The GPU Sadness Index: aka the Shadenfreude Pricing Index

Marees

2[H]4U
Joined
Sep 28, 2018
Messages
2,075
We said it was a bad time to buy a card last year, but those prices are looking quite good now. The most desirable cards are now selling for close to triple their official launch prices.


Earlier this year, Michael Driscoll made some waves by tracking eBay scalper pricing on a variety of tech components. He also provided the source code for his tool, which we have modified and used to continue tracking this data. We're calling it the GPU sadness index, because current trends are very depressing. Ethereum mining remains profitable enough that it's having a clear impact on prices, as no gamer should be paying double or even triple the official price for a graphics card.


https://www.tomshardware.com/amp/news/gpu-pricing-index?__twitter_impression=true

If trends continue, sometime in the next month or two miners would likely stop investing in more hardware.

Meanwhile, Nvidia just announced that it made "$100 to $300 million" in estimated sales to cryptocurrency miners just in its last quarter.
 
Can't wait for the crypto-bubble to burst when people finally wisen up to the fact that they have no intrinsic value at all, may no one will ever use them as currency, and it's all just a stupid speculative bubble.

Unfortunately the douchebags responsible for cornering the GPU market will likely have sold off by then leaving non-savvy (and probably elderly) investors who get in out of FOMO to take the fall.

It's just sad all around.
 
Can't wait for the crypto-bubble to burst when people finally wisen up to the fact that they have no intrinsic value at all, may no one will ever use them as currency, and it's all just a stupid speculative bubble.

Unfortunately the douchebags responsible for cornering the GPU market will likely have sold off by then leaving non-savvy (and probably elderly) investors who get in out of FOMO to take the fall.

It's just sad all around.
It fueled by people staying indoors and going digital with their purchases. Cash doesn't seem like something physical you should have right now.
People are throwing money at the markets (stock, real estate, crypto etc) they would otherwise would have used for travel.
Once everyone goes back outside and cash will start to be used again, digital markets and payments will fall, real estate inventory will rise dramatically from covid/snowbird abandonments.

I haven't carried cash since last February.
 
Last edited:
Can't wait for the crypto-bubble to burst when people finally wisen up to the fact that they have no intrinsic value at all, may no one will ever use them as currency, and it's all just a stupid speculative bubble.

Unfortunately the douchebags responsible for cornering the GPU market will likely have sold off by then leaving non-savvy (and probably elderly) investors who get in out of FOMO to take the fall.

It's just sad all around.

Spoken like a true stalwart who missed the boat!
I'm on track to retire 15 years early even if BTC/ETH just stagnate where they are.
 
On the bright side, 2 years from now there will be a bunch of “lightly used” high end cards on the secondary market. So if you guys can wait until whatever nvidia and AMD’s next parts are, PC gamers can just be a generation behind whatever is current.

it might end up being cheaper than the ever-rising MSRP.
 
It fueled by people staying indoors and going digital with their purchases. Cash doesn't seem like something physical you should have right now.
People are throwing money at the markets (stock, real estate, crypto etc) they would otherwise would have used for travel.
Once everyone goes back outside and cash will start to be used again, digital markets and payments will fall, real estate inventory will rise dramatically from covid/snowbird abandonments.

I haven't carried cash since last February.

Lol. I haven't carried cash since the 90's. Once I got my first credit card that's all I used for transactions, paying the bill off (usually in full at the end of the month) directly from my bank account electronically.

It's funny. I grew up in Sweden and traveled there in 2019. Cash almost wasn't a thing anymore. It existed, but only tourists and old people were using it. Lots of businesses (shops, bars, restaurants, etc.) have signs that say "sorry no cash accepted". I remember thinking it was hilarious when we were in a bar, and this girl walked in, and sheepishly asked th ebartender, as if she were embarrased about it, "uh, do you... do you take cash?". Apparently she was given cash by a grandparent.
 
Spoken like a true stalwart who missed the boat!
I'm on track to retire 15 years early even if BTC/ETH just stagnate where they are.
You made the right decision to trust your gut, because there were many moments to cash out under 10K.
But there are so many ways to retire early in America and all it takes, what you demonstrated, is commitment to something that can grow.

A person can never miss out on making a lot of money if they are committed to whatever it is they are working on.
 
