News Crypto Miners Start Dumping GPUs, RTX 3080s for $523

[Admin]

Cryptocurrency miners in China have started offloading their graphics cards on the second-hand market, and RTX 3080s are going for $523.

Crypto Miners Start Dumping GPUs, RTX 3080s for $523 : Read more

 

[bigdragon]

A lot of the crypto GPUs were undervolted and housed in well-cooled environments. I don't think they're a huge gamble to try, especially if the OEM has a good warranty on the card. Definite possibility for deals here, especially if miners and scalpers start undercutting each other in a week or two.

However, the next generation is weeks or a few months away -- very close. The RTX 30-series also has anemic amounts of VRAM. Intel is taking the low-end of the market away from Nvidia and AMD. Inflation is changing spending habits. Lots of downward pressure on GPU prices. We don't have a PC game pushing graphical fidelity and creating a need to upgrade either. The pendulum is swinging back against the GPU vendors after a couple years of crypto and shortage-fueled craziness.

 

[Makaveli]

I wouldn't buy any of their cards regardless of the discounted price. These guys were the reason the market was messed up for over a year. Not going to reward them by buying their used mining gpu's just on principle alone.

 

[-Fran-]

A lot of the crypto GPUs were undervolted and housed in well-cooled environments. I don't think they're a huge gamble to try, especially if the OEM has a good warranty on the card. Definite possibility for deals here, especially if miners and scalpers start undercutting each other in a week or two.

However, the next generation is weeks or a few months away -- very close. The RTX 30-series also has anemic amounts of VRAM. Intel is taking the low-end of the market away from Nvidia and AMD. Inflation is changing spending habits. Lots of downward pressure on GPU prices. We don't have a PC game pushing graphical fidelity and creating a need to upgrade either. The pendulum is swinging back against the GPU vendors after a couple years of crypto and shortage-fueled craziness.

That is only for the GPU, but not the memory. The memory is tuned for max performance and it was abused for a long time and hard, 24/7 even, in those mining farms. This is well known.

So, in short, no. Buying these cards is almost guaranteed to not last a long time if they don't just die immediately afterwards. That's not even taking into account hacked firmware and other "customization" done to it.

Even low scale farmers, I'd say, are not free of these points/issues. I would advise people to stay away from confirmed mining cards if possible and, as Makaveli mentioned above, there's also a stance to take: do not help these rats recoup their money.

Regards.

 

[KananX]

Only buy used cards with warranty, it doesn’t matter if crypto or not. What to look out for with crypto cards are also the fans, under constant use they aren’t in the best shape anymore.
Also 530$ isn’t cheap by any means, we are talking about used cards here, it’s really nothing special. 350-400$ would be good.

 

[InvalidError]

The RTX 30-series also has anemic amounts of VRAM.

8GB of VRAM is enough for the vast majority of games. Worst case, you may have to settle for high-resolution textures instead of ultra and that is about it. No major VRAM problem there.

Also keep in mind that people who have been holding off from buying a new GPU for this long and may be eyeing heavily discounted retired crypto-mining GPUs are likely very much willing to compromise on some details to make their games run smoothly on 8GB if that means saving another good chunk of change.

 

[hotaru.hino]

The RTX 30-series also has anemic amounts of VRAM.

I've yet to find a game where my RTX 2070 Super struggles because of VRAM issues, and that's assuming the game even chews up all of the VRAM to begin with. Plus things like DLSS makes VRAM pressure less of a problem.

 

[Giroro]

That is only for the GPU, but not the memory. The memory is tuned for max performance and it was abused for a long time and hard, 24/7 even, in those mining farms. This is well known.

So, in short, no. Buying these cards is almost guaranteed to not last a long time if they don't just die immediately afterwards. That's not even taking into account hacked firmware and other "customization" done to it.

Even low scale farmers, I'd say, are not free of these points/issues. I would advise people to stay away from confirmed mining cards if possible and, as Makaveli mentioned above, there's also a stance to take: do not help these rats recoup their money.

Regards.

I don't think that there's any evidence that running memory at max performance 24/7 reduces it's lifespan. Semiconductors like CPUs and RAM (when run within spec) can essentially run forever - and these cards have thermal protections to essentially force them to throttle/shutdown rather than run at a too-high temperatures.
Capacitors fail faster when run hot, flash memory has limited writes, and moving parts wear out... but the GPU and GDDR themselves are the least of your worries.

