At last! an end to GPU shortages may be on the horizon...

Much lower Crypto miner demand (thanks to China’s regulators) and much-improved supply may bring the 20-21 graphics card shortage to an end, finally (Hurrah!)

PC Gaming enthusiasts have been finding it increasingly difficult since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic to get their hands on the latest graphics cards from both NVIDIA and AMD due to huge demand from scalpers (b#stards!), and crypto miners. Also, supply chain problems caused by the Covid-19 pandemic have destroyed production line targets and added to the problem. As a result, PC upgraders and gamers have either been paying hugely through the nose, queueing up to get their hands on graphics cards or simply been unable to purchase anything due to empty shelves.

However, a glimmer of hope is emerging through the smoke for gaming enthusiasts, as graphics card prices have started to head in the right direction toward pre-pandemic levels. Does this mean that the graphics card shortage is at or nearing an end? Let's see:

Graphics card prices show signs of relenting - as supply increases
(who knew?)

Tom’s Hardware GPU pricing index, which tracks graphics card prices based on eBay data, indicates that the increase in prices may have finally come to an end. For instance, the price of the top of the range RTX 3090 was down by around 5% in the first half of June compared to the same period in May 2021.

It is worth noting that the RTX 3090's price has dropped even though NVIDIA hasn't limited the hash rate of the card, which makes it more desirable for crypto miners. In fact, the RTX 3090 delivers more than double the mining hashes when compared to the previous generation 2000 series.

Meanwhile, the lower-end (but still amazingly good) RTX 3080, 3070, 3060 Ti, and 3060 have limited hash rates (and are therefore less attractive to miners) and have seen much bigger price drops by comparison. According to Tom’s Hardware, the RTX 3080's price fell around 12%, the RTX 3070 around 9%, and the 3060 Ti's reduction was over 12% in the first half of June compared to May 2021.

AMD cards also saw price reductions even though AMD has never restricted the mining capabilities of its cards. Prices of the AMD Radeon RX6800XT, the RX6800, and the RX6700XT all reduced by between 5 - 9% between the same period in May - June.

The huge downside is that the retail prices are still massively high when compared to manufacturer MSRP. The RTX 3080 has an MSRP of £649 in the UK (good luck), but its retail price is still around £1100-£1200 on eBay UK. The cheaper RTX 3060 Ti is still being sold for around £600 - £700, compared to its MSRP of £369 (but prices of these lower-end cards are definitely sliding faster - hurrah!).

What does this mean for PC Upgrade Competitions and their players?

it means that finally, we might start to see graphics cards somewhere closer to MSRP in the UK. Instead of running a draw for £1700 for a 3070, we might be able to run a 199-ticket draw at £2.99 a ticket for an RTX3060 or 199 tickets at £3.99 for a 3070 (imagine that). This will also bring down the cost of every prebuild with an RTX card - will we see the end of the £5000 gaming PC? Time will tell!