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Nvidia cripples cryptocurrency mining on RTX 3080 and 3070 cards

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Re: Nvidia cripples cryptocurrency mining on RTX 3080 and 3070 cards

#581

Post by topspin »

ajmurmann wrote: post #410
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prices have been raised. You can buy an RTX 3080 right now if you want. It's just going to cost you $2500 or so because vendors and scalpers are capturing that markup.

Sounds like Nvidia hasn't actually raised the price. They could just auction this off from their website directly and cut out the middle man.

I don't know with certainty, but I believe NVidia has raised prices. I base this on the prices that appear on the sites of custom system vendors. Until recently you could get a complete machine from many builders with a GPU at something close to MSRP. Now you can't. These builders (the larger ones anyhow) don't buy from scalpers, so that means the device manufactures have raise their prices.

Anyhow, that's my theory. Anyone have actual recent price lists for NVidia GPUs? Otherwise we're all just guessing.

Re: Nvidia cripples cryptocurrency mining on RTX 3080 and 3070 cards

#582

Post by girvo »

akelly wrote: post #546
cle wrote: post #506

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know much about GPUs and am curious how this "burn out" happens, do you have a link for those of us who'd like to read more about this?

There's three main ways GPUs wear out, silicon electromigration, electrolytic capacitor dryout, and fan bearing failure. And the first two happen much faster at higher temperatures. Temperatures are similar between gaming and mining, but miners run 24/7 compared to gaming 1-2 hrs/day, so the GPUs age like 10x faster. But still, GPU failures are pretty rare, I think the concern is overblown.

Miners undervolt and often underclock though: heat is their enemy, so they’re more particular about this than gamers are these days.

Re: Nvidia cripples cryptocurrency mining on RTX 3080 and 3070 cards

#583

Post by cerved »

RhysU wrote: post #507
actually_a_dog wrote: post #469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 of Stake, the miners will flood the used market and ruin Nvidia's profits for a few quarters. Nvidia is trying to get miners to buy mining-only cards, because those can't be sold to gamers down the line. They'd rather mining cards become e-waste in a few years t…

Someone learned from the Cisco hardware glut in the dot com crash!

can somebody explain?

Re: Nvidia cripples cryptocurrency mining on RTX 3080 and 3070 cards

#584

Post by prestigeoctopus »

floatingatoll wrote: post #405
wbraun wrote: post #2

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…

Cryptomining angers me on a deep level far more than the nascent attempts of Nvidia to segment it. I think they're doing an incompetent job of diminishing the value of it, but at least they're making an effort to do so. Cryptominers are a far greater threat to general purpose computing than Nvidia. They ought to be compelled by law to purchase carbon credits for their mining, to offset the environmental destruction t…

[dead]

Re: Nvidia cripples cryptocurrency mining on RTX 3080 and 3070 cards

#585

Post by cerved »

tristanj wrote: post #5

Context: Back in February, Nvidia also restricted cryptocurrency mining on their RTX 3060 cards. The restrictions were bypassed a month later https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26475596 Related HN Discussions: Nvidia announces mining GPUs, cuts the hash rate of RTX-3060 in half https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26180260 (461 points, 746 comments) Nvidia Limits RTX 3060 Hash Rate https://news.ycombinator.com/item…

huh, so this is why I've been seeing HDMI plugs that supposedly double the hashrate of 3060s

How is this even implemented?

Re: Nvidia cripples cryptocurrency mining on RTX 3080 and 3070 cards

#586

Post by cerved »

bentcorner wrote: post #261
NazakiAid wrote: post #56

A major bad point with this is when the mining cards become obsolete, they won't be able to be used as a graphics card in a computer due to it not being able to output to a display. So realistically it will decrease avaliable graphic card supply to gamers in the future who are maybe looking for a cheap used graphics card (therefore pushing people to buy a new card instead). Short term fix, long term problem. I was th…

How big is the used market for graphics cards though? Common advice is to avoid buying used unless you also price in the risk that the card was used as a miner and hasn't been taken care of. Aside from the recent drought of GPUs and pricing madness, you could buy low-end current-gen cards that could outperform higher-end previous-gen parts.

big, computer parts in general have a good second hand market

Re: Nvidia cripples cryptocurrency mining on RTX 3080 and 3070 cards

#587

Post by akelly »

Phlarp wrote: post #561
22c wrote: post #492

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think this will help pricing or availability much either. LTT did a video on this topic somewhat recently and it turns out a lot of the reasons that you can't get a card right now is related to chip shortages and people (yes, regular gaming enthusiasts) buying any card they can find. Even cards that already have terrible mining efficiency are scarce.

Unless the miners are cutting off the supply at the silicon production level. What's to stop Antminer (or any other mining asic company) from paying 10x as much for a majority of TSMC capacity, RTX and Ryzen supply be damned.

Most of TSMC's capacity is allocated years ahead of time. They're contractually obligated to supply AMD wafers at a predetermined price and volume.

Also, GPUs are pretty good at mining Ethereum. ASICs are only about 2x as efficient, many miners would rather have the security of knowing they can always sell their GPUs to gamers if it all comes crashing down.

Re: Nvidia cripples cryptocurrency mining on RTX 3080 and 3070 cards

#589

Post by judge2020 »

kyboren wrote: post #545
SrslyJosh wrote: post #525

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Then they came for the cryptocurrency miners, and I did not speak out-- Because I deserve a subsidy for my video gaming habit. Are you suggesting that anyone who buys something and then doesn't use it to generate the maximum profit possible for themselves is being subsidized by someone else? That doesn't even remotely make sense. What's your stake in cryptocurrency?

Not at all. Simply: If the market value of an item is $2500, and I demand the ability to buy it at $750, I am demanding that someone, somewhere subsidizes my purchase.

The keyword that you left out is "now". In one year (hopefully), supply will match demand and you'll be able to purchase it at MSRP. At that point, you're subsidizing your own purchase by applying patience.

Re: Nvidia cripples cryptocurrency mining on RTX 3080 and 3070 cards

#590

Post by jtbayly »

andechs wrote: post #513
__blockcipher__ wrote: post #500

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> moral but are actively ineffective at their stated purpose; they just lead to the hypothetical price-gouge transaction never occurring. If you drive across state lines to bring HAM radios or water filters or what-have-you during hurricane katrina, and try to sell at above market rate, you'll be tossed in jail and your goods will be seized by the police, rather than making it out to the people who actually need them…

So now emergency workers aren’t allowed to be paid. Congrats.
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