Video card prices approaching sanity as crypto prices plunge

Quizzical

With Ethereum now trading at under $1100 as compared to its peak of over $4800, buying video cards to mine it is vastly less profitable than before.  A lot of video card prices are now approaching MSRP, and some have even dropped below MSRP.  Because parts of lineups of cards that are a year and a half old finally dropping below MSRP mere months before their successors launch counts as good news these days.

Still, the good news is that crypto prices are likely to keep dropping.  I've been saying for quite some time now that the next recession would take down mined cryptocurrencies, and that seems to be on its way.  With any luck, this will be the last big spike in video cards due to mined cryptocurrencies.

Of course, that's also what I thought in late 2018, when Ethereum had dropped to around $90 from its previous peak of around $1400.  It's also what I thought in late 2014, when Litecoin dropped to $1.16 (note the decimal point) from its previous high of over $44.  So I'm not willing to predict that this will be the last mining run on cryptocurrencies just yet.  Neither of those drops had the benefit of a recession driving a stake through the heart of cryptocurrencies, however, which is something that we're likely to see soon.

We're likely to see a lot of used video cards show up for sale as miners look to clear inventories.  Be cautious about potential damage to the cards, though, as they've likely been tortured with months or years of round-the-clock mining.  Ethereum mining is very memory-heavy, so miners will sometimes underclock the GPU to save power, but overclock memory.  That's less bad for the planet than the other way around, as it does mean lower energy usage, but a bad memory chip still means a card is useless.  Unlike for CPU memory, you can't replace a GPU's memory.

Arglebargle

I must admit that my schadenfreude is running in high gear now.  

But, I coulda gotten in to bitcoin when the price collapsed to $4.  Oh well....

Quizzical

Arglebargle said:

I must admit that my schadenfreude is running in high gear now.  

But, I coulda gotten in to bitcoin when the price collapsed to $4.  Oh well....

Some of the people who bought Bitcoin at $4 will still have it when it drops back to $4 again.  Which it will.

Ridelynn

What’s the opposite of “to the moon”?

That.

Ridelynn

Official nVidia price drops on high-end cards

https://www.pcgamer.com/nvidia-graphics-card-prices-are-dropping-by-up-to-dollar500-today-but-msrps-wont-change-permanently/

$500 off the 3090 Ti -- it's almost at a sane level for MSRP.

Supposedly not permanent, but... probably will last until the 4000 series hits and then it won't really be relevant any longer.

Asm0deus

Nice I might finally be able to afford a 3080 to replace my gtx760!

I knew the prices were crashing and was waiting to see if prices of new gpu's would change before going the used route considering most of the used gpu's will have been cryto mining abused really hard.

maskedweasel

Quizzical said:

Arglebargle said:

I must admit that my schadenfreude is running in high gear now.  

But, I coulda gotten in to bitcoin when the price collapsed to $4.  Oh well....

Some of the people who bought Bitcoin at $4 will still have it when it drops back to $4 again.  Which it will.

Possible. Unlikely anytime soon though. 

vegetableoil

Yes but the problem with these used mining GPUs, it won't be long before it becomes brick. Miners used it 24 hrs a day for an entire year before they sold it, which means there will be a lot of lemon GPU in the market. might as well skip it until you see a brand new 4000 series on nvidia.

maskedweasel

vegetableoil said:

Yes but the problem with these used mining GPUs, it won't be long before it becomes brick. Miners used it 24 hrs a day for an entire year before they sold it, which means there will be a lot of lemon GPU in the market. might as well skip it until you see a brand new 4000 series on nvidia.

Sometimes. Not all cards will. Statistically a very small amount probably will if they are fairly new models and were run under normal conditions. 

You just can't tell from buying online whether the used card is in good condition or not. Even when used for mining it could still be just fine for years. You're always better off buying new since buying anything used is a gamble.  

Quizzical

maskedweasel said:

vegetableoil said:

Yes but the problem with these used mining GPUs, it won't be long before it becomes brick. Miners used it 24 hrs a day for an entire year before they sold it, which means there will be a lot of lemon GPU in the market. might as well skip it until you see a brand new 4000 series on nvidia.

Sometimes. Not all cards will. Statistically a very small amount probably will if they are fairly new models and were run under normal conditions. 

You just can't tell from buying online whether the used card is in good condition or not. Even when used for mining it could still be just fine for years. You're always better off buying new since buying anything used is a gamble.  

Running 24 hours per day isn't normal conditions for consumer video cards.  Some professional cards are built to handle that, but they're clocked and volted lower to make it safe.