Spoken like a true stalwart who missed the boat!
I'm on track to retire 15 years early even if BTC/ETH just stagnate where they are.

I'm not a financial advisor, but if you were lucky to get in early, I'd cash out.

Once people come to their senses I predict all crypto will crash again. They aren't backed by by any intrinsic value, and have not seen any real adoption for use as currency. (which they are too volatile for anyway).

Like all speculative bubbles, this one will pop, and it will be ugly for whomever is still "HODL"ing.

Just because something is new and techy doesn't mean it is actually worth anything at all. Bitcoin and other crypto is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it, and when people wisen up that will be essentially nothing.

It will all wind up having been a huge waste of electricity, that accomplished nothing but moving some wealth from late adopters to early adopters.
 
Can't wait for the crypto-bubble to burst when people finally wisen up to the fact that they have no intrinsic value at all
Uh, no currency has any intrinsic value. That's why they're a fiat currency that's backed by nothing. Bitcoin has the same legitimacy as buying stock, and works the same.
Spoken like a true stalwart who missed the boat!
I'm on track to retire 15 years early even if BTC/ETH just stagnate where they are.
You know they'll crash right? They've done it before and they'll do it again. The reason Bitcoin is high is because people are using it more now to get around the deflation occurring in other currencies. Money in general is just falling apart.
 
Uh, no currency has any intrinsic value. That's why they're a fiat currency that's backed by nothing. Bitcoin has the same legitimacy as buying stock, and works the same.

Of course no currency does.

What real currencies have to back them up - however - is actual circulation.

All bitcoin has giving it value is supply and demand. The demand exists because of the hope for future increase in value. You can only keep that up as long as people believe in it, and in order for people to believe in it, there has to be a future state where bitcoin becomes something more than just a theoretical piece of cryptography that just sits there and does nothing.
 
Crypto is here to stay in one form or another. I doubt a crash will happen, but it will surely fluctuate as all currencies do.

I wouldn't be surprised if it returns to 2016 levels in the not too distant future.
 
Anyone else remember reading computer news 25 years ago? It was a real mood uplift. Almost all was good news. New parts, new technologies, fun games on the way and overclocking shenanigans.

Now it's the opposite. Sure there's new parts but you can't get them or afford them, your data has been stolen, and other such downers. Don't get me started on modern games. Not going there.

Maybe it's about time for me to find other hobbies.
 
Crypto is here to stay in one form or another. I doubt a crash will happen, but it will surely fluctuate as all currencies do.
Well I hope as a currency isn't one of them. Only being a finite amount means huge disparities in wealth. Once enough banks and corps buy and hold, there will be little left to have any kind of an economy with for regular Joe's.
It's a good store of value if the people invested continues to see it as that. Bitcoin at it's current value is a "bet" against inflation for high net worth individuals.
 
Anyone else remember reading computer news 25 years ago? It was a real mood uplift. Almost all was good news. New parts, new technologies, fun games on the way and overclocking shenanigans.

Now it's the opposite. Sure there's new parts but you can't get them or afford them, your data has been stolen, and other such downers. Don't get me started on modern games. Not going there.

Maybe it's about time for me to find other hobbies.
The reason it was fun was it was far more of a niche hobby. Now everyone and their dog and their lightswitch has to have some sort of e-presence.... Much like any other thing, that is/was novel, goes mainstream and it just gets dragged down by the weight of society.
 
The reason it was fun was it was far more of a niche hobby. Now everyone and their dog and their lightswitch has to have some sort of e-presence.... Much like any other thing, that is/was novel, goes mainstream and it just gets dragged down by the weight of society.
It was also fun because hardware was easily obtainable & you knew the round about price of what you were going to pay. Now, none of that applies. Not even when the company who makes it tells you what its going to sell for.
 
Lol. I haven't carried cash since the 90's. Once I got my first credit card that's all I used for transactions, paying the bill off (usually in full at the end of the month) directly from my bank account electronically.

