Why video card prices are still so high?

TurK-FX

2[H]4U
Joined
Jan 21, 2009
Messages
2,476
I sold my gtx 1070 last year this time around for below $300. Now I see them even worth more a year after. Same for gtx 1080. What is the deal with that?
 
Well, I would understand that for AMD. But Nvidia GPUs always sucked with mining unless there was a break thru since last year that I missed.
 
Well, I would understand that for AMD. But Nvidia GPUs always sucked with mining unless there was a break thru since last year that I missed.

1060s, 1070s, even 1050tis are quite good at ETH with the 1060 being the sweet spot

When sub $200 480s dried up, 1060s took up the slack. For both games who needed a card and miners who couldn’t find a reasonably priced 480
 
Ok that makes sense. I quit mining at best possible time. I had 7000Dash coin at some point. I could have been millionaire :)
 
I mean, is mining even cost effective vs your utility bill lol

Anyway, its because there is literally no competition.

Depends on your utility bill. Many places have low electricity costs, some people have solar to offset the costs, some people don't pay for electricity at all, either it's all bundled up in a lease agreement or they're using their employers electricity (not recommending that, but people do in fact do this)
 
I mean, I have a 2000mhz GTX 1080Ti, should I try mining? I own my home and pay my own bills :D
 
Single GTX 1080TI should clear 3 dollars a day profit,so free money.Why not try it.

It is hard to get a grip when starting out,I did a quick guide ,there are different ways to mine.This way is fast to get up and going.
Easiest route would be go to poloniex.com
a. Create your Account(use a secure email and password)
b.Click on balances tab and select deposits and Withdrawals
c.Scroll thru coins until you see ZEC and click on deposit to get your t address.This address will be used in the EWBF's CUDA Zcash miner .bat file
eg(t1Spr8WeMXZceHy4KkKsDcrZ4cshyAWHZh9)

So for now you opened an account to start mining,now the miner we are using here has a couple of different pool miners and to make it less confusing we are going to use nanopool.

a.Download EWBF's CUDA Zcash miner
b.Unzip files to any folder you want to use
c.Open nanopool.bat file with notepad in the folder
d.Now the address you got at poloniex.com(eg(t1Spr8WeMXZceHy4KkKsDcrZ4cshyAWHZh9) you need to put it in nanopool.bat file and save the file.

So nanopool.bat file will look like this.
miner --server zec-eu1.nanopool.org --user t1Spr8WeMXZceHy4KkKsDcrZ4cshyAWHZh9.yournamehere --pass z --port 6666 --pec

e.Now your ready to start mining for zcash.
f.double click on the nanopool.bat file and the miner will start and you will be able to access you coins on poloniex.com and see them also on https://zec.nanopool.org/?_ga=2.177365415.302179841.1502902636-1183460756.1498494230 when you input your t address.

This was quick and dirty guide to get started as fast as possible.
 
Whats the catch
Risk, noise, heat and power consumption.

You run the risk of whatever you're mining losing all of its value, or getting stolen (see: NiceHash). Also, you end up with a powerful computer running continuously in your house, using electricity and dumping noise and heat into your living space.

I mean, I have a 2000mhz GTX 1080Ti, should I try mining? I own my home and pay my own bills :D
If you can live with the heat and power, the economics of it may or may not make sense. Here in Texas, it's currently profitable with 1070s or 1070 Tis, even if you have to buy electricity from the grid. In some places, electricity is so expensive that you lose money unless you're mining a coin that is both easy to mine and very valuable.

If you have solar, or a wind turbine or something, that obviously shifts things in your favor, especially if you have extra capacity.

Edit: Also, the overclock settings that yield best results with different cryptocurrency are different from what you would use in games. If you also use the machine you're mining on for gaming, you may end up having to toggle back and forth between two sets of settings, which adds some extra hassle.
 
One card is not worth the trouble. Maybe to play but that's it. I went all in with 16 (4 x 4) R920's back in the day.
 
Just my opinion, but I would not subject my two $1000 VegaFE's to mining.


There is nothing wrong with using video cards to mine, just undervolt and keep the temps in check. They will last for years. Build open air racks for my mining boxes, kept the GPUs nice and cool.


SmY8tO.jpg
 
or they're using their employers electricity (not recommending that, but people do in fact do this)

Yeah, my buddy is using a storage room for mining.

No one's the wiser heh

(he's been doing it since late 2013, when everyone caught wind)

Is it shady? Absolutely!

But his ability to con without regret has always impressed me heh
 
Last edited:
MRSP for a GTX 1070 was leaked to the press as $350 before the cards were released. Once released they were posted for much more than that. In the car business it's called bait and switch (which BTW, is illegal) but apparently in the tech industry it's called business as usual but one day, mark these words, they will reap what they sowed (not from me; it's a universal law, many call it karma)
 
The actual MSRP for the original 1070 was 379 and the FE was 449. Really not sure why you post otherwise when shit like this is so easy to fact check.

