> After all, if all these cards weren't used for mining but for gaming, wouldn't the environmental outcome be the same? I would assume miners keep these cards

> After all, if all these cards weren't used for mining but for gaming, wouldn't the environmental outcome be the same? I would assume miners keep these cards pegged at 100% 24/7. By comparison very few games actually push graphics cards to 100% utilization, especially when you're talking about top of the line cards like the nVidia 3000 series, and on top of that very few people play games for more than a couple hours per day. A card in the hands of a gamer probably consumes only a small fraction of the power that same card would in the hands of miners.