211–219 of 219 posts
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Why exactly the TPU would be better? it's not a general computation processor it only does MMA.
I don't know, but at 110 TF for $3000, it would be worthwhile figuring out some way to use it.
I am curious as to what we'll do with all that surplus computing power after crypto currencies (or mining on general purpose hardware) fade out of fashion. Better weather forecasting? AI? And don't forget the investment on cheap power sources.
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The effects on prices are quite bad, but the pendulum always comes back in the other direction two. Every GPU shortage leads to the second hand market getting flooded a few years later with used mining GPUs. So in effect we get short term problems, but if you time your purchases correctly you can get deals too.
Would you want to buy a piece of hardware that had been run at 100% of it's capacity for years, without any warranty?
It's great. Once ethereum etc. crash we can buy used high end graphic cards cheap.
What is the basis for an overwhelming assumption on HN that Cryto will crash? I am genuinely curious. What specifics indicate that it will crash?
There's just no utility behind all these coins. Hell, there aren't even any significant amount of bitcoin users, let alone Ethereum or Ripple, or any of the ridiculous coins. They're all presenting themselves as interesting for their utility, but are valued as an extremely short-term store of value play. It just can't last.
Lastly, note that there's only 3 cryptos that have a market cap of at least 10% of that of Bitcoin, and one is Bitcoin Cash so it doesn't count. The other are Ripple and Ethereum. Ripple has proof of stake (i.e., no mining is necessary) and Ethereum is expected to go proof of stake in the next hard fork, likely this year.
Just to put that into perspective. Nvidia's revenues are about $7b a year, AMD about 4 billion, let's say together 12b. They command pretty much 100% of the discrete GPU market, with Intel being the major integrated market player that is irrelevant in this context. Then look at https://digiconomist.net/ethereum-energy-consumption for an idea about mining revenues. It's about $14b a year, and electricity costs estimate the after-electricity profits at about $12b a year. Now you'd expect that a miner who can make $12 by turning on a device (with its electricity already paid for), is willing to pay anywhere between $0 and $12, and that with enough competition, they'll spend close to $12.
That gives you a rough idea about how significant Ethereum is as a player, with Bitcoin running on Asics and Ripple already at Proof of Stake, and most other coins being quite insignificant (and also a combination of Proof of Stake or Asics based like Litecoin, anyway).
So in short: I think cryptos will crash and even if a lot of them remain, I argue a lot of this price pressure is due to the few big coins of which only ethereum has viable GPU mining and that'll end in 2018.
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> I remember when the PS3 and Xbox360 had just come out, and everyone was screaming from the rooftops about how PC gaming will just crash and burn. Not for a week or two, but for years after those boxes had been released. This still lead to the situation that, for years, AAA publishers wouldn't touch the PC gaming market with a ten-foot pole and focused pretty much all of their efforts on the 7. console generation, t…
PC as in Windows, or Linux/Mac? Big titles like Quake and Unreal were available on PC (meaning x86-32 plus Windows or x86-64 plus Windows in my post though things like Wine have been amazing for me). There's always been an ample amount of games available on PC. Whether they were boring or not is a matter of opinion (I wouldn't say missing out on say Resident Evil is any issue). I am entirely positive all these games…
Counter-Strike was way more relevant at that point, but that doesn't change the basic fact that pretty much all the major publishers gave little to no attention to the PC sector during that time.
Case in point: While Halo 1 and 2 still had Windows ports, the following Halo games didn't get them, same situation with Gears of War, first game got a Windows port, none after that until recently.
> Whether they were boring or not is a matter of opinion (I wouldn't say missing out on say Resident Evil is any issue).
That's a matter of personal taste and preferences. Personally, I really enjoyed RE1+2 on my Playstation back then (Just like Metal Gear Solid) which was also my last console before gaming exclusively on PC, skipping the whole sixth console generation, which already led to a bit of a backlog due to many interesting GameCube/PS2 titles.
Wasn't until late in the seventh generation (Xbox360/PS3) that I got back into console gaming, mainly due to the lack of certain genres on PC (Third Person games/backlog of exclusives) and the consoles/games gotten more affordable at that point.
If it wasn't for my interest in MMORPG/RTS/western RPG games I'm not sure I could have held out that long back then, as I also enjoy the occasional JRPG/Arcade Racing Game/Third Person Shooter, which had been rare to non-existent on PC back then.
> Personally, I don't like consoles because I got nothing with this whole Trusted Computing thing. Instead I got a Steam Link for 5 EUR during Black Friday.
There's something to be said for getting tons of games very cheaply from a still functioning second-hand market. Getting a cheap used PS2+tons of games or a Wii+tons of GameCube games offered a lot of game for very little money. Steam had a phase where this worked somewhat well too, but it feels like over these past few years good deals have mostly been replaced by tons of shovelware 99 cent games for card collections or having to wait for Summer/Winter sale events.
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I don't know, but at 110 TF for $3000, it would be worthwhile figuring out some way to use it.
For gaming? the 110 TF of the Titan V are also very very very conditional they are only applied when you are doing mixed precision MMA for any other operations you aren't getting 110TF....
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>You are buying expensive computers to solve mathematical puzzles with the desperate hope that it will get you get rich fast there are plenty of worse hobbies and professions to get rich quick. Like buying lottery tickets and investment banking. Instead of focusing your tangent on a small group of individuals, why not focus on entire industries built to destroy the environments?
Whataboutism will convert nobody to your side. Cryptocurrency is a bad thing. Unrelatedly, other bad things exist.
Rationality isn't entirely about getting x amount of people to 1 side. Plenty of people flock to the wrong side.
Your post is similarly akin to complaining that people kill innocent spiders meanwhile homeless people die everyday. The way you prioritize cryptocurrency as a huge evil is completely silly and nonsensical
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Whataboutism will convert nobody to your side. Cryptocurrency is a bad thing. Unrelatedly, other bad things exist.
>Whataboutism will convert nobody to your side Rationality isn't entirely about getting x amount of people to 1 side. Plenty of people flock to the wrong side. Your post is similarly akin to complaining that people kill innocent spiders meanwhile homeless people die everyday. The way you prioritize cryptocurrency as a huge evil is completely silly and nonsensical
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I wonder if Nvidia et al could short Ethereum as a hedge while expanding production.
This is why futures exist. They would sell the futures to hedge their crypto exposure.