Ok, what the heck is going on with limiting availability of video cards?? At least at Micro Center?

Message boards : Number crunching : Ok, what the heck is going on with limiting availability of video cards?? At least at Micro Center?
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Message 1873436 - Posted: 16 Jun 2017, 22:00:16 UTC

I am starting my biggest, bestest and DEFINITELY lastest high end build for crunching, and as I am going to be running Linux on it, I figured that I would download the .iso and put it onto a bootable flash drive. After perusing thru a number of mine and finding most of them full, I just figured that I would head over to Micro Center and grab a few of their fairly cheap 16gb USB 3.0 drives, and be able to try out a few different flavors of it to see which one might submit to my will with the least resistance.

I noticed when walking in the front door there was a sheet of paper that had printed on it "Due to the high popularity of the AMD 560 and 570 (I think, not an AMD guy so don't know the nomenclature) cards currently, there is a limit of 2 per customer." I thought that was a little unusual, but from the chatter here, I though well, OK, I guess they are hitting their stride now finally against Nvidia. Good! Competition is good, helps drive down prices... Boy, turns out, was I wrong..

So, I get back to the vid card dept because I always like to check out that stuff when I go there, and now notice signs hanging all over the dept saying that there is now a limit of 2 video cards per customer due to "high demand and low availability". WTH? I hadn't heard that there was an earthquake or tsunami or asteroid hit over in Asia, so what is this low availability business? I asked one of the guys in that section what was going on, and he had an interesting tale to tell. No idea if he is full of BS or not, but here is what he said.

Basically, it is China's fault. Apparently they are concerned about crypto currency draining their country dry, and supposedly (this is where it is new info to me, because I haven't heard this being an effective method for at least 2-3 years now) this is due to the fact that the newest video cards (10x0 and the new AMD ones) are now supposedly super crypto crunchers. I know there have been a number of improvements to the cards, but to think that any video card could crunch more efficiently and effectively than a design built ASIC machine today with the difficulty of the latest bitcoins that are being mined, well, I found it hard to believe.

He said that China said that they were threatening to shut down production of the GPU chips if (didn't get the gist of whom, Nvidia, EVGA/etc, distributors?) didn't limit purchases to 2 cards/customer/month. That is crazy, but he said Amazon, NewEgg, everyone is being forced to do it. Well, I just checked on NewEgg's site, and other than the fact that the 1060 card I was interested in was selling for full MSRP, (no sales right now, bummer!) they had a limit of 5, not sure if that is normal limit for purchases from NewEgg or not. But obviously not 2. He said it started on Monday this week. One thing I did notice was that they did have in stock the card I had wanted, but had been re-stickered. I could still make out the old price thru the new sticker, and it was now $50 higher than previously! Which BTW was now about $80 over what EVGA had told me was MSRP when I had talked to them a week or 2 ago when I was asking questions about the diff performance specs of some cards.

So, I thought I would toss this out there, I have no idea if it is just Micro Centers BS way of creating artificial scarcity or if this a canary in the coal mine moment, but I thought I would at least toss it out to everyone for comment. I have a real hard time believing what he said, that it was basically based upon trying to throttle back Bitcoin, and that the latest GPUs could effectively crunch again. Personally, I call BS on that part at least, but there was no getting around the signs plastered all over the video card section, saying limit 2, nor that the prices had jumped significantly in the last week.

Anyone have any other info on this situation?

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Message 1873440 - Posted: 16 Jun 2017, 22:16:18 UTC - in response to Message 1873436.  
Last modified: 16 Jun 2017, 22:19:05 UTC

just Micro Centers BS

The shortage of RX series cards is due to the new digital currency mining (nothing to do with Bitcoin), which has been developed with one of the goals of making it difficult to produce ASICs that can mine it.

PCWorld article
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Message 1873441 - Posted: 16 Jun 2017, 22:21:19 UTC - in response to Message 1873436.  

