TR Forums

Heiwashin wrote:

DPete27 wrote:

These bubbles happen so fast it amazes me that people can actually buy a slew of GPUs and mine long enough to pay them off before it crashes.

I don't think they can honestly. I know a guy that was trying to make a career out of this and kept spending the earnings on more equipment. If I had to guess he'll probably break even before electricity costs.

I'm guessing you have to be in on the ground floor for these types of things. By the time you start hearing about it you likely can't get back the investment you put into it.

200 more 1070's added to eBay since my post earlier today It's really crashing down, anyone in the market for a 1070 that doesn't mind the wear and tear should be on the lookout as the prices start to fall.

"Lightly used"
"Light gaming"

LOL

Pages and pages of RX470s and 480s littering the landscape, too.

I'm gonna check in with my buddy tonight and see what he's planning to do.

Resellers and electrical companies are only real winners in the whole craze.

I find the idea of using so much carbon-spewing energy primarily for rich PRCs to launder money out of China is both fascinating and disgusting at the same time.

Krogoth wrote:

Resellers and electrical companies are only real winners in the whole craze.

Oh man, I would pee my pants with laughter if it turned out crypto currencies were secretly run by energy companies.

CuttinHobo wrote:

Krogoth wrote:

Resellers and electrical companies are only real winners in the whole craze.

Oh man, I would pee my pants with laughter if it turned out crypto currencies were secretly run by energy companies.

More likely they are secretly being pushed by Nvidia, AMD, and the silicon foundries that produce custom ASICs.

ludi wrote:

Pages and pages of RX470s and 480s littering the landscape, too.

Has AMD fixed its crossfire issues? I think my 480 could use a partner haha. No, actually, not going to do that.

just brew it! wrote:

CuttinHobo wrote:

Krogoth wrote:

Resellers and electrical companies are only real winners in the whole craze.

Oh man, I would pee my pants with laughter if it turned out crypto currencies were secretly run by energy companies.

More likely they are secretly being pushed by Nvidia, AMD, and the silicon foundries that produce custom ASICs.

Nah, it's all about the creators and early adopters. Apparently a coin offering occurs for some of these cryptocurrencies. You are given a large amount of pre-mined coins for your contribution. Coins are also set aside for the people involved in the project. Normal people then build up all these mining systems because it's the next new gold rush, driving up the price of the coins. The people with the large stashes of coins either cash them out or trade them out for another cryptocurrency and start the process over again. Sure, the power companies and some component manufacturers make money, but they are just selling shovels in the end.

What I find concerning is the ability to keep making up new cryptocurrencies every time one of them becomes too hard or it crashes. An individual may get bored of chasing the next new currency, but the mass of people hoping to stake their claim will never go away if the chance is always there.

Take for example Bitcoin. It was worthless for the first few years. Someone tried selling 10,000 bitcoins for $50 and there were no takers. Someone bought a pizza for 10,000 bitcoins. That's over 20 MILLION dollars today.

Charles Mackay - Extraordinay Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

First published in 1841.

Saw the first of probably many mining hardware dumps on craigslist today. Half dozen random brand R9 380 cards for $150 each, way less than the current ebay price.

just brew it! wrote:

More likely they are secretly being pushed by Nvidia, AMD, and the silicon foundries that produce custom ASICs.

Given the first coins and even most of the current ones favor or even strongly favor AMD hardware, NVIDIA is doing a terrible job of it.

Kougar wrote:

Saw the first of probably many mining hardware dumps on craigslist today. Half dozen random brand R9 380 cards for $150 each, way less than the current ebay price.

just brew it! wrote:

More likely they are secretly being pushed by Nvidia, AMD, and the silicon foundries that produce custom ASICs.

Given the first coins and even most of the current ones favor or even strongly favor AMD hardware, NVIDIA is doing a terrible job of it.

I thought 1070s were as good or better than RX models for hashing Eth.

Nothing new in the World.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Gold_Rush

southrncomfortjm wrote:

I thought 1070s were as good or better than RX models for hashing Eth.

No, they are actually shunned. From what I have read on other forums the RX400/500's were faster for Eth mining. Which is why the 1070, 1080, and especially the 1080 Ti were much less or completely unaffected by the bubble depending on model.

In contrast my 1080 Ti is excellent at folding though, a million points per day is rather fun. I remember when it was a big deal when people began folding on dual-core processors, double that ~300 PPD, or make it over 1,000 PPD with a good Q6600... The PPD from Volta will probably be yet another level of absurd.

I had forgotten that folding was a thing.

Heiwashin wrote:

I had forgotten that folding was a thing.

