Nvidia
Between both Nvidia and AMD, we have seen over the last 12 months some pretty significant price increases in GPU’s. As backward as it sounds, some cards which are now a year old, cost more today than they did at launch.
Well, the news doesn’t get better I’m afraid as Nvidia has warned consumers that prices of their graphics cards are expected to keep increasing throughout 2018.
GPU Prices
It is beyond any doubt that GPU prices have increased significantly. They actually increased so much that we did a whole feature article showcasing the price increases with the average being around 25-30%.
In a report via DSOGaming, however, Nvidia has said that prices are still going to continue to increase. The reason for this is 2 part, smartphones and cryptocurrency mining.
Smartphones and Mining
It’s no secret that cryptocurrency mining has taken off massively in the last year. I must confess, having resisted it for some time, I have my own little mining system running as I write. As such, with many cryptocurrencies using GPU’s to power the computations, demand for them has created a significant shortage.
One of the more under the radar instances causing the shortage, however,is smartphones. With the high-spec phones requiring a decent amount of memory, vram has also hit major supply issues.
Buying a GPU
If you were looking to upgrade your GPU, I’m sorry to say that none of this is good news. I consider myself somewhat fortunate that when I bought my system it was just before prices went entirely ridiculous. At present, however, I couldn’t even think of buying a GPU. For an upgrade, I’d need to spend north of £350 and as for many PC owners, that price for a GPU is often a step too far.
What do you think? Struggling with GPU prices? Are you putting off your upgrade? – Let us know in the comments!
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Oh well it will be amd and nvidea that could loose out in the long run.if these rip off prices continue or climb even higher,I for one and probably a lot of gamers will do is probably switch over to consoles and that could possibly have a damaging effect on amd and nvidea by relying on miners to buy the overpriced graphics cards.
I am surprised that a third brand hasn’t appeared, but then I guess that wouldn’t solve the parts problem. The AMD APU Ryzens is a good solution though.
Peter- That’s not quite true. AMD rules the console front since their tech is in both the PS4/PS4 pro and X1/X1x. They’ll still make money.
£350 on a GPU is “a step too far”?
Since when?
If you’re looking to keep upgrading, you’re always going to keep paying more until you reach the high end of the market.
I tend to upgrade my PC every year with new parts (i’m a hobbiest builder) so I don’t think spending over £350 is something that should be questioned, especially when you’re using it every day.
Praying that the next AMD die shrink will produce a £300 APU with RX 580 performance or EA, Steam, Bethseda etc Al can pack up their bags and look for other work
Pissing me off
Not willing to Ower pay. Wasn’t upgrading due to price hike and won’t be till its go down. Otherwise don’t see reason gaming industry is not so demanding on extreme graphics card, there’s no point to upgrade for such price just for 1 or 2 games a year.