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As Cryptocurrency Values Plummet, Graphics Card Pricing Improves Dramatically (hothardware.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the cause-and-effect dept.

MojoKid writes: In recent months, the cryptocurrency industry has taken a sharp downturn in valuations of virtually all major currencies, from Bitcoin to Ethereum. As a result, cryptocurrency mining itself has become significantly less lucrative for the average miner. In addition, demand on GPUs from the major OEM suppliers like NVIDIA and AMD, has fallen off dramatically as well. Cryptocurrency miner demand for graphics cards has fallen so much so, that pricing of board partner brands like EVGA, Asus, MSI, Gigabyte and others, has returned basically to MSRP levels. This is compared to the sharp price gouging that was going on earlier in 2018 and late last year, when demand was far out-stripping supply. In fact, reports are emerging now that another approximate 20 percent price drop could be coming to GPUs this month, especially as NVIDIA is expected to launch its next generation gaming graphics card very soon. Whether or not this is indicative of some sort of cryptocurrency bubble burst remains to be seen. However, for now, gamers and PC enthusiasts are likely breathing a sigh of relief, as better supply/demand dynamics are clearly in sight.

9 of 242 comments (clear)

  1. "Price Gouging"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is compared to the sharp price gouging that was going on earlier in 2018 and late last year, when demand was far out-stripping supply.

    So which one is it: price gouging, or legitimate supply and demand?

    Price gouging only occurs in two cases. When prices are raised artificially regardless of how low demand may be, or (more controversially) when it's an essential human need like water and there is a disaster or other emergency. Of course in the latter case a judgment call needs to be made about whether shortages are more desirable.

    1. Re: "Price Gouging"? by lgw · · Score: 4, Informative

      That depends what you mean by "free market". You could choose some unrealistically idealized definition, just so you can complain that it's unrealistically idealized, if you were a fool.

      By any reasonably definition, the US commodities markets are free markets. The government does not set prices, not choose who's allowed to participate. Most of the market rules are set by the market itself, not the government.

      The only thing we can do is create a very good model of a free market by setting up rules and limits to its scope

      That's exactly what most people would call a "free market", of course. You need rules to prevent fraud and enforce contracts, but that in no way makes it less of a free market. Prices are still set by supply and demand.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  2. MSRP should have gone down too! by Mishotaki · · Score: 5, Insightful

    MSRP of the release price of a 2 year old card is not what i call a good price... we're still being gouged by the overpriced video cards that made their MSRP stay the same for so long..

    1. Re:MSRP should have gone down too! by Gavagai80 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The development this article is about is exactly why that doesn't happen. Nobody's going to re-purpose their factory to specialty cards for a market that can virtually disappear by the time you're ready to go to market.

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      This space intentionally left blank
    2. Re:MSRP should have gone down too! by DigiShaman · · Score: 4, Interesting

      we're still being gouged by the overpriced video cards that made their MSRP stay the same for so long..

      "Gouging" isn't the right term. There is zero collusion going on between all the GPU re-sellers (Newegg, Amazon, etc). Yes, the prices ought to be lower in a normal market. But this supply/demand market is hardly normal thanks to cryptocurrency.

      Make no mistake about it; nobody wants to be holding onto inventory that devalues overtime. This is especially true in computing technology. If you haven't turned a profit on old hardware, you never will. At worst, it's actually costing you money to warehouse it. In fact, some will just take the loss and sell it below cost just to free up space for other inventory.

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
  3. Yawn... by Freischutz · · Score: 4, Funny

    As Cryptocurrency Values Plummet, Graphics Card Pricing Improves Dramatically ....

    Tulip bulb market crashes, flowerpot pricing improves dramatically ....

  4. Re:PoW-based public blockchains should be outlawed by religionofpeas · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Should we also outlaw video games which are also wasting energy in huge amounts ? Think of the planet, and play a board game instead.

  5. Over-production by The+Cynical+Critic · · Score: 5, Informative

    I've personally been following GPU prices pretty closely for the last year or so and from what I've seen the drop-off hasn't even been that dramatic since the start of the year and there's still plenty of air in prices, particularly for AMD cards. You can find plenty of Nvidia cards for about MSRP, thou that's not all that unusual as there's been the occasional MSRP special trough the whole craze, but AMD cards still go for well above MSRP almost all across their range and there's actually a reason for that.

    The last time there was a mining craze and then a bubble burst AMD, who like this time had the hardware best suited for this, and their board partners ended up badly over-producing and when the bubble burst almost over night finding themselves with a significant stockpile of unsold hardware. Not only that, a lot of miners also either intentionally broke their cards by wrapping them up so that they'd fail out of heat so they could return them for a refund or then flooded the second hand market with their cards, significantly reducing the demand for that surplus hardware and AMD and their partners needed to shift. The end result of this was that there was suddenly a huge amount of second hand top-end 200-series cards and really big discounts on new cards, which as you may be able to guess didn't exactly do wonders for their bottom line.

    What seems to have happened this time as that AMD and their board partners were cautious and deliberately under-produced during the craze and now that things have died down they don't have the surplus stock Nvidia has. Nvidia has reportedly even had to resort to delaying the launch of their next generation of cards just so that they can shift their existing inventory without having to resort to fire sale prices.

    --
    "Why should I want to make anything up? Life's bad enough as it is without wanting to invent any more of it."
  6. Cryptocurrency by DaMattster · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The whole thing is a mania. There are a few people that got wealthy and the rest will be caught holding the bad as it plummets.