As we move forward in March, there is no relief in sight for the current shortage of video cards. In fact, prices for Nvidia GPUs are getting worse, at least in the case of the RTX 3080.
This data comes from Michael Driscoll, the same individual who provided analysis on the impact of scalpers on the console, CPU and GPU markets a few months ago. Driscoll talked to PCMag and provided our sister site with an update on his findings. GPU prices skyrocketed in February across the Ampere family and, although they are coming back down now, they are still high far above where they were in January and during 2020:
Data by Michael Driscoll
“Prices stopped rising just when the 3060 was launched, so it can’t be a coincidence,” said Driscoll. “It’s not a huge drop, but a significant one. For the increases, I cannot confirm this, but I know that many employers give year-end bonuses in February, and people are starting to file and receive tax returns, which may be driving part of the price increase. ”
Cryptocurrency mining may also be driving some of the increase. We have to give credit to the idea, at least because Nvidia has taken steps to protect itself against it by reactivating older GPU SKUs, such as the RTX 2060. The RTX 3060 may have brought prices back to Earth, but we are still talking about a situation where most GPUs are running between 2x – 2.5x above the MSRP.
The tariffs did not help in this situation and are responsible for some general PC component prices. Desktop hardware shipments are not as good now as they were a few months ago in terms of performance per dollar. It is unclear how much of this is specifically tariffs and how much is being caused by the scarcity of silicon, but the market is out of step.
We took a walk through eBay’s full GPU listings today, and the data certainly corroborates Driscoll’s point. While some real RTX 3000 GPUs appear to have sold for $ 800- $ 900, almost all of the auctions powered by that price turned out to be for digital art or a box reprint. An enterprising individual labeled his auction “SEM HUMANOS”, which aroused our curiosity:
Not all heroes wear capes. Good luck.
Many cards sold for between $ 1,100 and $ 2,500. When they will really return to normal is still a complete unknown. Nvidia tried to take steps to limit the latest GPU appeals for cryptocurrency mining, but also said that cryptocurrency-related sales accounted for only ~ $ 300 million of more than $ 5 billion of total revenue in the last quarter. Then again, Nvidia has historically had a problem estimating how many of its GPUs are sold for crypto mining. The 2020 lawsuit against Nvidia, claiming that it deliberately concealed that information, is still paving the way in the judicial system.
If Nvidia can alleviate these shortages and the situation starts to improve, we can see normal market conditions in the middle of the year. The chip shortage may persist until the end of 2021 in some segments, but we have no insight into which or for how long. You can still be lucky and get good deals – I’ve seen the Ryzen 7 5800X in stock at Amazon twice in the last 36 hours – but there’s no way to predict whether you’ll be able to do that.
Now, it looks like 2021 will be one of the worst years ever to try to build or buy a new computer.
Now read: