Chinese retailers and cryptominers are desperate to sell GPUs before prices crash to normal...

[nanoguy]

The big picture: The crypto winter spells terrible news for everyone who has built racks upon racks of mining rigs. For gamers, it creates the right conditions for a price war between retailers and miners. At least in China, GPU prices are dropping below MSRP across the board, and it's only a matter of time before this becomes a global trend.

Used graphics card prices fell 50 percent recently, primarily thanks to a sharp decline in cryptomining profitability. Companies like Asus have seen demand for GPUs used to mine Ethereum and other tokens diminish to the point where the impact on their bottom line is non-existent.

Analysts estimate that Ethereum miners spent around $15 billion over the past 18 months, grabbing more than a third of all available GPUs from Nvidia's RTX 3000 series and AMD's RX 6000 series. Now they're trying to sell them as fast as they can before prices reach a floor.

As one would expect, this has caused a flood of used Ampere and RDNA 2 cards on the second-hand market when retailers are sitting on healthy inventories of new cards. With next-gen graphics card launches on the horizon, gamers aren't rushing to buy current models, some of which are almost two years old.

In China, this is causing a price war between retailers and miners. Both have gradually lowered their prices over the past few weeks. According to a Baidu forum post, the average selling price of GPUs in the region has dropped to around 20 percent below MSRP.

Nvidia's RTX 3090 and RTX 3090 Ti now cost 29 percent and 38 percent below their manufacturer-suggested prices, respectively. That means the RTX 3090 Ti is going for around $1,415, which is still high but much more affordable than a month ago. A Founder's Edition model is now $1,600 at Best Buy — another sign that the crypto winter is putting enormous downward pressure on GPU pricing, especially for the higher-end models.

The same trend has been observed somewhat on AMD cards. Team Red typically prices its GPUs lower, but even the mighty RX 6900 XT is now priced 37.5 percent below MSRP.

Overall, choosing the best value GeForce or Radeon GPU is still highly dependent on your region and whether or not you have an urgent need for a GPU upgrade or replacement. If you can wait, prices will likely deflate even more in the coming months.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/95268-chinese-retailers-cryptominers-desperate-sell-gpus-before-prices.html

 

[RedGuard]

Looking to buy an used RTX 3080 for $300 - $400.

 

[Thatsdisgusting]

And what do we call "normal levels"? I hope something like 500$ for flagship inc. VAT?

 

[Arbie]

For anyone considering an ex-mining card, I recommend Buildzoid's YT AHOC recent video Ex-mining GPUs. It's good to at least be aware of the points he makes on fans, dust, BIOS, and especially his cautions on thermal pad dimensions (of which I had no idea).

Just realize that he's a technical perfectionist, so the things he would tear apart and "fix" might not actually matter or be worth it to you.

On eBay I'd of course check the seller's recent feedbacks on the same gear; and get personal assurance from them that the fans are noise-free and the BIOS is retail, not mining. Then probably OK.

As for now, I'd follow the standard advice to wait if you can. It doesn't look like you'll miss a bargain that won't be even better in 2-3 months.

 

[umbala]

"According to a Baidu forum post, the average selling price of GPUs in the region has dropped to around 20 percent below MSRP." I don't get it. Why is this a bad thing? Were they expecting to get back the full MSRP value of the card after running them 24/7 at full load for a couple of years? I get that they overpaid big time for these cards, but that's an issue they themselves created in the first place. As far as I'm concerned, these beat up old cards are worth 50% of MSRP at *best* and that's being very generous. So come talk to me when they fall below that point.

 

[Jac Jac]

I wouldn't buy a mining GPU at any price they'd be willing to sell it.

 

[takaozo]

In my country on second hand websites, miners are trying to sell as close to store prices.
When I have free time, I make offers for 15-30% of requested prices, just to make fun.
Not planning to buy one from them.

 

[Achaios]

I will never, ever, buy a used Miner's GPU and since even Store Owners try to scam ppl these days through selling repackaged used miner GPUs as "new", I would only buy from a reputable big department store.

Check what happened to a German buyer, Igor's pal. He bought a GPU from e-bay.de marked as NEU by the seller but it was, in reality, a used Miner's Card and it was an AMD RX6800 even though the big brains in here and Reddit said that Miners would never buy these for mining.

https://www.igorslab.de/en/graphic-...peration-igor-the-hardware-savers-of-elitkom/

 

[Irata]

I will never, ever, buy a used Miner's GPU and since even Store Owners try to scam ppl these days through selling repackaged used miner GPUs as "new", I would only buy from a reputable big department store.

Check what happened to a German buyer, Igor's pal. He bought a GPU from e-bay.de marked as NEU by the seller but it was, in reality, a used Miner's Card and it was an AMD RX6800 even though the big brains in here and Reddit said that Miners would never buy these for mining.

https://www.igorslab.de/en/graphic-...peration-igor-the-hardware-savers-of-elitkom/

RDNA2 cards do have a much lower hash rate than their Ampere counterparts - in the case of the 6800 vs 3080 the latter only has a 50% higher hash rate, the 3090 actually has double the 6900 XT‘s hash rate.

While I am sure there were some miners that bought RX6800 for mining, this was because they couldn‘t get anything else.

