The bitcoin mining garbage was going on long before the coronavirus.

Has there ever been a stupider way to make money?

"This Royal Waste of Electricity is solar powered!"

Can't believe 192 bit video cards are being sold for $400. Old technology that
sold for about $200. It's not caused by the coronavirus. It's been that way
for at least a few years.

Perhaps OEMs get a good deal. But I wouldn't buy a system just for the video
card.

On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 14:09:37 -0000 (UTC), John Doe
<always.look@message.header> wrote:

>The bitcoin mining garbage was going on long before the coronavirus.
>
>Has there ever been a stupider way to make money?
>
>"This Royal Waste of Electricity is solar powered!"
>
>Can't believe 192 bit video cards are being sold for $400. Old technology that
>sold for about $200. It's not caused by the coronavirus. It's been that way
>for at least a few years.
>
>Perhaps OEMs get a good deal. But I wouldn't buy a system just for the video
>card.

Massively parallel video cards should be used to speed up Spice. About
500:1 would be nice.

--

John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc

The best designs are necessarily accidental.

On Monday, June 28, 2021 at 7:52:58 AM UTC-7, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
> On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 14:09:37 -0000 (UTC), John Doe
> <alway...@message.header> wrote:
>
> >The bitcoin mining garbage was going on long before the coronavirus.
> >
> >Has there ever been a stupider way to make money?
> >
> >"This Royal Waste of Electricity is solar powered!"
> >
> >Can't believe 192 bit video cards are being sold for $400. Old technology that
> >sold for about $200. It's not caused by the coronavirus. It's been that way
> >for at least a few years.
> >
> >Perhaps OEMs get a good deal. But I wouldn't buy a system just for the video
> >card.
> Massively parallel video cards should be used to speed up Spice. About
> 500:1 would be nice.

I wonder if it would be better to wire 500 microcontrollers than 500 video cards. Video card might not be too advantageous for Spice.

On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 08:09:52 -0700 (PDT), Ed Lee
<edward.ming.lee@gmail.com> wrote:

>On Monday, June 28, 2021 at 7:52:58 AM UTC-7, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
>> On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 14:09:37 -0000 (UTC), John Doe
>> <alway...@message.header> wrote:
>>
>> >The bitcoin mining garbage was going on long before the coronavirus.
>> >
>> >Has there ever been a stupider way to make money?
>> >
>> >"This Royal Waste of Electricity is solar powered!"
>> >
>> >Can't believe 192 bit video cards are being sold for $400. Old technology that
>> >sold for about $200. It's not caused by the coronavirus. It's been that way
>> >for at least a few years.
>> >
>> >Perhaps OEMs get a good deal. But I wouldn't buy a system just for the video
>> >card.
>> Massively parallel video cards should be used to speed up Spice. About
>> 500:1 would be nice.
>
>I wonder if it would be better to wire 500 microcontrollers than 500 video cards. Video card might not be too advantageous for Spice.

I was thinking about the Nvidia cards that are massively parallel
computers, not so much display generators.

We tried using an Amazon compute farm to run Spice, but it wasn't any
better than a quad-core Intel PC.

Multiple microcontrollers would have inter-CPU delays, like Amazon
seems to have.

--

John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc

The best designs are necessarily accidental.

On Monday, June 28, 2021 at 8:20:01 AM UTC-7, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
> On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 08:09:52 -0700 (PDT), Ed Lee
> <edward....@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >On Monday, June 28, 2021 at 7:52:58 AM UTC-7, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
> >> On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 14:09:37 -0000 (UTC), John Doe
> >> <alway...@message.header> wrote:
> >>
> >> >The bitcoin mining garbage was going on long before the coronavirus.
> >> >
> >> >Has there ever been a stupider way to make money?
> >> >
> >> >"This Royal Waste of Electricity is solar powered!"
> >> >
> >> >Can't believe 192 bit video cards are being sold for $400. Old technology that
> >> >sold for about $200. It's not caused by the coronavirus. It's been that way
> >> >for at least a few years.
> >> >
> >> >Perhaps OEMs get a good deal. But I wouldn't buy a system just for the video
> >> >card.
> >> Massively parallel video cards should be used to speed up Spice. About
> >> 500:1 would be nice.
> >
> >I wonder if it would be better to wire 500 microcontrollers than 500 video cards. Video card might not be too advantageous for Spice.
> I was thinking about the Nvidia cards that are massively parallel
> computers, not so much display generators.