It's funny. I grew up in Sweden and traveled there in 2019. Cash almost wasn't a thing anymore. It existed, but only tourists and old people were using it. Lots of businesses (shops, bars, restaurants, etc.) have signs that say "sorry no cash accepted". I remember thinking it was hilarious when we were in a bar, and this girl walked in, and sheepishly asked th ebartender, as if she were embarrased about it, "uh, do you... do you take cash?". Apparently she was given cash by a grandparent.
Our American friends for all the cool tech they come up with are very much behind in terms of the whole cash thing. I guess having a huge mass of smaller banks has made it hard for them to adopt standardized tech.

I'm Canadian... and years ago and way way back in the 80s our major banks agreed to spin off a non profit corp that would handle all the debit type stuff. And by the 90s any smaller coop type banks joined. Pretty much no Canadians under the age of around 50 or so have carried cash in probably 20 years. (someone gave me a 5 a couple years ago and its still folded in my wallet) Our bank cards got chip tech in the early 2000s... I have had a tap payment chipped debit card for probably a decade now. (although to be fair its only the last 5 years or so that basically everyone accepts tap payments). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interac

Not that we are traveling South much anymore... but whenever a younger person you know plans to travel south. You have to say to them... hey make sure you take cash. The reply is always what for ? Cause there is a good chance you'll end up at some gas station or something where your card won't work.... take enough cash to cover the gas home. lol (Although the newest thing our banks are doing... is sticking Visa and Mastercard labels on our bank cards, if your somewhere that can't process interac you can swipe it as a credit card... and you can also use as a CC online.)
 
Last edited:
Now that we are traveling South much anymore... but whenever a younger person you know plans to travel south. You have to say to them... hey make sure you take cash. The reply is always what for ? Cause there is a good chance you'll end up at some gas station or something where your card won't work.... take enough cash to cover the gas home. lol

This used to be quite common here.

When I moved back to the U.S. from Sweden in the late 90's cash only businesses were still fairly common around the greater Boston area. I remember going to a McDonald's and being really taken aback when they didn't take my card.

By contrast in Sweden even then, even the little news stands near the tram stations took cards. Cash was still fairly common in the 90's in Sweden. No-cash businesses didn't really exist yet, but you could certainly use your card anywhere you would buy anything.

These days I feel the same is accurate here. I haven't run into a cash only business in the U.S. in many years.

So, maybe we are only about 20 years behind Sweden in this regard, and in the late 2030's to Early 2040's we too will more or less have stopped using cash.

IMHO the only benefit cash has today is that it is not traceable. I don't like the fact that my credit card company is selling my shopping habits to advertisers, but I don't dislike it enough to start using cash again...
 
This used to be quite common here.

When I moved back to the U.S. from Sweden in the late 90's cash only businesses were still fairly common around the greater Boston area. I remember going to a McDonald's and being really taken aback when they didn't take my card.

By contrast in Sweden even then, even the little news stands near the tram stations took cards. Cash was still fairly common in the 90's in Sweden. No-cash businesses didn't really exist yet, but you could certainly use your card anywhere you would buy anything.

These days I feel the same is accurate here. I haven't run into a cash only business in the U.S. in many years.

So, maybe we are only about 20 years behind Sweden in this regard, and in the late 2030's to Early 2040's we too will more or less have stopped using cash.

IMHO the only benefit cash has today is that it is not traceable. I don't like the fact that my credit card company is selling my shopping habits to advertisers, but I don't dislike it enough to start using cash again...
Ya my Bank every now and then will send me a snail mail letter with a break down of what I spend my money on. Just trying to be helpful of course... and show me how I could wiggle in some investments. When they use the it would only cost you a couple coffees a month.... they know its going to land cause they know exactly how much you spent at Tims the last 10 years. lmao (our laws are supposed to keep our banks from selling that info... but ya they use it themselves for sure)
 
Uh, no currency has any intrinsic value. That's why they're a fiat currency that's backed by nothing. Bitcoin has the same legitimacy as buying stock, and works the same.

Could be because I misunderstand Bitcoin, but from my understanding it is different than buying stock, buying stock isn't exactly like owning a certain amount of a company but it is close to it.

If you stock and tomorrow people decide they have no value anymore, it does not necessarily matter, you still "own" that percentage of that company and still get your revenue flow from that.


Of course no currency does.

What real currencies have to back them up - however - is actual circulation.
Real currency have legal tender to back them up, not just actual circulation.