The cost of Nvidea GTX1060s has risen considerably in the last couple of weeks, I bought an EVGA GTX1060 in April for $280 now it is $370 on the same site, Newegg. I was going to replace a 660 with but I'll wait.
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Message 1873499 - Posted: 17 Jun 2017, 3:06:45 UTC - in response to Message 1873441.  

The cost of Nvidea GTX1060s has risen considerably in the last couple of weeks, I bought an EVGA GTX1060 in April for $280 now it is $370 on the same site, Newegg. I was going to replace a 660 with but I'll wait.


I just bought a Gtx 1060 Ti for $225 last week. It was on ebay serviced via Newegg.

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Message 1873510 - Posted: 17 Jun 2017, 4:05:27 UTC - in response to Message 1873440.  

just Micro Centers BS

The shortage of RX series cards is due to the new digital currency mining (nothing to do with Bitcoin), which has been developed with one of the goals of making it difficult to produce ASICs that can mine it.

PCWorld article
Huh, so Ethereum is supposedly going to be the next Bitcoin? How many different crypto currencies are going to be coming along now, and who knows if they will be accepted? Oh well, it sounds from the article that the AMD stuff is better suited for mining these than the Nvidia stuff (because it stomps in in DP?) so maybe it will be a short lived phenomenon for those of us on the Nvidia side of things.

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Message 1873525 - Posted: 17 Jun 2017, 5:25:04 UTC

https://coinmarketcap.com/

Gives you a list of the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. Interesting reading.
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Message 1873547 - Posted: 17 Jun 2017, 11:12:23 UTC - in response to Message 1873525.  

Thanks for that link. I had no idea, you opened up a window for me into something I had no idea existed. Top 100. So that means obviously that there are even more than that. Wonder how, long term, it's all going to shake out?

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Message 1873555 - Posted: 17 Jun 2017, 11:52:53 UTC - in response to Message 1873547.  

Thanks for that link. I had no idea, you opened up a window for me into something I had no idea existed. Top 100. So that means obviously that there are even more than that. Wonder how, long term, it's all going to shake out?


Here are 756 currencies: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/views/all/
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Message 1874005 - Posted: 19 Jun 2017, 14:34:17 UTC - in response to Message 1873441.  

The cost of Nvidea GTX1060s has risen considerably in the last couple of weeks, I bought an EVGA GTX1060 in April for $280 now it is $370 on the same site, Newegg. I was going to replace a 660 with but I'll wait.
Which card were you looking at? I was looking at the EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 FTW2 GAMING, 06G-P4-6768-KR, 6GB GDDR5, iCX - 9 Thermal Sensors & LED G/P/M initially, but it's in an out of stock status pretty much everywhere, and comparing specs to the EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 FTW+ GAMING, 06G-P4-6368-KR, 6GB GDDR5, ACX 3.0 & LED the biggest diff I see is that the memory clock is about 1000MHz slower, and has 192GB/s vs. 216.26GB/s Memory Bandwidth. The base and boost clocks are the same at 1632MHz Base Clock &1860MHz Boost Clock.

The 6368 is available currently at $299 thru Newegg, but no one including EVGA has the 6768, who lists it at $329 msrp. That one has the new iCX cooler with the 9 sensors, so I guess that helps achieve the higher clocks, but wonder if it's worth waiting for? One frustrating thing is that pcpartpicker.com shows that on 4/21-4/22, NewEgg had the 6368 on sale for $229, some short 2 day super promo, and I missed it. Grrr. What 1060 card are you looking at that is now $370? That is pretty much what Micro Center was trying to sell the 6368 for. And I thought their orig $329 price (plus tax) was high for it! And considering that the low end 1070 card is only about $30-40 higher than that. In my opinion, for a $100 difference, it's worth the decreased performance of the 1060 vs. the 1070, but for well under $50, not so much.

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Message 1874025 - Posted: 19 Jun 2017, 16:38:52 UTC - in response to Message 1874005.  

