Price of GPUs

johnwhelan

Well-known member
With the current currency mining demand it appears that the market place price for cards such as the GTX 1080ti are double the MRSP. In other words it doesn't make a lot of financial sense to upgrade your GPU at the moment.

I wonder what impact this will have on TANE? More users with cheaper lower performance cards perhaps? More demand for better performing assets?

What would you recommend for new users or people wanting to upgrade?

Thanks John
 
I just took a peek at the NVidia site and:

Titan XP for $1200 limited to 2 per order.
1080TI for $699 listed as out of stock.
1080 for $549 listed as out of stock.

So its either wait until the 1080 series becomes available again, settle for something lesser, or bite the $$$ bullet and buy a Titan XP. Well worth it I'm sure but a definite dent in the old pocketbook.

Prices will eventually (in theory) come down if folks can wait.

Ben
 
Copy that on the inflated Prices, I on the other hand am stuck with Intel HP Envy builtin in GPU, and I can assure you it will be the last time I ever purchase a laptop with on board (builtin) GPU.......I got hosed by the fact it had 12megs of ram and 1TB drive, :eek: I should have known better, shame on me.Especially for T:ANE it has to be all the parts top notch, not just RAM not just Hard Drive. And it would seem some of the MAC OS users have some issues as well..............Experience truly is the best teacher........:(
 
Cards generally affected are mid tier with VRAM capacities greater than or equal to 4Gb's due to blockchain size requirements found in currently popular crypto currencies. This is due to optimal performance per watt, delivering strong hash rates for a respective amount of power. draw You'll find this means that cards that exist on the very high end tend to to remain closer to MSRP due to higher power draws while not massively outperforming cards lower than themselves, hence lower popularity amongst coin miners. The same is true for the low end, with lower VRAM counts and sub-optimal performance per watt. What this means essentially is that anything above an RX560 from AMD and anything between a GTX 1050Ti and a GTX1080 from Nvidia tend to be inflated in value or otherwise impossible to find for a reasonable price if at all.

That being said, this does still mean options are available at a fair price at either the low or the high end of the spectrum, if this is your respective market then don't worry far too much. However for the rest of us, and otherwise the majority, who target the mid range due to budget constraints, now is not an ideal time to be searching for a GPU, and may not be for the foreseeable future.

My R9 270X died, and due to all the above, I'm sitting on a 5 year old GTX 650 just to get by.

Jack
 
Copy that on the inflated Prices, I on the other hand am stuck with Intel HP Envy builtin in GPU, and I can assure you it will be the last time I ever purchase a laptop with on board (builtin) GPU.......I got hosed by the fact it had 12megs of ram and 1TB drive, :eek: I should have known better, shame on me.Especially for T:ANE it has to be all the parts top notch, not just RAM not just Hard Drive. And it would seem some of the MAC OS users have some issues as well..............Experience truly is the best teacher........:(

The envy has a variety of CPUs and some have a built in nVidia GPU so which does yours have?

If you get desperate https://www.jatws.org/johnw/middleton.zip the session in this one shows what can be done on a lower end laptop with integrated graphics. It should be good for more than 20 fps.

Cheerio John
 
What's MRSP? If you're using acronyms, it's nice if you spell them out the first time you mention them.

MRSP is Manufacturers Recommended Selling price, same as RRP recommended Retail Price, probably they will invent a few more that mean the same thing given time.
 
The envy has a variety of CPUs and some have a built in nVidia GPU so which does yours have?

If you get desperate https://www.jatws.org/johnw/middleton.zip the session in this one shows what can be done on a lower end laptop with integrated graphics. It should be good for more than 20 fps.

Cheerio John


Thanks John,

I unfortunately don't have the NVidia, I have Intel HD 5500 and it Chokes with Trainz, but I have learned to live with it for now.....Originally Ram at 12, I went to 16 Megs, max it will support for HP Envy model I bought from Costco it's almost 2 yrs old, I didn't realize it till I thought about it.

The 1TB drive was 4200 RPM, which is terrible for write speed with Trainz, but normal for Laptop to conserve your battery time!

Installed a Samson SSD, 1TB, thinking I could better if I did the Drive and Ram, and it did help, but the GPU is absolutely the most critical item as I see it, since you get hurt with Video Performance depending on Field Draw length, number of Trees and or Trainz items.....So that is where I choke, so I've learned to weed out excess Trees, and whatever else, shut off internet, close all but the programs I really need running, and that helps.

I use Carbonite, and have tuned it lower, so it takes longer priority wise to catch up on my files, but helps my Trainz performance.

With the Intel 5500 GPU built in on the board, your sharing resources with the mother board, great if your not a Gamer or playing with a Sim like this one or any other Sim Game for that fact. So I played with with my settings and below is what I'm running for now, if you see something not correct I open for changing the settings to try.......

I get a moderated amount of Frame Stutter depending on what density I pass thru on the Route.....I use WIN10, and Game Mode.......So far that has been stable no issues that I see. T:ANE with SP-2.

 
I run it all maximum settings possible, and a single EVGA SC AC2.0 GTX 980... no problems yet. No need to go to 1060/1070/1080/1090 card yet.
 
