As the exchange rates for all cryptocurrencies declined this year, so did the attraction of GPU mining using graphics cards. As a result, the prices of cards that can be used for both gaming and mining have been cut drastically and leveled off, bringing them back into more affordable territory.
Also Read: Censorship of Cryptocurrency Discussions on Reddit Gets Kafkaesque
Bargain Bin
Gone are the days of graphics cards being snatched up in bulk at premium prices far higher than the manufacturer’s suggested retail price. The cost of a new card is now tens of percentages lower than they were at their peak just a few months go, and some can even be found at below the listed price.
Looking at the real-time average price charts for representative dual-use cards on trackers like pcpartpicker, we can see that the spikes of the beginning of the year have been almost completely eroded, and prices are now very close to their levels before the craze. For example, the average price of Geforce GTX 1070 Ti went from around $900 at its height to just about $550 today. And if you go looking for bargains you can even find some cards that have dropped by over 50%.
Manufacturers’ Fears Materialized
While gamers might enjoy seeing miners finally stopping to crowd them out of the market, this must look totally different for GPU manufacturers and their shareholders. Although the major companies repeatedly tried to reassure their traditional gaming customers that they remain their main focus, even going as far as asking retailers to limit the number of graphics cards they sell to miners, hardware manufacturers were riding high on the crypto wave.
According to an analysts report, the top three producers of GPUs (AMD, Nvidia and Intel) have sold more than 3 million graphics cards to cryptocurrency miners in 2017, with revenues reaching $776 million. This is a significant share of their business, and it now appears that they were right to fear that decreasing demand from miners can affect sales this year. Their next quarterly results reports will probably shed more light on the impact.
Are GPU miners selling all the cards they bought at the peak or just not buying new ones? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock.
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Source: Bitcoin.com
Original Post: Get Them While You Can Gamers, Graphics Cards Prices Have Crashed
