Price slide for hardware components - CPUS and GPUs noticeably cheaper
[12:39 Sat,26.March 2022 by Rudi Schmidts]
On the one hand, we are currently confronted with the biggest price increases in decades, and on the other hand, the prices for hardware components are now plummeting almost as much. And as so often, everything turned out differently than expected...
Actually, the world expected either a cryptocrash and/or the replacement of Ethereum mining by a ProofOfStake (PoS) algorithm to curb the so far insatiable demand for graphics cards for mining crypto coins. However, cryptocurrencies are currently sitting at around 75 percent of their all-time highs, even better than many stocks, and the switch from Ethereum to PoS still remains a not-so-defined "soon" that will likely be around for what feels like quite a while longer.
That said, prices for current GPUs are tumbling on a daily basis right now, and in some cases have reached even their MSRP levels that have never been seen to be paid since their release. In addition, the warehouses at the retailers suddenly seem well-filled.
For a few weeks now, GPU prices have only known one direction - down.
One reason might be the new GPU generation coming in about 6 months. Since even miners (have to) plan their investments for the long term, many are now probably in an investment waiting position. And those who have been patient as gamers or creators for the last 18 months will probably also wait for the new offers, especially since experience shows that the prices for the previous generation will drop significantly then.
At the same time, the board manufacturers seem to be better supplied with chips from AMD and Nvidia lately, which allows them to at least somewhat catch up with their delivery backlogs.
Thus, a (due to various crises currently somewhat subdued) buying mood now meets the orders that have now been delivered to various retailers, who were able to sell every graphics card they somehow managed to get their hands on with absolute dream margins just a month ago.
Now, some retailers seem to have the (perhaps not entirely unjustified) fear that they might be stuck with a pile of hardware at prices above the MSRP. Which is why they are undercutting each other on price adjustments on a daily basis right now.
And you&re also facing a similar situation with CPUs. Not only has Intel made up ground on AMD CPUs, but at the same time a major generation change is due in the fall, which promises a significant performance leap for both manufacturers with new DDR5 RAM, among other things. In addition, the supply situation for AMD&s CPUs also seems to have eased a bit, which is why you could get hold of many current Ryzen desktop CPUs at all-time low prices this week - for example, a Ryzen 7 5800X below 300 Euros for the first time. It is therefore to be expected that relatively full warehouses will want to be sold off in the near future...
;)