
Can I buy a GPU yet? - voltagex_
http://canibuyagpuyet.xyz/
======
zawerf
If you can't beat them, join them. The current rates are like $4-5 per day for
a gtx 1080/1080ti on nicehash. Super simple installation and you can set it to
run whenever idle. [https://www.nicehash.com/profitability-
calculator](https://www.nicehash.com/profitability-calculator)

Just think of it like a really slow but never ending rebate. And if enough
people do it, we'll even have a chance of lowering the overall profitability.

~~~
neverminder
I live in an apartment where electricity is free (bill is included), so I'm
curious if mining with a single GPU is worth it. I have Nvidia GeForce GTX
1060 6GB and nicehash is saying I can make £52 a month with it. If that means
running the GPU at full power 247 it would probably give up the ghost sooner
than it pays for itself, not to mention it would be loud as fuck with fans at
100%.

~~~
aoeusnth1
Install an overclocking app like MSI Afterburner. Set a power limit of around
80%.

The 1060 6GB won't be worth $500 forever - in about a year, I'm guessing
Nvidia and AMD will have stepped up their production and the price will have
halved or less.

------
Sir_Cmpwn
Just bought a GPU at a ridiculous markup. Sold my old one on eBay to make some
of it back, but still had to spend way more money than I should have. Fuck
cryptocurrencies.

~~~
Robotbeat
Cryptocurrencies: designed to be deflationary, but in reality lead to
stagflation in GPU capabilities, crowding out useful applications of GPUs for
high performance computing, deep learning, virtual reality, etc. Yay.

Long-term might not be so bad, though, as it padded Nvidia and AMD's bottom
line and thus might indirectly help them make better GPUs in the future.

~~~
jnordwick
There are some pretty horrible abuses of economic terms in crypto, but to talk
about "stagflation" in a single tiny product class might be the worst I've
seen this year.

~~~
Robotbeat
Abuse of term as it's only applying to a small product class? Certainly. :)
But I wasn't unclear, was I? Shorthand for prices going up without significant
growth/improvement.

We're used to the opposite in computer technology. It really is odd that
price/performance has stagnated or even worsened for years.

------
Waterluvian
I was so frustrated when I came out of PC literacy retirement to upgrade and
found that $300 doesn't get me much further than my old HD 7870 After this
many years I was expecting 2-3x performance boost.

~~~
abandonliberty
Yes that should get you a gtx 1060 6gb, or 3gb if you really want the highest
ROI.

~~~
kjullien
I don't think you understand that guy's issue.

------
carlmcqueen
Clever, however their link to this chart I think ends as a net positive
outcome for me:

[https://au.pcpartpicker.com/trends/price/video-
card/](https://au.pcpartpicker.com/trends/price/video-card/)

------
SuddsMcDuff
Way to get your Bitcoin donation address on HN!

~~~
a13n
Eh, with transaction fees as high as they are I doubt they'll get a single
donation.

~~~
Klathmon
TX fees are insanely low right now, the average transaction should cost about
$0.80 USD worth of bitcoin (and closer to $0.40 USD worth if you use a segwit
address).

~~~
SuddsMcDuff
It's all relative. "Insanely low" compared to a month ago, sure. They're still
_insanely high_ when compared to any other crytpcurrency, or Bitcoin itself
before it was allowed to hit the block size cap.

~~~
Klathmon
Even litecoin (average of $0.30) and ethereum (average of around $0.10) have
TX fees that aren't "insanely low" compared to bitcoin right now. And "bitcoin
before it was "allowed" to hit the cap", of course tx fees would be low...
Bitcoin was never designed to scale like that, fees are a core part, and
"bidding" to get in a block was always a core part of bitcoin, it wasn't until
the last year or so that it started showing due to usage.

The fact is that there aren't any cryptocurrencies that are well tested and
widely distributed that can handle any significant usage cheaply and quickly.
There are some very promising options, but none that are fully ready for
primetime in my opinion.

Still, I wasn't trying to start up the argument about transaction fees again,
just pointing out that they are at a 12 month low right now in bitcoin. And
the comment that was implying transaction fees are really high right now is
outright false.

~~~
SuddsMcDuff
> "[fees] are at a 12 month low right now in bitcoin"