That said, Ethereum mining is less of a problem on thermals than some other things that you could run on video cards around the clock.  It's very heavy on memory bandwidth, to the extent that the shaders will sit mostly idle while waiting on memory.  Smart miners will underclock the GPU chip to save power since it won't affect performance.  What's dangerous is if they overclock the memory, however.

kitarad

Getting a used card is paying for something that will die in a short time. There is no way for you to even check where the card has been and what it was doing before it came to your hands. Really stupid considering why the prices dropped in the first place. The chances of you not getting a card used for mining is practically nil.

Vrika

kitarad said:

Getting a used card is paying for something that will die in a short time. There is no way for you to even check where the card has been and what it was doing before it came to your hands. Really stupid considering why the prices dropped in the first place. The chances of you not getting a card used for mining is practically nil.

False. Getting a card used for mining only means it will have higher chance to break.

Computer components don't have a hard limit where they'd get so worn down that they break. Instead they have a huge amount of stuff that can fail at any time, and as the card slowly wears down something breaking at any time becomes more likely.

So most of the used mining GPUs will work just fine if you want to use them for gaming for the next 5 years. Compared to getting a new GPU there's just higher chance it would break. But it's only a chance, not an inevitability. And if you get the used mining GPU at cheap enough price it could be a chance worth taking.


EDIT: Actually SSDs, NVMe disks and other similar storage devices have a hard limit where enough writes can wear them down until they break. But GPUs, CPUs and RAM don't have - they just slowly get more likely to fail /EDIT

Splattr

Quizzical said:

With Ethereum now trading at under $1100 as compared to its peak of over $4800, buying video cards to mine it is vastly less profitable than before.  A lot of video card prices are now approaching MSRP, and some have even dropped below MSRP.  Because parts of lineups of cards that are a year and a half old finally dropping below MSRP mere months before their successors launch counts as good news these days.

Still, the good news is that crypto prices are likely to keep dropping.  I've been saying for quite some time now that the next recession would take down mined cryptocurrencies, and that seems to be on its way.  With any luck, this will be the last big spike in video cards due to mined cryptocurrencies.

Of course, that's also what I thought in late 2018, when Ethereum had dropped to around $90 from its previous peak of around $1400.  It's also what I thought in late 2014, when Litecoin dropped to $1.16 (note the decimal point) from its previous high of over $44.  So I'm not willing to predict that this will be the last mining run on cryptocurrencies just yet.  Neither of those drops had the benefit of a recession driving a stake through the heart of cryptocurrencies, however, which is something that we're likely to see soon.

We're likely to see a lot of used video cards show up for sale as miners look to clear inventories.  Be cautious about potential damage to the cards, though, as they've likely been tortured with months or years of round-the-clock mining.  Ethereum mining is very memory-heavy, so miners will sometimes underclock the GPU to save power, but overclock memory.  That's less bad for the planet than the other way around, as it does mean lower energy usage, but a bad memory chip still means a card is useless.  Unlike for CPU memory, you can't replace a GPU's memory.

Miners aren't selling off inventory just because the profitability of mining is down. Currently, Ethereum is still profitable to mine as long as the card has already paid for itself. The reason so many are selling inventory is because Ethereum is nearing the switch to Proof of Stake. When that finally happens (expected in September unless there are more delays), all of those video cards will be useless. So it's sell now to maximize profit or forever be stuck with tens or hundreds (or more) of cards that you won't be able to move at anything other than rock bottom prices.

Quizzical

Splattr said:

Quizzical said:

With Ethereum now trading at under $1100 as compared to its peak of over $4800, buying video cards to mine it is vastly less profitable than before.  A lot of video card prices are now approaching MSRP, and some have even dropped below MSRP.  Because parts of lineups of cards that are a year and a half old finally dropping below MSRP mere months before their successors launch counts as good news these days.

Still, the good news is that crypto prices are likely to keep dropping.  I've been saying for quite some time now that the next recession would take down mined cryptocurrencies, and that seems to be on its way.  With any luck, this will be the last big spike in video cards due to mined cryptocurrencies.

Of course, that's also what I thought in late 2018, when Ethereum had dropped to around $90 from its previous peak of around $1400.  It's also what I thought in late 2014, when Litecoin dropped to $1.16 (note the decimal point) from its previous high of over $44.  So I'm not willing to predict that this will be the last mining run on cryptocurrencies just yet.  Neither of those drops had the benefit of a recession driving a stake through the heart of cryptocurrencies, however, which is something that we're likely to see soon.

