News Sorry Gamers, Ethereum Is More Valuable Than Ever

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bigdragon

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Bottom line is that you should hold onto your current graphics hardware and delay any PC builds until next year. Miners are willing to pay scalper or Asus prices. Gamers stand no chance. Stop looking, give up, and come back next year. The miners own the GPU market. Don't get screwed by companies (like Newegg) taking advantage of the situation.

We'll all know when Nvidia and AMD come crawling back -- they'll start bundling games and discounts again. Gamers really shouldn't bite though. Make these companies lower their prices rather than bundle in extra crap. Hold that line.
 

LolaGT

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It doesn't matter, the GPU manufacturers are popping champagne corks.
Gamers will have to just wait it out and resign themselves to the fact they have to get in line, or pay the "I'm an idiot" price for a GPU.
I think if I had no platform I'd go look for a last gen console( PS4/Xbox, etc) right now if I was wanting to game.
It isn't like anyone is entitled to the latest greatest. Hell, I want a supercar, but I am driving a fusion. :p
 
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Makaveli

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Bottom line is that you should hold onto your current graphics hardware and delay any PC builds until next year. Miners are willing to pay scalper or Asus prices. Gamers stand no chance. Stop looking, give up, and come back next year. The miners own the GPU market. Don't get screwed by companies (like Newegg) taking advantage of the situation.

We'll all know when Nvidia and AMD come crawling back -- they'll start bundling games and discounts again. Gamers really shouldn't bite though. Make these companies lower their prices rather than bundle in extra crap. Hold that line.

Yup l'll be sitting on my RX 580 going into next year. I refuse to pay $800 for a midrange gpu they are not getting any money from me. i've been spending money on other area's. Upgraded all the 2TB's drives in my NAS to 4TB's, Going to upgrade from 16GB to 32GB of ram soon.
 
The mining problem is something that is not only concerning "gamers" or, let me clarify "non-mining gamers" (I've seen a lot of people that barely knew how to turn on a PC into miners... like... WTF) as it also puts AMD and nVidia in quite the conondrum for when they have the next generation ready to go, if they ever want to release a new generation...

Why? This would be like a "pump and dump" scheme for miners and AMD with nVidia can't assess what quantities they will need to move vs what quantities will be supplied by old stock. The re-sale market after the new generation comes will be huge and nVidia with AMD will not touch any of the money from those transactions; this is also why nVidia is so keen on controlling the mining market in whatever way they can and I don't know what AMD is planning, but it seems they'll just adjust to their own internal prediction of how the market will be after they release their new cards, if ever.

So, in short, this is not all happy times for neither AMD nor nVidia; maybe AIBs could have a better time? But then again, they're in the middle of this as well, so maybe not. Plus warranties are getting shortened because of mining.

Cheers!
 

chalabam

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This is great news for gamers, but in long term.
Higher prices will fund nvidia, and nvidia will invest in much better cards, and much higher volume of production. It will end in far more powerful, abundant and cheaper GPUs

That's how free market works.
 

atomicWAR

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Remember last summer when everyone and their mother said, "Sell you RTX 2000 series cards while they are still worth something."

I told myself back then, "I could use my GTX 1080 for a few months I guess if I really want a new RTX 3000 series card. Heck I could even sell both my 1080 and 2080Ti and use my old GTX 1050Ti but eh, think I'll just sit on my RTX 2080 Ti."

Me now: "I can't beleive I sold my old 3 year old GTX 1080 and 1050 at above MSRP. I never could of got a RTX 3080 with the shortages. I am so glad I kept my RTX 2080Ti!"

The GPU market has been a real ride the last 10 months. The crypto boom has been nutz. I am not a hardcore miner and even I am using my 2080 Ti on its off time. I figure it is water cooled and I have plenty of thermal paste/pads if I see any degradation in gaming. Which so far I have none. Water cooling I honestly don't expect to see much anyways. And I pull in around 50ish dollars a week when not gaming. I even used my GTX 1080 for a hot minute as well before selling it off. With both cards it was closer to 75 a week but the resale value was just to irresistible on the GTX 1080 to pass up. A little TLC with paste, some benchmarking and it ran like new. Plus a gamer who couldn't get a GPU, did.

