Reasonably Priced Graphics Cards Might Be Coming Back

GPU prices are finally dropping as the Chinese government cracked down on crypto mining operations in the country, subsequently bringing a lot of cryptocurrency valuations down as well. As a result, in the past few weeks, people looking for GPUs could find them at prices up to 45% lower than what they’ve grown accustomed to from scalpers.

Ever since crypto mining became a lucrative investment, GPU prices have been changing rapidly. In the past year, it escalated further, making it next to impossible to find any GPU at a reasonable price. The MSRPs tripled, and add-in board (AIB) price tags have also been growing immensely, leaving people with no choice but to set aside massive amounts of money, or give up on getting a graphics card altogether.

The Chinese government’s newest strict stance on crypto mining is motivated by the threat cryptocurrency poses to real currency. The influence China has on the crypto market is enormous, since it has always been one of the best places to set up a crypto-mining operation.

As many crypto-mining hangars are bound to lock on their doors, getting a GPU directly from a manufacturer will become easier. The biggest GPU and AIB companies were also suspected of selling directly to miners, thus leaving little room for Gigabyte, MSI, EVGA, ASUS, and other suppliers to make more graphics cards for gamers and the general population.

NVIDIA tried to get on top of the situation by providing Light Hash Rate (LHA) variants of its RTX 30 Series cards - the successors to the famous RTX 20 series - that come with built-in limits for crypto mining hash rates.

If this downward trend continues, people can expect to see plenty of used graphic cards on second-hand markets for discounted prices - a similar scenario to the one following the 2017 crypto crash. Lastly, some manufacturers such as ASRock and AMD have already commented that the supply is bound to improve and, with it, the prices.