"Commercial" mining farms want to waste cycles on fake math at maximum efficiency, and GPUs are less efficient as temperatures increase. I would really only be only worried about dust, normal thermal paste maintenance, and the fans, which are probably still fine and usually not even that hard to replace. Of course, all bets are off it it was run on brownout power in some hacked-together rig that an amateur hot boxed in his garage.
You can still try to avoid mining cards but, realistically, 99% of the used current gen cards you'll find have been used for mining, regardless of what the seller says.

 

[jkflipflop98]

Remember kids, you may be desperate for a new GPU. But, whatever you do, DO NOT buy a 2nd hand clapped out mining card. You will be sorry.

 

[-Fran-]

I don't think that there's any evidence that running memory at max performance 24/7 reduces it's lifespan. Semiconductors like CPUs and RAM (when run within spec) can essentially run forever - and these cards have thermal protections to essentially force them to throttle/shutdown rather than run at a too-high temperatures.
Capacitors fail faster when run hot, flash memory has limited writes, and moving parts wear out... but the GPU and GDDR themselves are the least of your worries.

"Commercial" mining farms want to waste cycles on fake math at maximum efficiency, and GPUs are less efficient as temperatures increase. I would really only be only worried about dust, normal thermal paste maintenance, and the fans, which are probably still fine and usually not even that hard to replace. Of course, all bets are off it it was run on brownout power in some hacked-together rig that an amateur hot boxed in his garage.
You can still try to avoid mining cards but, realistically, 99% of the used current gen cards you'll find have been used for mining, regardless of what the seller says.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdzsBDenww4&t=497s


Regards.

 

[hotaru.hino]

I don't think that there's any evidence that running memory at max performance 24/7 reduces it's lifespan. Semiconductors like CPUs and RAM (when run within spec) can essentially run forever - and these cards have thermal protections to essentially force them to throttle/shutdown rather than run at a too-high temperatures.
Capacitors fail faster when run hot, flash memory has limited writes, and moving parts wear out... but the GPU and GDDR themselves are the least of your worries.

"Commercial" mining farms want to waste cycles on fake math at maximum efficiency, and GPUs are less efficient as temperatures increase. I would really only be only worried about dust, normal thermal paste maintenance, and the fans, which are probably still fine and usually not even that hard to replace. Of course, all bets are off it it was run on brownout power in some hacked-together rig that an amateur hot boxed in his garage.
You can still try to avoid mining cards but, realistically, 99% of the used current gen cards you'll find have been used for mining, regardless of what the seller says.

You could also add that thermal stress is limited on a mining card if they've been working basically at 100% most of the time. This is unlike a consumer card that experiences swings of thermal stress at the very least. Also consumers tend to leave their cards at default settings, or at the very least, push the card hard for that 5% extra performance.

Basically, I equate this to someone who drove a car for 300,000 miles but mostly on the freeway versus someone who drove only 20,000 miles and it was a track car.

 

[Phaaze88]

Are some of y'all forgetting that these things have IMCs? It's not enough that the Vram was kept chilly.
Miners and gamers stress different parts of a gpu. Those that use it for both, well it's probably even worse off...


A cpu's IMC can be pushed too hard, causing XMP and other memory OCs to no longer be stable, but users have control over voltage going to this part - gpu IMC voltage control is locked.

 

[hannibal]

Only buy used cards with warranty, it doesn’t matter if crypto or not. What to look out for with crypto cards are also the fans, under constant use they aren’t in the best shape anymore.
Also 530$ isn’t cheap by any means, we are talking about used cards here, it’s really nothing special. 350-400$ would be good.

I agree. $523 for used GPU that is two years old is not dumping... It is robbery. $150 to $100 would be right price for used 3080 at this moment...
But when 4080 most likely will be $1200 to $1500 after first 100 gpus... well maybe $523 is a "bargain"....

 

[KyaraM]

How about no?

First of all, I would be crazy to buy a card that will likely die on me from overuse shortly after purchase, especially for 500+ bucks. Second, why in the seven hells should I further reward those... people for causing ths current situation and increasing environmental destruction and climate change? I'm sorry, but this article is horrible advice...

 

[Tac 25]

I refuse to buy such a thing. These people should not be compensated for what they did to gpu prices.

 

[InvalidError]

I refuse to buy such a thing. These people should not be compensated for what they did to gpu prices.

If everybody did that, all it would do is send ~10 millions otherwise still perfectly usable GPUs into landfills and set the market that many GPUs shorter from saturating the market to make retail prices go into a free-fall.

I don't mind crypto-miners grossly over-paying for GPUs if it means GPU prices will crash a year or two later and I may be able to get something much better than I would otherwise be bothered to.

