Bitcoin Mining Demand Doubles Video Card Prices
While gamers and hobbyist are railing against the recent trend of rising video card prices, system builders have begun to feel the pinch as well. Graphics card prices have skyrocketed in the past few months, in some cases to double or more of their original retail price, as cryptocurrency mining continue to drive demand up.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are at an all-time high, triggering unprecedented demand for cryptocurrency mining hardware, most of which rely on a supply of energy-efficient graphics processing units (GPU).
While this trend could be a short-term boon for GPU makers, they are beginning to feel concerned, as well. "Personally, I see this as a bad thing for the industry," a source in the GPU industry told Digital Trends.
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"These products were made for gaming, but now they'll be used for something that the product wasn't designed for – running 24-hours non-stop," the insider added, noting that it's the gaming industry that bears the brunt of the problem. Gamers now have to contend with dwindling video card supplies at ever-rising prices, due to supply and demand.
Ben Miles, managing director at system builder Chillblast, shared how demand has hiked up the prices of components even from their suppliers. "Right now, the worst affected cards are AMD Radeon RX 580, 480, 470 and 570. NVIDIA cards are now also extremely affected with the 1060, 1070, 1080, and even 1050Ti in severe constraint," Miles said.
One good news for gamers and PC enthusiasts is that GPU manufacturers have caught up to the demand, at least. As a result, prices have become stable for now, according to Tom's Hardware.
The surge in demand has left a lasting impact in the GPU market, however. Even as cards like the AMD RX 580 are now in stock, their prevailing price of $500 or more is still more than twice the suggested retail price for these cards.
It's unlikely that the price surge will be alleviated soon, as GPU shortage continues with the current popularity of cryptocurrency mining.
