GPU prices and how it isn't fun

[Tommi]

Best thing to do is buy a pre-built then sell all the other parts from it on ebay or some shit. Works out cheaper than buying current prices.

I am so glad I drove down to Scan.co.uk to buy mines on launch day, now that I look back at it.

[locketto]

Not much can be done about it. There is some talk of Etherium changing their model to have transactions rely less on gas, which might help, but while BTC/ETH is pumping coupled with shortages - can't really get anywhere there. There is a really small supply for huge demand.

Sure Nvidia might do something with BIOS rate limiters and such, but it remains to be seen how effective that is, especially seeing how they botched it first time they tried it recently.

Maybe if someone introduced some sort of ASIC aimed at crypto, then GPUs might be back to doing what they were made for to begin with.

GPU shortage is not caused by mining but by a shortage of silicon.
CPUs are in shortage too and miner does not care about them.

[procne]

Many crypto exchanges offer Visa Debit cards to pay with. If you have crypto, they sell it for you and you can pay with $/€/whatever. Liquefying crypto has a small fee obviously. If you have eurodollars on the account then there's no fee even.

But then you don't have your own crypto currency wallet, just an account on the exchange with the "promise" that you do own some currency, right? Without the security provided by the blockchain. And then the exchange owner does that https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56865119 ?

[Temp name]

GPU shortage is not caused by mining but by a shortage of silicon.
CPUs are in shortage too and miner does not care about them.

Miners care about CPUs too, just waaaaaaaaay less.
A mining rig can support 8-10 GPUs, but only needs 1 CPU after all

[Acidbaron]

Basically the only machine with at least decent integrated GPU, which says a lot. Hell, even a cheap old gpu would be better, but we're talking about 1030s proced at 250 euros here. It's total nonsense and it's gonna last at least another full year.

Also: rumors are 3080ti and 3070ti are about to launch. My question is not if anyone can buy them at MSRP or even find those, but how the hell are they going to launch something if the availability is already down the drain.

Yes that boggles my mind both AMD and Nvidia keep on releasing these new cards while the majority can't even get a hand on a card that was released a year ago if not longer.

[Shakadam]

Buy directly from AMD if you're in Europe, probably also works in the US.
MSRP pricing, restocks every thursday. Use a stock watch discord or similar to get notified exactly when the restock happens. You'll have to be fast but it's definitely possible to get a GPU.
https://www.amd.com/en/direct-buy/fi

If you're in the US it's probably also possible to buy directly from Nvidia, but I don't know the schedule and there's more demand and more bots checking for those stock drops so the chances of getting one is quite a lot smaller.

[Shakadam]

When did Nvidia swap from Best Buy only in the US?

Ah right, forgot about that.
Same thing applies though, you can get GPU's for MSRP from Best Buy but it's quite difficult with so much demand and so many bots.

Easier to go with AMD right now, demand isn't quite as overwhelming since most people default to Nvidia and mining on the RX 6000 series isn't as profitable as on the RTX 3000 series.

[Seme]

It certainly doesn't look like this situation is going to change anytime soon, probably not for this year at least.

I find it crazy that the world has gotten its self into the situation where chips are produced by only a couple of manufactures in the world.

I needed to upgrade my system this year including my GPU, given the market my best option was to buy a pre-built PC rather than build my own. It still took about 6 weeks from placing the order to being delivered but that was better than paying scalper prices for a card.

[Temp name]

Yes that boggles my mind both AMD and Nvidia keep on releasing these new cards while the majority can't even get a hand on a card that was released a year ago if not longer.

Because they use different pieces / different qualities of silicon, and probably have been either in production or at least ordered since way before the shortages hit

[Piesor]

I'm lucky I snagged a 5700 XT a few months before all this bs started.

That will last me until GPU prices stabilize and I can get a RTX 3000 card.

Haha same here. Bought a Sapphire 5700XT including Gods of War and Shadowlands keys for 399€ two weeks before black friday. Would have bought Shadowlands anyway, so in theory I just paid 360€ for the card.

[Temp name]

I find it crazy that the world has gotten its self into the situation where chips are produced by only a couple of manufactures in the world.

I think it's impressive there are this many.
It costs BILLIONS of dollars PER PLANT. The amount of startup capital you'd need to even launch in this space puts it well out of reach for pretty much everyone

[chazus]

I doubt that limiters will help. Even with them active, as long as there isn't a better product suited for their needs, we're going to remain in the same situation.

There is/are better products. They buy those up too. GPU's are the scraps and remnants that are still profitable.

Or maybe make hardware custom designed for miners, that are both cheaper and utterly useless for gaming, and then leave the actual GPUs targetted for gaming.

