According to new findings from Taiwanese PC builders, piles of used graphics cards are being heavily discounted by Chinese tech traders in the market. These are likely components that were once used for cryptocurrency mining but are now no longer in demand.
According to screenshots from a cryptocurrency mining group, many individuals are looking to offload large quantities of Nvidia and AMD GPUs. This includes the latest 30-series or 6000-series models, as well as older generations of GPUs, such as AMD’s budget-friendly Polaris line.
The prices for these graphics cards are also not excessively high. For instance, an order of hundreds of NVIDIA RTX 3070 cards is priced at just over $400 each. The RTX 3060 Ti and RTX 3060 are being sold in minimum quantities of 200 units, with discounted prices of $370 and $293, respectively.
To compare, the starting price for the RTX 3070 is $499, but in the market, you can’t even own it even if you’re willing to pay one and a half times, or even double. Some computer stores in Vietnam even refuse to sell graphics cards individually and require customers to purchase them along with a motherboard or sometimes an entire new PC setup.
Since these devices are being sold in bulk, it’s possible the sellers hope that crypto miners from other areas will buy them in lots for continued use. With this information, it’s clear they are not suitable for gamers looking to buy individually. After all, no one wants to own a graphics card that has operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in harsh conditions for their new gaming PC.
A simple reality revealed through these graphics cards is that they may signal a larger decline in the profitability or viability of cryptocurrency in China. This country currently has the highest hash rate in the world, meaning it mines more cryptocurrency than any other nation. However, recent crackdowns on mining activities by both local authorities and China’s financial system may have prompted some to consider moving their business to other regions, or even entirely different sectors.
And the accompanying consequence of this sell-off wave is that GPU prices are dropping globally.
ASRock has indicated that this situation has led to lower graphics card prices. The prices of the latest GPUs from NVIDIA and AMD are also decreasing in Germany. NVIDIA is reportedly ramping up the supply of RTX 3060 this month, and the average selling price on eBay for cards using Ampere/RDNA 2 architecture has dropped by 8% from May to June, while the NVIDIA RTX 2000-series has decreased by as much as 14%.
However, we cannot say for certain what will happen. This could just be a small, temporary lull in the wave of cryptocurrency mining. Because even the ‘low’ values of Ethereum or Bitcoin today far exceed their values back in January. Regardless, these are still very encouraging signs.
Source: PC Gamer