In the last two years, gamers looking to buy a graphics card have had to compete fiercely with crypto miners. Now in the midst of the global crypto market crash, miners are starting to sell their GPU stock cheaply.
In the last seven months, the global crypto market cap has fallen from USD 3 trillion to USD 9 billion. Because the income earned from mining crypto is no longer commensurate with the capital, crypto miners immediately flood the marketplace with cheap used GPUs.
Why not, based on BitPro data, Ethereum miners spent USD 15 billion to buy graphics cards over the last 18 months. The average price of a graphics card has also jumped from USD 400 in 2019 to almost USD 800 in 2021.
This trend of selling cheap GPUs is most visible in China, which has become one of the centers of crypto mining due to low electricity rates. In second-hand marketplaces like Xianyu, you can find many sellers selling used Nvidia RTX 30-series graphics cards at prices that are much cheaper than the market price.
The Twitter account @I_Leak_VN shows several listings for the RTX 3080 graphics card with prices starting at 3,500 Yuan. Even though the retail price of the RTX 3080 is currently USD 699, as quoted from PC Gamer, Friday (24/6/2022).
However, some say that the above sellers set up fake prices to attract consumers. Once asked, the seller will increase the price offered to 4,000-5,000 Yuan.
Not only sold through the marketplace, there are also miners who even hold auctions via livestream so that their GPU stacks are quickly sold. The post on Baidu shows a seller auctioning an RTX 3060 Ti with a price range of USD 300 to USD 350.
Even though the price is much cheaper, buying a used GPU from a crypto miner is not recommended. The reason is that this GPU has been forced to work hard for months to years to mine crypto so that its performance is no longer optimal.
But there are also those who say that the condition of used GPUs from crypto miners is still better than those of former gamers, because gamers often overclock their GPUs.
The high sales of used crypto mining GPUs are actually influenced by several factors. Not only is the crypto market sluggish, but also Ethereum's plans to change its model from mining to proof-of-stake, where miners using graphics cards can no longer mine the currency.
In addition, graphics card manufacturers such as Nvidia will also soon release the latest generation of GPUs, so the price of the RTX 30-series will also be cheaper.