Good news for people who want to buy a GPU. The Crypto bubble has popped.

@ghoti221: Demand should go down when the break-even point on the purchase of a graphics card for mining is so far off in the future that the card is likely to be outclassed by later hardware before it starts turning a profit. If current coin prices hold and difficulty doesn't lower (it shouldn't, unless cards start making negative revenue miners have no reason to bring current hardware offline) then we're more-or-less there, at least for eth. If people are still buying hardware for mining rigs, then they're betting that coin prices are going to go back up.

@fnrslvr: Exactly. The thing is, given the history of cryptocurrency, I believe the opposite -- I still think card prices are going to stay inflated for awhile because I think people will keep betting prices are going back up. People remember the "good ol' days" and they'll just switch to whatever coin seems to have the best possibilities. What we had was a massive correction, but it doesn't feel like the asset bubble popping, because there's still general optimism among the hardcore crowd, the people who actually do the mining. They still want to believe. (Which is pretty much what all assets are, but, let's not get into the psychology of economics. :) )

The one caveat here is that, while prices tend to be sticky going down, graphic hardware is highly competitive and transparently priced - so, all it takes is for one retailer to decide to go back to MSRP and undercut the competition, and start the price tumble back down. Basically, the question is, do you believe anybody is going to blink?

I read somewhere (either Ars or Anand) that the graphic card companies can't increase supply drastically because they're bottlenecking on the availability of high speed RAM. So, there isn't going to be any major relief from the supply side - it's all going to be based on demand and perceptions of demand.

I just got a Email from my local hardware seller about them giving classes on how to mine cryptocurrency and how to build your own "mining rig" classes start from 50 bucks ... I hope this dumb shit dies soon.

Bitcoin is like Jason Vorhees. Every time you think it is dead it keeps popping back up again in progressively worse sequels. What is Bitcoin's Jason X?

All those miners have some pretty stiff competition...

Russian security officers have arrested several scientists working at a top-secret Russian nuclear warhead facility for allegedly mining crypto-currencies.

The suspects had tried to use one of Russia's most powerful supercomputers to mine Bitcoins, media reports say.

The Federal Nuclear Centre in Sarov, western Russia, is a restricted area.

The centre's press service said: "There has been an unsanctioned attempt to use computer facilities for private purposes including so-called mining."

The supercomputer was not supposed to be connected to the internet - to prevent intrusion - and once the scientists attempted to do so, the nuclear centre's security department was alerted. They were handed over to the Federal Security Service (FSB), the Russian news service Mash says.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-43003740

I tried to order some for our medical research lab and it's going to be months before we can get any through our approved vendor. I can't adequately describe my frustration with cryptocurrency.

If mining rigs were not a thing, would the 1080 TI still be in the $1000 - $1200 range?

I'm looking to build a new PC but just can't justify the purchase of a 1080TI, but also don't want to gorge myself on the 1080 either.

@doublespy: The MSRP for most 1080 ti cards is around $699 unless you want like an ASUS ROG with the dumb RGB lighting. I picked up an MSI Armor 1080 ti for the suggested retail price back in October for $699. Hope this helps!

Cypto wobbles more times in a month than jelly (I had to edit that. Jello sounds weird) on the Titanic. Which they definitely served in high seas. When it's over, you'll know because mainstream media will pour over the big losers.

It has not popped, just deflated a bit. GPUs are still money makers.

I love the optimism of miners honestly, even with entire countries banning it and the price plummeting they still have that confidence.

@oursin_360: Crypto looked good for a while. I have no personal hatred for the miners, I only want them to use something else than 'all' the video cards.

@hosstile17: After doing a little more research I was able to find something around that price! Thank you so much

Well, since this topic was bumped, I want to note that I've been looking at Amazon and graphics card prices appear to be coming back down to prices appropriate for mere mortals. Here's a 1070 TI on sale for $490 right now - that card isn't really a big step down from a 1080 so if you've been holding off on buying a graphics card, now might be the time.

@justin258: Couple days ago, Newegg ran a limited flash sale for 1080s at $400 a pop. Hopefully an indicator for good things to come in the very near future.

Crap.

Well, I got a 1070 TI on the way, so I guess I don't have anything to complain about. This 970 probably would have been fine on medium-low settings for a little while longer but I didn't want to chance graphics card prices skyrocketing again. And I don't see myself moving up from good ol' 1080p anytime soon so a 1070 TI ought to last me a while anyway.

Just have to keep saving to upgrade the rest of my stuff later this year or something.

Looks like I'm going to have to start checking Newegg regularly for sales again.