We're likely to see a lot of used video cards show up for sale as miners look to clear inventories.  Be cautious about potential damage to the cards, though, as they've likely been tortured with months or years of round-the-clock mining.  Ethereum mining is very memory-heavy, so miners will sometimes underclock the GPU to save power, but overclock memory.  That's less bad for the planet than the other way around, as it does mean lower energy usage, but a bad memory chip still means a card is useless.  Unlike for CPU memory, you can't replace a GPU's memory.

Miners aren't selling off inventory just because the profitability of mining is down. Currently, Ethereum is still profitable to mine as long as the card has already paid for itself. The reason so many are selling inventory is because Ethereum is nearing the switch to Proof of Stake. When that finally happens (expected in September unless there are more delays), all of those video cards will be useless. So it's sell now to maximize profit or forever be stuck with tens or hundreds (or more) of cards that you won't be able to move at anything other than rock bottom prices.

Ethereum has been on the brink of switching to proof of stake for at least two years now.  Somehow, that didn't scare off miners from buying everything when Ethereum was over $4000.  With all the delays that making the switch has had, I'm assuming that Ethereum will be proof of work forever until proven otherwise.

maskedweasel

Quizzical said:

Splattr said:

Quizzical said:

With Ethereum now trading at under $1100 as compared to its peak of over $4800, buying video cards to mine it is vastly less profitable than before.  A lot of video card prices are now approaching MSRP, and some have even dropped below MSRP.  Because parts of lineups of cards that are a year and a half old finally dropping below MSRP mere months before their successors launch counts as good news these days.

Still, the good news is that crypto prices are likely to keep dropping.  I've been saying for quite some time now that the next recession would take down mined cryptocurrencies, and that seems to be on its way.  With any luck, this will be the last big spike in video cards due to mined cryptocurrencies.

Of course, that's also what I thought in late 2018, when Ethereum had dropped to around $90 from its previous peak of around $1400.  It's also what I thought in late 2014, when Litecoin dropped to $1.16 (note the decimal point) from its previous high of over $44.  So I'm not willing to predict that this will be the last mining run on cryptocurrencies just yet.  Neither of those drops had the benefit of a recession driving a stake through the heart of cryptocurrencies, however, which is something that we're likely to see soon.

We're likely to see a lot of used video cards show up for sale as miners look to clear inventories.  Be cautious about potential damage to the cards, though, as they've likely been tortured with months or years of round-the-clock mining.  Ethereum mining is very memory-heavy, so miners will sometimes underclock the GPU to save power, but overclock memory.  That's less bad for the planet than the other way around, as it does mean lower energy usage, but a bad memory chip still means a card is useless.  Unlike for CPU memory, you can't replace a GPU's memory.

Miners aren't selling off inventory just because the profitability of mining is down. Currently, Ethereum is still profitable to mine as long as the card has already paid for itself. The reason so many are selling inventory is because Ethereum is nearing the switch to Proof of Stake. When that finally happens (expected in September unless there are more delays), all of those video cards will be useless. So it's sell now to maximize profit or forever be stuck with tens or hundreds (or more) of cards that you won't be able to move at anything other than rock bottom prices.

Ethereum has been on the brink of switching to proof of stake for at least two years now.  Somehow, that didn't scare off miners from buying everything when Ethereum was over $4000.  With all the delays that making the switch has had, I'm assuming that Ethereum will be proof of work forever until proven otherwise.

I guess we will see

"Ethereum Devs Pencil In September Date For Merge - Decrypt" https://decrypt.co/105177/ethereum-devs-pencil-in-september-date-for-merge?amp=1

Arglebargle

maskedweasel said:

Quizzical said:

Splattr said:

Quizzical said:

With Ethereum now trading at under $1100 as compared to its peak of over $4800, buying video cards to mine it is vastly less profitable than before.  A lot of video card prices are now approaching MSRP, and some have even dropped below MSRP.  Because parts of lineups of cards that are a year and a half old finally dropping below MSRP mere months before their successors launch counts as good news these days.

Still, the good news is that crypto prices are likely to keep dropping.  I've been saying for quite some time now that the next recession would take down mined cryptocurrencies, and that seems to be on its way.  With any luck, this will be the last big spike in video cards due to mined cryptocurrencies.

Of course, that's also what I thought in late 2018, when Ethereum had dropped to around $90 from its previous peak of around $1400.  It's also what I thought in late 2014, when Litecoin dropped to $1.16 (note the decimal point) from its previous high of over $44.  So I'm not willing to predict that this will be the last mining run on cryptocurrencies just yet.  Neither of those drops had the benefit of a recession driving a stake through the heart of cryptocurrencies, however, which is something that we're likely to see soon.