One of the "dual-core crates" from my old folding farm got donated to Starfalcon's museum of old PC tech at the TRBBQ.

Kougar wrote:

southrncomfortjm wrote:

I thought 1070s were as good or better than RX models for hashing Eth.

No, they are actually shunned. From what I have read on other forums the RX400/500's were faster for Eth mining. Which is why the 1070, 1080, and especially the 1080 Ti were much less or completely unaffected by the bubble depending on model.

In contrast my 1080 Ti is excellent at folding though, a million points per day is rather fun. I remember when it was a big deal when people began folding on dual-core processors, double that ~300 PPD, or make it over 1,000 PPD with a good Q6600... The PPD from Volta will probably be yet another level of absurd.

I'm guessing then that bitcoinmining favors FP32 or even FP16.

Thin Man wrote:

Nothing new in the World.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Gold_Rush

I will need to read the Wikipedia entry, but I've heard that farmers made lots of money due to the high demand and prices of food at the time. They even made more then the folks providing mining equipment did.

So, TR needs to do an article about how to select a used RX-480 or RX-580. What problems to look for, or maybe why its not wise to buy one that has been used for bitcoin mining.

just brew it! wrote:

Heiwashin wrote:

I had forgotten that folding was a thing.

One of the "dual-core crates" from my old folding farm got donated to Starfalcon's museum of old PC tech at the TRBBQ.

Back in 1998-2000 my rigs were in the top 1% of SETI (The result of starting early). I fell behind by 2006 and retired the farm to save the electric bill. I had several dual MP rigs. Still have them.

Mr Bill wrote:

So, TR needs to do an article about how to select a used RX-480 or RX-580. What problems to look for, or maybe why its not wise to buy one that has been used for bitcoin mining.

That's an area that TR would likely want to stay away from. Buying used is always a calculated risk on behalf of the buyer. And it assumes the seller is telling you the honest-to-goodness truth. Even then, there are no guarantees to what sort of longevity you can expect. You're pretty much SOL for getting a warranty return.
Questions to ask:
1) was this used for cyrptocurrency mining? Pinky swear?
2) how long was this used for crypto mining?
3) was the card underclocked and/or undervolted while mining?
4) what was the average core temp and fan RPM during mining?
Any miner worth their salt ought to know the answer to those questions. If not....your call. I suppose asking price comes into play at that point.

DPete27 wrote:

Mr Bill wrote:

So, TR needs to do an article about how to select a used RX-480 or RX-580. What problems to look for, or maybe why its not wise to buy one that has been used for bitcoin mining.

That's an area that TR would likely want to stay away from. Buying used is always a calculated risk on behalf of the buyer. And it assumes the seller is telling you the honest-to-goodness truth. Even then, there are no guarantees to what sort of longevity you can expect. You're pretty much SOL for getting a warranty return.
Questions to ask:
1) was this used for cyrptocurrency mining? Pinky swear?
2) how long was this used for crypto mining?
3) was the card underclocked and/or undervolted while mining?
4) what was the average core temp and fan RPM during mining?
Any miner worth their salt ought to know the answer to those questions. If not....your call. I suppose asking price comes into play at that point.

I think it's better not to buy video cards that have been used for mining. And I am assuming miners will lye their ass off in order to sell those used cards as well.

Well, that's not going to help...

Looks like Parity got done: black hats stole ~$32million worth of Ether, before 'white hats' stepped in and 'stole' another ~$77million worth...

[edit: added link....]

It would be nice if more components had odometer-like-objects, along the lines of SMART data for drives.

synthtel2 wrote:

It would be nice if more components had odometer-like-objects, along the lines of SMART data for drives.

Surely that would help drive down values in the secondhand market; you'd think AMD and Nvidia would be all over it.

whm1974 wrote:

And I am assuming miners will lye their ass off in order to sell those used cards as well.

Well yeah, putting lye on your ass very well might make it fall off, but I'm not sure how that would help anyone sell a used video card...

just brew it! wrote:

whm1974 wrote:

And I am assuming miners will lye their ass off in order to sell those used cards as well.

Well yeah, putting lye on your ass very well might make it fall off, but I'm not sure how that would help anyone sell a used video card...

Pardon my spelling. Both words sound the same to me.

whm1974 wrote:

Pardon my spelling. Both words sound the same to me.

Ah, that's probably because they're palindromes.

Shobai wrote:

[Ah, that's probably because they're palindromes.

Able was I, ere I saw Elba?
A man, a plan, a canal, Panama.

Shobai wrote:

whm1974 wrote:

Pardon my spelling. Both words sound the same to me.

Ah, that's probably because they're palindromes.

It's a good thing that the forum is text-based so you can easily tell palindromes apart.