Not only a government guarantee they will always accept a certain currency to be paid back but they force people with their giant might to accept to be reimbursed with it and because everyone own money to the government all the time, everyone can use that legal tender money.

It fueled by people staying indoors and going digital with their purchases. Cash doesn't seem like something physical you should have right now.
Not sure about that, who had a significant portion of their asset in physical cash before the pandemy, that seem separate subject.
 
Been thinking the same thing.

I've been into this so long that it is a huge part of me though.

We are about to buy a house, so maybe I'll get less into PC upgrades and more into home upgrades. :p

Learning home upgrades is worth the effort. The amount of money you save going DIY is huge and you'll never have to deal with asshole contractors. I've gotten to the point where I do my own home renos, car repair and even appliance repair.

Funny to think of...it kinda started with computers.
 
Being a gamer or pc enthusiast in 1995 is better than being one today is quite the hot, or absurd take.

Floppy disks. There was no such thing as a good operating system. Something called irq. Two thousand dollars for a midrange PC. Viruses were a legitimate threat.

But hey Sierra was still in business so I guess it wasn't all bad. :D
 
It fueled by people staying indoors and going digital with their purchases. Cash doesn't seem like something physical you should have right now.
People are throwing money at the markets (stock, real estate, crypto etc) they would otherwise would have used for travel.
Once everyone goes back outside and cash will start to be used again, digital markets and payments will fall, real estate inventory will rise dramatically from covid/snowbird abandonments.

I haven't carried cash since last February.
I haven't carried cash in like 15+ years. Who still actually keeps cash around, honestly? Certainly not the people investing into crypto. I don't think people "going digital" has anything to do with the crypto boom, it's all a speculative bubble from people trying to ride the wave up. I buy 95% of items online and debit cards work just fine.

When my completely technologically illiterate friends are asking me about etherium and dogecoin there's a problem.
 
Well placed malware or an emp and you can kiss your crypto goodbye.
Fiat currency is also not safe because if your government is spending like crazy and "printing" money, hyperinflation comes and currency devalues.
Gold and silver, at least are physical items, but right now are tied to the US dollar. Unless you have smaller coins, not exactly easy to dole out for purchases.
 
It fueled by people staying indoors and going digital with their purchases. Cash doesn't seem like something physical you should have right now.
People are throwing money at the markets (stock, real estate, crypto etc) they would otherwise would have used for travel.
Once everyone goes back outside and cash will start to be used again, digital markets and payments will fall, real estate inventory will rise dramatically from covid/snowbird abandonments.

I haven't carried cash since last February.

I can pretty much guarantee you cash is not used that much. Believe it or not its the truth. Yes I have cash and keep it not much to use on daily basis but why the hell would I use it when it has no kick backs lol. Rather use my cards that get me some cash back that I can pay off.
 
Well placed malware or an emp and you can kiss your crypto goodbye.
Fiat currency is also not safe because if your government is spending like crazy and "printing" money, hyperinflation comes and currency devalues.
Gold and silver, at least are physical items, but right now are tied to the US dollar. Unless you have smaller coins, not exactly easy to dole out for purchases.

Well I have 2FA + Authenticator on everything. Yea I could lose my bank account too one day with a hack, but I can't live under that fear or what if. All I can do is protect my accounts the best of my ability and use password manager with passwords I can't remember.
 
We said it was a bad time to buy a card last year, but those prices are looking quite good now. The most desirable cards are now selling for close to triple their official launch prices.


Earlier this year, Michael Driscoll made some waves by tracking eBay scalper pricing on a variety of tech components. He also provided the source code for his tool, which we have modified and used to continue tracking this data. We're calling it the GPU sadness index, because current trends are very depressing. Ethereum mining remains profitable enough that it's having a clear impact on prices, as no gamer should be paying double or even triple the official price for a graphics card.


https://www.tomshardware.com/amp/news/gpu-pricing-index?__twitter_impression=true

If trends continue, sometime in the next month or two miners would likely stop investing in more hardware.

Meanwhile, Nvidia just announced that it made "$100 to $300 million" in estimated sales to cryptocurrency miners just in its last quarter.

