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Crypto and Bitcoin miners are driving up the cost of VR

Zenbane
MVP
MVP
Came across an interesting article that notes the impact the Miners are having on the "cost of entry for Virtual Reality."

Basically, the Miners are buying up all the high-end Graphics Cards. In doing so, the cost of these cards is increasing. However, these are the same cards that are often required to create a machine to power an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive. Especially if you want to meet the graphic demands of something like Fallout 4.

The price range for a 1070 or 1080 is between $800 and $1,000. The price increase is the natural result of Supply/Demand, however, it certainly doesn't help make the case in favor of "affordable PCVR." Especially when VR Titles demand the higher end Graphics Cards for a "quality experience."

Cryptocurrency and Bitcoin were some the biggest sensations in 2017. We saw normal people become millionaires overnight due to the crazy growth and demand of crytocurrency. And with the explosion of cryptocurrency came the overhaul of crypto-miners that started to buy out all the GPUs on the market. Due to the demand for GPUs, the entry cost into PC based VR systems is now a lot higher.

When Nvidia first announced the GTX 1070 and 1080, they were priced around $379 – $600. Some thought this was pretty expensive for a graphics card. Now, if you check any eCommerce or marketplace like Amazon, you’ll notice how expensive these graphics cards are now.

While current minimum specs for the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive allow you to use GPUs such as a GTX 1060, demanding games like Fallout 4 VR state that you need at least a GTX 1070. But even then, a GTX 1060 costs almost $400.

https://www.vrandfun.com/bitcoin-miners-driving-vr-entry-prices/

55 REPLIES 55

falken76
Expert Consultant
I checked Amazon last week.  The same 1060 6gb card I bought from them for $250 was $617.99  Nobody is going to consider pc vr at these prices.  You can get them directly from Nvidia for MSRP but you'll have to wait for weeks for it to arrive.

LZoltowski
Champion
I agree it's bloody ridiculous! GPU Prices are out of control! I just don't understand why there is no ramp up in production .. 
Core i7-7700k @ 4.9 Ghz | 32 GB DDR4 Corsair Vengeance @ 3000Mhz | 2x 1TB Samsung Evo | 2x 4GB WD Black
ASUS MAXIMUS IX HERO | MSI AERO GTX 1080 OC @ 2000Mhz | Corsair Carbide Series 400C White (RGB FTW!) 

Be kind to one another 🙂

LZoltowski
Champion
and dont get me started about RAM prices .. If i were to buy 32 GB again, id pay almost 3 times for it now!
Core i7-7700k @ 4.9 Ghz | 32 GB DDR4 Corsair Vengeance @ 3000Mhz | 2x 1TB Samsung Evo | 2x 4GB WD Black
ASUS MAXIMUS IX HERO | MSI AERO GTX 1080 OC @ 2000Mhz | Corsair Carbide Series 400C White (RGB FTW!) 

Be kind to one another 🙂

BeastyBaiter
Superstar
GTX 1060 6GB's are in stock right now for $330-350 on newegg and I expect they will drop substantially further over the next couple weeks as new stock arrives. As for a ramp up in production, AMD claims to have increased production but you have to keep in mind that doing so is something that takes months. It doesn't happen over night and the current shortage is only about 1 month old.

LZoltowski
Champion


GTX 1060 6GB's are in stock right now for $330-350 on newegg and I expect they will drop substantially further over the next couple weeks as new stock arrives. As for a ramp up in production, AMD claims to have increased production but you have to keep in mind that doing so is something that takes months. It doesn't happen over night and the current shortage is only about 1 month old.

there is a bit of a downtrend .. but still pretty crazy



The 1080 Ti, which I have my sights on is £300 over usual prices here in the UK


Core i7-7700k @ 4.9 Ghz | 32 GB DDR4 Corsair Vengeance @ 3000Mhz | 2x 1TB Samsung Evo | 2x 4GB WD Black
ASUS MAXIMUS IX HERO | MSI AERO GTX 1080 OC @ 2000Mhz | Corsair Carbide Series 400C White (RGB FTW!) 

Be kind to one another 🙂

hoppingbunny123
Rising Star
Its a conspiracy against the oculus rift. They made crypto currency and aimed it at vr users to be intrusively disrupting to vr adoption rates.

Notice porn pushed tech a lot in the past, but not for vr, cause they're in on it:

https://www.engadget.com/2017/09/06/the-surprisingly-lackluster-rise-of-vr-porn/

I wonder how the vr/oculus crash will be constructed, because to my eyes its getting attacked/terrorized/crashed in/conspired against.

Flee don't wait to see how they rescue us with cv2/santa cruz/go, flee!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECLa5o6VWxE

Arock387
Heroic Explorer
Oh my god.  I just looked at the price of my GPU which is the GTX1080ti FTW3.  I purchased it for around $840.  Right now its going for $1,500 wtf

BeastyBaiter
Superstar




GTX 1060 6GB's are in stock right now for $330-350 on newegg and I expect they will drop substantially further over the next couple weeks as new stock arrives. As for a ramp up in production, AMD claims to have increased production but you have to keep in mind that doing so is something that takes months. It doesn't happen over night and the current shortage is only about 1 month old.

there is a bit of a downtrend .. but still pretty crazy



The 1080 Ti, which I have my sights on is £300 over usual prices here in the UK




That new stock at newegg and amazon arrived today. The fact that it isn't sold out yet and the complete tanking of crypto prices is why I think things are headed towards recovery. It was a hell of a shortage though, in 15+ years of building PC's, I've never seen anything like it. I've seen brief shortages and price hikes for specific cards, but never ALL of them sell out completely. For the past few weeks, the only GPU's on the market have been second hand from scalpers on ebay and the amazon/newegg marketplaces.  But as said, I think we're past that now and things will return to normal.

HiThere_
Superstar
The way it works, is that the more a crypto currency is mined, the harder (longer) it becomes to mine more, and the higher the minimum GPU requirement becomes.

Unfortunately this is currently being more then offset, by the value of the crypto currencies raising faster then the difficulty of mining them does.

But the moment the value of those crypto currencies drop, it can instantly cost more to mine them (in energy cost) then the value of the crypto currency the mining is producing.

There is good news though :
- Countries like China (the biggest mining country in the world), are starting to ban them.
- Tech Companies are starting produce bit mining hardware that will be a better mining investment then PC GPUs, and don't require much (rare enough) high end GPU memory to perform their mining.
- AMD and Nvidia are filling up their coffers by selling overpriced GPUs to miners.

In the worst case where the crypto currencies keep raising for years : Buy an overpriced PC GPU and use it to mine it's cost back...