In the summer of 2017, rising cryptocurrency prices led to a run on high performance graphics cards. Coveted cards with a high hashrate were snapped up like proverbial hot cakes, leaving gamers, scientific researchers, and anyone else who relied on flagship GPUs priced out as the cryptocurrency frenzy escalated. One year on, and those same graphics cards can be acquired for bargain prices.
Also read: SHA-256 Mining Hashrate Climbs Significantly in One Year
From Hot Property to Obsolete Hardware
It was the summer of 2017 and the Geoforce 1070, Nvidia’s second-most powerful graphics card, was retailing for $450. There was just one problem: no one could get hold of one. In PC stores around the world, bare shelves occupied the space where gamers’ go-to upgrade should sit. That’s because a cryptocurrency mining boom, the likes of which had never been seen before, was in full swing, with crypto miners clearing stores and wholesalers of all the units they could lay hands on.
While computer shops in many countries ran dry of desirable GPUs such as the 1070 and Radeon 570, on second-hand marketplaces they could still be acquired – for a premium. From last summer into early 2018, when crypto mania was at its peak, cards such as the $400 1070 regularly traded hands for $800 or more. The wailing of gamers was drowned out by the whirr of cooling fans as miners overclocked their newly acquired GPUs and started crunching numbers in exchange for altcoins. Bitcoin was only minable on ASICs by then, and ethereum was heading that way too, but smaller coins such as sia, monero, and zcash, as well as hundreds of lesser known microcap coins, were still viable.
Some of the mining rigs currently listed on Gumtree in the UK