Parallel processing units good for the same input within the video card.

> We tried using an Amazon compute farm to run Spice, but it wasn't any
> better than a quad-core Intel PC.
>
> Multiple microcontrollers would have inter-CPU delays, like Amazon
> seems to have.

Multiple video cards would have the same problem.

You need a high speed switching matrix for the micros or video cards. It would be easier to build for micros.

On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 08:29:15 -0700 (PDT), Ed Lee
<edward.ming.lee@gmail.com> wrote:

>On Monday, June 28, 2021 at 8:20:01 AM UTC-7, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
>> On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 08:09:52 -0700 (PDT), Ed Lee
>> <edward....@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> >On Monday, June 28, 2021 at 7:52:58 AM UTC-7, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
>> >> On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 14:09:37 -0000 (UTC), John Doe
>> >> <alway...@message.header> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> >The bitcoin mining garbage was going on long before the coronavirus.
>> >> >
>> >> >Has there ever been a stupider way to make money?
>> >> >
>> >> >"This Royal Waste of Electricity is solar powered!"
>> >> >
>> >> >Can't believe 192 bit video cards are being sold for $400. Old technology that
>> >> >sold for about $200. It's not caused by the coronavirus. It's been that way
>> >> >for at least a few years.
>> >> >
>> >> >Perhaps OEMs get a good deal. But I wouldn't buy a system just for the video
>> >> >card.
>> >> Massively parallel video cards should be used to speed up Spice. About
>> >> 500:1 would be nice.
>> >
>> >I wonder if it would be better to wire 500 microcontrollers than 500 video cards. Video card might not be too advantageous for Spice.
>> I was thinking about the Nvidia cards that are massively parallel
>> computers, not so much display generators.
>
>Parallel processing units good for the same input within the video card.
>
>> We tried using an Amazon compute farm to run Spice, but it wasn't any
>> better than a quad-core Intel PC.
>>
>> Multiple microcontrollers would have inter-CPU delays, like Amazon
>> seems to have.
>
>Multiple video cards would have the same problem.

Sure. Just use one.

--

John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc

The best designs are necessarily accidental.

On Monday, June 28, 2021 at 8:47:59 AM UTC-7, jla...@highlandsniptechnology..com wrote:
> On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 08:29:15 -0700 (PDT), Ed Lee
> <edward....@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >On Monday, June 28, 2021 at 8:20:01 AM UTC-7, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
> >> On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 08:09:52 -0700 (PDT), Ed Lee
> >> <edward....@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> >On Monday, June 28, 2021 at 7:52:58 AM UTC-7, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
> >> >> On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 14:09:37 -0000 (UTC), John Doe
> >> >> <alway...@message.header> wrote:
> >> >>
> >> >> >The bitcoin mining garbage was going on long before the coronavirus.
> >> >> >
> >> >> >Has there ever been a stupider way to make money?
> >> >> >
> >> >> >"This Royal Waste of Electricity is solar powered!"
> >> >> >
> >> >> >Can't believe 192 bit video cards are being sold for $400. Old technology that
> >> >> >sold for about $200. It's not caused by the coronavirus. It's been that way
> >> >> >for at least a few years.
> >> >> >
> >> >> >Perhaps OEMs get a good deal. But I wouldn't buy a system just for the video
> >> >> >card.
> >> >> Massively parallel video cards should be used to speed up Spice. About
> >> >> 500:1 would be nice.
> >> >
> >> >I wonder if it would be better to wire 500 microcontrollers than 500 video cards. Video card might not be too advantageous for Spice.
> >> I was thinking about the Nvidia cards that are massively parallel
> >> computers, not so much display generators.
> >
> >Parallel processing units good for the same input within the video card.
> >
> >> We tried using an Amazon compute farm to run Spice, but it wasn't any
> >> better than a quad-core Intel PC.
> >>
> >> Multiple microcontrollers would have inter-CPU delays, like Amazon
> >> seems to have.
> >
> >Multiple video cards would have the same problem.
> Sure. Just use one.

