AMD Radeon RX 500 series graphics cards, particularly the RX 580 and 570, have been out of stock for weeks now owing to the cryptocurrency mining craze. The market had shifted away from GPU mining a couple of years back after several China based companies launched specialized ASICs that were much faster and more power efficient at resolving the block chain equations necessary to mine Bitcoin and Litecoin, the Gold and Silver of cryptocurrencies.
However GPU mining has seen a massive resurgence over the past little while due to the rising popularity of ASIC resistant coins. Chief among which is Etherium which has seen its price more than triple in a matter of months. AMD’s add-in-board partners have caught on to this and have already started directly advertising to miners.
Used AMD Radeon Graphics Cards Are Catching 2-3 Times Their Original Value In The 2nd Hand Market
We’ve seen the same scenario back in late 2013 early 2014 during the Bitcoin and Litecoin mining crazes. AMD GPUs of the day handily outperformed their NVIDIA counterparts and as a result AMD simply couldn’t keep up with the demand and supplies of R9 290 and 290X cards dried up really quickly, driving prices up to insane levels.