It's crazy how there's pretty much no gpu market under $500
 
I haven't carried cash in like 15+ years. Who still actually keeps cash around, honestly? Certainly not the people investing into crypto. I don't think people "going digital" has anything to do with the crypto boom, it's all a speculative bubble from people trying to ride the wave up. I buy 95% of items online and debit cards work just fine.

When my completely technologically illiterate friends are asking me about etherium and dogecoin there's a problem.

I have thrown around 7k on crypto. It was at 32k but now at 24 lol. But you know what I would rather take a chance at it then sit on the sidelines. Its not majority of my investment and not putting it what I can't afford to lose. On top I have majority of what I can put in blockfi its there earning interest. like 100 a month. Why the hell not. I have a set target of no more then 10k invested in crypto. But that 10k could pay off big or go to 0, oh well shit happens.

I think what every one fails to realize is its not just people. Its big players buying billions in bitcoin including tesla. Other brokerages have purchased Bitcoin and Ethereum as well. Its just legitimizing it. Its not about touching it. ETH 2 is already being tested and you can stake your shit and earn interest while running a node in a staking pool. Its not just digital money blockchain does have a purpose and its evolving. Bitcoin on the other hand has no real utility and it does have more hype and fomo to it. I wouldn't be surprised if one day you have other actual crypto with purpose and utility behind it running shit then bitcoin that is merely a store of value.
 
Spoken like a true stalwart who missed the boat!
I'm on track to retire 15 years early even if BTC/ETH just stagnate where they are.
Which means nothing about sustainability. Not every discussion is about how much money you made.

Pay employees in bitcoin in it's current form, how long do you think those employees are going to be working for you? Better yet, ditch fiat currency and switch everyone over to bitcoin. Do you expect you're going to be making the same returns as you are now (e.g. the 3 bitcoin you made by doing actual work last year now has several fold the buying power the next year,) and if so in what reality is that sustainable in the slightest? If not, at that point what is it's advantage over current fiat currency?

Without the evil fiat currency, the bitcoin money printing machine is non-existent because the speculation hype party is over.

I've yet to ever get an answer from a bitcoin champion other than basically "lol I made money who cares" or usually just radio silence. We get it, you made money, you're not special, now move on with the conversation.
 
Could be because I misunderstand Bitcoin, but from my understanding it is different than buying stock, buying stock isn't exactly like owning a certain amount of a company but it is close to it.
It's the same general idea. The more people who buy Bitcoin then the more valuable it becomes. Basically the value of crypto currencies is still based on real currency and the difficulty to extract that wealth through decrypting it. Stocks work in a similar way in that you kinda sorta not really buy a piece of a company and the more people that pump money into the company then the more valuable it gets.
If you stock and tomorrow people decide they have no value anymore, it does not necessarily matter, you still "own" that percentage of that company and still get your revenue flow from that.
You only get revenue from a company stock if that company does stock buy back. This is why when companies that get tax breaks, tax returns, and any of their profits are then immediately pumped back into the stock through stock buy back. Why you think GME is gone up so much in value when there's no way in hell that GameStop is making any money? Tesla's stock is just as bad when you consider how little profits they make per car sale, if any. Buying stocks are like crypto in that you do it in good faith, because the value isn't guaranteed.
Real currency have legal tender to back them up, not just actual circulation.
Real currencies depend on a countries GDP and even then not entirely. The American dollar is tied to oil around the world which helps its value. We make it so nobody buys and sells oil without the American dollar. In many ways you can say that some currencies are used because they really like the currency. As long as other people agree that currency has value, then it has value.

What real currencies have to back them up - however - is actual circulation.
Bitcoin seems to get around in my opinion.
 
Stocks work in a similar way in that you kinda sorta not really buy a piece of a company and the more people that pump money into the company then the more valuable it gets.
More people pumping money into the stock make a stock more valuable, but you cannot have a stock that give a $100 annual dividend year after year with a price tag of just $300 dollars and unlike bitcoin you would like for the stock to go to 0 if possible (and thus making you the sole owner of the stock with the company and being able to get %100 of the dividend), the value of the stock is not purely based on other people wanting it or not.

To make it simple, even if it was impossible to resale to someone else stock and they would have the notion of any value people are ready to buy them, i.e. only IPO and new emission would be legal has a time to buy stock for people, people would still buy them, just for the dividend over time (and they often do it like that when they invest in non public company or start their own).

