GPU prices are so high?

I bought a sapphire toxic R9 280x for 360 when it first came out....why is it 470 now? US Dollars....Whats causing this? My brother got a gigabyte 270x for 200 and now its 250....?
 
Solution

they bought them with cash or credit cards, not bitcoins. bitcoin, litecoin are the cryptocurrencies those guys are trying to 'mine'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptocurrency

todd1780

Honorable
Dec 29, 2012
212
0
10,860
2 words will answer that question...Bit Coin!
The current crop of GPUs are being snapped up as fast as they can be manufactured by bit coin miners. AMD saw this and jacked up the price to capitalize on this phenomenon. If you check New Egg, you will see that not only are the AMD graphics cards MUCH higher in price now, they are also always out of stock. They are bought up as soon as they are restocked.
This trend will continue for awhile, then it will eventually die down.
 
due to cryptocurrency mining hype for litecoin mining, people are racking up amd radeons because they're suitable for the job, more than nvidia's cards. retail sellers are cashing on it big time, raising prices. once the hype is over (or new mining hardware like asic miners come out), prices will come back to sane levels.
 



Yeah...ive seen all 280x and 270x's are out of stock..Thank God I got mine before...
 

SimonGranstrom

Honorable
Aug 20, 2013
319
0
10,860


Basically, they dedicate the GPU to "number crunching".
I don't know the exact details because i've never farmed bitcoins myself.
 

So what i understand is that people bought lots of them with bitcoins and not with US DOLLARS and I think if you pay in bitcoins its cheaper so companies are bringing the prices up so that they can make enough money.

 

they bought them with cash or credit cards, not bitcoins. bitcoin, litecoin are the cryptocurrencies those guys are trying to 'mine'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptocurrency
 
Solution