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Shipments of GPUs are being slowed down or suspended in light of a slowdown in demand driven by cryptocurrency miners:
Taiwan-based graphics card makers including Gigabyte Technology, Micro-Star International (MSI) and TUL are expected to see their shipments for April plunge over 40% on month, as many clients have suspended taking shipments in response to drastic slowdown in demand for cryptocurrency mining machines, according to industry sources.
Channel distributors and larger mining farm operators have cut orders with makers of mining graphics cards and mining motherboards or asked them to suspend shipments due to the crypto mining craze waning abruptly from the beginning of April, the sources said.
Quite a few mining farm operators have even stopped purchasing graphic cards, as they are awaiting the rollout of Ethereum mining machines by China's Bitmain in the third quarter of 2018. They anticipate mining rewards to pick up gradually in the third quarter, as Bitcoin and Ethereum values may rebound following sharp declines seen in early 2018, the sources indicated.
Previously: AMD GPU Supply Exhausted By Cryptocurrency Mining, AIBs Now Directly Advertising To Miners
Cryptocoin GPU Bubble?
Ethereum Mining Craze Leads to GPU Shortages
Used GPUs Flood the Market as Ethereum's Price Crashes Below $150
Cryptocurrency Mining Wipes Out Vega 64 Stock
GPU Cryptomining Hurting SETI and Other Astronomy Projects
Related: AMD Profits in Q3 2017
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Booga1 on Friday April 27 2018, @02:10PM (2 children)
Hopefully the gamers can get some good deals. There's no way most people would pay $900 for a $400 video card.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by rleigh on Friday April 27 2018, @07:52PM (1 child)
I've been wanting to upgrade, but there's no way I can justify the inflated prices. I've never spent more than ~£250 on a GPU, and there's no way I'm spending £800+. When my three year old GPU is selling second hand for more than I paid for it brand new, there's something really screwed up.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 29 2018, @01:21AM
Are GPU systems more energy efficient than CPU-based ones?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 27 2018, @02:50PM (14 children)
I see this news repeated in many places, but don't understand who is benefiting from it.
1. GPU makers don't benefit from lower prices.
2. GPU sales are going to halt until the impending crash.
3. Miners don't benefit from an impending crash from 2nd hand card sales.
Maybe whoever is pushing this news would benefit from alternative crypto currency that is optimized on GPUs, and would like to see a price crash.
Most gamers don't make money from gaming, so I doubt they have the influence to push this narative.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by c0lo on Friday April 27 2018, @04:19PM (10 children)
Exactly. The gamers pay from their hard-earned money hyperinflated prices for graphic cards, due to speculators in something that produces no value** and only waste energy.
** Is the humanity better prepare or more advanced because of this cryptocurrency? Can humanity deal better with real-world problems?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Interesting) by khallow on Friday April 27 2018, @04:57PM (8 children)
Yes, there are a number of high tech industries that are developing further because of this activity. Those would check off your boxes. And the cryptocurrency idea has merit in itself. This massive development means we're developing currency ideas that aren't a variation of "Pay VISA in order to buy anything".
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday April 27 2018, @07:26PM (7 children)
Broken Window Fallacy: If you're putting all this R&D into a fundamentally useless activity, that's not helping anyone else.
1. I don't have to pay VISA whenever I use those handy-dandy pieces of paper in my pocket with words like "Twenty Dollars" printed on them. Or if I use ACH and similar methods of going direct from 1 bank account to another.
2. Presumably, both the retailers accepting VISA and the customers accepting the increased prices involved because VISA gets a cut consider the extra costs worth it, because they continue to use VISA.
3. I'm guessing that all the middlemen involved in a mostly-hypothetical cryptocurrency infrastructure aren't interested in doing all the processing and verifying work for free.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday April 27 2018, @07:33PM (4 children)
They're doing it by choice. So I'm willing to take their opinion on the value of mining at face value.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday April 28 2018, @02:11AM (3 children)
"Doing it by choice" doesn't automatically mean is good for society as a whole.
2008 economic crisis, opioid epidemic - all causing actions were done "by choice" and legal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday April 28 2018, @02:38AM (2 children)
Burden of proof is on you to show that there is such harm. Your two examples set the bar pretty high.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday April 28 2018, @03:00AM (1 child)
Methinks the burden of proof for your position of "doing by choice is always good" is on you.
Without that proof, your choice to take it "at the face value" is just your personal choice and I can't deny you that. Don't expect me to accept it, though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday April 28 2018, @03:50AM
That's not my position. I'm well aware of exceptions (not to mention your examples). We've had several opportunities to discuss the harm of cryptocurrency mining (here [soylentnews.org] and here [soylentnews.org], for example), and the primary complaint seems to be that the miners use electricity and take advantage of stupid electricity subsidies. I don't care much about electricity conservation (we're not running out) and I don't mind the end of electricity subsidies. So far, there just hasn't been much to concern myself with.
And that's where we are. If there is some serious harm from cryptocurrency mining, and I don't think there is, then please enlighten us as to what it is.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 27 2018, @08:22PM
I do not think blockchain-based crytocurrencies are a good design for a system for financial transactions. No one should be using anything remotely resembling BitCoin as a currency.