 

[LolaGT]

A used mining 3080 might be worth throwing away 150 bucks on, but I would wait until then, and even then you should count that as a loss as you are up the creek without a paddle if it is janked.
A new 3080 isn't worth $500 street price in gaming value right now, as that is closer to what it should have been a few months after release if there had been no panic/crypto boom, 2 years ago.
Again, the tech is 2 years old, only a fool would even look at the higher end of these 3xxx series cards right now unless you can get them for a song.

 

[dalek1234]

Couple of years ago, I bought a 2nd hand video card that was used for mining. Let's just say that I regret that decision. It has several annoying issues. I will never gamble like that again.

Getting a used vidcard with "Warranty still applicable" isn't a solution either. If you don't develop problems with it before warranty expires, you are likely to develop problem after the warranty, given how heavily used that card was.

 

[Im__A__Blimp]

How about no?

First of all, I would be crazy to buy a card that will likely die on me from overuse shortly after purchase, especially for 500+ bucks. Second, why in the seven hells should I further reward those... people for causing ths current situation and increasing environmental destruction and climate change? I'm sorry, but this article is horrible advice...

I refuse to buy such a thing. These people should not be compensated for what they did to gpu prices.

Crypto-miner here for over a year now. For starters, we had NOTHING to do with the influx of GPU prices. We did not cause GPU prices to go up. The sellers of GPUs caused GPU prices to go up, by choosing on their own free will to list their GPUs for sale for 3x MSRP. They didn't have to post them for 3x MSRP. It was well within their right to post them for whatever they wanted to post them for. The sellers could have chosen to post them for MSRP or less. They chose 3x MSRP. It was a choice. We didn't choose it for them. We didn't put a gun to their head and force them to list their price at 3x MSRP. We had nothing to do with that. The sellers chose to sell them high on their own free will. Don't blame us for someone elses free will choices. Secondly, here's a YouTube video that can give you a fairly good idea of how badly our mining operations have destroyed the environment. One more thing, we have already been compensated for the GPU crisis which we had nothing to do with. We have been compensated by great fortunes which our machines give us. There will be more. Dont think...... for even so much as a microsecond......... that the merge is going to put an end to mining. Prices will drop for a while, and in time, a new coin will rise up, the crypto-boom shall be renewed once again, just like it did after the crash of 2018, and then you can go back to choosing on your own free will to pay 3x MSRP for a GPU, if that's what it takes to stay in mommys basement wasting your life away playing fartnite at max settings, 4K 240FPS. Does that sound fair? Excellent, glad we could come to an understanding. .

 

[KananX]

Crypto-miner here for over a year now. For starters, we had NOTHING to do with the influx of GPU prices. We did not cause GPU prices to go up. The sellers of GPUs caused GPU prices to go up, by choosing on their own free will to list their GPUs for sale for 3x MSRP. They didn't have to post them for 3x MSRP. It was well within their right to post them for whatever they wanted to post them for. The sellers could have chosen to post them for MSRP or less. They chose 3x MSRP. It was a choice. We didn't choose it for them. We didn't put a gun to their head and force them to list their price at 3x MSRP. We had nothing to do with that. The sellers chose to sell them high on their own free will. Don't blame us for someone elses free will choices. Secondly, here's a YouTube video that can give you a fairly good idea of how badly our mining operations have destroyed the environment. One more thing, we have already been compensated for the GPU crisis which we had nothing to do with. We have been compensated by great fortunes which our machines give us. There will be more. Dont think...... for even so much as a microsecond......... that the merge is going to put an end to mining. Prices will drop for a while, and in time, a new coin will rise up, the crypto-boom shall be renewed once again, just like it did after the crash of 2018, and then you can go back to choosing on your own free will to pay 3x MSRP for a GPU, if that's what it takes to stay in mommys basement wasting your life away playing fartnite at max settings, 4K 240FPS. Does that sound fair? Excellent, glad we could come to an understanding. .

Complete nonsense, try harder next time. Miners are absolutely to blame for the GPU crisis and also bad for the environment a 100% and no discussion about it. If miners hadn’t bought all GPUs or mining weren’t a thing the prices would’ve been just inflated by post covid situation with people needing more GPUs, that’s it. I saw that end of 2020, it wasn’t that bad. After the mining boom happened it was 10x as worse as before, the 3080 went from 950$ to over 1200 and then to even more than that, so please stop talking nonsense, nobody here believes you anyway. And stop polluting the environment and wasting energy to satisfy your greed for money, that’s insane. I hope mining will be banned completely so no one will care about the last part of your post about new coins either.

