Cryptocurrency mining is something that flourished in 2017 and it does not look like it is slowing down in 2018. With Cryptocurrency miners grabbing up all of the available graphics cards it is really hurting those who want to build their own gaming PCs. If you haven’t noticed graphics card prices have sky-rocketed over the past couple of months. I simple search for a GTX 1080 Ti returns cards going for $1200-$1400 on Amazon!
With prices this high it is hard to recommend a graphics card to anyone. Remember a GTX 1080 Ti has a MSRP of $699, so seeing them selling for $1200-$1400 is just crazy! We thought when the RX Vega 64 was $100 over MSRP that was nuts, but this is just out of hand. At the end of the day this is just hurting gamers, basically making it impossible for them to build their own PC. They are left to get a pre-built system or just wait this out.
It seems NVIDIA has now gotten involved, writing to PC hardware retailers to ensure that they sell cards to PC Gamers first, not miners. When asked about this Nvidia spokesman Boris Böhles said “For NVIDIA, gamers come first. All activities related to our GeForce product line are targeted at our main audience. To ensure that GeForce gamers continue to have good GeForce graphics card availability in the current situation, we recommend that our trading partners make the appropriate arrangements to meet gamers’ needs as usual.”
While this is only a recommendation by NVIDIA, it is yet to be seen if retailers take any action. Many retailers have set limits on how many graphics cards you can purchase at once, it can range from 2-4 most places. But its been reported that many retailers get e-mail requests for as many as 100 graphics cards at once.
We will have to see how this all plays out, but the high prices, and low availability of graphics cards is a direct result of cryptocurrency miners.
