571–580 of 818 posts
Does this behavior anger anyone else on a deep level? I get that its hard to buy GPUs right now, but this seems like such an attack on general purpose computing. Hardware manufactures already segment features between consumer and busness grade parts that the silicon itself is capable of, such as virtualization, but restricting what algorithms one can run is a whole new level. I am pretty sure my next GPU is going to…
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> Scalpers hurt literally everyone. Not entirely true, and also not accepting that one person's "scalper" is another person's "bought this but decided I would rather have the money it seems to be worth now that I see how much this is". Secondary markets provide liquidity, allow for original sellers to trade money for time, provide reputational protection based on societal perceptions (this one is a bit weird, and may…
Yeah I always find it interesting that statements like that ("scalpers hurt literally everyone") can just be made and treated as gospel by most people. Not only is the statement not self-evident, but to your point, just a small amount of thought on the issue makes it obvious what the value is. People love to get mad at a scapegoat rather than a root cause. So you blame the scalper rather than realizing that the conce…
The same thing happened with the colonial pipeline hack.
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The e-Waste part is what should collectively anger us, but I'm glad you're able to buy your card.
What about the electricity cost for powering the card. Doesn’t that outweigh the e-waste part by a significant margin? Just because a card can’t be used by gamers doesn’t mean the card must be tossed, there are plenty of non-gaming uses such as AI. You’ll probably see an aftermarket for both types of cards. Also, like regular graphics cards, newer versions are highly prized so one might say that graphics cards as an…
Or to run higher resolutions, or to play flight simulator at reasonable refresh rates, etc etc.
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I don't think this is "recognizing customers", I think this is just sectioning markets. I'd dreading Nvidia crippling deep learning for all those not paying X more dollars (as the situation already is for server farms). Long term, the aim has to be selling cards by usage rather than by cost of production (obvious with the aim of prices higher than the cost of production by different amounts). How many people like Ado…
> I'd dreading Nvidia crippling deep learning for all those not paying X more dollars (as the situation already is for server farms). This already changed years ago when NVIDIA removed the last non-crippled double and half precision GPUs from their product lineup. The cheapest GPU you can buy for ML now is the titan v, which was $3000 at launch.
This won't really do anything for availability or reducing scalper pricing. Miners are a sizeable proportion of sales but far from the majority. Gamers will be able to buy more of these GPUs but less of the non-LHR or AMD GPU's. GPU prices won't actually change. The real reason Nvidia is doing this is that when mining profitability inevitably drops, either because of a crypto price crash or Ethereum moving to Proof o…
This is what they said in 2018. Turned out miners WERE primary driver of growth not gamers.
3000 series is a huge performance boost, reasonably priced (at least at MSRP), and gives comfortable buffer on lots of scenarios like high-end VR, 1440p at very high FPS, and comfy 4K with all the good stuff turned up.
Meanwhile, the GTX 1080 was cheap and could basically play everything at 1080p. I think gamers just skipped over the 2000 because it was lame.
But hell, I hope you're right. I'm still rocking a 980, and I've not had any success trying to grab a 3070 to upgrade. Maybe these LHRs will actually free stuff up. (But to be honest, the 980 is still doing fine with most of what I play at 1080p.)
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My next GPU is going to be one that a) supports the features I want, and b) that I can actually go out and buy without putting hundreds or thousands of dollars into some economic parasite’s pocket. It’s not just “hard” to buy high-end GPUs right now—it’s impossible unless you make a lifestyle out of chasing them down. If this has any effect on anybody who isn’t a crypto miner, it’s going to be to open up possibilitie…
They are not economic parasites. They are the physical manifestation of the Invisible Hand. These are people doing God's work making an efficient market. If you don't want arbitrageurs to capture that value, maybe NVidia should start pricing their products correctly so that they capture the value. This isn't rocket science. > If this has any effect on anybody who isn’t a crypto miner, it’s going to be to open up poss…
Why do you (apparently) imagine these things are mutually exclusive?