I recently jumped in at the deep end and upgraded my graphics. I bought a 4k 40inch monitor by a company called iiyama (and it's superb at half the price of the regular big name companies) and I upgraded to the GTX1080Ti. I've never been happier. Total cost (monitor and card) around £1,200 sterling, but I don't see me having to spend anything like that again in a long, long while.

Cheers

Dave
 
Good for you Dave. I've always thought you should buy the best you can afford at the time. The cost might generate a bit of sticker shock but it will payoff in the long run. TANE's load on the UP and GPU will only increase as capabilities and features are added to it.

Ben
 
I have a iiyama CRT 20" that can run even if it is almost 20 years old, I did replace it 2009 with a HP 24" LCD but the old one dose work.
 
Old does not necessarily mean bad just as new and improved does not necessarily mean better, :hehe:.

Ben
 
On monitors the newer IPS ones look a bit better.

On GPU price perhaps we should get organised and do a bit of mining that would lower the demand for GPUs and bring the price down.

Cheerio John
 
On GPU price perhaps we should get organised and do a bit of mining that would lower the demand for GPUs and bring the price down.

In the past this was actually the case. Mining becomes more difficult over time, which reduces the returns for the GPU power and electricity put into it. So during 2012-2013, Bitcoin mining was no longer viable on GPU's, which were in turn replaced by what are called ASICS (Application Specific Integrated Circuits) which are far more efficient at coin mining. The used market was suddenly flooded with ex-miner hardware which lowered the value of cards at the time significantly.

This time around however there are so many variants of crypto-currency that it's more likely that miners will opt to procure these currencies rather than flood the used market with cards, whilst also buying retailers stock at inflated prices, thus potentially keeping the cost of cards high for some time.

Jack
 
In the past this was actually the case. Mining becomes more difficult over time, which reduces the returns for the GPU power and electricity put into it. So during 2012-2013, Bitcoin mining was no longer viable on GPU's, which were in turn replaced by what are called ASICS (Application Specific Integrated Circuits) which are far more efficient at coin mining. The used market was suddenly flooded with ex-miner hardware which lowered the value of cards at the time significantly.

This time around however there are so many variants of crypto-currency that it's more likely that miners will opt to procure these currencies rather than flood the used market with cards, whilst also buying retailers stock at inflated prices, thus potentially keeping the cost of cards high for some time.

Jack

What on earth is all this seemingly 'geek speak' about? Mining? Please, enlighten us (me), in language we (I) can understand!

thanks,

Rob.
 
What on earth is all this seemingly 'geek speak' about? Mining? Please, enlighten us (me), in language we (I) can understand!

thanks,

Rob.

Bitcoins are created on a computer by doing a calculation. You can then sell them. There are other variants with different names. They can be used to purchase things on the web, there is a certain amount of untracability about them which means they are favoured for drug transactions etc. So its a form of currency without any underlying assets.

Proponents point out that these days a pound sterling isn't backed by gold as once it was and its value has fallen over the last year by roughly 20%.

However to ensure their value the calculation needed to be done to create a bit-coin is made more complex over time. So the economic point becomes a function of electricity prices and hardware cost. GPUs are very efficient for doing the calculations hence currently they are in high demand which hopefully will drop in time and prices will come down.

Cheerio John
 
Bitcoins are created on a computer by doing a calculation. You can then sell them. There are other variants with different names. They can be used to purchase things on the web, there is a certain amount of untracability about them which means they are favoured for drug transactions etc. So its a form of currency without any underlying assets.

Proponents point out that these days a pound sterling isn't backed by gold as once it was and its value has fallen over the last year by roughly 20%.

However to ensure their value the calculation needed to be done to create a bit-coin is made more complex over time. So the economic point becomes a function of electricity prices and hardware cost. GPUs are very efficient for doing the calculations hence currently they are in high demand which hopefully will drop in time and prices will come down.

Cheerio John

Thanks. I'm still generally non the wiser but does this mean my nVidia GTX 1060 6Gb can earn me some brass, seemingly just by using it? If so, please tell me how, I'de really like to know!

Thanks, in anticipation of becoming a bit coin millionaire!

Rob.
 
Thanks. I'm still generally non the wiser but does this mean my nVidia GTX 1060 6Gb can earn me some brass, seemingly just by using it? If so, please tell me how, I'de really like to know!

Thanks, in anticipation of becoming a bit coin millionaire!

I believe the current coin of choice is Etherium, you would need to research what the current most viable option is as it changes frequently and quickly. However if you have a card idling, yes you could put it to work in theory.

Be aware that individuals putting a lot of effort into this and hoping for returns are often running multiple computer setups with anywhere above 6 cards running per computer. Hoping for returns is also a key point, this is non too dissimilar to gambling with stocks, watching for high and low periods in value and acting accordingly.

Jack
 
Thanks. I'm still generally non the wiser but does this mean my nVidia GTX 1060 6Gb can earn me some brass, seemingly just by using it? If so, please tell me how, I'de really like to know!

Thanks, in anticipation of becoming a bit coin millionaire!

Rob.

It very much depends on the price of electricity and the current value of the different coins. In general I suspect the UK electric prices might be a bit high unless you have an off peak tariff.

Cheerio John
 
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