I wasn't happy getting a card above the MSRP but at least I got the card for less than the FE price.
 
Unless your in Hawaii where electricity is ridiculously expensive, it's well worth it to mine.
 
How much would 2 980s and a 1080 clear a day? Could run 2 1080s 2 980s and a 1080ti while I'm not on the pc most of the day.
 
im not sure about the 980s, but my 1080s average $2.50 a day each. a 1080ti should do at least $3.50. Problem is, without nicehash its a lot more work then it used to be. I was making $30 a day when they went under. Now im maybe around $15 a day. Im using awesome miner and mining poolhub at the moment.
 
I've been holding off from upgrading from my GTX 970 due these insane prices, mining doesn't interest me one bit and it's ridiculous to think that every gamer needs to start mining now to get your money's worth. How good is that for the planet if every GPU owner started mining 24/7? Mining consumes too much electricity for what it gives out in profit, it's not a big deal if a few people keeps doing it but when it climbs to some universal popular hobby of some sort it's not a good thing. At some point it needs to be restricted in some way if it would keep becoming more popular in the same way we're not allowed to hunt without restrictions. It will also lead to electricity price hikings in the long run which makes it unfair for those who doesn't mine which is when it also becomes of political interest.
 
Last edited:
I've been holding off from upgrading from my GTX 970 due these insane prices, mining doesn't interest me one bit and it's ridiculous to think that every gamer needs to start mining now to get your money's worth. How good is that for the planet if every GPU owner started mining 24/7? Mining consumes too much electricity for what it gives out in profit, it's not a big deal if a few people keeps doing it but when it climbs to some universal popular hobby of some sort it's not a good thing. At some point it needs to be restricted in some way if it would keep becoming more popular in the same way we're not allowed to hunt without restrictions. It will also lead to electricity price hikings in the long run which makes it unfair for those who doesn't mine which is when it also becomes of political interest.

First, it will never be the case that every GPU owner mines 24/7. Second, consumes too much electricity for what it gives out in profit??? It's at least a four factor of profit, conservatively, compared against the US national electric rate average of 12c kwh. Lastly, electric utilities are regulated by the government to prevent price hikes and there is no way the government or the electric utility is going to be able to determine what your power usage actually is from.

You don't have to mine but understand there is a reason card prices are higher due to demand from those that are willing to mine...
 
First, it will never be the case that every GPU owner mines 24/7. Second, consumes too much electricity for what it gives out in profit??? It's at least a four factor of profit, conservatively, compared against the US national electric rate average of 12c kwh. Lastly, electric utilities are regulated by the government to prevent price hikes and there is no way the government or the electric utility is going to be able to determine what your power usage actually is from.

You don't have to mine but understand there is a reason card prices are higher due to demand from those that are willing to mine...

There's more to the World than just the US. Electricity prices in Europe are very high for example, and it's a bigger market (NOT talking about mining here) than the US. GPU mining isn't really popular in Europe for that reason (and maybe others). Even in China/Asia my understanding is that it is limited to a few specific locations where energy prices are low enough.
 
Last edited:
There's more to the World than just the US. Electricity prices in Europe are very high for example, and it's a bigger market than the US. GPU mining isn't really popular in Europe for that reason (and maybe others). Even in China/Asia my understanding is that it is limited to a few specific locations where energy prices are low enough.

In addition to that, many people live in warmer climates most of the year and whatever heat you dump into the room, you’ll probably need to pump out. There goes your profit margin.

For the record, I mine with a couple of my machines running 1060s. I’m not a fan of it, but considering how much cards cost now, I figure I might as well have them work when I’m not using them so they can at least pay for my next upgrade. I have solar with a bit of extra capacity, otherwise it would not be profitable at all here. Prior to getting solar we were a tier 3 household for power consumption which bumped our rate to >.40 kWh. That’s in Southern California.
 
For me it's not about electricity cost vs profit but the energy waste is high vs profit when factoring in things like ease of access, popularity and so on and considering it's something you do for reasonable small gain for the amount energy feed in. I don't want to be part of the growing problem, the extra pressure it causes on the energy load worldwide. For me it brings out the worst in humans, greed. Sure it's not as huge environmental problem as for example coal mining but this is a much more widespread practice that is done for personal gain, a lot of that energy comes from coal and nuclear power plants. In Finland for example currently they have to import quite a lot of energy from abroad, in 2016 that rate was about 22% from abroad 78% domestic, during colder winter days also some extra coal plants are ran etc. These all things contribute to increase in pollution due the growing useage and it's not something limited to certain countries only and those who use for example solar power to mine are probably statistically insignificant.

