Luckily, The crash experienced by cryptocurrencies, and the increasing difficulty of Ethereum mining, make using graphics cards to mine less and less productive, and this requires investments that few are prepared to make.

To show us, the example that I have left you exactly in the title is enough, and it happens that, to amortize a GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, we would need about 3.3 years.

Only since those 3.3 years we would start to get benefits, And that's assuming we don't have to face a high electricity bill, and that there are no unforeseen events that force us to spend more money.

In fact, that is the most notable viable case, using NiceHash and with the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti running at its stock frequencies.

If you're wondering what happens with the rest of the cryptocurrencies that could be mined with a GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, the situation is similar.

The difficulty of mining is gradually increasing, which reduces its profitability and causes us to eventually get closer to a point of no return from which mining with a graphics card will only make us lose money.

Why is it important that the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is no longer as productive for mining?

It is very simple, as it is a reflection of the truth that permeates the field of cryptocurrency mining, and it indicates that, at some point, mining with graphic cards will cease.

I can't say for sure, but looking at the current landscape, it's possible that by the time the GeForce RTX 40 and Radeon RX 7000 are released, suspected for the end of this year, For the moment we should not suffer the inconveniences derived from a high demand for both from the crypto mining field.

However, I remind you that even in such a case, we would still have 2 other problems ahead of us, speculation and semiconductor shortages.

I know that some of you think that speculation is not bad because it has nothing to do with essential products, and I respect your opinion, although of course I do not share it, since we are talking about a practice that completely distorts the reality of the market, manipulates the balance of supply and demand and is, in several points, practically a kind of scam.

By running out of certain items, buying them to resell them at a considerably higher price, You create an artificial and also unreal situation of scarcity with which you deceive the customer., and this allows you to create the perfect environment so that you are willing to pay double or triple the price of a particular product.

On the other hand, you also hurt the poorest users, who cannot afford to buy that graphics card they have saved up for because now you want to squeeze them and make them pay double.

I'm not talking about a GeForce RTX 3080 Ti now, but rather about much more modest models like the recently released GeForce RTX 3050, which It is sold out and its price has been inflated to 400-500 euros.

Let us not defend the indefensible.

As far as the semiconductor shortage is concerned, there is no doubt that we still have a long way to go, but we are slowly beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and the COVID-19 pandemic is beginning to be more under control, so we will probably be in a situation where we are now facing a shortage of semiconductors from 2023 onwards. a quite remarkable recovery.