards per power supply in the long run.

The fact they only take one power connector TOTAL (for the riser) will allow a LOT of them per EVGA G2 850 (in theory up to 10 without having to use ANY splitters at all), and the low power usage should let me pack them in pretty tight while still gettting good cooling.

 In computers, SERVER designs are intended to run at 100% load 24/7 - but that's about the only thing in Computers that is designed for that sort of condition.

 LAPTOPS are too cramped to provide the kind of cooling design to ALLOW for that sort of use - the primary design consideration for almost all LAPTOPS is "long battery life" and doing everything practical to save on power usage.


 Cars can handle running 24/7 - if you run them WAY UNDER their max speed.
 Even most "endurance" type race cars aren't designed to handle running more than 1 day at a time - and a LOT of them break during races DESPITE being "designed to handle the stress".

AMD is concentrating on Bristol Ridge and second-gen Ryzen this year, they've stated they don't plan any new discrete GPU indroductions in 2018.

Nvidia - I anticipate their GTC confrence in late March will see Volta announced (same as Pascal 2 years back), not sure on availability but they can't AFFORD to delay Volta consumer cards very long unless they're going to ramp Pascal back up for a short bit to tide folks through.
The initial release will be Founder Edition cards, dunno how long it will be 'till 3'd party Volta cards show up (in THEORY it could be same timeframe, but past experience suggests "couple weeks to a month delay after the FE version of a particular GPU shows up" is more likely.
I would guess that pricing will be at least 10% higher on MSRP than Pascal cards if only due to the increase in RAM pricing in 2017 - and won't be shocked at a 15-20% jump in some cases.

ETH - will be around a while longer as mineable, but I can't find firm information on the current "anticipated timeline" for Casper introduction. Probably a year more or less at least to go.

The Titan Xp "Star Wars" cards were in stock 'till Friday or Saturday last week, then Nvidia made some "regular" Titan Xp cards available early this week - but those seem to have dried up already.

Titans are pretty close to the 1080 ti on mining - the 1080 ti is basically 11/12ths of a Titan Xp across the board after all.

They're Founder Edition designs, so they should have pretty much the same thermal curve as the 180 ti FE cards.

Based on the Titan V benchmarks, I'm anticipating 20-30% performance jump over the "equivalent" Pascal cards at the same power consumption, or some mix of "lower power" + "not as much performance gain".
Might vary with the specific model, and they might not try to "match" the Pascal models with the new models - if nothing else, they need to CHANGE that deceptive 1060 naming where the 3GB card is NOT the same GPU as the 6GB card (it's a cut-down version, one CU disabled or some such).

Water cooled are USUALLY more expensive - but with the crazy gouge pricing and extreme shortages that's not always the case right now.

 They ARE a good choice if you insist on mining in a hot + humid area where evap coolers don't work, since you CAN keep them cool easily and cheaply despite the humidity - otherwise when prices are normal I don't think they're a good choice.

ETH was profitable TWO YEARS AGO when it was still low double-digit pricing - if you had low electric cost and didn't pay a ton for your GPUs.

It had a lot lower diff at the time.

 I am shocked it hasn't dropped lower already.
 Either the first batch was very small, or Bitmain is being slow about getting them shipped out.

 SIA total network hashrate was so small prior to the A3 introduction that a 3000-unit batch of A3 models SHOULD have done a lot more to the total hashrate than has happened so far.

 That didn't break or at least crack the PC board?
 Amazing.

 And Bitmain just announced a second batch for sale via Emails.

 Kiss them crazy-high first adopter profits bye-bye....

 Laptops are not INTENDED for 24/7 or constant high-workload usage - never have been, never WILL be.
 Their small size limits how much heat they CAN dissipate, that's inherent and unavoidable if you are going to have a laptop that CAN BE a laptop.
 There used to be a form factor commonly known as "luggable", but it died 'cause it wasn't portable ENOUGH and was still somewhat lower performance than a true desktop.

 Most DESKTOPS aren't intended for that sort of usage.

 Running a laptop 24/7 or at constant high load is NOT normal usage for them that the manufacturer can be expected to TRY to design for.

Innosilicon FINALLY adding distributors is a good move - though long overdue.

 The claims of the A5 being "3 times" better than the competition is overblown though - it's the best currently available but nowhere near 3 TIMES better than the Pinidea 22Mhash model, or even the Bitmain D3.


 Y'all also need to work on your pricing, you're WAY HIGH on all of your current models even after factoring in for better performance compared to your competition.

My best estimate is that Nvidia will "announce" the first Volta Consumer cards at their GTC event in late March, availability is looking more and more likely to be "immediate" at that point but MIGHT be delayed 'till April.

No idea how long it will take for their "stockpile" to deplete after that - TSMC should have been making GPUs for the last month for them per their announcement from October, but the current extreme shortage on Pascal parts indicates they are going to have a TON of sale pressure when they show up for sale.

 No, they just use fairly universal controllers and control software, with minimal changes to suit the different algorithm.
 I suspect their software for the D3 L3 and A3 all derived from some generation of their S9 software, and goes back at least as far as the S5 in the chain or direct ancestery.

 Their hardware configuration seems to have been set by the S5+/S7 for all their recent miners, VERY minimal changes.

 I don't see any reason why UNDERclocking would void the warranty.

 ROI as "misused" in the cryptocoin mining industry is generally a time estimate to get enough payout in coin value to match the price of the hardware.
 DO keep in mind that most cryptocoin miners are not financial professionals or experts.

 It also tends to ignore the residual value of the underlying hardware - which in the case of ASIC miners wasn't a particularly bad choice as those often had very little value left by the time they have earned more than their own price, prior to the current 14/16 nm generation,

It shouldn't take 2 years to test the PoS system - I'd bet on 6 months possibly less.
Isn't the first stage "1% POS" supposed to deploy in the next month or so?
Or did it get delayed AGAIN?