> maybe NVidia should start pricing their products correctly so that they capture the value
I do happen to agree with this in principle, up to a point, and I've said as much in the past. It's easier said than done, though, especially when the scarcity is expected to be temporary and there are OEMs and retailers between you and the buyer.
Ultimately, Nvidia may feel that it makes more sense to (attempt to) cater to the steady, predictable consumer market for their products, rather than alienating those buyers in favor of crypto miners during a period when they aren't able to satisfy both. On the face of it, not having intimate insider knowledge of their business, I can't say I think it's a bad judgment call.
> This is a wildly short-sighted take.
You obviously think you're very smart and everyone around you is not nearly as smart, but you're just going to have to live with the fact that I and many others disagree with you here. And you've shown with everything after this line that continuing to discuss this tricky (and very interesting) moral question with you would be a total waste of time, so I'm not going to bother.
(But I guess there isn't much point in you trying, either, because ... well, you know.)
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This is a bit of a two wrongs don't make a right: the fact that your energy retailer is taxing you doesn't (by itself) make it 'right' to use that energy for mining. Ofcourse I totally understand you do as you do, on an individual basis, but that just stresses the point that this can only be regulated at the group/population level.
Not really. I’m not sure I even believe the “grids weren’t designed for feed in” bs. Wires don’t care where the electrons come from, and they have no problem with me drawing the same load I feed in... so something doesn’t add up. But I’m no electrician... just cry a little at 7-10kw excess that i either have to pay to feed in or earth. I don’t see anything I’m doing as a wrong. Literally just wasted energy... why not…
> In the old days, when power companies were the only generators in town, control devices like regulators, capacitors or relays were designed to assume that power flowed in only one direction. “If they saw power flowing in the other direction, they typically tripped or misbehaved, causing customer outages or power quality issues,” Kuloor says. This tendency has prompted many utilities to update such equipment with reverse-power-flow logic or, in the case of mechanical devices that have no software, replace devices altogether.
Not all local grids are prepared for that.
Additionally, there's the signaling of power supply that generators do between each other.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utility_frequency#Frequency_an...
https://solarbuildermag.com/policy/grid-saturation-lessons-f...
The different parts of the grid will use fluctuations in the frequency of the grid to indicate if they've got too much power, or can't supply enough.
This can get more complicated with single house putting power back in that they're matching the frequency, but not controlling it as such. If there is too much supply from single house sources, it can cause the frequency of the grid to vary too much and potentially damage the power plant generators.
When this becomes exaggerated - all the houses start producing more power because the sun came out (or the opposite that it clouds over), this can increase the costs for power.
You've also got the Hawaii problem. The Hawaii grid doesn't have the luxury of shipping its power to the next state over.
https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2020/02/05/how-to-solve-hawaiis-...
https://www.hakaimagazine.com/features/the-hot-mess-of-hawai...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_Hawaii
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/plugged-in/3-reasons-ha...
There are times when the rooftop solar in Hawaii exceeded the total demand for power. This meant there was too much power in the wires and that generators needed to shut down (or get into problems with pollution and inefficient combustion).
> The grid can only accept as much power as the island is consuming. Juario must mix and match different sized generators to balance what solar rooftops are producing while ensuring that the generators have enough “spinning reserve”—room to throttle up and down to handle those grid surprises. The Maui Electric chief operator must also keep the generators running hot to prevent inefficient combustion from sending dirtier exhaust up the stacks and violating the air quality rules that protect residents’ health.
https://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/renewables/can-smarter-sola... has a neat map. There were sections of Hawaii where solar was supplying 250% of the demand in that area.
https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2018/11/30/178686... is another useful bit to read. "electrical grid oversupply" is the term to search.
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I am glad you asked. The value that cryptocurrencies provide boils down to 3 main things: 1) A store of value. 2) A transfer of value. 3) A creation of value. Bitcoin provides a store of value by still letting you buy a pizza with your Bitcoin both now and in the future. It’s price has always been highly volatile but after every 4 year cycle, it has been worth more in every major world currency. Stellar Lumens, Algor…
Value that basically doesn’t exist without real money behind it? That can be used as… well, money without the energy waste?