I've always been suspicious about how some people here justified the heavily inflated prices (way way beyond MSRP on 290X, 290, and 280X) as being due to mining. The % of people who purchase new GPU's for mining is likely to be absolutely miniscule compared to the % of people who purchase new GPU's for gaming. That said, from a marketing standpoint, AMD was able to get favorable reviews by setting a relatively low MSRP at launch, but that MSRP means nothing if no one does anything to enforce it. Hopefully reviewers will pay more attention to real-world pricing trends moving forward.
Clearly mining is not the only issue here: http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=36061946&postcount=14 . And no, there is no evidence about exactly how many of these 290X/290 cards have been sold in the first place (these being the two cards that have the most inflated real world pricing in the USA). Even if 80% (which is a made up number to begin with) of the people who buy these cards buy them for mining, that doesn't tell you how much total supply there was to begin with.
Edit: I take that back, it looks like 280X cards also have equally ridiculous inflated real world prices right now at Newegg. One can get GTX 780 ACX edition for less than R9 280X at Newegg!
Seems like you would be incorrect. The GPU supply chain doesn't appear to be able to instantly ramp up production.
That is pretty obtuse.
Is it really that challenging to look at whats going on with AMD pricing and do anything you can to keep from admitting that they are selling out due to demand and not a supply shortage?
Again, supply shortage due to the demand. Not the other way around, ignore if it keeps you from having to admit AMD is seeing success in GPU sales.
Is it really that challenging to look at whats going on with AMD pricing and do anything you can to keep from admitting that they are selling out due to demand and not a supply shortage?
Don't be silly, of course there is a supply shortage of these AMD GPU's! That is beyond question. We know that is due in part to mining. The only question is if it is also due to component shortages, which is clearly backed up by VisionTek's statement. Note that the AMD GPU 290X/290/280X street prices were already inflated one month ago, but now they are inflated even worse (which backs up VisionTek's post).
Prices in Europe for R9 290/X cards have remained at, or even below MSRP since release. If there was a component shortage then Europe would be seeing supply shortages coupled with price increases as well as the US.
The fact there is plenty of supply and prices are still at MSRP here in Europe and other places in the world, points to a U.S. Cryptocoin craze. The fact the massive retailer price gouging is almost exclusively centred in the US seems to be ignored.
If there were component shortages then Nvidia cards would be affected no?
Unless Nvidia cards are just not selling in the same volume.
Is the price of electricity is what's keeping Euro's out of the crypto coin craze?
Is the price of electricity is what's keeping Euro's out of the crypto coin craze?
The fact there is plenty of supply and prices are still at MSRP here in Europe and other places in the world, points to a U.S. Cryptocoin craze.
If there were component shortages then Nvidia cards would be affected no?
Unless Nvidia cards are just not selling in the same volume. :|
Well, after months of poking and prodding, I was finally able to get some information on the shortage.
The first run of cards in November were bought up quickly, mostly by LiteCoin/BitCoin miners and the like. The second run was also bought up quickly in early December, though they couldn't ship as many cards as they wanted to.
The current problem, and the problem that has plagued them since end of December to now, is memory chip problems. They found problems with almost every batch of chips up until recently.
The DRAM stock shortage caused by a factory fire in China last September looks set to continue during the first three months of 2014.
Production of SK Hynix' DRAM products was hit after a fire broke out at its fab in Wuxi, China in September 2013. Though the company has reiterated it already resumed full operations at the fab in November as planned, the actual output has reportedly not returned to normal levels. The fire-hit DRAM fab is suffering unsatisfactory yield rates, with some PC vendors rejecting some of its shipments due to poor quality of the chips, the sources observed. As SK Hynix' DRAM supply remains short of demand from its PC clients
That may be true, but why in the world (no pun intended) would a "cryptocoin craze" only affect the USA? Do you have any statistics to show that cryptocoin mining is mainly a USA-only phenomena? Why would VisionTek state that there are shortages in components if there really are no shortages? Why wouldn't these USA-centric AIB vendors dramatically increase their supply if demand was unusually high starting two months ago?
At the end of the day, almost anyone who bought a 280X, 290, or 290X for gaming purposes from Newegg last month got hosed, and anyone who buys a 280X, 290, or 290X for gaming purposes from Newegg this month is getting hosed even worse.
While some local shops have them, cheapest is around 20% over MSRP.
I am considering waiting for highend build on 20nm tech. I can live with 6950.
This is what I was trying to get at. These cards are on back order and most of them are multi card orders. This leaves almost nothing left for gamers, as anything in stock is instantly picked up by miners once again. Its a vicious cycle, and wont end until all coins crash, as the more the merrier in the cryptocoin mining world.One of our members here has two of these racks hashing away in his (large) garage with parts for 2 more arriving:
http://imgur.com/LgWH9y6
That's 72 Radeon 290X cards, if you're counting. And just one of our members.
Or untill ASICs come out that are better alternatives, which happened with bitcoin.
People were selling radeons cheap all over the internet once bitcoin ASICs started shipping and the benefit of GPUs dimminished.
Now that alternatives to bitcoin allow GPUs to be the best option again ...
We can consider this cryptocoin craze 2.0 in a way
https://axablends.com/merchants-accepting-bitcoin/litecoin-discussion/litecoin-scrypt-asic-miners/
Here are some shipping ETAs for ASIC alternatives, once those ship our video card price will start to be more normal again
pending a crypto craze 3.0 :/
Unless of course GPU supply can really meet the demand ...
One of our members here has two of these racks hashing away in his (large) garage with parts for 2 more arriving:
http://imgur.com/LgWH9y6
That's 72 Radeon 290X cards, if you're counting. And just one of our members.