We're likely to see a lot of used video cards show up for sale as miners look to clear inventories.  Be cautious about potential damage to the cards, though, as they've likely been tortured with months or years of round-the-clock mining.  Ethereum mining is very memory-heavy, so miners will sometimes underclock the GPU to save power, but overclock memory.  That's less bad for the planet than the other way around, as it does mean lower energy usage, but a bad memory chip still means a card is useless.  Unlike for CPU memory, you can't replace a GPU's memory.

Miners aren't selling off inventory just because the profitability of mining is down. Currently, Ethereum is still profitable to mine as long as the card has already paid for itself. The reason so many are selling inventory is because Ethereum is nearing the switch to Proof of Stake. When that finally happens (expected in September unless there are more delays), all of those video cards will be useless. So it's sell now to maximize profit or forever be stuck with tens or hundreds (or more) of cards that you won't be able to move at anything other than rock bottom prices.

Ethereum has been on the brink of switching to proof of stake for at least two years now.  Somehow, that didn't scare off miners from buying everything when Ethereum was over $4000.  With all the delays that making the switch has had, I'm assuming that Ethereum will be proof of work forever until proven otherwise.

I guess we will see

"Ethereum Devs Pencil In September Date For Merge - Decrypt" https://decrypt.co/105177/ethereum-devs-pencil-in-september-date-for-merge?amp=1

Is that a real pledge, or a Star Citizen pledge?

maskedweasel

Arglebargle said:

maskedweasel said:

Quizzical said:

Splattr said:

Quizzical said:

With Ethereum now trading at under $1100 as compared to its peak of over $4800, buying video cards to mine it is vastly less profitable than before.  A lot of video card prices are now approaching MSRP, and some have even dropped below MSRP.  Because parts of lineups of cards that are a year and a half old finally dropping below MSRP mere months before their successors launch counts as good news these days.

Still, the good news is that crypto prices are likely to keep dropping.  I've been saying for quite some time now that the next recession would take down mined cryptocurrencies, and that seems to be on its way.  With any luck, this will be the last big spike in video cards due to mined cryptocurrencies.

Of course, that's also what I thought in late 2018, when Ethereum had dropped to around $90 from its previous peak of around $1400.  It's also what I thought in late 2014, when Litecoin dropped to $1.16 (note the decimal point) from its previous high of over $44.  So I'm not willing to predict that this will be the last mining run on cryptocurrencies just yet.  Neither of those drops had the benefit of a recession driving a stake through the heart of cryptocurrencies, however, which is something that we're likely to see soon.

We're likely to see a lot of used video cards show up for sale as miners look to clear inventories.  Be cautious about potential damage to the cards, though, as they've likely been tortured with months or years of round-the-clock mining.  Ethereum mining is very memory-heavy, so miners will sometimes underclock the GPU to save power, but overclock memory.  That's less bad for the planet than the other way around, as it does mean lower energy usage, but a bad memory chip still means a card is useless.  Unlike for CPU memory, you can't replace a GPU's memory.

Miners aren't selling off inventory just because the profitability of mining is down. Currently, Ethereum is still profitable to mine as long as the card has already paid for itself. The reason so many are selling inventory is because Ethereum is nearing the switch to Proof of Stake. When that finally happens (expected in September unless there are more delays), all of those video cards will be useless. So it's sell now to maximize profit or forever be stuck with tens or hundreds (or more) of cards that you won't be able to move at anything other than rock bottom prices.

Ethereum has been on the brink of switching to proof of stake for at least two years now.  Somehow, that didn't scare off miners from buying everything when Ethereum was over $4000.  With all the delays that making the switch has had, I'm assuming that Ethereum will be proof of work forever until proven otherwise.

I guess we will see

"Ethereum Devs Pencil In September Date For Merge - Decrypt" https://decrypt.co/105177/ethereum-devs-pencil-in-september-date-for-merge?amp=1

Is that a real pledge, or a Star Citizen pledge?

Haha at this point flip a coin. 

Nilden

It's nice to see crypto, NFT's and blockchain have been basically laughed out of the industry.

Gorwe

Now we will have the AI(Chat GPT etc) craze driving these prices. As well as alleged wafer shortages etc.

O tempora, o mores! It would have otherwise been a perfect time to upgrade.

Maybe some more time.

cheyane

Yeah in 2020 bad time I got husband the alienware with rtx 2080 Super was more expensive by 200 euros than the 3080 I got now not to mention the upgrade in the CPU. He always buys from there so don't scoff nothing I can do, he likes that they come and replace stuff completely free for 5 years.