That would just degenerate into single thread process. Unlike video or crypto processing, which has relatively small input space, circuit simulation needs to have iterations of inputs and outputs. It would be limited by the processing unit coping input and output data.

On 6/28/2021 10:09 AM, John Doe wrote:
> The bitcoin mining garbage was going on long before the coronavirus.
>
> Has there ever been a stupider way to make money?

No

> "This Royal Waste of Electricity is solar powered!"
>
> Can't believe 192 bit video cards are being sold for $400. Old technology that
> sold for about $200. It's not caused by the coronavirus. It's been that way
> for at least a few years.
>
> Perhaps OEMs get a good deal. But I wouldn't buy a system just for the video
> card.
>

I have a GTX 1050 in my little-used desktop I bought for maybe $150 on
sale 3 years ago, it's circa 2015 tech, hard to believe Nvidia is
banging these things out from spare parts again and they're selling for
pushing $400 for a 4GB model.

<https://www.amazon.com/GeForce-GTX-1050/s?k=GeForce+GTX+1050>

Even 1030s are 200+

On 6/28/2021 10:09 AM, John Doe wrote:
> The bitcoin mining garbage was going on long before the coronavirus.
>
> Has there ever been a stupider way to make money?
>
> "This Royal Waste of Electricity is solar powered!"
>
> Can't believe 192 bit video cards are being sold for $400. Old technology that
> sold for about $200. It's not caused by the coronavirus. It's been that way
> for at least a few years.
>
> Perhaps OEMs get a good deal. But I wouldn't buy a system just for the video
> card.
>

The current owner of the New England Roleplaying Organization, as I
recall a somewhat respectable outfit for the Renaissance fair crowd back
in the 90, scammed 30 grand out of donators who thought they were paying
for the development of a new permanent site for the club but spent it on
crypto-mining rig instead:

<https://www.reddit.com/r/LARP/comments/9epjbg/us_nero_larp_owner_lied_about_purchasing_land_and/>

On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 09:12:27 -0700 (PDT), Ed Lee
<edward.ming.lee@gmail.com> wrote:

>On Monday, June 28, 2021 at 8:47:59 AM UTC-7, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
>> On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 08:29:15 -0700 (PDT), Ed Lee
>> <edward....@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> >On Monday, June 28, 2021 at 8:20:01 AM UTC-7, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
>> >> On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 08:09:52 -0700 (PDT), Ed Lee
>> >> <edward....@gmail.com> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> >On Monday, June 28, 2021 at 7:52:58 AM UTC-7, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
>> >> >> On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 14:09:37 -0000 (UTC), John Doe
>> >> >> <alway...@message.header> wrote:
>> >> >>
>> >> >> >The bitcoin mining garbage was going on long before the coronavirus.
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> >Has there ever been a stupider way to make money?
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> >"This Royal Waste of Electricity is solar powered!"
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> >Can't believe 192 bit video cards are being sold for $400. Old technology that
>> >> >> >sold for about $200. It's not caused by the coronavirus. It's been that way
>> >> >> >for at least a few years.
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> >Perhaps OEMs get a good deal. But I wouldn't buy a system just for the video
>> >> >> >card.
>> >> >> Massively parallel video cards should be used to speed up Spice. About
>> >> >> 500:1 would be nice.
>> >> >
>> >> >I wonder if it would be better to wire 500 microcontrollers than 500 video cards. Video card might not be too advantageous for Spice.
>> >> I was thinking about the Nvidia cards that are massively parallel
>> >> computers, not so much display generators.
>> >
>> >Parallel processing units good for the same input within the video card.
>> >
>> >> We tried using an Amazon compute farm to run Spice, but it wasn't any
>> >> better than a quad-core Intel PC.
>> >>
>> >> Multiple microcontrollers would have inter-CPU delays, like Amazon
>> >> seems to have.
>> >
>> >Multiple video cards would have the same problem.
>> Sure. Just use one.
>
>That would just degenerate into single thread process. Unlike video or crypto processing, which has relatively small input space, circuit simulation needs to have iterations of inputs and outputs. It would be limited by the processing unit coping input and output data.

