Crypto crash sends graphics card prices down
Since Nvidia unveiled its Geforce RTX 3000 series graphics chip generation in 2020, 3D accelerators have only been available in Europe at exorbitant prices. The crypto industry bought the market empty, leaving little for gamers. In view of the rapidly falling cryptocurrency prices, the situation is now cooling down: Because mining is no longer worthwhile in many cases, the miners are flooding the used market and the increasing supply is also causing prices to fall in retail.
Above all, the crash of the Ethereum cryptocurrency should favor the drop in prices for graphics cards: The second most important cryptocurrency, which was traded at more than 3300 euros per unit at the turn of the year, is now only worth a third. This means that generation using power-hungry graphics cards is no longer worthwhile in many regions of the world: The electricity costs are now higher than the expected profits. Ethereum generation is no longer worthwhile The result: the crypto industry, which has been producing graphics cards for the Ethereum in recent years – Generation hoarded has no need for the many graphics cards in their data centers. Companies and private miners are trying to monetize their mountains of graphics cards on eBay and other marketplaces – and are forced to charge lower prices because of the suddenly plentiful supply. At the same time, more graphics cards are now commercially available because the crypto miners no longer buy everything. Prices above manufacturer specifications, but falling High-end graphics card model MSI Geforce RTX 3080 Gaming Z Trio 12G LHR. While in January around 1800 euros were required for this graphics card, it is now “only” 1100 euros. In the middle class, prices are also on the decline: an ASUS TUF Gaming Geforce RTX 3060 V2 OC, for which up to 1200 euros in January were required is now being offered for around 500 euros. The retail prices are still well above the manufacturer’s recommended price, which was around 760 euros for a Geforce RTX 3080 and around 330 euros for an RTX 3060 when it was launched. However, they are gradually approaching a tolerable level again. New chips, crypto slump: Prices are likely to continue to fall Further falling prices are to be expected: On the one hand, the next graphics chip generation is already in the starting blocks at both Nvidia and its rival AMD , which promises even more performance than the currently available GPUs. On the other hand, there are no signs of recovery on the battered crypto market – digital currencies such as Bitcoin are bobbing at their lowest rate in the last two years.
Reference-www.krone.at