But VISA is still bad for everyone because they are a single entity with way too much power (okay, they have a few competitors, but it's a very small space). Just because we don't have a better alternative doesn't mean the existing system isn't bad. And people very often participate in systems they do not fully agree with. In this case there's plenty of reasons including the fact that building good financial systems is hard and the existing services have a major advantage of already being used/accepted everywhere.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday April 28 2018, @12:07AM
To elaborate on my previous post, this is not the broken window fallacy because coin mining doesn't happen because we want better high tech industries (such as ASIC and FPGA development and GPU production, etc). That instead is a happy coincidence. Instead, mining occurs voluntarily, indicating that the activity has sufficient value to the involved parties to justify their investments in it. At this point, I merely am speaking of further benefit beyond that of the "fundamentally useless" mining itself.
Now, when one is second-guessing the value of Bitcoin and similar cryptocurrencies, one is actually second-guessing free peoples' decisions and opinions. Which is fine as long as you realize that they have a similar level of respect for your non-binding opinion. Recall a key part of the setup for the broken window fallacy. Someone had decided that higher economic activity was more important than peoples' windows, and thus, broke those windows without the consent of the window owners.
We don't have a top-down government or other group forcing people to mine bitcoins in order to prop up their ASIC/FPGA/GPU industries. Thus, we don't have the initial conditions for the fallacy.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 27 2018, @06:00PM
windows gamers: a prime example of a disgusting waste of human potential.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bob_super on Friday April 27 2018, @04:32PM
Miners do benefit if other miners stop buying, and prices fall a bit.
Makers of VR gear benefit if more customers can afford the hardware to drive their product. Can you think of any VR manufacturer with ties to any companies distributing news?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday April 27 2018, @04:51PM
The original story was in a Taiwanese news source about a major Taiwanese industry suffering from a significant loss of demand. It's the sort of news you'd expect legitimately. Why did it spread? It's kinda big news for the tech industry. But we have two additional possibilities. First, that it's a convenient narrative where cryptocurrency miners are done in by hubris. That's always good for eyeballs. Second, that the US government is surreptitiously undermining the credibility of the thing. If you're the sort of person who thinks Iraq was invaded because they traded oil for Euros instead of dollars, then that's a natural conspiracy to leap to.
I think it's lazy journalists on a slow news day CCing another story about those wacky miners.
(Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Friday April 27 2018, @06:15PM
So cryptocurrency volatility is causing GPU price volatility. That makes sense to me, and seems like news, independent of who benefits from changes in the market price.
Generally, though, doesn't volatility benefit speculators? I suppose it's zero-sum, so maybe not overall, but there will be winners and losers.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Friday April 27 2018, @02:56PM (4 children)
End in sight seen? We need a known linguist to analyze that for us. Do we have any linguists, or English majors around? Hey, don't look at me, I only speak 'Murican.
A MAN Just Won a Gold Medal for Punching a Woman in the Face
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday April 27 2018, @03:45PM
Top result [google.com] for "end in sight seen" is this story, but #2 is Voice of America. If it's good enough for the American government, it's good enough for
meyou.[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Friday April 27 2018, @06:34PM (2 children)
The "end in sight" is a mythological creature. There are often reports of sightings, but all of the have been disproved. I'm guessing this is yet another report of a sighting of this mythical creature.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday April 27 2018, @07:28PM
It's ok I have really good night vision
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday April 27 2018, @08:22PM
Ah yes, the well known Hineylargius Disappearius. Not many know that Ogo Pogo, Nessie, and Champ are all part of this species, and that Sasquatch is a cousin of it.
But I see a variation of the species whenever I look in the mirror - it's a can't miss sight.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday April 27 2018, @03:16PM (2 children)
I've wondered for a while when the mining hardware demand would shift to ASICs, maybe when ASIC supply catches up with demand?
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 4, Funny) by Spamalope on Friday April 27 2018, @04:00PM
*paging Alex Jones* Bitcoin was propped up by Nvidia to boost sales! Best guerilla marketing ever!!1!11
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 27 2018, @05:42PM
even the slightest research would give you a much more nuanced understanding of a pretty fundamental mining topic.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 27 2018, @03:41PM
Watch when prices of cryptos start to rise again, seen it before, will see it again.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 27 2018, @05:55PM
shipments being slowed? you stupid motherfuckers are just now getting the cards on the shelves after many, many months, the prices are still not where they should be, mining specific cards not fully available and you're going to "slow down"? fuck you! part of this dip is probably the fault of all you incompetent dipshits not even trying to keep up with demand to begin with. that being said, i will be happy if all these new windows-using miners would GTFO so they can quit polluting the whole ecosystem with their skankiness and stupidity and driving prices and difficulty up.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by fritsd on Friday April 27 2018, @06:54PM (1 child)
Well I'm interested in experimenting with Tensorflow.
Any tips as to which cheap second hand graphics cards are good for it?
And is it true that Tensorflow doesn't run on AMD Radeon GPUs? :-(
BTW I get only OpenCL segfaults nowadays on my Radeon 5870 :-( are there any new-ish versions of Mesa / OpenCL / libclc / Clang / LLVM that work?
Stupid question, I know, but it's much too complex for me to debug on my own in my free time.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Friday April 27 2018, @10:58PM
Looks like you don't even need a GPU to use TensorFlow. CPU only versions are available. Probably a good way to get started.
https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow [github.com]
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday April 27 2018, @07:24PM
Such as etherium and monero. Their algorithms require more memory than will fit on an ASIC
Sometimes confidence men claim to be selling ASIC etherium rigs. There aren't any. Not yet. So they take the money and run
Crypto prices have plummeted since December but my Bitmain LiteCoin rig still mints more than the cost of electricity. Bitmain's miner prices move up and down with the prices of the coins they mint so I'm going to buy a second Antminer L3++ soon
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 28 2018, @12:28AM
Is it be a mine, or a farm?