People use nvidia cards for all sorts of simulations. I want Spice on
one. Actually, it's being done.

google nvidia simulation spice

--

John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc

The best designs are necessarily accidental.

On Monday, June 28, 2021 at 10:28:26 AM UTC-7, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
> On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 09:12:27 -0700 (PDT), Ed Lee
> <edward....@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >On Monday, June 28, 2021 at 8:47:59 AM UTC-7, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
> >> On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 08:29:15 -0700 (PDT), Ed Lee
> >> <edward....@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> >On Monday, June 28, 2021 at 8:20:01 AM UTC-7, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
> >> >> On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 08:09:52 -0700 (PDT), Ed Lee
> >> >> <edward....@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> >>
> >> >> >On Monday, June 28, 2021 at 7:52:58 AM UTC-7, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
> >> >> >> On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 14:09:37 -0000 (UTC), John Doe
> >> >> >> <alway...@message.header> wrote:
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> >The bitcoin mining garbage was going on long before the coronavirus.
> >> >> >> >
> >> >> >> >Has there ever been a stupider way to make money?
> >> >> >> >
> >> >> >> >"This Royal Waste of Electricity is solar powered!"
> >> >> >> >
> >> >> >> >Can't believe 192 bit video cards are being sold for $400. Old technology that
> >> >> >> >sold for about $200. It's not caused by the coronavirus. It's been that way
> >> >> >> >for at least a few years.
> >> >> >> >
> >> >> >> >Perhaps OEMs get a good deal. But I wouldn't buy a system just for the video
> >> >> >> >card.
> >> >> >> Massively parallel video cards should be used to speed up Spice. About
> >> >> >> 500:1 would be nice.
> >> >> >
> >> >> >I wonder if it would be better to wire 500 microcontrollers than 500 video cards. Video card might not be too advantageous for Spice.
> >> >> I was thinking about the Nvidia cards that are massively parallel
> >> >> computers, not so much display generators.
> >> >
> >> >Parallel processing units good for the same input within the video card.
> >> >
> >> >> We tried using an Amazon compute farm to run Spice, but it wasn't any
> >> >> better than a quad-core Intel PC.
> >> >>
> >> >> Multiple microcontrollers would have inter-CPU delays, like Amazon
> >> >> seems to have.
> >> >
> >> >Multiple video cards would have the same problem.
> >> Sure. Just use one.
> >
> >That would just degenerate into single thread process. Unlike video or crypto processing, which has relatively small input space, circuit simulation needs to have iterations of inputs and outputs. It would be limited by the processing unit coping input and output data.
> People use nvidia cards for all sorts of simulations. I want Spice on
> one. Actually, it's being done.

But how much better?

http://ngspice.sourceforge.net/cuspice.html

"The matrix solver of ngspice however is not parallelized. Thus a simulation speed-up of roughly a factor of two is possible."

"Simulation speed enhancement for transistor loaded examples is significant (more than 3 times on transient simulation)."

