Prices of graphics processing units in China fall following The Merge
15:28, 26 September 2022
Graphics processing units (GPUs) used for mining cryptocurrencies have dropped to their “lowest ever” price in China.
The dramatic drop comes after the second largest cryptocurrency, ether (ETH), moved from the energy-hungry, proof-of-work (PoW) mechanism to the leaner, greener proof-of-stake (PoS) system – a process known as The Merge.
The GeForce RTX 3080 GPU, for example, has fallen in price from CNY8,000 ($1,119, £1,032) to CNY5,000, a merchant surnamed Peng told the South China Morning Post.
Peng said: “When the wave of bitcoin mining was at its peak, people from the mining companies just walked in the stores with cash and took away all the graphics cards we had in store. But now look at the stores. No one is buying new computers.”
GPUs, which are also used for computer games, have tended to increase in price when cryptos rise in value due to the fact they are well suited to mine PoW digital assets.
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‘Lowest point’
Liu, another merchant based in the Shanghai market, said GPUs had reached their “lowest point”, with some models actually dipping below their recommended retail price.
Liu said: “I had a customer who bought an RTX 3080 card for CNY9,400 late last year, and now he has to sell it for less than half that price, even though that specific model is not suitable for mining.”
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A challenging year
GPU prices had already fallen following a crackdown on crypto mining by China in 2021. Meanwhile the crypto bear market has also dampened the demand for GPUs.
Peng noted that over the past few years his shop has seen GPUs going from one of the most in-demand computer components to being in surplus due to low sales.
He warned potential buyers of unwanted secondhand cards that they “were operating at full capacity when doing mining jobs, so they are likely to have a number of problems such as the possibility of a sudden system crash”.
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