NVIDIA Asks Retailers to Ensure Gamers Get Graphics Cards

[btarunr]

The crypto-currency plague continues to nibble away at the PC gaming ecosystem, driving gamers to consoles. This affects the long-term prospects of graphics processor manufacturers like NVIDIA, who will find it difficult to pull gamers lost to consoles back to the PC ecosystem, should newer cost-effective ASICs arrest the viability of using GPUs to mine crypto-currency (as it did on several occasions in the past). The company is reportedly writing to PC hardware retailers to take steps to ensure that PC gamers have access to graphics cards first, and only then crypto-currency miners. The request doesn't prescribe any measures to control graphics card prices that have clearly gone out of hand.

Retailers in Germany responded lukewarmly, by setting quantity limitations, ranging between 2 to 5 units per order (and not per-household). Retailers responding to ComputerBase.de commented that they sometimes receive orders by e-mail with quantities running over 100 units. NVIDIA emphasizes that this request is a "recommendation" on its part, and not a directive, and that it would never interfere in freedom of commerce (by letting market-forces sell $200 graphics cards at $1000). The only people standing to lose are PC gamers who haven't upgraded their graphics cards in over two years, who are not able to play today's AAA games at recommended settings, especially when newer games are implementing the new DirectX 12 API, and their eye-candy have leaped to levels 2+ year old high-end graphics cards struggle to keep up with.



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[ZoneDymo]

Console gaming here we come

 

[yotano211]

Very few coins are even mined with ASIC's today. The majority have to be mined with graphics cards.

 

[eidairaman1]

Dx 12 huh?

Im ready lol

 

[R-T-B]

Very few coins are even mined with ASIC's today. The majority have to be mined with graphics cards.

You remember how I said I lost money in crypto?

I actually made a shitton... only to lose it in Spondooliesttech ASICs. ASICs are not anything I will ever reccomend, and honestly, most crypto users avoid them like the plague and won't get burned by that shit again.

 

[silapakorn]

Been trying console gaming on PS4Pro for 2 months now (7 games finished, all exclusives), I have to say that it's not quite the same as PC.
When the GPU crisis is over I'll definitely go back to PC again.

 

[yotano211]

You remember how I said I lost money in crypto?

I actually made a shitton... only to lose it in Spondooliesttech ASICs. ASICs are not anything I will ever reccomend, and honestly, most crypto users avoid them like the plague and won't get burned by that shit again.

Oh, I wonder why you said you lost so much.

 

[R-T-B]

Oh, I wonder why you said you lost so much.

An article for another day. I don't write the whole story at once, where'd the fun in that be?

 

[Chaitanya]

How are the retailers going to implement GPUs going to Gamers only? Other than limiting sale to 1/person I dont see how retailers can stop "miners" from leeching the stock. With regards to recent shortage of nVidia GPUs apparently it's not miners but PUBG gamers from China who have depleted stock.
http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/

http://steamspy.com/country/

 

[Arjai]

1366 x 768 8.45% -0.05%

According to the SteamSpy site, my laptop's resolution is second to 1920x1080 ( the most common).
Just thought that was interesting, since despite what NVidia has posted, I won't be getting a new video card until I get a second job or, a better job (after graduation, 2 years from now!).

A $1000 for a GPU? Not worth it in my world!

 

[sutyi]

Here in Hungary the dGPU shortage due to mining has gotten so bad I could sell my used GTX 1060 with a profit. TOP KEK.

 

[silapakorn]

How are the retailers going to implement GPUs going to Gamers only? Other than limiting sale to 1/person I dont see how retailers can stop "miners" from leeching the stock. With regards to recent shortage of nVidia GPUs apparently it's not miners but PUBG gamers from China who have depleted stock.
http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/

http://steamspy.com/country/

In my country retailers have this vicious (but kinda working) strategy to sell GPUs only to customers who buy other parts necessary to build a PC within the same receipt. For example, you have to buy CPU, mobo, ram and PSU in order to be entitled to buy 1 or 2 graphic cards. This method ensures that each computer set that gets built will have 1 or 2 GPUs only and prevent miners from getting their hands on many GPUs at the same time.

The bonus is retailers will have more profit from selling other parts too, but this strategy sucks for those looking to upgrade only GPUs while using other existing parts.

 

[Jozsef Dornyei]

WoT is releasing version 1.0 with a huge jump in graphics. Expect even more people trying to buy a new graphics card. Like 10M...

 

[Musaab]

So buying laptop for gaming is much cheaper than buying graphics card alon.

 

[punani]

AMD probably don't give a damn as they got hardware in consoles.. win win

 

[TheDeeGee]

Console gaming here we come

Sadly enough Consoles still only manage 30 FPS like 20 years ago, zero progress with those machines.

 

[Dux]

This is me described in the article. I wanted to buy a new graphics card, but the prices are absolutely ridiculous. So instead i bought a PS4. The prices of High end graphics cards here in EU are so bloated that i could easily buy PS4, XBOX One and Switch for the price of a single GTX 1080.

 

[Fluffmeister]

How are the retailers going to implement GPUs going to Gamers only? Other than limiting sale to 1/person I dont see how retailers can stop "miners" from leeching the stock. With regards to recent shortage of nVidia GPUs apparently it's not miners but PUBG gamers from China who have depleted stock.
http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/

http://steamspy.com/country/

Bloody hell, no one games using AMD cards anymore.

 

[Vayra86]

Damn I'm so happy I bought my 1080 just after its price got sliced and it was actually cheap, in a relative sense that is.

 

[Paganstomp]

EVGA is not a retailer. So why are they out of stock online? You would think they would have control of who gets what as well.. Of course they jacked the prices up just like everybody else did.

Things that make you go hmmmmmm...

 

[Noyand]

For the first time in forever, being an american sucks.

At this point I feel like faster and cheaper isn't what we need but rather 10x the amount of foundry currently available. Faster and cheaper won't be of any help against greediness. If mining doesn't change in the years to come, pc gamers might be obliged to ride on the wave if they want to play. Mainstream medias are starting to write articles on crypto, so it wouldn't be surprising to see more and more mainstream peoples wanting to get a piece of the cake. Crypto is the 21th century day gold fever.

 

[Vya Domus]

AMD probably don't give a damn as they got hardware in consoles.. win win

They don't make the mountains of cash you think they do from consoles. AMD got burned in the past for relying on cryptocurency to sell cards , that's why they don't appear to directly encourage mining or gaming.

 

[Xpect]

Console gaming here we come

The prices of High end graphics cards here in EU are so bloated that i could easily buy PS4, XBOX One and Switch for the price of a single GTX 1080.

That's what I did. I now have a PS4 Pro and a Switch, also got myself the first Version of the PS3, which also can play PS2 games. And to top that off a cute SNES Mini Classic.
Before this mining craze I wouldn't have thought about any of this because I got a good enough PC that would just need a GPU Upgrade. But now....

I'm actually thinking instead of upgrading my PC to just upgrade my Consoles, a 240GB SSD for the (stock 60GB) PS3, a 1TB SSD for the PS4 Pro and a huge microSD for the Switch. Then a few Accessoires like extra Controllers or Charging Stations. Would cost similar to upgrading just my PC (and that only partly) and would bring me way more returns.

 

[iO]

Unfortunately nothing more than a PR stunt

 

[Jozsef Dornyei]

The solution is actually not very difficult.
What do miners need? A cheap motherboard a cheap CPU and 4+ graphic cards.
What do games need: 1 good GPU.
Integrate 1 fast GPU to an (expensive) motherboard and gamers only will buy them as miners won't be interested.
I cannot imagine this is difficult.