Whats up with GPU pricing these days? Has all the Etherium craze made it impossible for budget system builders to create a reasonably priced system?
The problem
With so the excitement etherium and other currencies have brought to crypto currency world, many people are trying to get into the home mining business. This inflation of sales has made more budget oriented cards, such as the RX 580, with an MSRP of $229, now going anywhere from $300 to $600 on websites like Ebay, significantly more expensive.
Combined with the world wide DRAM shortage, of which is predicted to last well into 2018, now may not be the best time to be buying GPU's.
Why I won't be buying a GPU anytime soon
With the pricing of budget oriented cards so high, combined with storage and ram pricing, it's one of the worst times to build a new system. It's hard enough already for many people, including me, to scrape together enough money for a new system. Combined with this? There's no way Il be buying In anytime soon.
A solution?
There's no way to know how long this will last- The Bitcoin frenzy took half a year to pass. But don't fray, there's a bright light at the end of this tunnel. The creators of etherium have claimed that they plan to switch to a model, much like that of Bitcoins, where it’s based more on the ownership of the currency. From what I can tell, they haven't confirmed when this will happen yet, so save up and prepare for the flood of cheap gpu's when this is all over!