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posted by Fnord666 on Monday July 17 2017, @01:46PM   Printer-friendly
from the let-the-games-begin dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Over the past few months, there has been a GPU shortage, forcing the prices of mid-range graphics cards up as cryptocurrency miners from across the world purchased hardware in bulk in search for quick and easy profits.

This has forced the prices of most modern AMD and certain Nvidia GPUs to skyrocket, but now these GPUs are starting to saturate the used market as more and more Ethereum miners sell up and quit mining. Some other miners are starting to look at other emerging Cryptocurrencies, though it is clear that the hype behind Ethereum is dying down.

Earlier this week Ethereum's value dropped below $200, as soon as the currency experienced a new difficulty spike, making the currency 20% harder to mine and significantly less profitable. This combined with its decrease in value has made mining Ethereum unprofitable for many miners, especially in regions with higher than average electricity costs.

Now Ethereum is valued at less than $150, with the currency costing $134.97 at the time of writing, which is less than half of the currency's peak value. The currency has the potential to bounce back, though it is difficult to see the currency go back over £250 [sic*] in the near future.

On second-hand sales websites like eBay and Gumtree, we have seen a lot of new GPU listing appear in recent days, with plenty of used AMD RX series GPUs appearing over the weekend. More hardware is expected to hit these sites over the coming days as some miners wind down their operations, though many will simply move to a more profitable currency or to invest their computing power into an emerging Cryptocurrency that has the prospect of high values in the future.

Source: https://www.overclock3d.net/news/gpu_displays/used_gpus_flood_the_market_as_ethereum_s_price_crashes_below_150/1

Recent related Ethereum/GPU coverage: Ethereum Mining Craze Leads to GPU Shortages; and Cryptocoin GPU Bubble?

[* I'm not sure where they got a pound value from, or why, but a little bit of research shows ethereum peaked at $401 on June 13. (Needs javascript from *.coindesk.com and *.hotjar.com). Ooops, spent too long editing this, it went out before I'd completed my changes, sorry -- Ed.(FP)]


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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday July 18 2017, @06:00PM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday July 18 2017, @06:00PM (#541068) Journal

    If you're putting many thousands of dollars into building a mining rig, you're looking at the long haul.

    Everything I've heard about these markets is either you make the investment back inside of a year or GTFO. There's no room for playing the long game due to the massive decline in the expected return of your rig over time due both to the difficulty spikes (which by themselves will eventually make the gear uneconomic to run unless you have access to free electricity) and to the competition with faster gear that enters the market in the future.

    The rest of your analysis looks on the spot. If you have invested in this gear, win or lose, you still have to make a decision whether to keep the lights on. You aren't going to get much of anything when you let go of the equipment (particularly, if bunches of other people have the same idea). So the tail end of the life of this equipment is going to almost completely depend on whether they can do computations more valuable than the electricity they consume. Once that's no longer true, then it's time to turn it off and get what you can out of selling the equipment. Having alternate currencies to tackle or other computation markets out there can extend the lifespan of your gear.