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Why you can’t buy a high-end graphics card at Best Buy

arstechnica.com

41–50 of 219 posts

Re: Why you can’t buy a high-end graphics card at Best Buy

#41
post #13
post #10

It's great. Once ethereum etc. crash we can buy used high end graphic cards cheap.

I’m not sure I’d want a card that’s been at full utilization, 24 hours a day, for who knows how long.

I've read that thermal cycles do more damage than constant running.

Re: Why you can’t buy a high-end graphics card at Best Buy

#42
post #28
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not sure I’d want a card that’s been at full utilization, 24 hours a day, for who knows how long.

I recently learned a really fascinating stuff about semiconductors: as they heat up, the doping atoms tend to move, by diffusion. Heat = more diffusion.

Yep: atoms in general move more with more heat. In solids, the energy required for movement is higher, but it still happens. The more heat available, the more energy you have to break bonds, the more diffusion (movement) you have.

I have a feeling that's not the main reason for heat failure of semiconductors though. (Not to put your comment down, it's an interesting fact and I'm glad you mentioned it.)

Re: Why you can’t buy a high-end graphics card at Best Buy

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gamers are complaining about why can't nVidia just ramp up their production. Having worked in a Fab and an assembly factory, there is a tremendous amount of coordination that needs to happen. Let's forget the business aspects for a moment - in order to ramp up production, it is not just building more lines. Silicon industry supply chains are mind bogglingly complex from oil-free-air supply hardware, etching chemicals…

> Gamers are complaining about why can't nVidia just ramp up their production. I don't see too much of that in gaming circles. It's understood that it would be risky as crypto will crash sooner than later. The anger in the PC community is almost exclusively directed at miners. Threads about it pop up on the daily, but what can we do? We could lobby NVIDIA/AMD to somehow implement restrictions on what the Gaming SKUs…

I wonder if Nvidia et al could short Ethereum as a hedge while expanding production.

Re: Why you can’t buy a high-end graphics card at Best Buy

#44

I'm legitimately worried about the long term future of my hobby (PC gaming) at this point. Prices like this have a cascade effect because when less people can afford to build a PC and/or upgrade there's less incentive for developers and publishers to spend time on the platform. Consoles are shielded by the ability of Sony and Microsoft to take losses which will be absorbed by online fees and higher game prices but no…

"... ML is at least useful to humanity (sometimes), smartphones and tablets are tangible products, and price fixing can be investigated and punished."

I'm amused that you're qualifying the worthiness of a project by its usefulness to humanity. In comparison to PC gaming, to me, revolutionizing the financial world seems a lot more "useful to humanity".

Re: Why you can’t buy a high-end graphics card at Best Buy

#45

I wanted to buy 2 1080 for deep learning experiments, but that's going to have to wait. I picked up a used 32core 128gb server for $1000 recently... It's only a matter of time before these 1080 will be sold for pennies on the dollar. If your lively hood doesn't depend on it, wait.

I understand most people are wishful to see Cryptocurrencies crash but what if it doesn't? What would happen if Crytpo booms big time?

In terms of graphics cards? Well presumably if cryptos keep driving up demand for an extended period of time, then nVidia will just increase production. Right now they haven't increased production because they think it's a bubble.

Re: Why you can’t buy a high-end graphics card at Best Buy

#46
post #28
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not sure I’d want a card that’s been at full utilization, 24 hours a day, for who knows how long.

I recently learned a really fascinating stuff about semiconductors: as they heat up, the doping atoms tend to move, by diffusion. Heat = more diffusion.

Another fun fact: Chips are designed to last years at full power and max temperature.

Re: Why you can’t buy a high-end graphics card at Best Buy

#47
post #13
post #10

It's great. Once ethereum etc. crash we can buy used high end graphic cards cheap.

I’m not sure I’d want a card that’s been at full utilization, 24 hours a day, for who knows how long.

On the other hand, you can be sure these cards have made it well past the "infant mortality" part of the bathtub curve.

In fact, military and other high-reliability applications specify "burn-in" periods where components are operated at elevated temperatures for several hundred hours --- they are effectively "used":

http://reliabilityanalytics.com/reliability_engineering_libr...

Re: Why you can’t buy a high-end graphics card at Best Buy

#48

I'm legitimately worried about the long term future of my hobby (PC gaming) at this point. Prices like this have a cascade effect because when less people can afford to build a PC and/or upgrade there's less incentive for developers and publishers to spend time on the platform. Consoles are shielded by the ability of Sony and Microsoft to take losses which will be absorbed by online fees and higher game prices but no…

Are there any non-VR games that even push the 1080ti?

It seems like you'd need some giant 4k monitor to make it sweat.

But also Steam doesn't seem to be releasing a ton of graphics-intensive games. It seems much more cost effective to get away with a lower price and less intensive art requirements and focus on gameplay. And less graphics puts you in a safer place as far as ports to consoles and tablets/mobile (e.g. Stardew Valley).

The Vive HD upgrade will push the envelope further, but I don't think VR has great success. (Elite Dangerous in particular gets boring because it's rather easy to make a ton of credits to afford everything)

Re: Why you can’t buy a high-end graphics card at Best Buy

#49
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Proof of work is about consensus among mutually distrusting parties. It has approximately nothing to do with entropy. Of course there is some connection, but the simple "exchange" you're looking for does not exist.

>> Proof of work is about consensus among mutually distrusting parties. It has approximately nothing to do with entropy. Think more abstractly - at the end of the day, Energy is being consumed to compute some problem. That solution has intrinsic value precisely because it took energy to solve it. Extrinsic value is the market economy of CC, and that's where the 'proof of work' and 'consensus amongst distrusting parti…

None of that makes entropy any more relevant.

Re: Why you can’t buy a high-end graphics card at Best Buy

#50
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Though there is some benefit to cryptocurrencies that rely on ASICs for mining: it means that someone with a significant amount of CPUs/GPUs under their control (such as botnet operators, or government groups like the NSA) can't waltz in and trivially 51% attack the blockchain with their existing general-purpose hardware, and then go back to using it for other things. An attacker would have to commit to buying/buildi…

ASICs are supposed to be orders of magnitude more efficient at their job than GPUs. So NSA can make a 0.01x the investment and "waltz in and trivially 51% attack the blockchain", all while not touching their existing equipment.

Only if they've developed an ASIC that is orders of magnitude more efficient than what anyone else has - which seems unlikely given the enormous economic incentive to find more efficient hardware.
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