But, you can buy as many as you want
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Apparently there have been shortages of high-end video cards because (supposedly) bitcoin miners are buying them all. Micro-Center, who I didn't even know was still in business, has taken a novel approach to the "problem".
Screenshot from their website, 9:30am today:
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@el_heffe I've heard (but can't confirm) that some vendors use absurd prices as soft "lol nope" metadata. Basically, if you want three badly enough, they'll sell them, but it dissuades the more casual types.
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@el_heffe said in But, you can buy as many as you want:
Apparently there have been shortages of high-end video cards because (supposedly) bitcoin miners are buying them all. Micro-Center, who I didn't even know was still in business, has taken a novel approach to the "problem".
Screenshot from their website, 9:30am today:
Confirmed. Though it looks like you can't buy it online, only in the store.
Micro-Center, who I didn't even know was still in business
I didn't even realize there was one near me until a few years ago, but I love it. The prices are generally about the same as Newegg, and I can get stuff right away.
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@dragnslcr said in But, you can buy as many as you want:
@el_heffe said in But, you can buy as many as you want:
Micro-Center, who I didn't even know was still in business
I didn't even realize there was one near me until a few years ago, but I love it. The prices are generally about the same as Newegg, and I can get stuff right away.
The last time I was in a Micro Center I went there because they were advertising a really good price on floppy disks. Maybe somewhere around 1990ish.
Apparently they still have a store about an hour away from me.
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So can't you just buy 2 and then buy 1 or 2 more and repeat as needed?
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@anonymous234 said in But, you can buy as many as you want:
So can't you just buy 2 and then buy 1 or 2 more and repeat as needed?
If someone was using a bot to crawl, it may not be anticipating this.
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@anonymous234 said in But, you can buy as many as you want:
So can't you just buy 2 and then buy 1 or 2 more and repeat as needed?
I assume you'd get recognized pretty quickly:
@dragnslcr said in But, you can buy as many as you want:
Though it looks like you can't buy it online, only in the store.
Unless you wait for shift changes.
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@el_heffe I read an article a couple months ago about a agent who buys up as many GPUs as he can in the US, loads them into a 747 (ships are way too slow) and flies them to one of the big miners in China.
They did that because they already (legit) bought-up as much production-run of the GPUs as AMD/NVidia would allow them.
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@blakeyrat said in But, you can buy as many as you want:
@el_heffe I read an article a couple months ago about a agent who buys up as many GPUs as he can in the US, loads them into a 747 (ships are way too slow) and flies them to one of the big miners in China.
They did that because they already (legit) bought-up as much production-run of the GPUs as AMD/NVidia would allow them.
I remember seeing that story but didn't think it was true. It seems like you would have to get a really high price for those GPUs in order to cover the cost of renting a 747 and flying it to China. I have no idea what that would cost but it seems like it would be pretty expensive. i have trouble believing that bitcoin mining is THAT profitable.
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@el_heffe said in But, you can buy as many as you want:
i have trouble believing that bitcoin mining is THAT profitable.
It's not but I'm sure selling the GPUs is. There's a sucker born every minute.
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I thought that all miners use ASICs nowadays to achieve better efficiency.
Maybe people are betting in alternative cryptocurrencies?
Anyway, it sounds like a waste of resources and energy to me.
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@zmaster said in But, you can buy as many as you want:
I thought that all miners use ASICs nowadays to achieve better efficiency.
Maybe people are betting in alternative cryptocurrencies?
Anyway, it sounds like a waste of resources and energy to me.ASICs are completely king nowadays. The best GPUs on the market might have a chance at stacking up, but as far as other GPUs and CPUs (eww), the hashes/second won't even register. Most mining sites straight up say to not even bother, as well.
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@zmaster My understanding was that the new AMD GPUs were competitive with purpose-built, especially for the price they're available at. NVidia-- less so, they still assume their customers are playing video games, those saps.
