Question If crypto crashes, will you buy a used RTX card for cheap? Will you skip next gen GPUs?

[moonbogg]

If crypto crashes, I'd be tempted to get a cheap RTX 3080Ti from a miner and skip the RTX 4000 series/AMD equivalent completely. You already know Nvidia will just hike the prices again anyway, so might as well get a used card for way less. Pretty much every 3080Ti will end up in a mining farm as they've likely all been claimed by miners already in shady backdoor deals, so might as well let them pay the premium and snag it from them when crypto crashes hard. Your thoughts?

 

[Genx87]

At this point would be happy if a 4 year old 1060 wasnt 400 bucks.

 

[aigomorla]

also please let us go back to mid range being in the 200-300 dollar ranges... and not 500-600 dollars.

 

[Fallen Kell]

I don't think mid range will ever return to $200-300. Inflation, tariffs, and a lack of manufacturing capacity have meant that it will remain this high from now on. If the tariffs are removed, we might see a drop to around $400-500, but don't expect that given the insanity that we have seen as of late on card prices. Until there are more manufacturing facilities, expect to see the cost premiums remain as those costs have gone up significantly with the high demand on chips in general and the lack of capacity at facilities to make them.

Some of this I think is from supply chain disruption due to Covid over the last year. A lot of it is demand. I don't see this being resolved for 2-3 years.

 

[CP5670]

There will always be something decent in the $200-300 price range. However, I would expect the high end cards to be over $1000 permanently, maybe even $2000. It's not so much about inflation or other factors as much as what they think customers are willing to pay.

 

[Leeea]

Depends on how cheap they get.

$50? probably
$300? probably not

problem is I already have a 6900xt, and after having spent the $msrp on it, not seeing the need for a new card.

 

[rommelrommel]

Yes, I would buy a cheap used card over new.

 

[Mopetar]

I'd buy a used mining card. Most of them are being used for ETH which is memory bandwidth bound so it's not unusual for minders to run the cards with an undervolt to save on power costs.

They've also had them long enough that we're passed the early, higher failure rate of the bathtub curb so almost any card you get used is actually less likely to fail on you in the first several months of ownership than a brand new one, which might seem a bit counterintuitive.

 

[SKORPI0]

Don't these cards come with Ethereum cryptocurrency mining limiter ? So what's the point for miners to buy them?

 

[Leeea]

Don't these cards come with Ethereum cryptocurrency mining limiter ? So what's the point for miners to buy them?

That mining limiter only effects normal consumers and gamers.


It will do nothing to stop professional mining outfits.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

There will always be something decent in the $200-300 price range. However, I would expect the high end cards to be over $1000 permanently, maybe even $2000. It's not so much about inflation or other factors as much as what they think customers are willing to pay.

Yeah previous of these crypto bubbles in 2018 gave us the abortion that is Turing because it was established gamers would pay ridiculous prices for gpus. Now this one is really going to make things ugly from here on out. Can't say I could really consider 1080p 60fps cards to be decent in the $200-$300 range. It would be like eight years ago thinking a card to run games at 1280x1024 60 fps for the price of a GTX 760 was any good.

 

[Mopetar]

Yeah previous of these crypto bubbles in 2018 gave us the abortion that is Turing because it was established gamers would pay ridiculous prices for gpus. Now this one is really going to make things ugly from here on out. Can't say I could really consider 1080p 60fps cards to be decent in the $200-$300 range. It would be like eight years ago thinking a card to run games at 1280x1024 60 fps for the price of a GTX 760 was any good.

Turing pricing was due to a complete lack of AMD competition across the board. Keep in mind that RDNA2 hadn't launched yet so NVidia was competing against a rehashed Polaris line of GPUs and Vega which never had the magic drivers (that would enable it to compete) materialize.

Also during the mining boom it wasn't gamers paying more, it was miners. Nvidia learned that gamers weren't interested in paying those prices when the bought used Pascal cards instead of Turing which is the real reason why Nvidia wants to gimp mining on Ampere and sell special mining cards that won't go on the used market.

 

[moonbogg]

Don't these cards come with Ethereum cryptocurrency mining limiter ? So what's the point for miners to buy them?

The limiters reduce only ethereum performance by 50%. That's simply not enough to deter someone from filling their garage with as many GPUs as their home equity loan will permit. These people are absolutely foaming at the mouth to get as many GPUs as is humanly possible. They are still in panic-buy mode and nothing but a complete and absolute crypto crash will snap them out of it. These cards are all going directly to warehouses and garages to get mined to death. I won't even try to buy one because I already know the play.

also please let us go back to mid range being in the 200-300 dollar ranges... and not 500-600 dollars.

They are getting away with that right now because of the supply and demand issue. I can't imagine ignoring the $2-300 segment during normal times would be a good move for them. The average gamer isn't spending 500 bucks on just a GPU. That's crazy. Once this miserable crypto monster dies in a beautiful, hot fire, only then will they need the gamers to pick up the slack in sales. Does that sound right or am I full of crap? I think it sounds right.

 

[repoman0]

Only reason I haven’t unloaded my $800 3080 for two grand is its ability to print BullshitCoins. In four months I’ve played Cyberpunk 2077 for 70 hours and that’s it. If it hadn’t paid for itself 2-3 times over it’d be gone, it’s wasted on me.