"The benefits of CUSPICE are experienced in large circuits only (a few thousand transistors minimum). This is due to the overhead required for coupling CPU and GPU."

I think a 64 cores thread ripper is better than video card.

On 29/6/21 3:36 am, Ed Lee wrote:
> On Monday, June 28, 2021 at 10:28:26 AM UTC-7, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
>> On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 09:12:27 -0700 (PDT), Ed Lee
>> <edward....@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> On Monday, June 28, 2021 at 8:47:59 AM UTC-7, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
>>>> On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 08:29:15 -0700 (PDT), Ed Lee
>>>> <edward....@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On Monday, June 28, 2021 at 8:20:01 AM UTC-7, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
>>>>>> On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 08:09:52 -0700 (PDT), Ed Lee
>>>>>> <edward....@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Monday, June 28, 2021 at 7:52:58 AM UTC-7, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
>>>>>>>> On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 14:09:37 -0000 (UTC), John Doe
>>>>>>>> <alway...@message.header> wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> The bitcoin mining garbage was going on long before the coronavirus.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Has there ever been a stupider way to make money?
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> "This Royal Waste of Electricity is solar powered!"
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Can't believe 192 bit video cards are being sold for $400. Old technology that
>>>>>>>>> sold for about $200. It's not caused by the coronavirus. It's been that way
>>>>>>>>> for at least a few years.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Perhaps OEMs get a good deal. But I wouldn't buy a system just for the video
>>>>>>>>> card.
>>>>>>>> Massively parallel video cards should be used to speed up Spice. About
>>>>>>>> 500:1 would be nice.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I wonder if it would be better to wire 500 microcontrollers than 500 video cards. Video card might not be too advantageous for Spice.
>>>>>> I was thinking about the Nvidia cards that are massively parallel
>>>>>> computers, not so much display generators.
>>>>>
>>>>> Parallel processing units good for the same input within the video card.
>>>>>
>>>>>> We tried using an Amazon compute farm to run Spice, but it wasn't any
>>>>>> better than a quad-core Intel PC.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Multiple microcontrollers would have inter-CPU delays, like Amazon
>>>>>> seems to have.
>>>>>
>>>>> Multiple video cards would have the same problem.
>>>> Sure. Just use one.
>>>
>>> That would just degenerate into single thread process. Unlike video or crypto processing, which has relatively small input space, circuit simulation needs to have iterations of inputs and outputs. It would be limited by the processing unit coping input and output data.
>> People use nvidia cards for all sorts of simulations. I want Spice on
>> one. Actually, it's being done.
>
> But how much better?
>
> http://ngspice.sourceforge.net/cuspice.html
>
> "The matrix solver of ngspice however is not parallelized. Thus a simulation speed-up of roughly a factor of two is possible."
>
> "Simulation speed enhancement for transistor loaded examples is significant (more than 3 times on transient simulation)."
>
> "The benefits of CUSPICE are experienced in large circuits only (a few thousand transistors minimum). This is due to the overhead required for coupling CPU and GPU."
>
> I think a 64 cores thread ripper is better than video card.
>

Someone should write a version of SPICE in VHDL.
Then you could run it on an Amazon FPGA cluster!

CH

Am 29.06.21 um 01:41 schrieb Clifford Heath:
> On 29/6/21 3:36 am, Ed Lee wrote:
>> On Monday, June 28, 2021 at 10:28:26 AM UTC-7,
>> jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
>>> On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 09:12:27 -0700 (PDT), Ed Lee
>>> <edward....@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>

>>> People use nvidia cards for all sorts of simulations. I want Spice on
>>> one. Actually, it's being done.
>>
>> But how much better?
>>
>> http://ngspice.sourceforge.net/cuspice.html
>>
>> "The matrix solver of ngspice however is not parallelized. Thus a
>> simulation speed-up of roughly a factor of two is possible."
>>
>> "Simulation speed enhancement for transistor loaded examples is
>> significant (more than 3 times on transient simulation)."
>>
>> "The benefits of CUSPICE are experienced in large circuits only (a few
>> thousand transistors minimum). This is due to the overhead required
>> for coupling CPU and GPU."
>>
>> I think a 64 cores thread ripper is better than video card.
>>
>
> Someone should write a version of SPICE in VHDL.
> Then you could run it on an Amazon FPGA cluster!