You only get revenue from a company stock if that company does stock buy back.
Or via dividend. Someone that bought 100 stock of Costco Dec 31, 1999, $8,272, would have made in dividend from them (now 200 share after a 2:1 split), 200* 12.75 = $2,550, if the stock price would have stayed the same that would be a ridiculous 30% dividend yield.

Why you think GME is gone up so much in value when there's no way in hell that GameStop is making any money?
Gme is a squeeze, and that yes obviously is an exceptional even when a stock value is not base on reality for a while.

Tesla's stock is just as bad when you consider how little profits they make per car sale,
Amazon, Netflix didn<t made any money for a very long time, it is expected for high possible upside growth type of stock to have high price/earning. The high value is based on a speculative expectation that all the future return to stockholder (via buyback or dividend) make it worth that when you actualise to today all those future stream to a wanted return % and for recent example someone buying amazon or netflix at ridiculous price considering their revenues and absence of profit in 2002 would have been right and rich now.

As long as other people agree that currency has value, then it has value.
There is a little bit more than that to it has well (even if on the very long horizon yes), the United state of america guarantee that it will accept for a form of payment of American that own them money (everyone in that country) to be reimbursed with the USD, creating hundred of millions that can use it for something, not only that it will use force and coercion for everyone in the US that is own money to accept USD has a form of payment.

Even if everyone say tomorrow, USD that nothing, people do not accept to be paid with it, if you go to the store there is sign, NO USD here (something you can do before the transaction occur and the money is own), everyone that own government money (which is virtually everyone that pay any form of tax, i.e. everyone) will still use USD if they have them for that and would still trade a chicken in exchange of enough USD to pay all their taxes for sure, ensuring that it is a use (thus value) at least has long has people still have tax (and engender new taxes payable in USD).
 
Last edited:
Amazon, Netflix didn<t made any money for a very long time, it is expected for high possible upside growth type of stock to have high price/earning. The high value is based on a speculative expectation that all the future return to stockholder (via buyback or dividend) make it worth that when you actualise to today all those future stream to a wanted return % and for recent example someone buying amazon or netflix at ridiculous price considering their revenues and absence of profit in 2002 would have been right and rich now.
We know today that Amazon and Netflix are successful companies but nobody knew that back in 2002. Then you have companies like Enron that didn't produce anything other than hype about their company. There are a lot of companies that operate on zero profits.
Even if everyone say tomorrow, USD that nothing, people do not accept to be paid with it, if you go to the store there is sign, NO USD here (something you can do before the transaction occur and the money is own), everyone that own government money (which is virtually everyone that pay any form of tax, i.e. everyone) will still use USD if they have them for that and would still trade a chicken in exchange of enough USD to pay all their taxes for sure, ensuring that it is a use (thus value) at least has long has people still have tax (and engender new taxes payable in USD).
Fun fact, did you know that 40% of American dollars was created in the last 12 months? Fun with funny money. And we criticize crypto for being fake money. Anyway, in many ways crypto gains its value from real currencies, much like a credit card. Credit cards aren't real money and we accept those as payment all the time, including the government. For most people you can't use Bitcoin unless you convert it back to your countries local currency.
rxuo34jiqd561.jpg
 
If you are paying your bills monthly via bill-pay services, you're leaving money on the table. Pay all your bills online directly via a credit card and then pay off the credit card via your bank/credit union/magic money machine. Watch the cash-back flow........
This. I basically get a 2% discount on my life.
 
It was also fun because hardware was easily obtainable & you knew the round about price of what you were going to pay. Now, none of that applies. Not even when the company who makes it tells you what its going to sell for.

We, the gamers and enthusiasts, also felt a constant drive to tweak and update just to eek out more performance; when you're closing background programs hoping for a few extra FPS then you know resources are tight.

Now the technology is at a point where the only thing I would really care to upgrade is my GPU, but since the prices are outrageous and/or supply is non-existent I just don't really care. I still love tinkering with my PC and upgrading where it makes sense but, like my phone, currently my computer does everything I need it to do so the constant struggle for more power isn't there anymore. Sure I'd love a boost in graphics potential, but I'm not gonna pay 2x or 3x MSRP to get it.
 
Back
Top