Al this is the card I bought in April, I mispoke I Paid $180 for it then and it went to $270, now it's $255. EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 SC GAMING, ACX 2.0 (Single Fan), 03G-P4-6162-KR, 3GB GDDR5, DX12 OSD Support (PXOC)
EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 GAMING, ACX 2.0 (Single Fan), 03G-P4-6160-KR, 3GB GDDR5, DX12 OSD Support (PXOC), Only 6.8 Inches 1 $179.99 $179.99

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Message 1874439 - Posted: 22 Jun 2017, 15:14:21 UTC - in response to Message 1874025.  

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Message 1874654 - Posted: 23 Jun 2017, 14:49:42 UTC - in response to Message 1874439.  

Thanks Zalster, interesting information. Looks like yet another reason for the Nvidia cards to continue to be in short supply, if they are purported to outperform the AMD cards increasingly as the hashes get more difficult in the coming months, at least until AMD releases a new driver (they hope). Another tidbit they mentioned, both mfgs are supposedly looking into producing dedicated mining cards, that might be nice to take the pressure off of the retail market, at least if they perform well and are priced reasonably, that is...

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Message 1874671 - Posted: 23 Jun 2017, 15:52:27 UTC

Interesting thread. I certainly wasn't aware of Ether until I decided I wanted to add a single fan GTX 1060 to my Ryzen system in addition to its 1070s and couldn't find any 1060 anywhere. Looks like I missed the opportunity back at the beginning of the year.
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Message 1875017 - Posted: 25 Jun 2017, 18:07:57 UTC

It looks like cryptocurrency mining is driving up Nvidia graphics card prices too

http://www.pcgamer.com/it-looks-like-cryptocurrency-mining-is-driving-up-nvidia-graphics-card-prices-too/
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Message 1875039 - Posted: 25 Jun 2017, 20:01:10 UTC - in response to Message 1875017.  

Grab them while you can, they sell out fast and aren't resupplied anytime soon...
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Message 1875040 - Posted: 25 Jun 2017, 20:05:32 UTC

I Bought one in April for $180, yesterday at New Egg I found nothing for less than $300. I'll continue to suffer on with my GTX 660 until the price comes down. I can wait.
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Message 1875126 - Posted: 26 Jun 2017, 4:17:26 UTC

The more the miners ramp up production, the sooner the market for cards will collapse.
Bitcoin all over again.
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Message 1875178 - Posted: 26 Jun 2017, 11:03:56 UTC

The price on a lot of Gtx 1060 6Gb cards has jumped significantly. I yearn for the "olden" days of $200 cards. Now a lot of them are $300+.

I think the Gtx 1060 3Gb cards can still be had for a little over $200...

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Message 1875223 - Posted: 26 Jun 2017, 15:44:14 UTC - in response to Message 1875178.  

I think the Gtx 1060 3Gb cards can still be had for a little over $200...

I've been actively searching for one for a couple of weeks and no joy so far.
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Message 1875317 - Posted: 27 Jun 2017, 2:33:04 UTC
Last modified: 27 Jun 2017, 3:11:13 UTC

Well, got lucky the other day, as even though when I was on EVGA's site when I started this thread and clicked on the Notify Me button and had heard not a peep, when I checked for the cards I was looking for, it showed availability, so I snagged 2. They are def the top of the 1060 food chain, but are at least (currently) around $100 cheaper than the lowest priced 1070.

No one has any stock of them, and really hasn't, though they supposedly have been out for months, I heard that the supply was soaked up for them by EVGA's upgrade program, and haven't been available in the retail channel until just very recently. Well, we'll see how these guys do compared to my other pair of 1060's, they should have shipped today, I'll have to check my email. If so, they should arrive by Friday (CA-MN ground sucks, is always 4-5 days.. Grrr...) otherwise early next week.

*edit* Nope, just checked the order status, still awaiting shipping, so I won't see them till the 3rd if I am lucky, otherwise the 5th.. *sigh*

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Message boards : Number crunching : Ok, what the heck is going on with limiting availability of video cards?? At least at Micro Center?


 
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