The cryptocurrency phenomenon has been steadily stripping the GPU channel dry and driving prices up for the past four months. The DIY PC graphics card market has reached a boiling point and prices have risen to utterly ridiculous levels.
This should come as no surprise, as Ethereum and other GPU minable cryptocurrencies have converted the GPU, a typical PC gaming product, into a money printing machine. The demand on these virtual money printers has gotten so insane that owners of nearly any modern mid-range to high-end graphics card today can sell their hardware overnight for a 100%+ profit in the second hand market.
AMD RX Vega 64 Owner Sells Card For $1200, Buys Nvidia Titan Xp Collectors Edition For $1138
One such user has decided to take advantage of the situation and what they did was simply brilliant. A redditor who goes by MrGold2000 decided to put his used RX Vega 64 on sale for $1200, which is the average going price for the card at the moment. Suffice to say he had very little trouble finding a buyer.
It also so happens that the only Nvidia graphics card in-stock at the company's website is, you guessed it, the recently introduced GTX Titan Xp Star Wars Collectors Edition at $1138. Not only has MrGold2000 managed to obtain a significantly faster graphics card in the Titan Xp, he also managed to do it while simultaneously making a profit on his original RX Vega 64 purchase.
At the current state we simply can't see how building your own gaming PC is feasible. It is truly a dark moment for DIY PC gaming, one that we hope will pass sooner rather than later. Especially after the recent collapse in cryptocurrency prices.
If you have a graphics card on its last knee you will want to take good care of it, because if it goes bust you'll find yourself trapped between a rock and a hard place. If you have more than one card on the other hand, it's probably the best time to think about selling your seconds or thirds and make a few bucks in the process that you can put into a shiny new next generation graphics card this upcoming summer.
AMD Radeon RX Vega Lineup
| Graphics Card | Radeon RX Vega Frontier Edition | Radeon RX Vega 64 | Radeon RX Vega 56( |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPU | Vega 10 XT | Vega 10 XTX/XT | Vega 10 XL |
| Process Node | FinFET | FinFET | FinFET |
| Compute Units | 64 | 64 | 56 |
| Stream Processors | 4096 | 4096 | 3584 |
| Performance | 13 TFLOLPS 26 (FP16) TFLOPS | Up to 13+ TFLOPS 26+ (FP16) TFLOPS | TBA |
| Texture Mapping Units | 256 | 256 | TBA |
| Render Output Units | 64 | 64 | TBA |
| Memory | 16GB HBM2 | TBA | TBA |
| Memory Bus | 2048-bit | 2048-bit | 2048-bit |
| Bandwidth | 484GB/s | TBA | TBA |
| TDP | 300-375W | TBA | TBA |
| Launch | June 2017 | July 2017 | July 2017 |
| Price | $999 (Reference) $1499 (Liquid) | $499 (Reference) $549 (Limited Air) $599 (Liquid) $649 (Liquid LE) | $399 |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 10 Pascal Family
| Graphics Card Name | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti | NVIDIA Titan Xp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Graphics Core | GP106 | GP106 | GP104 | GP104 | GP104 | GP102 | GP102 |
| Process Node | 16nm FinFET | 16nm FinFET | 16nm FinFET | 16nm FinFET | 16nm FinFET | 16nm FinFET | 16nm FinFET |
| Die Size | 200mm2 | 200mm2 | 314mm2 | 314mm2 | 314mm2 | 471mm2 | 471mm2 |
| Transistors | 4.4 Billion | 4.4 Billion | 7.2 Billion | 7.2 Billion | 7.2 Billion | 12 Billion | 12 Billion |
| CUDA Cores | 1152 CUDA Cores | 1280 CUDA Cores | 1920 CUDA Cores | 2432 CUDA Cores | 2560 CUDA Cores | 3584 CUDA Cores | 3840 CUDA Cores |
| Base Clock | 1506 MHz | 1506 MHz | 1506 MHz | 1607 MHz | 1607 MHz | 1480 MHz | 1480 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1708 MHz | 1708 MHz | 1683 MHz | 1683 MHz | 1733 MHz | 1583 MHz | 1582 |
| FP32 Compute | 4.0 TFLOPs | 4.4 TFLOPs | 6.5 TFLOPs | 8.1 TFLOPs | 9.0 TFLOPs | 11.5 TFLOPs | 12.5 TFLOPs |
| VRAM | 3 GB GDDR5 | 6 GB GDDR5 | 8 GB GDDR5 | 8 GB GDDR5 | 8 GB GDDR5X | 11 GB GDDR5X | 12 GB GDDR5X |
| Memory Speed | 8 Gbps | 9 Gbps | 8 Gbps | 8 Gbps | 11 Gbps | 11 Gbps | 11.4 Gbps |
| Memory Bandwidth | 192 GB/s | 224 GB/s | 256 GB/s | 256 GB/s | 352 GB/s | 484 GB/s | 547 GB/s |
| Bus Interface | 192-bit bus | 192-bit bus | 256-bit bus | 256-bit bus | 256-bit bus | 352-bit bus | 384-bit bus |
| Power Connector | Single 6-Pin Power | Single 6-Pin Power | Single 8-Pin Power | Single 8-Pin Power | Single 8-Pin Power | 8+6 Pin Power | 8+6 Pin Power |
| TDP | 120W | 120W | 150W | 180W | 180W | 250W | 250W |
| Display Outputs | 3x Display Port 1.4 1x HDMI 2.0b 1x DVI | 3x Display Port 1.4 1x HDMI 2.0b 1x DVI | 3x Display Port 1.4 1x HDMI 2.0b 1x DVI | 3x Display Port 1.4 1x HDMI 2.0b 1x DVI | 3x Display Port 1.4 1x HDMI 2.0b 1x DVI | 3x Display Port 1.4 1x HDMI 2.0b | 3x Display Port 1.4 1x HDMI 2.0b |
| Launch Date | September 2016 | 13th July 2016 | 10th June 2016 | 26th October 2017 | 27th May 2016 | 10th March 2017 | 6th April 2017 |
| Launch Price | $199 US | $249 US | $349 US | $449 US | $499 US | $699 US | $1200 US |
