Bad News! – Graphics Card Prices Appear to be Rising Again

Since late last year, it’s not exactly been a secret that graphics cards have not only been difficult to get hold of (and that’s putting it mildly) but have also seen their prices from both scalpers and (sadly) mainstream retailers be vastly in excess of their official MSRPs. Since the beginning of June, however, there were signs that, at long last, things were seemingly set to return to some kind of normality. If not in terms of supply, then at least in terms of the pricetag.

Following new market research released by 3DCenter, however, that once-promising outlook has now turned a bit grim as over the last month there has been a noted increase in GPU prices for both AMD and Nvidia!

Graphics Card Prices Rising Again?!

The research results, which we have reported on in the past, specifically samples from German retailers. As such, we always feel it somewhat necessary to present it with the caveat that what’s happening there may not necessarily be happening here (or wherever you are). Presuming that this is a fairly solid market indicator as a whole, however, the latest report does not make for encouraging reading.

Put simply, over just the last month, a general increase in graphics card prices have been noted as follows:

• AMD – Prices up by 5% (based on officially stated MSRP)
• Nvidia – Prices up by 9% (based on officially stated MSRP)

Why Are They Up Again?

This is an excellent question, and, quite frankly, we don’t have a particularly good answer for it. On the whole, all of the market signs have, generally speaking, been pointing towards supply levels getting slightly better and retail prices starting to come down. Our best guess, therefore, is that this particular increase has potentially been led by shipping/logistics issues. For example, you may be aware that over the last couple of months there have been numerous reports of an acute shortfall in HGV drivers. It is, however, also potentially a knee-jerk (or maybe preemptive) reaction to the news that many graphic card manufacturing centers in China have had to temporarily close due to COVID-19 outbreaks.

Staying positive though, it’s not an overly huge increase. And certainly nothing like the misery we saw earlier this year. Let us, therefore, hope that this is merely a blip and not the start of a brand new trend!

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!