RTX 4000 and RX 7000: What impact will the new prices have on crypto mining ?
There is now conclusive data on how much crypto mining has contributed to the high prices of the RTX 3000 and Co. A look into the future?
2021 was undoubtedly the worst year ever for the player. At least for those who want to buy a new graphics card. Because accelerators were more expensive than ever before. In some cases, three times the RRP was required.
Although prices have been falling slowly throughout the year, they have only settled down to a normal level over the past few weeks. There were several reasons why the prices were so high – at least we thought so. Crypto mining in a pinch, with overall high demand plus bottlenecks due to the corona pandemic.
Crypto miners accounted for a third of graphics card sales
However, current figures from information service provider Bloomberg, which in turn cites Bitpro Consulting, suggest that in a pinch crypto mining may not be out of the question. On the contrary: According to Jon Peddie Research (via Wccftech), 15 billion of the US$51.8 billion spent on desktop graphics cards in 2021 can be attributed to miners alone.
There are two things to consider here: On the one hand, most used graphics cards from the current generation are returning to the market because miners no longer need them. Various models of the RTX 3080 are currently available on Ebay for under €700 and the trend is down. So there is a surplus of current graphics cards in direct competition with upcoming models.
Geforce RTX 4000: When will Nvidia’s new graphics card be released?
On the other hand, the price of Ethereum currency, which is important for graphics card crypto miners, has dropped from over 4,000 euros during peak times to around 1,000 euros currently. This is the level in early January 2021, shortly after the start of the last mining wave. So at the moment trust in Ethereum seems to be broken.
The two aspects together suggest that new graphics cards can actually be found at RRP prices. At least right after launch, and probably after a while, due to market oversaturation. To this end, Ethereum 2.0 should be released this year, moving from the previous Proof-of-Work procedure to the Proof-of-Stake procedure. This means graphics cards are no longer required.
A new wave of crypto mining cannot be completely ignored
But while the signs that we’ll be getting new graphics cards at RRP prices are good, a new wave of mining, perhaps with a different cryptocurrency, cannot be completely ruled out. The latter gained momentum by leaps and bounds at the end of December 2020. And as we now know, miners accounted for about a third of graphics card manufacturers’ sales, and with that high demand they’re probably the biggest contributors to last year’s insane prices.
The recent mining wave marks a high point in the development of cryptocurrency courses. If we add in good faith factors such as bottlenecks elsewhere and high demand in general, the tripling of prices seems to represent a certain limit.
What do you think? Are we going to get new graphics cards from Nvidia and AMD at MSRP prices? Or are you assuming there is a new wave of mining? Write us in the comments!