 

[Upacs]

Crypto-miner here for over a year now. For starters, we had NOTHING to do with the influx of GPU prices. We did not cause GPU prices to go up. The sellers of GPUs caused GPU prices to go up, by choosing on their own free will to list their GPUs for sale for 3x MSRP. They didn't have to post them for 3x MSRP. It was well within their right to post them for whatever they wanted to post them for. The sellers could have chosen to post them for MSRP or less. They chose 3x MSRP. It was a choice. We didn't choose it for them. We didn't put a gun to their head and force them to list their price at 3x MSRP. We had nothing to do with that. The sellers chose to sell them high on their own free will. Don't blame us for someone elses free will choices. Secondly, here's a YouTube video that can give you a fairly good idea of how badly our mining operations have destroyed the environment. One more thing, we have already been compensated for the GPU crisis which we had nothing to do with. We have been compensated by great fortunes which our machines give us. There will be more. Dont think...... for even so much as a microsecond......... that the merge is going to put an end to mining. Prices will drop for a while, and in time, a new coin will rise up, the crypto-boom shall be renewed once again, just like it did after the crash of 2018, and then you can go back to choosing on your own free will to pay 3x MSRP for a GPU, if that's what it takes to stay in mommys basement wasting your life away playing fartnite at max settings, 4K 240FPS. Does that sound fair? Excellent, glad we could come to an understanding. .

You seem to have a problem understanding basic supply and demand. That will be in chapter 1 of any economics text book. Since you are not spending time playing "Fartnite" (how mature), perhaps you should invest that time educating yourself.

However, there's a lot of cry babies here as usual. Miners didn't cause GPU prices to go up. Crypto-currency demand did. You can all go chase crypto speculators with your pitchforks to soothe your blues. But they are hurting right now, so rejoice, put away the keyboard, and enjoy the summer sunshine (unless you are in the southern hemisphere)

 

[KananX]

However, there's a lot of cry babies here as usual. Miners didn't cause GPU prices to go up. Crypto-currency demand did.

That’s complete nonsense as well, you’re basically contradicting yourself here. Crypto currency created mining, more demand created more miners and more miners bought more GPUs causing the shortage, it’s really funny how people don’t understand this simple fact.

 

[Upacs]

That’s complete nonsense as well, you’re basically contradicting yourself here.

Care to elaborate on what part is nonsense?

Crypto currency created mining, more demand created more miners and more miners bought more GPUs causing the shortage, it’s really funny how people don’t understand this simple fact.

Correct, but not complete.

You are missing the link between the creation of Crypto currency, and the existence of demand for them. Miners were simply reacting to such a demand, which is what should happen in a free open market (and that's a good thing). Without demand, there would be no mining.

The rest is also correct, but incomplete, as there are multiple factors driving the shortage (I don't think I need to elaborate on those).

But as usual, when a bubble inflates, a bubble explodes. Miners will suffer a bit of pain, Nvidia/AMD will hurt at the lower sales, and graphics card prices will probably come down from stratospheric levels. There may even be a crash if crypto demand really evaporates and Nvidia/AMD have booked too much capacity with TSMC not predicting the crash. Who knows.

I'll be watching with great curiosity

 

[-Fran-]

If everybody did that, all it would do is send ~10 millions otherwise still perfectly usable GPUs into landfills and set the market that many GPUs shorter from saturating the market to make retail prices go into a free-fall.

I don't mind crypto-miners grossly over-paying for GPUs if it means GPU prices will crash a year or two later and I may be able to get something much better than I would otherwise be bothered to.

I just find this ironic: https://www.thedrive.com/news/nyc-b...orcycles-atvs-so-theyll-never-terrorize-again

I mean, I don't disagree with you, but I don't think it's unthinkable to just grab all of those and give them the 'dozer treatment and see all those miners cry a bit. Too bad "mining" was not deemed illegal in the USA, but maybe in China some got the 'dozer treatment? Who knows, LOL.

Regards xD

 

[InvalidError]

I just find this ironic: https://www.thedrive.com/news/nyc-b...orcycles-atvs-so-theyll-never-terrorize-again

I mean, I don't disagree with you, but I don't think it's unthinkable to just grab all of those and give them the 'dozer treatment and see all those miners cry a bit. Too bad "mining" was not deemed illegal in the USA, but maybe in China some got the 'dozer treatment? Who knows, LOL.

Regards xD

Even if governments made crypto illegal, there is nothing illegal about the GPUs themselves. Instead of destroying them, the governments would be much better off seizing GPUs from illegal mining farms and auctioning them off.

The illegal ATVs and bikes got crushed because they got modified to be obnoxiously loud. Since undoing the illegal mods would be expensive and the auction prices would need to be almost as high as new to prevent troublemakers from re-purchasing their toys, crushing them so they cannot even be sold for parts makes sense.