Crazy thought, I know. God forbid.

We have those. It doesn't help anything except make miners more money.

All these things have more or less been tried. One of the big issues with catering to miners is the market could be gone tomorrow. Just see in this thread someone saying etherium may the way it does things to cut out GPU feasibility.

Unfortunately, Nvidia is rather good at what they do and for some tasks there is apparently no ASIC that can keep up.

There are ASICS that keep up, or do better. The problem falls back upon fab, again. With like 5 locations in the world that can make these until 2025 or later, it's sort of moot, even if smaller fabs can put out 'a few thousand' which is closer to nothing.

[Kagthul]

I think it's impressive there are this many.
It costs BILLIONS of dollars PER PLANT. The amount of startup capital you'd need to even launch in this space puts it well out of reach for pretty much everyone

And hope that during the 5ish years (at best) it takes to get your plant up and running that there arent changes in the market that mean there will be no demand for your services. And therefore, all that infrastructure and investment is totally wasted. And this is risk is why youd never get the investment anyway. Because no one is going to give you Billions when there is a pretty high likleyhood itll be money down the drain.

[Samuraijake]

The scalping IS kind of getting out of hand.. with PS5's GPUs and other tech.

ppl vulturously buying out companies and forcing supply to be ran through themselves at a higher cost is a clearly a dick move.

Like if i buy all the doughnuts from a bakery then sell them across the street for 10 dollars a doughnut.

[BeepBoo]

Billions when there is a pretty high likleyhood itll be money down the drain.

We're getting more flexible in our manufacturing and I expect this to carry over into tech (if it hasn't already) as far as plants are concerned. The old way of tooling things with a bunch of dies and such is slowly going away in favor of things that don't need to be re-tooled just to change the design of the product they're making.

Eventually, all those risks and huge startup costs won't be a barrier.

[VinceVega]

The scalping IS kind of getting out of hand.. with PS5's GPUs and other tech.

ppl vulturously buying out companies and forcing supply to be ran through themselves at a higher cost is a clearly a dick move.

Like if i buy all the doughnuts from a bakery then sell them across the street for 10 dollars a doughnut.

Problem is it is not illegal. Only way to counter it would be to make it personalized for internet selling like concert tickets in some places or plane tickets.

But that is not in the interest of the hardware producers as it will be harder to sell the stuff. If every producer gets scalped for mining and such there is no image hit.

[Kagthul]

We're getting more flexible in our manufacturing and I expect this to carry over into tech (if it hasn't already) as far as plants are concerned. The old way of tooling things with a bunch of dies and such is slowly going away in favor of things that don't need to be re-tooled just to change the design of the product they're making.

Eventually, all those risks and huge startup costs won't be a barrier.

Except that isnt how nanometer-scale silicon production works at all. Might as well be comparing bricks to steaks.

- - - Updated - - -

The scalping IS kind of getting out of hand.. with PS5's GPUs and other tech.

ppl vulturously buying out companies and forcing supply to be ran through themselves at a higher cost is a clearly a dick move.

Like if i buy all the doughnuts from a bakery then sell them across the street for 10 dollars a doughnut.

1 - as long as the bakery gets their money, they dont care.
2 - welcome to capitalism.

[AntenoraDK]

Haha same here. Bought a Sapphire 5700XT including Gods of War and Shadowlands keys for 399€ two weeks before black friday. Would have bought Shadowlands anyway, so in theory I just paid 360€ for the card.

I wanted the Sapphire model but it was out of my budget.

Ended up with the MSI MECH OC one.

[Delever]

Buy directly from AMD if you're in Europe, probably also works in the US.
MSRP pricing, restocks every thursday. Use a stock watch discord or similar to get notified exactly when the restock happens. You'll have to be fast but it's definitely possible to get a GPU.
https://www.amd.com/en/direct-buy/fi

If you're in the US it's probably also possible to buy directly from Nvidia, but I don't know the schedule and there's more demand and more bots checking for those stock drops so the chances of getting one is quite a lot smaller.

could you point to such a discord for EU? I m interested in snagging a GPU from AMD.

[Temp name]

We're getting more flexible in our manufacturing and I expect this to carry over into tech (if it hasn't already) as far as plants are concerned. The old way of tooling things with a bunch of dies and such is slowly going away in favor of things that don't need to be re-tooled just to change the design of the product they're making.

Eventually, all those risks and huge startup costs won't be a barrier.

You clearly have no idea how silicon-chip manufacturing works. We're talking nanometer scale production here. Silicon-chips aren't made with dies, they haven't since.. ever. Go read up on it, I don't have the patience or skill to explain it, but let's just say there's a reason it STILL costs billions per plant