NVIDIA Asks Retailers to Ensure Gamers Get Graphics Cards

[Fluffmeister]

Nv are dominating on recent Steam surveys so they aren't doing too bad. Up to almost 85% use their cards now.

Nice problem to have i guess.

 

[rtwjunkie]

Is this an editorial? It's not listed as such, even on the front page. I'm not pro-mining, so that's not why I ask.

If it actually a journalistic piece, and not an editorial, words like mining "plague" would not be used. It is a very opinionated word in this context.

@Jozsef Dornyei no, the last thing people who build and upgrade their systems want is a motherboard GPU combo. The high end motherboard and CPU may be relevant for 8 years, but GPU's are outclassed long before then, necessitating about 2 upgrades in that period.

 

[dj-electric]

Obvious PR stunt is obvious

 

[neatfeatguy]

Don't fret none folks! My local MicroCenter has some GPUs for sale (in store only) and prices are not reasonable!

Not 12 days ago (I was looking at GPU prices and availability on 1/10/18) the same GTX 1060 3GB & 6GB cards at this store were listed around $330-360 and they didn't have any GPU over a GTX 1060 (3 or 6GB). If I hadn't had put my spare cash towards something else more important, I would have gone in and pick up a couple just because they were close to MSRP then. Now they have a small pile of 1070Ti and they're pushing a grand. Holy hell.

GTX 980Ti cards on ebay are pushing $500+ (depending on model) - that's almost what I paid for one of mine new.

Even if some of these retailers do try to hold some GPUs for gamers, it won't change the prices simply due to the demand that's out there. Plus, what would a retailer do if they turned away sales. They're here to make money....I guess maybe out of the goodness of their hearts (if that is a thing out in the business world where everyone wants to make a buck) there's a slim possibility that they might do such a thing, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

 

[RejZoR]

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.

And what if you're like me who changes graphic cards regularly, but not the platform? I only need 1 graphic card, no RAM, CPU, case or everything else...

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.

Same. Looking at the prices, GTX 1080Ti is about 80-100€ more expensive than when I bought it during summer 2017...

 

[Jozsef Dornyei]

Is this an editorial? It's not listed as such, even on the front page. I'm not pro-mining, so that's not why I ask.

If it actually a journalistic piece, and not an editorial, words like mining "plague" would not be used. It is a very opinionated word in this context.

@Jozsef Dornyei no, the last thing people who build and upgrade their systems want is a motherboard GPU combo. The high end motherboard and CPU may be relevant for 8 years, but GPU's are outclassed long before then, necessitating about 2 upgrades in that period.

The current situation is extreme. Stand alone graphic cards are not an option. So my solution _is_ good - in the current circumstances. It would enable gamers to buy GPUs.
You can recycle the CPU and the memory. The only thing you cannot recycle is the mobo - you can sell it if it is only 2 years old.

 

[Manu_PT]

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

Except that half of them run at 60fps, and HDR.

 

[AnarchoPrimitiv]

This is nothing more than a paper tiger issued by Nvidia to cover their a** and reputation with gamers. As Nvidia admits themselves, they can't "make" retailers do anything, and let's just face it, we live in a Capitalist dominated world where profit is paramount, so there's absolutely no way any retailer is going to restrict or hinder a possible sale, especially any retailer (electronic or otherwise) that isn't Amazon, as the vast majority of retailers outside of the Big "A" can't afford such an ethical position.

 

[Vayra86]

The current situation is extreme. Stand alone graphic cards are not an option. So my solution _is_ good - in the current circumstances. It would enable gamers to buy GPUs.
You can recycle the CPU and the memory. The only thing you cannot recycle is the mobo - you can sell it if it is only 2 years old.

Ehm... but then with your solution, you basically end up with:

- more work, because you need to find a CPU/board combo that is worth a penny in resale
- more work, because you'll be rebuilding your rig because you wanted to upgrade a GPU
- equal or much higher cost, because you are forced to buy things you didn't need, while GPU prices are not suddenly going to go down
- All of the above combined

Explain to me again what the advantage was? We don't suddenly magically have low demand and high supply with your method, its the same production lines, except now you've expanded the pressure on those production lines by also forcing customers to buy unnecessary RAM, board, CPU and whatever else some bright lights like yourself come up with. Wasn't RAM one of those things also in high demand? Or what if the shop only sells crappy boards that have zero value on resale/not the board/CPU/RAM you want, etc etc etc.

And all of this trickery just so some (big) kids can play a video game. Are you for real, bro?

No, its real simple, the only and definitive solution is to kill crypto mining full stop. Anything else is untrue, a blatant lie, or a company that thinks its customers are total idiots. Given a bunch of responses to this topic, the latter really isn't far off IMO. Not too long ago people suggested to 'lock mining out of GPUs'... another such display of brilliance... Its not even possible.

 

[R-T-B]

If it actually a journalistic piece, and not an editorial, words like mining "plague" would not be used. It is a very opinionated word in this context.

I thought about saying something about this but was too lazy to check for the editorial tag. It's not there, ouch.

 

[dorsetknob]

So my solution _is_ good - in the current circumstances. It would enable gamers to buy GPUs.
You can recycle the CPU and the memory. The only thing you cannot recycle is the mobo - you can sell it if it is only 2 years old.

