Is crypto currency going to kill PC gaming?

[UsulofDoom]

Video cards have been hard to find and prices have gone way up. Now with this new proof of space currency that uses SSDs and Hard drives, is this going to be the nail in the coffin.

I purchased a WD 14T Elements hd for $247 March 2021 from Amazon. The same drive is now $379. The same model number. Newegg has it on sale for $359.

[Smoove_B]

It's definitely not helping. I did see that some retailers are limiting video card purchases to one a month, which boggles my mind. It's like going to buy OTC cold medication at this point, apparently.

What it might really change is the ability to easily (and cheaply) upgrade or tweak your own rig and instead force people to buy pre-built machines from manufacturers that aren't feeding the crypto industry. My current machine was build from scratch in 2016. I need to upgrade and missed the video card window, so my next PC might be a boutique rig.

[stimpy]

Yeah....I bought a new laptop and it was the only way to get a high end video card.

Same with a workstation for my office.
I got a RTX 3080 but only because it was a prebuilt.

But I have to say that hard drives and memory seem to be trending higher than usual.

[hepcat]

I was steaming over this the other day when I realized that if my GTX 2060 were to get fried, I'd have no recourse but to buy an entirely new computer...and even then I'd probably have to wait weeks...or longer...for it.

[Daehawk]

Im hoping Ethereum 2 will get rid of the video card shortage.

[Hamlet3145]

If I could have purchased an RTX 3070 for retail price, I would not have bought my PS5 probably for another couple of years. So for AAA titles, for the foreseeable future, I'm going all in on console and/or a potential new gamer-ish laptop this fall. (Meanwhile, I have to also pray that the old graphics card in my desktop doesn't fail as that rig doesn't even have an iGPU).

[Daehawk]

I think I have a GTX 280 as backup.

[gilraen]

I just got a laptop with RTX 3080, it better last me a long time!

My PC is using two Crossfire'd Radeons R9 380, so I guess they are each other's backup, until they get too weak to support any gaming (alone or together).

Hard drives might become a problem, though.

[Octavious]

As I've been pretty heavy into sim racing as of late I can't really drop the PC gaming. I honestly wish I could as crypto has made it unbearable to get anything. I have a 1070TI that I would have for sure upgraded by now, but that's impossible. I would have to buy a whole new rig and that's lame. My nephew bought the 3080ti for 1,200 dollars on launch day. That's just disgusting what NVIDIA is doing. Makes me want to switch brands.

[hepcat]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Nvidia doesn't set the price. The only thing they might be guilty of is not producing enough stock. However, I'm not sure they could produce enough to meet a demand that's been inflated by cryptominers and an unforeseen pandemic.

[hitbyambulance]

maybe a distant hope at this point, but i would think that if this is a long term thing, that there is a possibility that new companies could get into the dedicated video card business (new blood that is not nVidia or AMD/ATi). this would have to be _after_ the supply chain shortages are corrected, however.

[hepcat]

I can only imagine the overhead required to enter that market. I doubt we'll ever see any competition with the big two.

[Daehawk]

Intel is set to try.

[gilraen]

I can only imagine the overhead required to enter that market. I doubt we'll ever see any competition with the big two.

I would imagine it's impossible to enter a market with any semblance of competitiveness when there's literally a raw materials shortage to even keep the existing players running.

This is pretty much a perfect storm at this point:

Memory shortage? Check.
Silicon shortage? Check.
General supply chain disruptions due to pandemic? Check.
Spikes in supply due to cryptocurrency? Check.
Bonus: NVIDIA may have issues with their new manufacturing process.

[Octavious]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Nvidia doesn't set the price. The only thing they might be guilty of is not producing enough stock. However, I'm not sure they could produce enough to meet a demand that's been inflated by cryptominers and an unforeseen pandemic.

They set the retail price. 1,200 is the retail price they put on the 3080ti because they knew people would pay it. Essentially trying to take the flippers cut.

[Smoove_B]

I was steaming over this the other day when I realized that if my GTX 2060 were to get fried, I'd have no recourse but to buy an entirely new computer...and even then I'd probably have to wait weeks...or longer...for it.

That's where I was last Fall and into the early Winter. If my desktop goes, I'm in a world of pain. So do I try to buy a pre-built now in anticipation of a 6+ year old desktop suddenly dying?

This August it'll be 7 years old and I'm really worried it's going to fizzle out when I need it the most. Might be time to go back and check out what my options are...

[hepcat]

I just checked my records. My rig is coming up on 5 years old this fall. It should be good another year at least, but if it were to go out on me, it's new computer time.

[hentzau]

I work for a fortune 100 company with close relationships with major computer manufacturers. We’re working through an RFP with all of the vendors right now and grim doesn’t even begin to describe what they’re telling us.

We’re planning on halting all hardware refreshes for at least a year just so we can get enough product for new hires and break/fix.

