With an ongoing chip shortage that’s impacting basically everything that requires silicon and, everyone’s favourite topic, cryptocurrency draining stock of GPUs, getting new tech toys lately hasn’t been as easy as it once was. At least, not without paying a premium. Fortunately, shifts in the crypto market and updates from GPU manufacturers seem promising.
Cryptocurrencies in general have had a bit of a rough past week. As reported by Axios, sudden drops in Bitcoin, shares of Coinbase (the popular crypto trading service) and Terra, (a “stablecoin” meant to match the US dollar) are at heart of what’s leading investors to reconsider their interest in crypto. While the relationship between crypto and GPUs varies depending on which coin and which technology we’re talking about, just last week ASUS co-CEO S.Y. Hsu stated in an earnings call that demand for GPUs to mine crypto is finally going away, as reported by The Register. In the same call, Hsu also stated that the supply of chips has reached a “manageable level,” though other components still remain a bit of a challenge.
This is great news ahead of new 40-series cards on the horizon, and an overall downward trend of prices for GPUs. Coming out of this nightmare of uncertainty around high graphics card prices, and hopefully chip shortage issues, we’re likely to have some more options this time around as Intel is set to bring their new Arc cards to market, pending a number of internal and external challenges. Right now, however, if you’re in the market for an AMD card, things might be working out a bit better for you. As reported by TechRadar, AMD GPU stock looks remarkably good on sites such as Newegg and is being sold at MSRP (praise the sun!).
While many might have perfectly suitable cards in their machines right now, it hasn’t been an easy time to either consider an upgrade or, should something awful happen, find a replacement. But hopefully the fading of blockchain-related activity and changes in the chip shortage might bring prices to much more comfortable levels, and soon! So far, it’s looking good as we’re more than overdue for a change of pace in this narrative.
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