So for me it's the amount energy feed in vs low profit vs widespread practice that cause on a global scale a more serious impact in pollution if the trend keeps growing further. This is probably the last place to get support from this kind of opinion being an overclocking forum based in US but I do think we need to start think more of the planet than some slight personal profit gains.

Then I'm sure some of you will be like what about overclocking then? Well you're not going to put computer load 24/7 with regular comp use and when doing so, some of that use is also creative work (which often also brings benefit to others) or for fun or whatever, meanwhile mining is only done for $$$ which isn't even a garantuee of increase in happiness.
 
You Americans have nothing to complain about when it comes to video card pricing, my 980Ti cost me $1200.00 just before the 1080 came out!
 
These gpu will fall and rise based on the new gpu released. For now 10 series will stay arround for say 5+ years .
 
For me it's not about electricity cost vs profit but the energy waste is high vs profit when factoring in things like ease of access, popularity and so on and considering it's something you do for reasonable small gain for the amount energy feed in. I don't want to be part of the growing problem, the extra pressure it causes on the energy load worldwide. For me it brings out the worst in humans, greed. Sure it's not as huge environmental problem as for example coal mining but this is a much more widespread practice that is done for personal gain, a lot of that energy comes from coal and nuclear power plants. In Finland for example currently they have to import quite a lot of energy from abroad, in 2016 that rate was about 22% from abroad 78% domestic, during colder winter days also some extra coal plants are ran etc. These all things contribute to increase in pollution due the growing useage and it's not something limited to certain countries only and those who use for example solar power to mine are probably statistically insignificant.

So for me it's the amount energy feed in vs low profit vs widespread practice that cause on a global scale a more serious impact in pollution if the trend keeps growing further. This is probably the last place to get support from this kind of opinion being an overclocking forum based in US but I do think we need to start think more of the planet than some slight personal profit gains.

Then I'm sure some of you will be like what about overclocking then? Well you're not going to put computer load 24/7 with regular comp use and when doing so, some of that use is also creative work (which often also brings benefit to others) or for fun or whatever, meanwhile mining is only done for $$$ which isn't even a garantuee of increase in happiness.
Virtually all the energy you feed your computer converts into heat - a very very small fraction goes into radio waves, conservation of energy. So basically if you put 1000w in you get ~1000w of heat.

In the winter time one can heat their house, apartment etc. and do nothing other then heat their house, apartment etc. or with the same amount of energy, run a few computers that will convert that same amount of energy into mostly heat and get money back. To me that is smart to do. You are not consuming more energy this way at all.

Summer time is different where you will not only consume the energy for the tasks but also add in 1/3 over that for cooling. So for those concern about energy consumption - mine in the Winter time. My electric bill is cheaper now this year compared to last year, difference is I am mining and heating certain rooms vice heating the whole place up. So actually I am conserving energy because of mining ;)

Now if one is really concerned about energy, start putting up solar panels, windmills etc. then I would buy one is really concern. Also ride a bike, carpool and keep their place freezing cold in the Winter and swampy hot in the summer, do not use a cloths dryer - hang them up etc.
 
Virtually all the energy you feed your computer converts into heat - a very very small fraction goes into radio waves, conservation of energy. So basically if you put 1000w in you get ~1000w of heat.

In the winter time one can heat their house, apartment etc. and do nothing other then heat their house, apartment etc. or with the same amount of energy, run a few computers that will convert that same amount of energy into mostly heat and get money back. To me that is smart to do. You are not consuming more energy this way at all.

Summer time is different where you will not only consume the energy for the tasks but also add in 1/3 over that for cooling. So for those concern about energy consumption - mine in the Winter time. My electric bill is cheaper now this year compared to last year, difference is I am mining and heating certain rooms vice heating the whole place up. So actually I am conserving energy because of mining ;)

Now if one is really concerned about energy, start putting up solar panels, windmills etc. then I would buy one is really concern. Also ride a bike, carpool and keep their place freezing cold in the Winter and swampy hot in the summer, do not use a cloths dryer - hang them up etc.

Not sure that's an accurate assessment. If nearly all the energy used is converted into heat, you're essentially saying computers are close to 0% efficient, which is unheard of for any electrical device. Even internal combustion engines are about 20-30% meaning 70-80% of the energy is wasted as heat, but the remaining 20-30% is used to actually move you around to where you need to go.

I think you're completely forgetting about the actual "work" the computer is doing.
 
Not sure that's an accurate assessment. If nearly all the energy used is converted into heat, you're essentially saying computers are close to 0% efficient, which is unheard of for any electrical device. Even internal combustion engines are about 20-30% meaning 70-80% of the energy is wasted as heat, but the remaining 20-30% is used to actually move you around to where you need to go.

I think you're completely forgetting about the actual "work" the computer is doing.
What work? (VR is not actually moving you around so no 20%-30% there:))

I am actually accurate.
 
Back
Top