Limited edition RTX 3080 Gundam cards are being sold in pre-built mining rigs

[midian182]

Facepalm: It comes as no surprise to learn that the value of Nvidia's pre-Lite Hash Rate graphics cards shot up following the release of its LHR variants. In Vietnam, one retailer is selling the older GPUs in pre-built mining rigs, and these aren't your run-of-the-mill RTX 3080s; they're Asus' limited edition ROG Strix Gundam cards.

Following the release of the LHR variants of the RTX 3080, RTX 3070, and RTX 3060 Ti, miners started fighting over the non-LHR cards, inflating their already high prices. Nguyenconpc via I_Leak_VN revealed that a Vietnamese retailer is selling ready-made mining setups complete with original RTX 3080s. They will presumably cost a fortune, made all the more expensive by the type of card being used.

The mining rigs are packed with Asus' limited-edition ROG Strix Gundam RTX 3080s, inspired by the famous anime. A quick check on eBay shows many for sale with buy-it-now prices of around $2,400. Considering these are Collectors Editions, it's pretty sad to see so many of them packed into mining setups where they'll be pushed to their limit 24/7.

The good news for gamers is that while the world remains in the middle of chip shortage, the cryptomining element that was exacerbating pricing and availability problems is alleviating. China, which accounts for up to 70% of the world's crypto supply, has cracked down hard on mining, leading to a slew of used cards hitting the market.

Also helping matters is Ethereum's upcoming shift from a proof-of-work model to proof-of-stake, Bitcoin's price decline since April, and Nvidia's CMP HX dedicated mining GPUs. All of which has contributed to the average selling point and availability of cards in many countries improving rapidly.

h/t: VideoCardz

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/90420-limited-edition-rtx-3080-gundam-cards-sold-pre.html

 

[apneaIT]

Shame...

 

[Dimitriid]

Maybe the marketing firms and the customers like the Gundam guys should take a look and decide "Yeah, next time just pass on this advertising deal these companies don't actually care about their end users or cultivating customer loyalty"

I hope this gets to their eyes and I hope Asus loses a bunch of brand deals as a revenue stream because of this.

 

[Geralt]

They should be shot dead.

 

[VitalyT]

 

[Cycloid Torus]

Looking forward to proof-of-hot-air model to replace 'work' and 'stake' models ... might even lead to proof-of-ponzi as a more permanent idea. Then again, someone will offer yet another idea - tulip bulbs, anyone? - or, a pile of dead lightbulbs as a proof-of-energy-expended?

What if your economy was based on a bit-whatever-coin and the general public realized there is nothing there... even lacking the power of taxation.. oh, right, 'investors' know that already.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

They should be shot dead.

I totally agree.

Make Crypto ILLEGAL

 

[Toju Mikie]

The Gundam stuff isn't supposed to be that scarce though. I saw an ASUS Gundam case last week at the warehouse that I work.

 

[Toju Mikie]

Maybe the marketing firms and the customers like the Gundam guys should take a look and decide "Yeah, next time just pass on this advertising deal these companies don't actually care about their end users or cultivating customer loyalty"

I hope this gets to their eyes and I hope Asus loses a bunch of brand deals as a revenue stream because of this.

I think it's more of a retailer issue since once ASUS sends the product to the retailer, there is really nothing else that ASUS can do other than threaten not to sell cards to certain retailers.

 

[Achaios]

"Also helping matters is Ethereum's upcoming shift from a proof-of-work model to proof-of-stake"

That's balloney, ETH is supposed to have gone proof-of-stake 5 years ago and every year hence.

So yeah, I don't think we are gonna see that happenin' this year or the next, perhaps never, as much as I don't think we'll be seein' Jimmy Hoffa anytime soon.

 

[Dimitriid]

I think it's more of a retailer issue since once ASUS sends the product to the retailer, there is really nothing else that ASUS can do other than threaten not to sell cards to certain retailers.

Not a retailer problem, higher up the chain: a distributor or possibly Asus directly. Retailers really don't gain much from direct hardware sales, most of their profit comes from secondary sales like accessories, peripherals, etc. Those have significant margins and core components have almost no margins by comparison.

Distributors and even if they never admit to it, Asus employees themselves (We know it happened with MSI employees scalping their own products for example, so no it isn't out of the question that someone at Asus could do it) are probably making these kind of behind-closed-doors deals with miners.

And yes, Asus could absolutely cut out distributors and even take on much of those responsibilities in-house if they really wanted to foster good PR with customers, but they wont: they just like the miner money more.

 

[fps4ever]

"What a waste"

 

[Avro Arrow]

Man, I tell ya. I must have some horseshoes up my posterior because I bought my RX 5700 XT in August, two months before the RX 6000 series was released. Normally, that's the WORST time to buy a new video card. I only bought it because it was $480CAD when the going rate seemed to be $570CAD at most retailers. I figured that it couldn't get any cheaper than $480 even after RDNA2 was released so I bought it. This is the sorriest state of affairs that I've seen since the first mining rush of almost five years ago.

 

[Nobina]

They should be shot dead.

I'm all for miners fking off and cards being availible to gamers but saying this makes you sound like an angry child.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I'm all for miners fking off and cards being availible to gamers but saying this makes you sound like an angry child.

Nah, he's ok. He just has a tendency to use powerfully expressive words when speaking in the abstract.

 

[JamesBlond]

I totally agree.

Make Crypto ILLEGAL

Crypto is a OWO tool to move wealth from the poor to the rich, it will go away when they have it all...