Graphics card prices plummeted overnight

I spent 18,599 yuan to buy two graphics cards and lost more than 8,000 yuan in two months .

This is a real experience revealed by a netizen - a huge collapse in graphics card prices .

Moreover, this netizen bought a high-end one, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090.

However, this is not an isolated phenomenon.

According to the current graphics card quotes in the overseas market, a graphics card like Nvidia RTX 3080 dropped from 2,299 Australian dollars (about 10,000 yuan) to 1,499 Australian dollars (about 7,000 yuan) in just one night.

The price has plummeted, falling by as much as 35% .

Except for the 3080, the prices of the entire NVIDIA series of 3050, 3060, 3070 and even the upcoming RTX 3090 have generally dropped, with an average drop of 10% .

And AMD is also quite exaggerated.

For example, the price of RX 6600 dropped by 22%, and the price of RX 6700 XT dropped by 16%... Most graphics cards are dropping in price, with an average drop of 13%.

Avalanche, a really big avalanche.

Therefore, facing this situation, netizens were helpless and expressed their feelings of "fainting in the toilet":

Price cuts focus on mid-range and high-end graphics cards

How much has the graphics card price dropped now?

According to data from the US e-commerce platform NewEgg, the prices of Nvidia and AMD have been falling since the beginning of the year.

Nvidia's 30 series currently has an overall premium of 72% , with an average drop of 10% :

AMD is currently trading at an average premium of 47% and has an average downside of 13% :

The price reduction momentum in China is also not small. Graphics cards that were priced at an average of 8,000+ last month have now fallen to the initial launch price (over 6,000), and some models have even fallen below the initial launch price:

The prices of graphics cards in Huaqiang North Market, known as "China's No. 1 Electronics Street," have started to fall since the beginning of the year and are currently at their lowest level in the past two years.

Some store owners even said that the prices will continue to drop.

However, this wave of price cuts currently only appears on mid-to-high-end graphics cards , and the current market prices of mid-to-low-end graphics cards of 1650 and below have not changed much.

And how did the players react to this?

Don't buy .

One type is the ultimate wait-and-see party, who believe that prices will definitely go down, and may even be reduced to "selling by the kilogram."

These players believe that the current round of mining boom has lasted for more than twenty months, nearly two years, so the number of graphics cards entering the mining farm must be far greater than the total number of ordinary players.

Prices will continue to go lower before a complete collapse.

Image source: Zhihu answerer "Durian Meteor Hammer"

The second type is in the Buddhist stage of holding the card and waiting. They believe that unless they have design or computing work, mid- and low-end graphics cards can fully meet the daily needs of ordinary players.

For example, when it comes to playing games, in the foreign forum Quora, under the question "What games can I play on my 1660?", most of the answers are:

If you switch to 1080p and don't have high requirements for image quality, then there will be no problem with mainstream games .

The third type clearly inherited the spirit of last year's "graphics card players vs. scalpers" and ran around shouting:

I won’t give you the money even if it grows mold.

Image source: Zhihu answerer "Fox Little Demon DIY Installation"

Why the decline?

So the next question is - what exactly caused this avalanche of graphics cards?

"Mining" may be one of the reasons.

As early as 2020, due to the continued surge in Bitcoin prices, a "mining boom" swept across the country.

Many miners purchased large quantities of graphics cards to "mine", and there was a situation where cards were hard to come by.

In addition, at the end of 2020, Ethereum (ETH) upgraded to Ethereum 2.0, requiring miners to invest in more powerful hardware.

At that time, the RTX 30 series graphics cards became the first choice for miners.

Nowadays, as the craze for virtual currency has subsided, the demand for graphics cards used for mining has also declined.

And just recently, Ethereum successfully tested a technology that it claims can reduce energy consumption by 99%.

That is, miners will likely no longer need powerful hardware to complete transactions.

Because of this, there are voices in the market saying that "'mining accidents' are an important reason for the price reduction of graphics cards."

In addition, production capacity is also an important factor.

For example, an industry insider believes:

In fact, there are two main reasons for the initial price increase of graphics cards. One is because of mining, and the other is that production capacity cannot keep up.

The price reduction is now because the situation has reversed. People are not mining as much, and the production capacity has also caught up.

Previously, JPMorgan Chase executive Gokul Hariharan said:

In 2023, there will be sufficient supply of global semiconductors to restore a certain degree of supply-demand balance, or even overcapacity.

Of course, the "second-hand market" is also a big shock.

Many people bought graphics cards to mine during the mining craze, and then chose to sell them second-hand after using them.

The price of this "retired" graphics card is obviously much lower.

There are even voices saying that graphics card manufacturers will recycle "mining cards" and sell them after refurbishing them:

In addition, Nvidia's RTX 40 series is about to be launched, and it is said to have "shocking" performance improvements.

Many people who are "waiting to see" may also be waiting for the release of new graphics cards.

…

So what do you think about the avalanche of graphics card prices? Welcome to leave a message in the comment area to discuss ~

Reference Links:

[1]https://videocardz.com/newz/gpu-prices-are-falling-march-2022-update-shows-10-13-drop-on-ebay-listings
[2]https://weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id=2309404750847727763475
[3]https://fortune.com/2022/03/22/ethereum-is-one-step-closer-to-solving-a-major-criticism-and-beating-bitcoin/