GPU Pricing falling, and they have been for months. A new report from Bloomberg shows how fast they crash, claiming that prices have fallen by as much as 50% as the market copes with the crypto fallout.
The report makes a compelling case for GPU prices falling alongside Ethereum’s price, namely: a trend of crypto decline which we wrote about in June. According to the data, the average price of an RTX 3080 in the second-hand market has fallen by almost 50% since the end of April.
It’s a sobering reality check if the GPU Shortage comes to an end. While multiple factors contributed to the GPU shortage, the demand from cryptocurrency miners seems to be the main driver. In the first half of 2021, for example a quarter of all GPU sales went to cryptocurrency miners. Some estimates say that miners spent $15 billion on GPUs just for mining Ethereum.
The cryptocurrency boom last year catapulted the value of Nvidia and AMD. Nvidia, in particular, has seen 50% revenue growth in each of the past two years, despite reporting that less than 1% of its gaming-related sales came from the company’s mining-focused GPUs. Nvidia has added a limiter to its gaming graphics cards to discourage mining, but hackers were able to bypass the limiter all the way in May.
If you think it’s impossible to see the impact of crypto on the price of GPUs, you’re not alone. In May, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Nvidia fined $5.5 million for not disclosing the influence of cryptocurrency on its earnings in recent years.
The rapid price drop comes on the heels of around $800 billion in crypto value disappear from the market. Prior to that point, GPU prices began to approach MSRP† Now you can see some of the best graphics cardsbrand new, for sale below list price.
It’s an interesting time for graphics cards, not only because they’re getting cheap, but also because Nvidia and AMD are gearing up to release new generations. Nvidia is working on its RTX 40 Series graphics cards and AMD has its RX 7000 GPUsand we expect to see both before the end of the year.
We could see prices rise again if demand from cryptocurrency miners does. On the other hand, we may see a repeat of the crypto fallout in early 2018. As in 2020, crypto boomed in late 2017 causing a GPU shortage. When prices returned to normal, Nvidia and AMD were in a tough spot with pallets of GPUs that were in low demand.
It’s possible we’ll see a repeat of that later this year, hopefully giving gamers a break from looking for an overpriced graphics card. Anyway, be sure to check out our collection of the best GPU deals bookmark to see where the market is headed.
Editor’s Recommendations