Graphics cards have now become so profitable that criminal gangs are willing to risk the wrath of Hong Kong authorities just to smuggle unlabeled GPUs, TVB News (via Tom's Hardware) reports that in a 2:00 a.m. raid just outside Hong Kong International Airport reported that 300 Nvidia graphics cards specifically for GPU mining were seized in the raid.

To be honest, I was initially puzzled by the actual smuggling angle. No matter how much one may object to the use of GPUs in large-scale mining operations, it is not illegal to buy up a block of 300 new graphics cards for the privilege.

However, they are now incredibly expensive.

The Nvidia CMP 30HX cards seem to be these unbranded cards, and while there is no fixed retail price we can find, there are reports of these GPUs hitting the market for over $720. With a nominal hash rate of 26 MH/s in Ethereum, these cards are on par with the GTX 1660 Super, which was once a $230 graphics card, a ridiculous price increase.

And another nightmarish sign of the GPU apocalypse we are living in.

The street price for a 300 CMP 30HX card is about $217,000, and why some enterprising malefactors would gladly help cut the middle man for a more reasonable price, and why some serious cryptocurrency looking to make a quick profit I can understand why it might be attractive to miners.

However, Hong Kong's Customs and Excise Department is not to be underestimated. Authorities were reportedly mildly suspicious of this fishing boat anchored just outside the airport, and subsequently discovered smugglers loading boxes of goods from this vessel into a speedboat.

The discovered smugglers fled by speedboat and returned to the mainland. They may have already unloaded a large quantity of GeForce RTX 3080s.

Customs officers, however, detained the owner of the fishing boat and found 300 graphics cards among the smartphones, sea cucumbers, and shark fins. The system RAM also appears to be worth smuggling.

But what happens to these poor graphics cards? That is what we want to know. We don't expect to get many answers by emailing Hong Kong Customs, but we will let you know. As contraband, the Turing GPUs could be destroyed [breath heavily], but there is no need to worry.

But think of the crypto miners who can't get their hands on a rogue graphics card and tell me if their sadness doesn't make you smile and warm your heart just a little.