The prices of dedicated graphics cards they keep shooting well above the cost set by the manufacturers and there seems to be no way to reverse the situation. The latest situation report published by 3DCenter Using data from European retailers shows a worrying reality.
There were positive signs last summer suggesting that graphics card prices would gradually decline after falling from insane May highs. However, as you may have suffered in your flesh, the necessary fall has not been reflected in the second semester. Only then can it be understood that a graphics like the NVIDIA GTX 1650 with more than three years old is the best seller.
The 3DCenter report has been prepared using data from large retailers such as Mindfactory, Caseking, Computeruniverse, and others. It has been carried out for the German market, but the situation can be extrapolated to other countries such as Spain or regions, because the same happens in Asia or America.
The medium has used the sales data of the main series of dedicated in the industry, the GeForce 3000 from NVIDIA and the Radeon RX 6000 (RDNA 2) from AMD. The prices of these cards are above the manufacturer’s recommended at launch (MSRP) by a + 89% and + 85% respectively. And that’s on average, because some models multiply the launch official by more than two.
The graph reflects another worrying trend. During the fourth quarter of 2021, from October to the beginning of December, there was a moment of great improvement in the availability of the cards. However, prices, rather than falling, actually rose, indicating that the end of the chip shortage (not expected until 2023) may not bring the expected price decline.
This situation jeopardizes the recovery of the PC market observed in 2020 when the need for new infrastructure managed to increase sales after a decade of declines and leaves the important segment of PC games in limbo. Without reasonably priced dedicated graphics cards, no one to play.
The reentry of Intel in dedicated after 20 years should be a breath of fresh air, an alternative to the duopoly of AMD and NVIDIA and the great dominance of this one, although we do not know the final prices of the Arc Alchemists, their level of performance and especially if Intel will be able to make enough units available to increase inventory and lower prices. The lack of chips, the insatiable crypto miners and the shameful speculation have drowned millions of users who surely need to update their equipment. We will see in 2022.
