Bad news coming your way if you’re looking to build a PC in 2021; and thinking the graphics card shortage is finally coming along. The global GPU shortage has not only left many would-be PC builders helpless but wondering if they might ever get a new GPU at regular prices.
For the bad news, the latest reports from 3DCenter point towards an increase in future prices of graphics cards; but a steep dip in their availability. The picture painted by these reports directly contradicts what the past few months have shown. In the past few months, graphics card prices saw a comparative drop in prices, implying that the situation would slowly but get better. However, the condition seems to get worse over time in the coming months.
For the uninitiated, 3DCenter is a German-based website. It has been closely monitoring and releasing regular reports on the graphics card market in Germany. The fact that the website is based in Germany and studies the German GPU market doesn’t imply they’re not right. Including the price difference in countries, these reports are still good evidence of the worldwide state of the graphics cards market.
What does the 3DCenter report say?
The report posted by 3DCenter shows the prices and graphics cards in Germany. In May 2021, the prices of these cards reached a record height, selling at almost 300% of their MSRP. Consequently making it difficult for users to get their hands on graphics cards since availability and prices are closely tied up.
Meanwhile, getting back to the report of August 29th by 3DCenter indicates soaring prices of graphics cards in the coming months. The latest news by 3DCenter shows an increase in prices and a significant drop in the availability of cards. The situation is not just bound to NVIDIA, but it’s the same with AMD‘s graphics cards, showing an increase in average prices by 10%. Judging from the previous situation, the cards would now be selling at an average of about 80% above the MSRP.
However, this is not all. If the situation persists, the prices of these cards might go through the roof, making them sell at twice their MSRPs by Q4 of 2021. The whole graphics card situation was terrible, with their prices being unreasonably high. However, it seems the problem will get worse in the coming months, making these products pointless for gamers.
In August, Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, said, ‘that the chip shortage might follow us into 2022.’ This very well paints an unpredictable future for the GPU market, its availability, and prices. However, seeing as NVIDIA will launch its next-gen Ada Lovelace architecture-based graphics cards next year, the current RTX 30 series might not have a bright future ahead in terms of sales.
