Chinese cryptominers are dumping all GPUs before the Ethereum hard fork, Nvidia RTX 3060 cards for as low as $270
Ethereum is going to hard fork in early August, preparing the final stages for the complete migration to Proof of Stake consensus, so GPU mining will essentially become useless for this particular cryptocoin. This switch to PoS was announced a few years ago, yet miners continued to buy new GPUs up until a few months ago, especially AMD Radeon RX 6000 and Nvidia RTX 3000 models (contributing to the shortages and inflated prices) in a last-ditch effort to squeeze as much Ethereum as possible before the hard fork. However, the Chinese crackdown on all forms of cryptocurrency is now forcing mining farms to reallocate from the Sichuan region. Most Bitcoin miners have already moved to other countries, but Ethereum mining farm owners do not see this as a lucrative solution, since Ethereum will soon be unminable through GPUs. Thus begins the great GPU dump fest in China, and soon all over the world as we get closer to Ethereum 2.0.
There are now many GPU bargains for the Nvidia RTX 3060 cards on quite a few sites like Taobao, Bangood, Alibaba or AliExpress. Initial dumping prices started at around $450 (converted from Chinese currency), but current rates are going for around $270 because many sellers are getting offers. Of course, one can also get the high-end GPU models, but these are still offered at higher than MSRP. Some sellers apparently do not even bother to remove the GPUs from their rigs and sell them in bulk. Miners are also trying to dump all those laptops featuring RTX 3060 mobile GPUs that were bought out so fast back in February. Current dumping prices for these are around $1,000, but could go even lower.
While such low prices may seem really enticing and the potential for decent deals is always great, keep in mind that GPUs that have been subjected to 24/7 crypto mining tasks with medium VRAM overclocking might not last for too much longer and eventually go out of order sooner than expected. A valid warranty could really come in handy for this kind of deal.
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