Graphics Card Shipments Expected to Drop Drastically in Q2 2014

[Kaapstad]

Graphics card vendors are bracing for a brutal spell for Q2, 2014, in which they expect sales to sequentially drop by 30 to 40 percent. They are attributing this to swelling inventories (unsold graphics cards) lower down the supply chain. The drop in graphics card sales, for the first time, is being attributed to a drop in the demand for GPUs by crypto-currency miners, who are either moving on to more energy-efficient mining technologies, such as ASICs, or quitting the business, following the drop in value of various major crypto-currencies, such as Bitcoin. These miners end up selling high-end graphics cards at attractive prices on marketspace websites such as Ebay, affecting brand-new high-end graphics card sales. Graphics card vendors (AIB and AIC partners), have asked GPU manufacturers AMD and NVIDIA, to help them cut prices to boost sales, however, both have cut down supplies, to deal with the situation, instead. Swelling inventories often translate into price-cuts for the end users, so be on the look out.

http://www.techpowerup.com/202154/graphics-card-shipments-to-drop-drastically-in-q2-2014.html

Excessive inventories, crypto mining craze to blame

Shipments of discrete graphics could decline by up to 30-40 percent in the second quarter of 2014.

The substantial drop has been caused by excessive inventories and the end of the cryptocurrency mining craze, reports dodgy Digitimes.

We discussed the altcoin mining boom and its possible fallout a couple of months ago, so you may want to check it out for some background.


No more GPU mining

The tl:dr version goes something like this: bitcoin can no longer be effectively mined using GPUs, so over the past 18-24 months GPU miners have been flocking to alternative cryptocurrencies based on ASIC-proof algorithms such as Scrypt. The most popular Scrypt coins are litecoin and dogecoin, which is basically an elaborate meme-inspired joke, but it’s wildly popular in some circles and the community has a great sense of humour, as it’s looking to have some fun rather than make a quick buck.

The first Scrypt ASICs are taping out and they will render GPU miners obsolete overnight. Some of these chips can deliver as much hash power as 250-400 Hawaii XT cards. Miners don’t have anywhere to go, there’s nowhere to migrate. Many mining rigs will be up for sale soon, but as we pointed out back in April, it is probably a good idea to stay away from mining cards in the second-hand market.


Seasonality kicks in

Digitimes cites “sources from graphics cards players” and claims that sales have been impacted since April. This is not exactly a scoop, as we expected demand for GPU miners to cool off this quarter and so did AIB partners.

AIBs and channel retailers reportedly asked AMD and Nvidia to slash their prices in order to reheat demand, but the companies chose to dial down shipments instead. Although the decline is substantial, it was not unexpected and it merely accelerated seasonal trends. People simply don't tend to buy heaps of graphics cards during the summer, especially not when the World Cup is on the telly, although the cup doesn't make much of a difference in North America.

Furthermore neither AMD nor Nvidia have a lot of fresh products to offer. Nvidia has just a single Maxwell-based discrete card, while AMD has a few Hawaii products which have been around for nine months.

Unfortunately this won’t change anytime soon and the slow transition to 20nm is another concern.

http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/35003-discrete-graphics-shipments-to-drop-in-2q14

 

[LtMatt]

I won't be buying any gpu's for a while.

 

[Freddie1980]

"crypto mining craze to blame"

Utter nonsense, I'm sure AMD and it's partners weren't complaining when their cards were selling like hotcakes due to the crypto mining rush now the rush has gone their reduced to selling cards to thier traditional markets.

 

[Gregster]

Good read Kaap and makes perfect sense. Check out ebay for some massive bargains gambles on AMD cards. Add in the fact of old tech being milked and we are pretty stale. I feel quite a few of us enthusiasts are waiting it out for 20nm now as well.

 

[Orangey]

We might have to wait for 16/14nm if they can't get power leakage under control.

 

[Gregster]

We might have to wait for 16/14nm if they can't get power leakage under control.

My wallet wouldn't mind. I wouldn't mind a change up in fairness but will wait it out for a EVGA classy version (or something AMD bring) this time. If this freesync can be added to my monitor, I could well be going red.

 

[rolypolyman]

 

[JamesM]

Load of twaddle

GPU mining isn't going obsolete, just moving on to more ASIC resistant coins.

From the same site that basically said don't touch mining hardware purely based on their own opinions and no actual facts from any of the manufactures

 

[Kaapstad]

Load of twaddle

GPU mining isn't going obsolete, just moving on to more ASIC resistant coins.

From the same site that basically said don't touch mining hardware purely based on their own opinions and no actual facts from any of the manufactures

Is anyone on these forums still mining and making a profit ?

 

[ubersonic]

Is anyone on these forums still mining and making a profit ?

Profits are pretty low at the moment, however the exodus is mainly due to the greed hunters who were late to the party chickening out, anyone with faith in crypto is still mining because although profit may be low today we know BTC value will rise again.

 

[JamesM]

Is anyone on these forums still mining and making a profit ?

I certainly am.

The thing with mining is lets say I mined for a month and made 2 BTC. During that month the price of BTC could be low and i'd actually not be covering the cost of electric in theory if I was to sell what I made a day.

I'd then stop and sit on the 2 BTC and wait for BTC price to rise, bingo made the cost of electric back + extra.

There is x11 and x13 now which has dropped power usage about half. Two 7990s mining Scrypt was using around 1100W. Same settings with x11 & x13 and i'm at 500-550W. Which also means i've been able to sell some PSUs and other bits too.

If Fudzilla are going to spout this stuff like gospel as they have done in the past they really need to get their facts right first. Yes Scrypt ASIC are coming out but the issue is the companies making them are holding them and reaping the benefits first before selling them onto the customers. This was predicted and pretty much everyone GPU mining with common sense is following the trend and moving with the flow to better ASIC resistant coins.