Gigabyte graphics card shipments to drop 20% in 2Q18

Since DX10 times, GPU's are all now GPGPU's. We're probably not going back. The hardware wasn't designed for "mining", but it happens to be good for it(and other stuff as well). GPU = General Processing Unit
I think gaming cards are to nvidia what typewriters were to IBM in the 1960's. Nvidia seems more interested in AI than games, and I'm sure they smell the money in it.

They do have server CPU's for a reason, and it's not to prevent people from gobbling up all the desktop CPU's.
They have different features to fill a different role, but desktop CPU's can still run the same software.
They do have Quadro, Tesla, and FirePro, but Geforce and Radeon can still run the same software.
See the problem?

They DO have dedicated mining hardware. When a new coin comes along I think it's faster/easier to start making money using existing GPGPU's, rather than designing a new ASIC or FPGA powered device. At some point bitcoin mining shifted to ASIC's instead of GPU's. The same thing will probably happen with any cryptocurrency that lasts long enough to be worth investing the time/money to produce the ASIC's.

I think Chinese government has their own agenda(like this and this) in fining RAM manufacturers not related to price fixing - it's not about making your iphone cheaper out of the goodness of their hearts.
I see the mining demand as just market forces at work. Demand goes up, prices rise - classic!
Nvidia's shareholders aren't in it to give me the cheapest gaming experience possible and just break even.
I don't see this kind of action bringing prices down anyway, and it might do the opposite.

I'll be as happy as everyone else if prices come back down, but I don't blame the GPU manufacturers or the miners for trying to take advantage of a new opportunity.

 

I say, it's still a used 3GB card from some 'guy' on the internet for $5 above the price of a new one at launch that should be $149 new, tops right now. I'd wait. I paid $169 for mine just before (two days before) the prices went insane. Now they want $240+ for used/refurbs. Fu..orget that! The only way I would even think of buying a used card from random ebay guy (and only with a gloriously good seller rating) is if it was way cheap, like $50-75 for a GTX 1060 3GB...I might chance that.

 

FYI, one of the primary goals of cryptocurrencies is to prevent centralization - where one person or company commands most of the hashing power. Mining (at least for the alt-coins) is tailored for consumer hardware for this reason - makes it so that anyone can mine, which helps make the network decentralized. Creating special hardware for mining works against the idea of decentralization, since only a few people would buy this hardware - ASICs are an example (this is why algorithms like Ethash, used for coins like Ethereum, are built to be ASIC-resistant).

In short, most cryptos are designed to be run on consumer hardware; it's no accident that they run so well on consumer GPUs.

 

So, is there graph showing Performance per $ of $100, $200, $400, $600, ... card over time?
Because performance per $ should go steadily up over time and we can extrapolate what GPU prices would be like without mining. And since mining is almost over, prices should be almost on expected place.

I make a bet: "Expected price is not MSRP+20%."
And another bet: "Even average Joe guesses that prices are not right."
That's why sales of new GPUs are on decline. Prices are so high, that a lot of people rather buy 2nd hand card which may die on them in few years.

Edit: And since many shops show date since particular product is listed, even that average Joe knows that GPUs are about to get refresh soon.

 

1 of 2 things is going to happen:

1.) Video cards are going to massively drop in price. Stocks of old cards will be close to depleted and they're going to launch a new series of cards.
2.) Prices will remain the same. Nobody buys them (but the people who are desperate and have no choice), next series will come next year.

Either way, they lose money. Ones who buy the old series, probably won't upgrade to new series. Or if suppliers keep the price up, they will only sell the new cards and the old ones will remain unsold.

 

I hope they choke on their overpriced legacy hardware

Seriously, I feel not the slightest of sympathy for the vendors. They did nothing to fight price gauging, everybody was profiting from the mining craze. When people wanted the cards they did nothing to make sure the offers met the demand, and now they don't move from the prices (or lower MSRP to maybe try and have retailers follow).

None of them should even say anything about full shelves since they are to blame themselves, GPU manufacturers, board partners, and retailers.

 

Not only their Graphics Card shipment will drop, because my next Motherboard will NOT be from Gigabyte.

 

I actually owned two of GB's 1080s. I wanted to SLI them and game nicely, though the fans were ridiculously loud that I returned both.

As far as i'm concerned, GB seriously dropped the ball on their cooler designs. 3x small whinny fans and then their 3 slot solution?

Last timbit, their warranty department doesn't even communicate to you when you send in a card, you just get either a fixed or not fix the gpu and return it with a single line saying that they tested the card.. thanks Gigabyte...

 

I'm with you, i just bought a GB board for my new Ryzen build and the BIOS was garbage. So slow, it was painful to use. Really i didn't know any better since it was a new style interface since my last build, but then i bought an asus prime board and the asus bios was so silky smooth. I was totally shocked at the night and day difference.

GB was my go to brand when i was a kid, no longer. The Quality has gone the way of the doto..

 

The greed is unreal. Enjoy that unsold stock.

Did you get screwed by one of their scams where their review samples and first batches were different than their "revisions" which used less and shittier parts? I know they did that with motherboard VRMs, GPU memory, coke, hookers, everything. I'm still furious the comically overpriced GTX 970 'G1 Gaming' card I bought used garbage reject Hynix RAM that would clock up to... 1GHz lower than the review samples with higher grade Samsung RAM.

I used to buy my motherboards almost exclusively from Gigabyte. They'll never get a cent out of me again.

 

What you are describing is an ASIC, it's the reason bitcoin isn't mined on GPU's anymore. An ASIC etherium miner released recently which is certainly contributing to the decline of mining. https://www.coindesk.com/ethereum-asics-means-whats-next/

Samsung, Hynix, and Micron got fined for price fixing so unless you're suggesting that AMD and Nvidia are colluding to drive up the values of cryptocurrencies (which now that I say it, it doesn't sound implausible), they're only guilty of being subjected to market forces.
I don't get all the hatred for the GPU manufacturers, especially the 3rd party manufacturers. Sure they're turning a nice profit but they're also having to invest quite a bit to expand production lines and ramp up to meet demand which in a volatile market can leave them hanging with millions of dollars worth of stock that they're probably gonna have to sell at a loss in the end. Which if you read HH's article is exactly whats happening.

And lets face it, it's not exactly like you're suffering if the only major problem you have is trying to upgrade your GPU.

 

You have not seen MSIs new BIOSes on pricy boards. Gigabyte AB350 mITX board for my APU has much better BIOS than X470 Gaming Pro Carbon AC from MSI. (VRMs for memory died in under 2 months of use w/ 4x 3000MHz 1.35V)
But cheapest ASRock A320 did manage to have more options than both.

 

The USB3.0 ports are wonky, some devices work fine while others just cut out when transfering files.

Seems to be motherboard related, i did some googling and more people with the same motherboard suffer from it.

So that's pretty much why i won't be getting a Gigabyte motherboard anymore.