[Jnr]

I personally know people who were successfully mining crypto using GPUs in the last couple of years. If it was Bitcoin, Ethereum or Doge, I don't know and it doesn't matter to me. As soon as the crypto prices came down this year, they sold their GPU collection. So saying that miners used only ASICs is not true.

Yes, there was a semiconductor shortage, but miners made the situation worse for others because they each used tens of GPUs instead of just one as a normal person would for gaming or graphics work.

[WHATDOESIT]

My friends who have an AI company bought out these miners by the dozen and are running it for training - and yes they got it by offering more money than gamers and buying the whole lot, so gamers got the short stick again.

Why is that not bad? I don't see where the value for society got so much better, if that's the measure you're using - I'd rather have someone run the Ethereum blockchain than generate catgirl porn pictures. But even that is IMHO more useful than a bunch of guys gaming, at least more people get to feel the effect of a GPU than if it was owned by a gamer and only ever used for his eye candy. Games also could simply use the available resources better and then the gamers wouldn't need such absurdly overpowered hardware.

Overall, I think we shouldn't be measuring usage of GPUs, solar panels or any other products like this and definitely shouldn't be saying who has a right to have it and who doesn't, or for what prices - that gets us into nasty situations with only nasty answers.

This is a product like any other, gamers don't have any right to get cheap GPUs. Somebody else offered more money for it and the vendor didn't take the low-end market - that's just how it is.