There has been a lot of effort to parallelize SPICE, it was all
futile. Remember these Weitek boards back in 386 times?
Or the spice board based on the Fairchild Clipper?

A speedup of 3 in transient simulation is _NOT_ significant,
it is the admission of failure if you throw 1000 computation
units at the problem.

The problem with transient simulation is that you need the result
of step n (and maybe a few older steps as in backward Euler...)
to compute the result n+1. For every step, there is "not much"
work to be done, it is all sequential. But the steps are legion.

The only way I see is subdividing the G matrix. Solving the
matrix is NP complete like everything that is interesting.
If the problem grows, the effort for the solution grows
exponentially. But that works in both directions.

Halving the problem size gives much more than twice the payback.
The way to faster spice is to divide the circuit into smaller
circuits that interact. Finding local small circuits that are
interacting inside themselves is the real problem and food for
thought.

If there are no really new ideas, then subdivide the chip
square mm by square mm, better than nothing.

Just pipelining the same > 40 year old algorithms of SPICE
will never give you a more than constant speedup, for small n.

Does anybody here have results on running ADS on a workstation cluster?

cheers, Gerhard

On Monday, June 28, 2021 at 8:20:01 AM UTC-7, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
> On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 08:09:52 -0700 (PDT), Ed Lee
> <edward....@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >On Monday, June 28, 2021 at 7:52:58 AM UTC-7, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
> >> On Mon, 28 Jun 2021 14:09:37 -0000 (UTC), John Doe
> >> <alway...@message.header> wrote:
> >>
> >> >The bitcoin mining garbage was going on long before the coronavirus.
> >> > ...

> >> >Can't believe 192 bit video cards are being sold for $400. Old technology that
> >> >sold for about $200. It's not caused by the coronavirus. It's been that way
> >> >for at least a few years.

> >> Massively parallel video cards should be used to speed up Spice. About
> >> 500:1 would be nice.
> >
> >I wonder if it would be better to wire 500 microcontrollers than 500 video cards. Video card might not be too advantageous for Spice.
> I was thinking about the Nvidia cards that are massively parallel
> computers, not so much display generators.
>
> We tried using an Amazon compute farm to run Spice, but it wasn't any
> better than a quad-core Intel PC.

You need a code source that was designed for multiprocessing;
XYCE, for instance

<https://xyce.sandia.gov>

bitrex wrote:

> John Doe wrote:

>> The bitcoin mining garbage was going on long before the coronavirus.
>>
>> Has there ever been a stupider way to make money?
>
> No
>
>> "This Royal Waste of Electricity is solar powered!"
>>
>> Can't believe 192 bit video cards are being sold for $400. Old
>> technology that sold for about $200. It's not caused by the
>> coronavirus. It's been that way for at least a few years.
>>
>> Perhaps OEMs get a good deal. But I wouldn't buy a system just for the
>> video card.

> I have a GTX 1050 in my little-used desktop I bought for maybe $150 on
> sale 3 years ago, it's circa 2015 tech, hard to believe Nvidia is
> banging these things out from spare parts again and they're selling for
> pushing $400 for a 4GB model.
>
> <https://www.amazon.com/GeForce-GTX-1050/s?k=GeForce+GTX+1050>
>
> Even 1030s are 200+

Roughly three years ago (must have been before the squeeze), an eBay
seller gave me a January 2016 GeForce GTX *980*, because the $300 CPU he
sold to me had some scratches on the pads.

That old video card is just totally fascinating now...