[JCC]

I've had some thoughts myself on this topic. Certainly, the crypto currency issue is even worse with the crazy bad supply issues now. I agree with others who are (correctly) saying that buying a pre-built or laptop is the more cost effective choice right now (though you likely still have to wait a while) which is crazy. Will this always make video cards an expensive, difficult to get item? I hope not.

My 6 year old PC is still rocking a Geforce 970. Thankfully it's connected to a 1080p TV, and it still seems to do fine with that. Though it's been a while since I bought/played a "new" game on it. I guess Jedi Fallen Order may have been the last "new" PC game I bought, but I could be forgetting something else. I am actually hoping my PC will remain viable in a 1080p world since I don't see having 4K in that room for a while (I would need that TV to die).

As noted in the Xbox thread, I am actually considering buying a Series X (if that ever becomes possible) as a stopgap to get to the point where I can afford to build a new PC. Of course, I will be interested to read about how viable the "streaming" options end up being for Series X games (and how wide the catalog is).

[Pyperkub]

For me, I've kind of stopped PC gaming. Not being able to get a decent upgrade at a decent price, and also working from home during the Pandemic has made me want to get away from the computer for my gaming.

[Rumpy]

Maybe not kill it, but it's definitely slowed things down and made it more difficult. And then the Pandemic came along and pretty much screwed over any industry relying on computer chips. I have a feeling it will eventually stabilize.

[Zenn7]

Why would this have to be the death of computer gaming?

Gonna kill the super-graphic-intense-latest-craze for a while maybe. But no reason they can't still keep producing a variety of not super-high-end graphic games that run on current and last few generation cards that most of us having and might likely be able to get easier. Or even built in cards and such that are significantly less powerful.

[Pyperkub]

Why would this have to be the death of computer gaming?

Gonna kill the super-graphic-intense-latest-craze for a while maybe. But no reason they can't still keep producing a variety of not super-high-end graphic games that run on current and last few generation cards that most of us having and might likely be able to get easier. Or even built in cards and such that are significantly less powerful.

For me, the PC is still best for strategy/tactics games. Graphics are fun there, but can actually detract from the quality of the game (thinking RTS sometimes), but the key thing is 64-bit multi-threaded engines for AI, Memory, and massive numbers of units.

PC Games I played the most of during the pandemic:

Total War: Warhammer II (with WH 1 maps, etc)
Warlords: Darklords Rising (MP with OO'ers).

[Blackhawk]

I am utterly terrified of any of the video cards in the house breaking. It used to be that I'd get a second hand card for the kids (often on OO) to keep them going in the case of a failure, but that seems unlikely. And if my 2060 were to die, I would have to buy a whole new PC. As a poor person, pulling all the strings to get a replacement video card (usually the 'budget' card of the current generation of the mid-range of the previous) was a huge undertaking that involved borrowing money from myself from other projects, using my own portion of the Christmas budget, etc. It was usually barely possible and a huge stretch. Now I'd have to come up with four or five times as much.

In other words, if my video card fails, I'm effectively out of the hobby. And that includes most VR gaming. I'd probably just give up and hook the PS4 up to my monitor.

[jztemple2]

Thankfully I've got a three year warranty on the rig I got last fall. By the time that runs out I'll probably be looking to upgrade anyway

[Madmarcus]

Gonna kill the super-graphic-intense-latest-craze for a while maybe.

Mark me up as another one who feels that this death is way over stated! My better computer is rocking a GTX 1060 and I feel that I am enjoying plenty of computer games. Yes that means I stick to 1080p for the most part (actually my weaker computer running on a AMD 3400g amu has a higher resolution screen attached to it at the moment) but you know what I really don't mind. As with Steam sales there are some advantages to being consistently a few years behind the curve. It also means that it isn't quite as jarring when Coopasonic convinces me to reinstall JA2.

[raydude]

Gonna kill the super-graphic-intense-latest-craze for a while maybe.

Mark me up as another one who feels that this death is way over stated! My better computer is rocking a GTX 1060 and I feel that I am enjoying plenty of computer games. Yes that means I stick to 1080p for the most part (actually my weaker computer running on a AMD 3400g amu has a higher resolution screen attached to it at the moment) but you know what I really don't mind. As with Steam sales there are some advantages to being consistently a few years behind the curve. It also means that it isn't quite as jarring when Coopasonic convinces me to reinstall JA2.

Rockin the GTX 1070 here and I agree. In fact, I find I've lately been getting into retro/pixelated games and working on my steam backlog which is nice. If I had one of the newer cards I'd feel almost obligated to play games that take advantage of their power. Don't get me wrong, I fully intend to replay Control and Cyberpunk 2077 when I get a ray-tracing enabled card. But then that also means I may feel the need to upgrade my monitor: still a 22" 1080p and my CPU: i5-9400F.

[Baroquen]

I've got a GTX 1660 Super and don't even know what that means. But it runs the games I want it to run, so I'm good. Rarely do I play the games that tax the cards significantly. By the time I usually get to "those" games, it's been years - they're on sale - and the card will run them.