All that said I am not a real fan of these crypto locked cards. I think it is more about PR and pushing mining cards than helping out gamers. I think Nvidia should have left well enough alone. Consumers should use their cards how they like not how Nvidia wants them to IMO, yes I get Nvidia has the right to segment their product stack/limit usage cases in their TOU.
 
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Higher prices will fund nvidia, and nvidia will invest in much better cards, and much higher volume of production. It will end in far more powerful, abundant and cheaper GPUs
That's how free market works.

Mhm. Do you realy believe to this? While mining will remain profitable, each next GPU generation will be purchased out by miners and remaining scraps will be scalped into oblivion. Gamers will have the same choice - purchase video card by obscene 3-4 times inflated price or go bust.

All that said I am not a real fan of these crypto locked cards. I think it is more about PR and pushing mining cards than helping out gamers. I think Nvidia should have left well enough alone. Consumers should use their cards how they like not how Nvidia wants them to IMO, yes I get Nvidia has the right to segment their product stack/limit usage cases in their TOU.

Locking is a BS. Either miners will use older drivers or cracked drivers or will pay someone able to stole signing keys from Nvidia etc. Same for mining-only cards which have no use as normal GPUs. These have no value in secondary market and will end as e-waste soon.
 
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Phaaze88

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Locking is a BS. Either miners will use older drivers or cracked drivers or will pay someone able to stole signing keys from Nvidia etc. Same for mining-only cards which have no use as normal GPUs. These have no value in secondary market and will end as e-waste soon.
The point of the lock is to:
-control the mining market
-reduce the flood of 2nd hand cards that comes after an inevitable crash
-steer some of that moolah the AIBs are seeing into Nvidia's own pockets.
Three birds with one stone?
They could give a damn about the e-waste - sadly - it's all about the money.

Mining market is out of their control still. They have a good stable hold on the gaming side.
No way to control it without reducing people's options.

2nd hand flood.
Some of you love it, some hate it, some don't care... Nvidia cares, because it costs them money in new gpu sales.
They're pleased to see us buy new cards every year or so... but if more and more can get by on 2nd hand cards that comes with the fall of every mining 'season'... that's less money for them.

The scalped card profit, and the profit from AIBs jacking up their prices, Nvidia isn't seeing any of that, and they want as much of that as possible.
[I'm sure they're glad that cards are selling though.]
Nvidia is only seeing profits from the initial contract price, which is still in effect, and probably doesn't expire until production has ended and the next gen starts up.
That's a lot of money they're missing out on right now...

Shorter warranties.
Neither Nvidia, nor the AIBs designed the cooling solutions with mining in mind. [If someone happens to get a card that handles it well, consider it a bonus.]
It's an unknown variable to card longevity, just like overclocking.
To honor a normal warranty duration on a variable they haven't accounted for is potential money lost.

TL;DR: Saving more money while making more money, e-waste and user rights be damned.
 
The point of the lock is to:
-control the mining market

This should go under government's responsibility. Issue universal digital money and enforce all 3rd party made digital currency ban worldwide by local governing authorities, UN, NWO, Iluminati or what else rule the grand show at now.

-reduce the flood of 2nd hand cards that comes after an inevitable crash
-steer some of that moolah the AIBs are seeing into Nvidia's own pockets.
Three birds with one stone?
They could give a damn about the e-waste - sadly - it's all about the money.

For this all Nvidia top management should be sent to death row without exception. As toxic waste producers in huge quantities and market defilers in huge proportion.

Mining market is out of their control still. They have a good stable hold on the gaming side.
No way to control it without reducing people's options.

