bitcoin, Nvidia gpgpus, & ebay

[Psi*]

I never know where to put threads like this as it covers a few topic areas.

I never did bitcoin but am aware that the competitive bidding I got involved with on ebay was from those that were buying the accelerator cards for bitcoin mining ... I think I have that right. Now that bitcoin seems to have collapsed, I am seeing the Nvidia accelerator cards for pre-bitcoin pricing on ebay. However I believe that these are probably still too high given that Nvidia has introduced the newer & 25% faster gpgpus (double the RAM tho). So I expect that the new cards will push down the older cards (C2070 for pcs, M2090 needing external cooling of a server rack chassis... current ebay ~$1K). On the other hand, the bitcoin guys probably would have been all over the newer cards like the Quadro K6000 (ebay $4K to $10K) and no longer will be.

The point of this thread is just to elicit comment/conjecture about this. I suspect that without bitcoin the ebay pricing of all of these cards will drop dramatically. The older M2090 does not have any monitor connectors. The Quadro K6000 does so this could keep that price up. But for only 25% faster I don't see as a big draw.

 

[Rob Williams]

It's great to see you around, Psi*!

I admit that I am pretty unfamiliar with coin-mining efficiency, and this is really the first I've heard of NVIDIA cards being considered for such a purpose. From what I understand, even mainstream AMD Radeon cards can outperform NVIDIA's highest-end, although that might change with the new Maxwell architecture. I need to look around and see if there is a worthwile benchmark that can help give me some proper information on this.

Also, how on earth is a K6000 going for $10K? That should be about $5K tops. Oddly enough, I have a K5000, so I am now wondering if that would be worth testing out some mining concepts with.

Though I should note I am really not a fan of mining... I find it kind of silly that money can be pulled out of thin air, and that people spend so much money on their power bills at a bite of it - I mean, it doesn't seem reasonable that I could build a PC and begin earning more than I spent on it. Some facts are lost on me.

The biggest issue is how it's affected the gaming market for Radeon cards. I know a handful of people that have wanted to buy but have held back due to the insane inflation.

 

[Psi*]

Yup, been been lurking and not too active with building any kind of new h/w.

I don't know what was involved in that $10K price other than wishin' n hopin'. There was a guy that was interested the fan mod I made to the M2090 whose only interest in it was bitcoin. And, is the sum total of my knowledge of bitcoin. Seemed like something that was very scammable to me.

 

[ET3D]

NVIDIA GPU's are significantly worse than AMD's for mining (bitcoin mining is using specialised hardware these days, but scrypt based coins are still mined using GPU's). Here's a page listing mining rates on various GPU's (and CPU's). I'd be surprised if anyone is buying NVIDIA GPU's for mining.

 

[ET3D]

Though I should note I am really not a fan of mining... I find it kind of silly that money can be pulled out of thin air, and that people spend so much money on their power bills at a bite of it - I mean, it doesn't seem reasonable that I could build a PC and begin earning more than I spent on it. Some facts are lost on me.

It's a bubble, that's why it works. Though at most points in time mining isn't extremely profitable. It's mostly when prices jump that previously mined coins suddenly become valuable.

 

[Psi*]

The USA IRS says this about virtual currencies. Obviously only applies to US citizens, but the IRS likes t0 exert their influence on foreign banks.

I just bought something at a web site a couple of days ago that accepted bitcoins ... I don't buy that much online, but I cannot remember what it was. Coincidentally. I think it was something as benign as a few power heads for my aquarium system ... I'll figure it out & post. Versus pot or a fully automatic AR-15 or some other dumba$$ thing. Which I do not buy online or off! Just sayin'

 

[Tharic-Nar]

The price of GPUs should reduce now, since the profitability of using a GPU to mine bitcoins is almost reaching the point of using CPUs about 2 years ago. FPGAs and ASICs are beginning to replace GPUs (although the company providing them is somewhat shady), since they are purpose-built for hashing. Also, the price-hike for NVIDIA is a little odd, but may be to do with the fact that either people are unenlightened about NVIDIA being a less ideal option for hashing compared to AMD, or that they're still a better alternative to using a CPU, or further still, people who want to game are leaving AMD for NVIDIA in droves due to price hikes, and thus causing a hike in NVIDIA GPUs in the process.

Also, be aware that sites that accept bitcoins, don't actually accept them directly, they use an exchange and get paid in real currency as per usual. It's the exchange that gets the bitcoins and then pays the value in currency to the store. The only company taking a risk is the exchange.

 

[Rob Williams]

Also, be aware that sites that accept bitcoins, don't actually accept them directly, they use an exchange and get paid in real currency as per usual. It's the exchange that gets the bitcoins and then pays the value in currency to the store. The only company taking a risk is the exchange.

Yup, that's a great point. So in reality, it's pretty easy to begin accepting Bitcoin, and at this point, you'd almost wonder why an etailer wouldn't - especially those that use PayPal, given the etailer has to incur an additional fee with that.

Of course, the number of people using Bitcoin is just a drop in the bucket, but even so. Bitcoin fans are generally enthusiastic about being able to spend their currency of choice, so likewise, they tend to respect those vendors that accept it.