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Forums - PC Discussion - Graphic card prices

As the mining craze continues to stay relevant, the prices of graphics card have reached ridiculous levels. 

I've been interested in building a PC for awhile, but the trend of seeing several PC parts be insanely high makes it hard to enter. A GTX 1070ti's retail price is supposed to be about $470. On Amazon I see GTX 1060's going for that price (and higher). 

RAM is also expensive, with it going for almost 12-14 dollars a GB basically. At this point I don't see the point in ever building a PC if prices are at this point. Consoles may be overpriced during launch, but eventually they reach retail price quickly and continue to lower in price as time goes on. 

With mining having no end in sight as more cryptocurrencies grow, I'm wondering if we'll ever see graphic cards not have such inflated prices. I have no hope for RAM decreasing as we see home appliances become smart as well, so I'll probably just continue to wait and see if we'll ever get retail-priced graphics cards. 



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How the fudge does mining bitcoin work!?



KLAMarine said:
How the fudge does mining bitcoin work!?

Good question.

It's rather simple, but it'll allow you to form a general concept of what bitcoin mining is



monocle_layton said:
KLAMarine said:
How the fudge does mining bitcoin work!?

Good question.

It's rather simple, but it'll allow you to form a general concept of what bitcoin mining is

Still feel an urge to learn the inside details of this whole thing.

May look into it more deeply in the future... Maybe...



Bandorr said:
I don't get why people are getting into mining. The cost of the rig, electricity etc can't possibly outweigh the money they get from bitcoining.

From what I've heard when you're mining with a lot of rigs the money from bitcoin out weights the electricity and cost of the rig. Also to mine you just need a good graphics card so the rest of the specs can be shit.



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Yes, I was planning to upgrade to a new Nvidia card so I can do some VR and 4k gaming, but I guess I will stick with my r9 280x for now. 

It's probably going to be the case for the next few months, until crypto-currency-specialized GPU's are released, that buying a pre-built PC or laptop is a better deal than building one. Which is crazy. 

We'll likely see three GPU markets from now on, the simulation-focused GPU's that focus on reliability/consistency which supercomputers, engineers, and animators use (i.e Nvidia Tesla), a crypto-currency mining GPU market that will be priced in the lower thousands, and the lower-priced gaming GPU's which will be sub-$1000, even at the high end. 

We just got to wait for Nvidia and Amd to release the currency-specific cards. They'd be dumb not to. 



Bandorr said:
I don't get why people are getting into mining. The cost of the rig, electricity etc can't possibly outweigh the money they get from bitcoining.

At this point its a high-volume low-margin business. But in the early stages people that mined and held their coins are now loaded.



starcraft - Playing Games = FUN, Talking about Games = SERIOUS

Right now i just can't recommend someone build a pc, unless they are pc only gamer. Video cards are selling 30-50% over msrp. That is if you can even find them in stock.



Bandorr said:
starcraft said:

At this point its a high-volume low-margin business. But in the early stages people that mined and held their coins are now loaded.

I get the people at the beginning. I mean now. Why are people getting into it now?

Video cards are at a all time high.  I think you are getting "less" than you were before. Plus even if you join a group that just means you are having to pay a group fee (for electricity, rent etc) and only getting a fraction of the worth.

Is there a new "coin" people are mining that isn't "bit"coin and thus are making a profit off that?

Most people who mine bitcoin use ASIC's -- in this case, circuits specifically designed to mine Bitcoins, but some cryptocurrenices are "ASIC-resistant", which basically means the mining algorithm isn't designed in a way that an ASIC can be made to mine it more efficiently. So really the GPU-focus of the crypto-market has to do with lesser-known ASIC-resistant currencies becoming prominent than anything to do with Bitcoin which can be mined with ASIC's much more efficiently than with GPU's.  Using an ASIC bitcoin can be profitable (after the large upfront cost), but you're not likely to make significant profits using a GPU with Bitcoin these days. 

Last edited by sc94597 - on 23 January 2018

Yet another reason when someone says "I invested in (insert stupid name here)coin and I'll be a billionaire soon" that I hold my face.

To be honest though, a 1060 isn't a terrible price now and you'll have a solid card which will easily give any other system (console) a good trashing with power, couple it up with something like a Ryzen 7 and you're laughing for the next few years, does it cost money? sure, is the experience unparalleled by things like consoles in gaming? You bet.

 

Edit - I literally was making this post... as I ordered this lol

Last edited by Ganoncrotch - on 24 January 2018

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