HomeWinBuzzer NewsGraphics Card Prices Continue to Rise with Ethereum Mining Boom

Graphics Card Prices Continue to Rise with Ethereum Mining Boom

A boom in Ethereum mining has resulted in shortages of graphics card across the world and therefore huge price hikes. Cards like The GTX 1070 are currently selling for up to $700 on Amazon.

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Update July 17, 2017 4:00 pm CEST: It seems that graphic card prices have peaked now and started to come down along with declining prices.

June 26, 2017 6:14 pm CEST:

Graphics card prices have skyrocketed across the world due to a boom in mining. It's an effect that was seen before with the beginnings of Bitcoin, but that quickly faded due to the rise of ASIC hardware.

However, that specialized hardware is less applicable to Ethereum,which recently experienced a boom. The result is a shortage of certain across the world. Basic economics dictates that with that lack of supply and high demand, prices rise significantly.

As a result, used cards are consistently selling for more than the price customers bought them for. New cards are a rarity and are selling for as much as double their retail value. Here's a chart of stock cards from Digital Trends that demonstrates the changes:

MSRP Newegg Amazon Tiger Direct
Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti $700 $700 $700 $762
Nvidia GTX 1080 $550 $530 $500 $582
Nvidia GTX 1070 $380 $658 $700 $500
Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB $250 $400 $400 $375
Nvidia GTX 1060 3GB $200 $357 $243 $230
AMD RX 580 $230 $600 $700 Out of Stock
AMD RX 570 $170 $500 $650 No listing
AMD RX 560 $100 $100 $110 $117

These are the cheapest possible prices found for each card, as many only have modified, more expensive editions available.

Selling an RX 480

If you're wondering how that translates to other countries, I tried to sell my RX 480 Nitro+ in the UK for more than I bought it six months ago.

Within a day, I had recieved 5 offers, the highest for £290 ($369). I purchased it for £200 ($254).

For those looking to upgrade, that could be a good thing, if you're willing to wait for the stocks to replenish. For those just getting into gaming, however, its a real problem. These mid-end cards exist for the purpose of affordability, and currently you're better served getting a more powerful model.

It's unlcear how long this trend will last, or what the best solution is. Some have suggested that AMD implents a cap on the number of cards per person, like Nvidia does with some cards. Others say both manufactorers just need to produce more.

However, rumors suggest that they're working on specific, mining-focused cards, which would be cheaper but have no video connectors. It would be great solution to seperate the gaming and mining markets, but it's yet to be confirmed by either company.

Last Updated on July 22, 2017 3:40 pm CEST by Markus Kasanmascheff

Ryan Maskell
Ryan Maskellhttps://ryanmaskell.co.uk
Ryan has had a passion for gaming and technology since early childhood. Fusing the skills from his Creative Writing and Publishing degree with profound technical knowledge, he enjoys covering news about Microsoft. As an avid writer, he is also working on his debut novel.

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