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Comment by 10GBps | Hacker News Reader

I don't think prices are "cratering" so much as just returning to normal rather than price gouging.

Now if I could just buy a GPU for a normal price...

It's so insane. My 5-year old GTX 1060 (320€) is still better than a new gtx 1650 for 250€. Right now there is no direction to upgrade my system except for byuing an apu, but since my 1060 is way faster this doesn't make sence unless i want to get rid of my gpu to get a smaller case (e.g. X300)

I was lucky to buy a 1080 Ti for like 500$ off a miner a few years back. Bitcoin at that moment ended up cheap enough that GPU mining became unprofitable, and everyone was liquidating their farms.

I got one of those at retail price a few years ago and it's still one of the best cards out there in terms of video memory. I'd have to upgrade to a 3080Ti or 3090 to have it beat.

I also have a GTX 1060 that I got in... 2017 I believe.

I looked up prices recently and it's worth more now than when I bought it, and the ones available that I've seen are used. Had no idea that would happen and now I'm just happy I have a graphics card at all.

(The already high) GPU prices skyrocketed from December to about May, then plateaued and even slipped a little because 1. crypto prices fell 2. supply improved (obviously connected to 1) and 3. new Nvidia cards implemented LHR to discourage mining. Recently crypto prices have risen again, and card prices have followed. What I'm saying is: You missed your chance, relatively speaking.

> Now if I could just buy a GPU for a normal price...

The best recommendation I've gotten so far is to get a gaming laptop instead, because the entire laptop costs about the same as the desktop version of the same GPU.

Maybe that's shitty advice, I'm not a PC gamer, just looking for something my kids can use. But a coworker did exactly that and he raves about the decision.

I don't think it'll ever happen until massive new fab capacity comes online at this point.

I wonder whether etherium finally moving to proof of stake will actually have an impact on gpu prices.

No, those people will move to a new coin

No, you don't simply "move to a new coin". ETH is currently a 420B market cap and rewards GPU miners something on the order of 13,000 ETH a day conservatively (without fees). That's nearly 50m dollars a day or 1.5B dollars a month!

The only "other coins" available to be mined with GPUs are tiny. Ethereum classic has only a 8B market cap, Ravencoin with 1B, then many sub 1B coins.

https://www.kryptex.org/en/mining-calculator

What information do you have to backup that opinion?

The owners of mining farms aren't going to just toss out their gpus.

As ETH is the biggest ship in the sea by far, they'll flood those other coins and subdivide a much smaller remaining market.

I bought a GTX 1080 Ti back when they just came out. It was absolutely overkill for my needs, but I got it for fun.

I'm kind of glad I did now, since I'm still unable to upgrade. The extra oomph is ensuring new games still run decently for a bit longer...

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