I'm not convinced this will settle - remembering what happened with the ATI 5870 a few years back, and now seeing that GPUs are again being earmarked by non-gamers as money-makers... ugh.
I agree it's pretty hard to see a way out of this at the moment. If it's not scalpers or price gouging, it's supply chain shortages... if it's not either of those two then it's cryptowankers buying up everything in sight... It will be interesting to see if Intel can take the pressure off the low-/mid-tier market with their dedicated GPU offerings. I'm thinking well-optimised e-sports titles, or the people that just want something the kids can play roblox or minecraft on... I highly doubt they'll be competing with the likes of the RTX 3080 or pushing 120FPS @ 4K with all the details whacked up. Of course, they've actually got to get their cards to market first.
Money is finite. I don't know the ins and outs of crypto but surely there comes a point (like twice in the past) where the electricity does not pay for the currency and it stops. Like I said, I have no idea how it works. I don't want to know. It will probably force many back onto consoles for gaming. Which is fine really. The hardware in them represents a good bargain now, so once they settle and become available many will go back to those. Otherwise? just get used to GPUs being a luxury and very expensive item to buy, and thus be in or out. I paid royally for my 2080Ti Kingpin. And that was before the mining etc all kicked off (and the Covid, but I knew that was coming). I really don't see myself replacing that for many years. If this were a few years ago where GPUs were superseded very quickly by new games coming out? I would never have spent that much. But GPUs overtook all of that and once the 1080ti came out IMO it reached equilibrium and those cards are still perfect for 1440p, even with the much newer games that have released since. When the 10 series first came out the prices at the time put me off. So I bought a Xbox 1x. Don't regret a thing. That saved me a fortune over the next few years. Also gave me time to wait for a second hand Pascal card. Now though? I accept that if I can afford to do it and want to? then I will. If not? sod it.
My biggest regret is not waiting longer for the block chain to download to utilise mine back when I had free electricity...
@wyx087 It was difficult to get a 5870 back then because they were all being snatched for mining rigs.
Odd how it has picked up and died down. Off the top of my head I don't recall there being any shortages of 6000 or 7000 series AMD cards due to mining. Nor 500/600 nvidia cards. Picked up again a little bit with 200/300 series, remember a fair bit of chatter about undervolting and memory tuning for improved yields but then exploded with the Rx 480.
I think in the long term this problem is only going to get worse. The way Crypto is at the moment and blockchain technology its only going to encourage more people to get on the mining bandwagon and earn very well out of doing so. The more the price increases the more money you can potentially earn as cost of electricity/yield goes further towards the profit end of the spectrum. I mean , does anyone here think that Crypto is not the way forward in digital asset management? Im not a Crypto shrill but im certainly sure its only going to get bigger and bigger.
I'm guessing the switch from GPU to ASICs for Bitcoin had a lot to do with it. The resurgence is due to Ethereum. We might get another lull mid 2022, if there are no worthy Altcoins to pick up where ETH leaves off, but don't hold your breath - there are already a handful that are profitable, although not currently in the same league as ETH.
Yeah this is exactly what I was thinking - especially with the NFT market sky-rocketing this year, I think the whole crypto craze has shifted up a gear. Mining is a far more accessible entry point and the returns are (mostly) consistent.
Somehow I must have missed it, I had a 5870 when they were brand new, upgraded to gtx 580. That was my peak upgrade period. I thought mining only picked up with 1000 and rx580 period, around end of 2017 and died off in 2018 until end of 2020. I guess it had a relatively smaller peak before that at 5870 time. Considering it comes and goes in waves, now is probably the calm period. So that would mean GPU situation would get even worse when the next wave hits.
The way I understand it, a lot of the altcoins/shitcoins are based on Ethereum, so there could well be some disruption when it switches from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake. Though that would be a welcome disruption IMO. We're not even in a calm period when it comes to mining. People are stealing shipments of graphics cards so they can be used in mining operations. People are even snapping up the Ti and LHR versions because they're still profitable to mine with. I refuse to even consider it out of principle; I might not be doing that much gaming at the moment, but that's what I bought a 3070Ti for: gaming. I'd rather sell it at a loss than contribute to cryptocurrencies. I don't object to people making a few quid a day when they're not using their gaming PC - by and large, hobbyists aren't the ones running racks and racks of GPU-stuffed machines dedicated to mining cryptocurrencies. But it ain't for me: I am yet to be convinced that the blockchain or cryptocurrencies have an actual use case beyond being an unregulated financial market that can be exploited and manipulated for the benefit of people who already have more money than they or their children could ever spend.
After reading quite a few posts here and my lack of PC playing at the moment, where can I find a totally unbiased review/ setup so I can look at the hobbyist side of crypto?
Depends how you define ‘hobbyist’ I guess. But for straightforward mining something like NiceHash is easy to install and get running. But you’ll only be paid out in BTC and if you want to dodge fees, you’ll need to be paid into a Coinbase wallet as I recall, though from there you can convert your BTC into almost any crypto.
Nicehash has started charging a small fee for transferring to coinbase, but it is still the easiest option for casual mining.