2nd hand flood.
Some of you love it, some hate it, some don't care... Nvidia cares, because it costs them money in new gpu sales.
They're pleased to see us buy new cards every year or so... but if more and more can get by on 2nd hand cards that comes with the fall of every mining 'season'... that's less money for them.

The scalped card profit, and the profit from AIBs jacking up their prices, Nvidia isn't seeing any of that, and they want as much of that as possible.
[I'm sure they're glad that cards are selling though.]
Nvidia is only seeing profits from the initial contract price, which is still in effect, and probably doesn't expire until production has ended and the next gen starts up.
That's a lot of money they're missing out on right now...

Shorter warranties.
Neither Nvidia, nor the AIBs designed the cooling solutions with mining in mind. [If someone happens to get a card that handles it well, consider it a bonus.]
It's an unknown variable to card longevity, just like overclocking.
To honor a normal warranty duration on a variable they haven't accounted for is potential money lost.

TL;DR: Saving more money while making more money, e-waste and user rights be damned.

Who care about consumer rights anymore :)
 

Phaaze88

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O_O'

For this all Nvidia top management should be sent to death row without exception. As toxic waste producers in huge quantities and market defilers in huge proportion.
The death thing is a bit much...

I take it you also don't like AIOs/CLCs, BGA(soldered, basically) devices, Teslas, and Apple's product practices[I'm not going further than that cause it would get too long]...

Who care about consumer rights anymore :)
Not enough these days, I reckon, or some of the crap that does happen wouldn't happen.
 

Oli Baba

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hold onto your current graphics hardware

So, basically, HODL?

Jokes aside, it is really sad how the most interesting GPU lineup since 2014 has become the "lost generation". Prices won't be back down to list price before 2022 - and then why would anyone buy old hardware with the next gen around the corner?

I was really thrilled and was ready to replace my GPU sooner than usual. Now, I'm just feeling dispirited and annoyed by all those reviews of cards that aren't available on the market anyway. Much like you've written, I'm not really sure I won't bear a grudge, illogical as it may seem.

The manufacturers, on the other hand, might be loosing on their gaming clientele. But why should they really care? As long as all their factory output turns into profit... They could even drop all the unnecessary circuits and just turn all those wavers into dedicated mining hardware and nothing else.

Just to spin that thought even further... on the loosing side won't be just the gamers, but the game industry, too, after a while. It is like that already for the PS5... why should anyone spend money on games for a console that he can't buy? Maybe we'll see dedicated gaming GPUs sold by Valve someday.
 
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Jokes aside, it is really sad how the most interesting GPU lineup since 2014 has become the "lost generation". Prices won't be back down to list price before 2022 - and then why would anyone buy old hardware with the next gen around the corner?

Gamers wouldn't have next generation cards as well. Because there are another group of "customers" who are willing to purchase GPUs directly in boxes, pallets and shipping containers.

I was really thrilled and was ready to replace my GPU sooner than usual. Now, I'm just feeling dispirited and annoyed by all those reviews of cards that aren't available on the market anyway. Much like you've written, I'm not really sure I won't bear a grudge, illogical as it may seem.

The manufacturers, on the other hand, might be loosing on their gaming clientele. But why should they really care? As long as all their factory output turns into profit... They could even drop all the unnecessary circuits and just turn all those wavers into dedicated mining hardware and nothing else.

Just to spin that thought even further... on the loosing side won't be just the gamers, but the game industry, too, after a while. It is like that already for the PS5... why should anyone spend money on games for a console that he can't buy? Maybe we'll see dedicated gaming GPUs sold by Valve someday.

While mining is rampant in combination with global semiconductor shortage, possibility for average gamer to get decent video card for adequate price is a pipe dream. Seems so far only possible option is GPU without mining support like AMD and Intel iGPU-s. Game development wouldn't die for sure. However development of new games with advanced 3D graphic features will stagnate for a while. Keep your existing GPUs while they last and hope for better.
 
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