Sorry, that is bullshit. See [https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/bitcoin-
transactionfees...](https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/bitcoin-
transactionfees.html#1y)

~~~
Klathmon
That graph is average paid in USD per transaction. A transaction from an
exchange with 300 inputs and 500 outputs is going to be paying a magnitude or
2 more than a simple 1 input 2 output transaction. But in your graph they are
all lumped and averaged together.

It's like me saying "The cost of electricity is lower than ever" then you show
a graph showing the average electricity bill is $800, but don't include the
information that it includes the aluminum forge down the street...

The correct graph to look for is "satoshi per byte that will get you into the
next transaction". And while i'm sure you can find dates and times in the past
year where it's been technically cheaper, the reality is that right now it's
about as cheap as you can get to transact in bitcoin (5 sat/byte fees are
going in the next block currently, it generally doesn't go much lower because
many miners won't include fees below that). That hasn't reliably happened
since early 2017.

------
JepZ
I am not sure but it looks to me, like someone wants us to donate bitcoin to
his address so he can buy a GPU. But so far nobody seems to have donated:

[https://blockexplorer.com/address/1HKsanBZFom6WL4cGDtKPF9NTo...](https://blockexplorer.com/address/1HKsanBZFom6WL4cGDtKPF9NToVy8LtoSE)

------
valine
The price of a new GTX 1080 Ti on Newegg is $700 above Nvidia’s list price. I
didn’t realize things were so bad.

~~~
lykr0n
Miners are buying directly from the factory floor (for both GPUs and PSUs) or
from a retailer the minute a shipment comes in. Fry's told me they have a list
of people they call the minute a shipment comes in due to the demand.

I'm guessing the price on Newegg is past what a miner would pay for a card.

~~~
kjullien
Very true, most people who are serious about mining will have "contacts"
within the factories, even their main subsidiaries in the countries they are
based in (I know I get my stuff directly on order from AMD France for
instance). But the bad thing is that most "mining" illiterate people who see
the "potential" are just buying and buying with a ridiculous markup because
they think it's a guaranteed lifetime revenue or something (poor souls).

MSRP for RX 580 is ~250$, I payed 340E a piece directly from AMD about 2-3
weeks ago and online (Amazon, electronics stores etc) they go for minimum 400E
now, if not more. So on a card that has a profit of ~2.5$ a day (at the
moment) you get an ROI of a little more than 3 months. (with MSRP)

With the price I paid 2-3 weeks ago you I will need about 5 and a half months.

And the guys that buy at 100%+ markup will get their ROI in about 7-8 months.

The thing is, by the end of the year (2018), ethereum (and the majority of
people mine eth, with consumer graded GPUs at least) will switch from proof of
work to a mix of that and proof of stake, apparently rendering eth mining non
profitable/impossible with all that shiny hardware they bought, and they have
no idea what they are getting themselves into... Basically in 8 months, with a
lot of luck (without electricity costs so actually a little more, and praying
the market doesn't crash) they will break even on their investment, they will
be able to get pure profits for about 2-3 months before the next generation of
GPUs come out and the switch of ethereum to PoS.

I actually wonder how many people with little to no knowledge jump on the
trend... Manufacturers have no real interest in selling exclusively to miners,
so even if they do so, they know that giving 100% of their stock to one target
demographic that doesn't actually do much for them is not a good thing. NVIDIA
even issued a PSA not long ago to retailers of their product stating they
should always prioritize "gamers" and not miners. So my guess is that 99% of
this inflation of prices is due to a public that has done close to no research
beforehand and are just in a "gold rush" mentality, but these guys are not
miners, they wish real hard they were when they read posts about students on
reddit making 5K a month and make stupid rushed decisions.

If that's the case, eventually when they realise how bad for everyone it is to
buy at that kind of markup, the hype will slowly die. Pretty sure it's going
to be exactly like what happened with the cryptocurrency markets recently :
very good performance in december, media coverage, hype train, everyone and
their grandmother joins in and then the demand skyrockets, prices go up
accordingly, then the correction arrives (obviously) and people cry they lost
their 3rd mortgage on their house to cryptos...

Not a single miner, especially not "big players" would buy at those markups
when even at MSRP it can be hard to break even....

------
have_faith
How does it decide on a Yes or No?

~~~
voltagex_
It's hardcoded - I decided I couldn't see prices coming down any time soon.

If you've got a price API I can hit from JS, then I'll add something that
checks if a 1080ti is above $1000.

I really didn't expect this to get votes - I threw it together in 5 minutes!

~~~
tmikaeld
I liked it, jokes are thin around here and this one hit the current trend! You
should add in some value by pulling prices from somewhere.

~~~
voltagex_
If you can point me to an API with CORS enabled I can probably do it in the
morning.

~~~
Psilidae
For $5 a month I'll manually check Newegg every day (or so) and update an API
for you.

~~~
gspetr
There's an opportunity in there for an AI approach to outsource requests like
these to Fiverr.

------
blauditore
Does anyone know a website showing good graphs about hardware price
development? For example, I'd like to see how the price of a GTX 970 developed
over the past year or so.

~~~
noxToken
Camel Camel Camel[0] has good price history, but it's for Amazon products
only. It's on a per product basis, so all of the individual variants will have
their own graph.

[0]:
[https://camelcamelcamel.com/search?sq=gtx+970](https://camelcamelcamel.com/search?sq=gtx+970)

------
kra34
I don't understand why the site isn't using React?

------
mwest
Need something similar for DRAM prices!

------
Shinchy
Thank god I bought a 1080ti when I did.

