4 ms·

I wish they would all crash and stay crashed so GPU prices will come down again ;-)

by ericfrederich 9y ago

zer0tonin 9y ago
Now most miners are using ASIC instead of GPU.
- MichaelGG 9y ago
  Which ASICs are for Ethereum? A quick search says GPUs are still popular?
  - iak8god 9y ago
    There are no ASICs for Ethereum. It's currently impossible to get latest gen GPUs from any retailer, or for anything close to retail price on eBay, because there's a mad rush to get into Ether mining.
    - dsacco 9y ago
      Huh? I saw several 1080s and 1080 TIs in stock at a local Microcenter in New York just two days ago. Which GPUs are specifically used for mining?
      - Anderkent 9y ago
        RX 480 and 580 are really popular AFAIK. In fact they can go over MSRP on secondary market
        iak8god 9y ago
        580s (~$300 MSRP) are selling for well over $500 on eBay today.
      - thinkmassive 9y ago
        AMD Radeons are far more efficient than NVidias for the X11 hashing algorithm that Ethereum uses.
    - yebyen 9y ago
      That's incredible, I remember when it was impossible to get ASIC miners from ButterflyLabs and we were all up in arms because of their inappropriate behavior. That was a niche vendor producing items that had basically no other uses. GPU makers didn't sign up to build machines that print money. But it turns out when you do make machines that can print money, people tend to buy them at a rate faster than you can make them! Right away, whether or not you did it on purpose. (I did get my ASIC Jalapeño miners from BFL before they were busted up, I did order more when they came around and offered to let everyone order more, and I still did manage to earn a pittance over and above my initial investment on both batches, regardless of the absolutely ridiculous production and shipping delays.)
      - iak8god 9y ago
        Hah, I remember the BFL fiasco. When my Jalapeno arrived five months after ordering, I looked at the hashrate, etc, and turned right around and sold it for twice what I'd paid.
        yebyen 9y ago
        That's about what I made mining with it overall before the limit approached zero. Maybe twice what I paid *if you count cash dollar values only (keeping the BTC I spent would have obviously been a much better deal, if I held them til today!) This worked better than it would have otherwise, because my employer had electricity priced into the rent at a flat rate, and told me he wouldn't mind if I threw these things into the server room. (I got two early batch and four 10GHash later on for a total of about 50GHash. I don't remember exactly how long, but I am sure I waited a lot longer than 5 months.)
    - strictnein 9y ago
      That's not quite accurate. You can get Nvidia stuff, sometimes at MSRP, sometimes a little over. It's the AMD hardware that's impossible to find.
      - iak8god 9y ago
        That's true. The hashrate/$ and hashrate/watt for the AMD cards is much more favorable for Ether mining.
      - onestone 9y ago
        Well no, actually. Good Nvidia cards are also nearly extinct, because they are actually still profitable for Ethereum mining. So when people couldn't find AMD cards, they settled for bying Nvidia. Unlike the situation with Bitcoin a few years ago, Nvidia cards are ok for mining Ethereum (something like 40-50% lower hash rate than AMD, but still very much profitable).
    - lordlimecat 9y ago
      My recollection of how Bitcoin turned out indicates that most of those people will not make money. That, in fact, the simple rules of how markets work mean that most cannot make money, on several counts: * Those with resources will have an edge, and will buy an optimal number of GPUs to get return before the price is driven down * Anyone without resources will not be able to mine quickly enough to get a return before the price is driven down * If the market were still lucrative, the GPU makers would not be selling all of their stock, which means it is a near certainty that either the GPU makers or someone with connections has already snapped up a healthy share * Worse, the more lucrative it is, the more quickly ASIC makers will release ASICs which make those GPU investments all but worthless for mining. All of this means that anyone contemplating whether they should get into mining already has their answer: "no".
      - MichaelGG 9y ago
        I'm not sure AMD has a corporate policy that makes it easy for them to just stop sales and start mining. Your other points are fair, but they take time to catch up. Depending on how much you're buying the GPU for and your electricity price, it may make sense still. Also, another coin may become popular.
      - iak8god 9y ago
        > All of this means that anyone contemplating whether they should get into mining already has their answer: "no". That certainly seems to be the consensus on the mining forums I'm following. /r/EtherMining is now inundated with people who lack the very basic skills needed to assemble a computer and run mining software, but are attracted to the prospect of free money. Many of those people also lack the ability to do basic arithmetic and the sense to realize that the only way they will turn a profit is if the USD value of ETH rises sharply -- and that if that happens they'd be better off in any case just buying ETH now instead of blowing $2000 - 3000 on equipment.
        SubiculumCode 9y ago
        Curious. Is it at the point where the money earned is less than the cost of electricity, like bitcoin approached?
- lossolo 9y ago
  There are no ASICS for ethereum and probably you will not benefit from them a lot more than from GPU becasue they use scrypt with 2GB+ tables instead of sha256 (like in bitcoin).
if_by_whisky 9y ago
Ethereum mining will no longer require intense GPU work once Proof of Stake goes live https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof-of-stake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof-of-stake

I wish they would all crash and stay crashed so GPU prices will come down again ;-)

zer0tonin 9y ago

Now most miners are using ASIC instead of GPU.