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@blakeyrat said in But, you can buy as many as you want:
@zmaster My understanding was that the new AMD GPUs were competitive with purpose-built, especially for the price they're available at. NVidia-- less so, they still assume their customers are playing video games, those saps.
A couple of months ago it was reported that ASUS was producing video cards based on AMD and Nvidia GPUs with no monitor connectors, specifically for bitcoin mining.
AMD and NVIDIA go after Bitcoin miners with new video cards
Dedicated digital currency miners know the importance of good graphics cards -- modern GPUs have enough general-purpose computing power to process money formats like Bitcoin much faster than a CPU alone. They've never really been suited for non-stop number crunching, though, and it looks like both...
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@el_heffe said in But, you can buy as many as you want:
I remember seeing that story but didn't think it was true. It seems like you would have to get a really high price for those GPUs in order to cover the cost of renting a 747 and flying it to China. I have no idea what that would cost but it seems like it would be pretty expensive. i have trouble believing that bitcoin mining is THAT profitable.
Perhaps mining isn't, as @heterodox suggests, but you can fit over a hundred tonnes of GPUs(1) in that 747 (assuming they are dense enough to fit space-wise), and you might be able to make a profit on that.
(1) Measuring GPUs in tonnes feels really strange, like playing Frontier and shipping tractors (OK, "Farm Machinery") by the tonne. Yeah, I'll totally buy fifty tonnes of tractors!
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@steve_the_cynic said in But, you can buy as many as you want:
you can fit over a hundred tonnes of GPUs(1) in that 747 (assuming they are dense enough to fit space-wise)
That got me curious, for some reason I can’t put my finger on.
https://www.amazon.com/PowerColor-AXRX-580-8GBD5-3DHDV2-OC/dp/B0711QH8ZS says about the card in @El_Heffe’s post:
Item Weight 3.4 pounds
Product Dimensions 10.4 x 6.2 x 2.2 inchesIn real-world units, that’s about 1.5 kg and (rounded up) 27 × 16 × 6 cm = 2.6 × 10^−3 m³.
100 tonnes equals about 65,000 of those video cards — if we assume about 1.5 tonnes of additional packing materials. The cards take up 169 m³.
http://www.boeing.com/resources/boeingdotcom/company/about_bca/startup/pdf/freighters/747-400f.pdf says about the 747-400 freighter`that an LD-1 freight container holds 4.9 m³, so you’d need 34 of them. The same document says that just the two lower cargo holds can stow 16 LD-1s each. Conclusion: even without using the main deck, you can carry almost 100 tonnes of GPUs on a 747-400F (and the plane then still has over ten tonnes of spare cargo capacity).
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@gurth said in But, you can buy as many as you want:
@steve_the_cynic said in But, you can buy as many as you want:
you can fit over a hundred tonnes of GPUs(1) in that 747 (assuming they are dense enough to fit space-wise)
That got me curious, for some reason I can’t put my finger on.
says about the card in @El_Heffe’s post:Item Weight 3.4 pounds
Product Dimensions 10.4 x 6.2 x 2.2 inchesIn real-world units, that’s about 1.5 kg and (rounded up) 27 × 16 × 6 cm = 2.6 × 10^−3 m³.
100 tonnes equals about 65,000 of those video cards — if we assume about 1.5 tonnes of additional packing materials. The cards take up 169 m³.
says about the 747-400 freighter`that an LD-1 freight container holds 4.9 m³, so you’d need 34 of them. The same document says that just the two lower cargo holds can stow 16 LD-1s each. Conclusion: even without using the main deck, you can carry almost 100 tonnes of GPUs on a 747-400F (and the plane then still has over ten tonnes of spare cargo capacity).So 100t(gpu)/1 747
Where's that XKCD about weird units?
EDIT: Found it https://what-if.xkcd.com/11/
Amazon.com: PowerColor AMD Radeon RED DRAGON RX 580 8GB GDDR5 1 x DL DVI-D / 1 x HDMI / 3 x DisplayPort Graphics Card (AXRX 580 8GBD5-3DHDV2/OC ) : Electronics