It‘s the same as with earlier mining booms where Polaris was the clear mining champ, but miners would also get Pascal cards if they couldn‘t find anything else.

I am still sure that the large majority of mining cards this gen were Ampere based cards. If you search for images of large operational mining farms, you see Ampere and Polaris but not RDNA2 cards in use.

Also, logically miners would sell the least profitable cards first, but Chinese online auctions showed a large number of Ampere cards, not RDNA2.


As for not buying used /from miners: nVidia and the AIB/distributors who previously supplied miners would like to thank you for doing your part to not crash prices and taking supplies they can no longer sell to miners off their hands.

They‘ll be sure to remember that during the next mining boom they can sell to miners again with minimum risk.

 

[0dium]

Those comments again saying they wouldn't buy mining cards even tho mining does less damage to the card than gaming

 

[takaozo]

Got an RTX2060 - gv-n2060oc-6gd in january from a miner selling his opperation.
All I can say is 6-12 months of mining destroyed the thermal pads, the thermal gresse and the fans. After fixing the card issues with 20-30 Euro parts, was a good purchase for me. My old GTX 1060 played like 2-3 hours a day, and after 5 years still runs fine with original parts.

 

[Diabolik707]

The infamously misleading "lower than MSRP" China post.

Look at the stated MSRPs and compare them to the official MSRPs on Nvidia's site, they don't even match, they're inflated to make the current prices look good ( same for AMD's ).

 

[gabelogan1324]

This is doing really well in the UK - prices are dropping hard!

 

[m3tavision]

Anyone who got into mining in 2019.... already lost. You are 10 years too late. Dumping/reselling used GPUs as new will not work anymore as retailers are catching on & trying to recoup cost on used GPUs will also not work anymore...

Sadly, If you are mining for money right now, you are already in the wrong tent. It cost a lot less, to click a button, than it does to mine.

 

[wiyosaya]

My heart bleeds and I shed a river of tears for them. /s

 

[TheBakedCat]

HA, hope they lose lots of money.

 

[Avro Arrow]

This is a massive surprise to literally nobody. I knew it would happen and now I'm just chuckling about it.

 

[seeprime]

And what do we call "normal levels"? I hope something like 500$ for flagship inc. VAT?

When mining took over the GPU market they were willing to pay almost double the retail price. Once Nvidia and AMD realized this they moved to doubling the MSRP over what it would have been on new models had cryptomining never existed. Those companies lived like kings for a while now. So, they should prepare for much small margins as the upcoming recession hits. Back to normal, seems to me, would have a top of the line card sell for about $1000 US.

 

[WhoCaresAnymore]

Recession hits? In the US we’ve been in a recession for 2 periods. Our gov’t is just playing with words to cover up some of the most inept running of our country in decades.

 

[Arbie]

Recession hits? In the US we’ve been in a recession for 2 periods. Our gov’t is just playing with words to cover up some of the most inept running of our country in decades.

I guess even GPU prices can trigger brainless political rants. Not that yours necessarily is! Because you may just possibly be a non-partisan, degreed, professional, national economist who suddenly felt that we all urgently need to hear your considered thoughts on that topic. There's always that chance.

 

[Watzupken]

I am skeptical that miners only grabbed" more than a third" of the GPUs during the peak of cryptomining. The number of GPUs in retail back then was so limited, that it feels more like miners are snapping up 80% of the GPUs produced. Most of these I believe are sold by Nvidia/ AIB partners, that never made it to the retail space. A "household" miner can easily snap up 6 to 8 GPUs, while the big time miners/ mining farms will snap up even more.

 

[WhoCaresAnymore]

Not that yours necessarily is! Because you may just possibly be a non-partisan, degreed, professional. There's always that chance.

Barbie, you got that part right. And have done quite well following stocks, economic triggers/trends. We have been due for a recession for the past 5 years based on the avg 7 year cycle, so that part isn't news. What is threatenening to take this deeper is the rampant inflation. The US economy is driven by Patrolium. Just about everything from Plastics, rubber, paint, rubber and most things we use daily is manufactured using it. So when the current administration restricts domestic oil production and the cost per barrell skyrockets, it affects the consumer cost on everything. Add to that the money the Trump and Biden put into the system as "stimulus", inflated purchasing power temporarily, that is now gone. That money drained supply and we are feeling the effects of it now. Add the uncontrolled border, that's all on current president, and that's a lot of people receiving our tax dollars and increasing supply/demand. There has got to be reasonable limits to everything. I'm all for term limits. These old dogs have got to go.

On the positive side, there is no shortage of product on the stores here locally, except my favorate milk, Fairlife Skim Milk. It is basically as rare as toilet paper during the lockdown.

Back on subject. I still see absolutely no reason to buy GPU's based on current MSRP. It's so badly inflated. A 3080 should be in the $599 MSRP. and everything else scale down.

Miners pretty much threw a wrench into the fan and it's never been repaired.

 

[Arbie]

Back on subject. I still see absolutely no reason to buy GPU's based on current MSRP.

Thanks for boiling that all down for us. Though it was great to hear how smart you are.

 

[WhoCaresAnymore]

Thanks for boiling that all down for us. Though it was great to hear how smart you are.

Yeah, I'm told that a lot. Thanks.