Maybe I should sell it now and buy again when/if crypto crashes

 

[moonbogg]

Only reason I haven’t unloaded my $800 3080 for two grand is its ability to print BullshitCoins. In four months I’ve played Cyberpunk 2077 for 70 hours and that’s it. If it hadn’t paid for itself 2-3 times over it’d be gone, it’s wasted on me.

Maybe I should sell it now and buy again when/if crypto crashes

If you see ebay prices start to drop, I'd sell it while you can still get $2000+. Although once the LHR GPUs are the only ones being made, some speculate the original GPUs will skyrocket in value. I wouldn't be surprised to see miners paying $5000 for an original 3080. Maybe $10,000? Not sure if there's a limit. I don't think there is.

 

[Fallen Kell]

If you see ebay prices start to drop, I'd sell it while you can still get $2000+. Although once the LHR GPUs are the only ones being made, some speculate the original GPUs will skyrocket in value. I wouldn't be surprised to see miners paying $5000 for an original 3080. Maybe $10,000? Not sure if there's a limit. I don't think there is.

You won't see $10k and the reason is because there are ASICS arriving for ETH. The initial ones have already benched to show 32x3080 performance. The thought is that pricing will be between $20-30k. No one is going to pay $10k for a card that is 1/32 the performance of a device that will only be 2-3x more cost, they would simply spend the 20-30k on the ASIC.

 

[repoman0]

You won't see $10k and the reason is because there are ASICS arriving for ETH. The initial ones have already benched to show 32x3080 performance. The thought is that pricing will be between $20-30k. No one is going to pay $10k for a card that is 1/32 the performance of a device that will only be 2-3x more cost, they would simply spend the 20-30k on the ASIC.

Recalibrate your sarcasm detector

 

[Ranulf]

I don't think we're going to see a huge swath of cheap cards when the mining boom crashes. The mining limiters that Nvidia is supposedly putting out soon will more than likely just keep the original ampere cards inflated for those who want to mine and kill the used market so people will have to buy the price inflated LHR models or buy into the next gen chips when they come out.

It would be nice but this seems more like Nvidia protecting themselves from what happened last time in 2018 with extra pascal chips and no one wanting to waste money on pointless RTX tech.

If AMD's FSR is really coming out this summer, this new lineup from Nvidia is meant to help stall that from selling AMD cards that don't mine so well this round anway.

 

[moonbogg]

You won't see $10k and the reason is because there are ASICS arriving for ETH. The initial ones have already benched to show 32x3080 performance. The thought is that pricing will be between $20-30k. No one is going to pay $10k for a card that is 1/32 the performance of a device that will only be 2-3x more cost, they would simply spend the 20-30k on the ASIC.

Well I'm sure they can at least clear $5000 by the time this is all over. If it only takes 6 months to recoup $2500, then taking a year to get back $5000 isn't so bad at all. Honestly, it seems like the second hand market is leaving a lot of money on the table by only charging $2500 per card. These people don't seem very smart. The rule of thumb says if something is selling out instantly, then a rise in price is called for. 3080's are selling out at $2500 instantly, so a rise in price is easily called for. None of this incremental crap either. There's no time for that. They should just go straight to $5k like right now.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Yeah, but what does cheap mean? If the used cards return to MSRP prices, is that a "deal" given current market conditions?

My shut up and take my money line is currently drawn around 3070/2080Ti performance for $300-400. Once things drop into that territory (and the cards also aren't ancient) I will pull the trigger.

 

[Shmee]

I already have a 3090, but I am kinda thinking Nvidia is a bit sketchy lately, so I am thinking my next card may be a Radeon if I can get one. I am looking forward to PoS on ETH, should be helpful for supply as well as ETH price. Now might be a good time to scoop up what is on sale. Afterall, I do think crypto could be very future looking, despite what the paper hands say. Also good if you are trading.

 

[CP5670]

I got one last year at MSRP and don't see a big need for the next generation whenever it comes out. I already played through a lot of games and VR stuff on this one, and it's easily enough for the next games in my backlog. I only get interested in new cards when they enable some new experience (VR, RT, HDMI 2.1, etc.) in a game I have yet to play through.

 

[Dribble]

Never like buying late in the GPU cycle - you still have to pay RRP for cards that will have 2/3 the performance of the same costing card 6 months later. I will wait for next gen unless my card dies. Won't risk second hand.

 

[ultimatebob]

ASIC's already exist for ETH. They just aren't as effective as the Bitcoin ones.

For video cards, I already have a 2060 Super, which is fine for 1440p gaming. I'm not upgrading until I can get something twice as fast for around $400.

Besides, thanks to the "great graphics card shortage of late 2020/early 2021", I have a hunch that most game developers won't be focusing on pushing the limits in graphical details for a while. There just isn't a huge market of systems to play them on at the moment.

 

[CakeMonster]

Besides, thanks to the "great graphics card shortage of late 2020/early 2021", I have a hunch that most game developers won't be focusing on pushing the limits in graphical details for a while. There just isn't a huge market of systems to play them on at the moment.

I'm not sure how that will turn out. Games are in development for way longer than we've had this shortage, and at least some of them are probably not even considering it because they expect things to normalize before their game is out anyway. Also, the games developed for the new consoles are probably not going to be revised to lower spec just because of PC.