The tide may finally be turning on graphics card pricing after a big drop-off in demand from cryptocurrency miners could see manufacturers slash prices to try and keep stock moving. Although the past year has seen just about every card throughout the range of respective manufacturers overpriced by two or even three times as much as the MSRP, we could see big cuts in the near future.
Cryptocurrency mining has been blamed for much of the GPU shortages we've seen in the past 12 months, and along with AI developers they sent prices soaring as retailers looked to cash in on the surging demand. However, as cryptocurrency prices have fallen in the past few months, demand for mining has fallen off too and it's meant that new graphics card purchases have fallen in kind.
Shipments of graphics cards are reportedly down 40 percent month on month, which could mean that stock levels will start to go back up and in turn, retailers will need to begin to cut prices to compete with one another once again. It may not bring cards back down to MSRP levels for a while, but it could be a turning point that sees things heading back towards affordable levels.
This could also be impacted by the debut of the first Etherem ASIC miners earlier this year by Bitmain. Although the miners aren't expected to be available until sometime in July, their effieicny, power and relative affordability could make them the new defacto way of mining Ether, which in turn will free up a lot of graphics cards.
However, this could all be short lived. Cryptocurrency prices are going through some kind of resurgence now, so it's equally possible that we'll see demand increase in the months to come. Perhaps Nvidia's next-generation can miss that wave, at least early on, giving gamers a chance to upgrade before prices soar again later in the year.