MichaelGG 9y ago
Which ASICs are for Ethereum? A quick search says GPUs are still popular?
- iak8god 9y ago
  There are no ASICs for Ethereum. It's currently impossible to get latest gen GPUs from any retailer, or for anything close to retail price on eBay, because there's a mad rush to get into Ether mining.
  - dsacco 9y ago
    Huh? I saw several 1080s and 1080 TIs in stock at a local Microcenter in New York just two days ago. Which GPUs are specifically used for mining?
    - Anderkent 9y ago
      RX 480 and 580 are really popular AFAIK. In fact they can go over MSRP on secondary market
      - iak8god 9y ago
        580s (~$300 MSRP) are selling for well over $500 on eBay today.
    - thinkmassive 9y ago
      AMD Radeons are far more efficient than NVidias for the X11 hashing algorithm that Ethereum uses.
  - yebyen 9y ago
    That's incredible, I remember when it was impossible to get ASIC miners from ButterflyLabs and we were all up in arms because of their inappropriate behavior. That was a niche vendor producing items that had basically no other uses. GPU makers didn't sign up to build machines that print money. But it turns out when you do make machines that can print money, people tend to buy them at a rate faster than you can make them! Right away, whether or not you did it on purpose. (I did get my ASIC Jalapeño miners from BFL before they were busted up, I did order more when they came around and offered to let everyone order more, and I still did manage to earn a pittance over and above my initial investment on both batches, regardless of the absolutely ridiculous production and shipping delays.)
    - iak8god 9y ago
      Hah, I remember the BFL fiasco. When my Jalapeno arrived five months after ordering, I looked at the hashrate, etc, and turned right around and sold it for twice what I'd paid.
      - yebyen 9y ago
        That's about what I made mining with it overall before the limit approached zero. Maybe twice what I paid *if you count cash dollar values only (keeping the BTC I spent would have obviously been a much better deal, if I held them til today!) This worked better than it would have otherwise, because my employer had electricity priced into the rent at a flat rate, and told me he wouldn't mind if I threw these things into the server room. (I got two early batch and four 10GHash later on for a total of about 50GHash. I don't remember exactly how long, but I am sure I waited a lot longer than 5 months.)
  - strictnein 9y ago
    That's not quite accurate. You can get Nvidia stuff, sometimes at MSRP, sometimes a little over. It's the AMD hardware that's impossible to find.
    - iak8god 9y ago
      That's true. The hashrate/$ and hashrate/watt for the AMD cards is much more favorable for Ether mining.
    - onestone 9y ago
      Well no, actually. Good Nvidia cards are also nearly extinct, because they are actually still profitable for Ethereum mining. So when people couldn't find AMD cards, they settled for bying Nvidia. Unlike the situation with Bitcoin a few years ago, Nvidia cards are ok for mining Ethereum (something like 40-50% lower hash rate than AMD, but still very much profitable).
  - lordlimecat 9y ago
    My recollection of how Bitcoin turned out indicates that most of those people will not make money. That, in fact, the simple rules of how markets work mean that most cannot make money, on several counts: * Those with resources will have an edge, and will buy an optimal number of GPUs to get return before the price is driven down * Anyone without resources will not be able to mine quickly enough to get a return before the price is driven down * If the market were still lucrative, the GPU makers would not be selling all of their stock, which means it is a near certainty that either the GPU makers or someone with connections has already snapped up a healthy share * Worse, the more lucrative it is, the more quickly ASIC makers will release ASICs which make those GPU investments all but worthless for mining. All of this means that anyone contemplating whether they should get into mining already has their answer: "no".
    - MichaelGG 9y ago
      I'm not sure AMD has a corporate policy that makes it easy for them to just stop sales and start mining. Your other points are fair, but they take time to catch up. Depending on how much you're buying the GPU for and your electricity price, it may make sense still. Also, another coin may become popular.
    - iak8god 9y ago
      > All of this means that anyone contemplating whether they should get into mining already has their answer: "no". That certainly seems to be the consensus on the mining forums I'm following. /r/EtherMining is now inundated with people who lack the very basic skills needed to assemble a computer and run mining software, but are attracted to the prospect of free money. Many of those people also lack the ability to do basic arithmetic and the sense to realize that the only way they will turn a profit is if the USD value of ETH rises sharply -- and that if that happens they'd be better off in any case just buying ETH now instead of blowing $2000 - 3000 on equipment.
      - SubiculumCode 9y ago
        Curious. Is it at the point where the money earned is less than the cost of electricity, like bitcoin approached?
lossolo 9y ago
There are no ASICS for ethereum and probably you will not benefit from them a lot more than from GPU becasue they use scrypt with 2GB+ tables instead of sha256 (like in bitcoin).

if_by_whisky 9y ago

Ethereum mining will no longer require intense GPU work once Proof of Stake goes live https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof-of-stake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof-of-stake