You sound like a PC salesperson and not a knowlagble enthusiast
Please go back to your shop

 

[R-T-B]

You can recycle the CPU and the memory. The only thing you cannot recycle is the mobo - you can sell it if it is only 2 years old.

I'd rather just spend more, honestly.

 

[Vayra86]

I thought about saying something about this but was too lazy to check for the editorial tag. It's not there, ouch.

Aren't nearly all of the headlines on TPU nowadays far from neutral? I mean, its super obvious that everything is written in a way to spark debate, not to cover the news per se.

Its 'different' Ill give you that, but for a forum it might be a pretty good thing.

 

[dozenfury]

It's kind of ironic that NV and AMD worked so hard to reduce power consumption on the current gen of graphics cards, with the idea of saving energy/money/environment/etc. But instead the reduced power consumption had the unintended effect of making mining much more profitable. A lot of the gold rush mentality is from the coin prices skyrocketing too (largely due to speculative investing and maybe some manipulation), but it would have definitely happened more slowly if cards were still pulling 350w+ each.

As far as gamers go, I'm not really sure how companies prevent them from all going to miners when so many of them are just running small-ish home operations. And buying 1 or 2 cards at a time as a limit barely helps when they sell out within seconds anyway. I finally just got a 1080ti (at normal retail, without gouging) from Amazon for my own gaming pc, but it took many hours and days of work to snag it as soon as they went in-stock. And I had to be fast, that round sold out in less than a minute when I got mine. It's like the Switch launch revisited.

 

[Fluffmeister]

With upcoming Volta/Ampere cards likely to be even faster and more energy efficient it will be interesting to see how they handle the demand.

 

[Prince Valiant]

With upcoming Volta/Ampere cards likely to be even faster and more energy efficient it will be interesting to see how they handle the demand.

Have they dropped any dates on those yet?

 

[Fluffmeister]

Have they dropped any dates on those yet?

Diddly squat as far as i know, it's been suggested there may be more info at their GTC in March:

https://segmentnext.com/2018/01/19/nvidia-ampere-graphics-cards/

 

[Casecutter]

The only people standing to lose are PC gamers...

They aren't the only people... CPU, motherboard, Case's, and even to some degree peripheral markets are watching on the sidelines as... DDR4 and graphic cards squander the whole DIY computer equation. Without those components (even if able to get in some instances) it's going to have folks who need an upgrade looking at OEM/ boutique prebuilds, and Laptops. When Intel/AMD are moving (or poised to move new CPU's) nobody going to interested in those CPU's or a mobo's and most folks don't necessarily upgrade peripheral (keyboard, speakers, monitors, etc).

So no gamers aren't the only ones affected by the issues here in early 2018. Personally both myself and one of my boys pulled the trigger on new build between say Black Friday and Christmas, and while his gaming build was all new he couldn't pull the trigger on the GPU. At that time as prices where high and the budget was eaten up on 16Gb of memory. So now he's holding out with a R9 280, which yes is long-in-the-tooth but still decent for 1080P.

I was thinking of a build for the "home use" (lower power micro case) with Raven Ridge, but the release date info in November was vague, didn't see memory price/situation being any better till at least Q2 2018. Then Amazon had a deal that for opening a CC account they gave $70 off the price of a 1500X. So that was $90, and splurged on 2x4Gb 3000MHz Dominator kit at $120. As to graphics I kept going back-n-forth considered holding out with a 6750 for awhile, as still didn't like the prices and construction on 1050/550's that kept popping up as "deals". Though finally like a week before Christmas decided to go with a single fan Gigabyte R7 550 2Gb for $75 -AR.

All that said who's thinking of purchasing components in this environment and that's hurting more than just Gamers.

 

[Noyand]

A "working" solution would be to make a whole new design that would work well with a single gpu, but would be impossible to stack. Like completely rethink the case, cooling and MB layout to have the cpu and gpu to share one cooling unit wich would only work well inside the case. All the while making the whole thing upgradable.

But that won't happen ever. We are still using a layout that's more than 20 years old, born in an era where computer had no choice but be huge, and even itx is just a slight variation. Compatibilty is too much of an issue.

 

[cucker tarlson]

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

Depends on what you're getting for the money. I'd pay that for Titan V and I'd say I got a sweet deal.

 

[GAR]

A shame what has happened to the GPU market, my business has been hurt because of it as well.

 

[yotano211]

The current situation is extreme. Stand alone graphic cards are not an option. So my solution _is_ good - in the current circumstances. It would enable gamers to buy GPUs.
You can recycle the CPU and the memory. The only thing you cannot recycle is the mobo - you can sell it if it is only 2 years old.

no...

 

[Johnny Utah]

you can play Dota 2 - WoW & CS:GO with decent settings at 1080p with just an Intel I7 GPU like Intel® HD Graphics 530

 

[cucker tarlson]

Limit aftermarket cooled cards like Gaming X or Strix to 2 per household, you ain't doing more than 2 way sli anyway. Don't limit blower type cards like asus turbo.

 

[silapakorn]

Except that half of them run at 60fps, and HDR.

Half? In PS4 case I don't know if there's a more complete list but according to this http://www.videogamerplus.com/2014/09/60-fps-native-1080p-ps4-games-list.html, about 150 games are 60fps capable. Out of total 1711 games released (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PlayStation_4_games), that's less than 10%.