Why are graphics cards so high in price now?

So I've been building liquid cooled computers for about 7 years or so, so I'm still a novice but taught myself through reading.. It isn't hard to do once you do it once but something of a feat for myself because I could have cared less in high school. Built my mom and sister a computer for way cheaper and better than they could have got it.

Anyways I've read many articles about why graphics cards are outrageously priced right now, few saying bitcoin mining (which is highly likely imo) to there is just more gamers. I wanted to bring this here and see what you guys/gals had to say because as is I am not seeing lower prices till at least April? I could post some articles but heck you get the same ones if you google them.

a reply to: MarlbBlack

Ughhh...I know!
Crypto mining. That is the only reason.
Goto any manufacturing website and sign up for in stock notices. Pay the manufacturer direct and save money. Outside retailers are marking up prices because they can get away with it.

Go to nvidia and check. A normal 1060 is $299.
Ebay? $400+.

originally posted by: MarlbBlack
So I've been building liquid cooled computers for about 7 years or so, so I'm still a novice but taught myself through reading.. It isn't hard to do once you do it once but something of a feat for myself because I could have cared less in high school. Built my mom and sister a computer for way cheaper and better than they could have got it.

Anyways I've read many articles about why graphics cards are outrageously priced right now, few saying bitcoin mining (which is highly likely imo) to there is just more gamers. I wanted to bring this here and see what you guys/gals had to say because as is I am not seeing lower prices till at least April? I could post some articles but heck you get the same ones if you google them.

Cryptocurrency mining had quite a bit to do with the prices of graphics cards, as the rush to build machines that could do the work seemed to cause a supply issue and the cost of the cards jumped higher.

Supplies are more stable now, but prices are still high, even for the low-end GPU's.

a reply to: introvert

Tell me about it.

I had to buy a lower end card to finish a build until the prices come down or the new 20 series comes out (rumor says mid-summer). Until then, I refuse to pay outlandish prices, sometimes 2x manufacturer costs, for a GPU. It shouldn't cost half my budget for a decent card.

a reply to: MarlbBlack

Reminds me of the global RAM shortage ...

originally posted by: havok
a reply to: introvert

Tell me about it.

I had to buy a lower end card to finish a build until the prices come down or the new 20 series comes out (rumor says mid-summer). Until then, I refuse to pay outlandish prices, sometimes 2x manufacturer costs, for a GPU. It shouldn't cost half my budget for a decent card.

I think the cryptocurrency fad will level out, or fall off, and we should see more stability in the prices later this year.

Microcenter had a note on their website for CPUs and GPUs . They were nearly all sold out and what they had left was 2x and 3x the normal price
And all for the reasons most had stated - crypto mining
Right there on the website....
Just another hair-brained get rich scheme that hurts others
"Momma always said , stupid is as stupid does" - Forrest Gump

Why crypto though, when you can buy dedicated machines for less, to do more. Hell, even usb sticks built for mining bitcoin exist. That algorithm being cpu intensive, and nothing to do with gpus.

I had an amd hd5850, at the time, a decent mid range card, but was the best for mining scrypt algorithm. I blew it up running it 24/7 overclocked so it was at 100c constantly..

Other cards that performed better didn't do the same internally, but they gamed far better. So why crypto? Seems a cop out.

I'd say it's that like high end cpu's, you are paying for a brand name, not a bit of hardware.

Mind you, since my crypto explosion, both gpu and psu rendering me to a low end set of hardware, with the mobo and cpu I got having mined crypto, I have become used to 640x480 gaming on things. nothing like cod4 rendered like minecraft..

serious too, and I busted the pcie slot on this thing, so... brutus hands.. who cares, it played the internet at 1920x1080 easily...

I don't think it's the crypto phenomenon that is causing the prices... I think it's people buying high end brand names..

just my2c.

Not a gamer. Not a system builder. Just kind of a sometimes observer. I'm somewhat aware of the general prices of high end computer stuff because I kind of just like to see what tech is doing.

As far as I know, graphics cards have commanded premium prices for as long as they have existed. The reason is simple. Whatever they cost, people will pay it if they need a graphics card. Gamers (for example) are automatically people with disposable income. Otherwise they wouldn't be able to afford to buy games.

a reply to: MarlbBlack



That's why I bough Xbox One X. Its fantastic....

The Xbox One X's real upgrades are under the hood. It features an 8-core CPU running at 2.3Ghz, 12GB of GDDR5 RAM, a 1 terabyte hard drive and an upgraded AMD Polaris GPU with 6 teraflops of computing power. The PS4 Pro has only 8GB of RAM and tops out at 4.2 teraflops. Microsoft's console is clearly faster. That additional horsepower means the Xbox One X can run more games in full native 4K than the Sony's console.

So much easier than messing with PCs. Of coarse PCs will always be more powerful.

I bought a GTX 1080 8GB card in may of last year for $700 AUD, now the exact same card seems to cost around $1000 AUD, that's pretty crazy. Honestly I'm glad I bought it when I did, I got sick of waiting for AMD to release the Vega, I thought it would be a cheaper option than the 1080 but the Vega 64 8GB card is priced around $1400 AUD, it's completely insane. I thought AMD was going to save the day and push down GPU prices but it appears that hasn't happened at all.

The blame ain't all on crypto a lot of it is price fixing by manufactures themselves and retailers.
look how nvidia like to boastfully show the annual profit off. Not a surprise when you follow in the footsteps of Intel.
They have been at it for years.

Lots of price fixing.

darrellx.com...

a reply to: badw0lf
A CPU does not have a dedicated “ram” to it. AKA “VRAM”, VRAM is essentially the number 1 reason why GPU’s prices have gone up so much. So if you look at the the price of a basic cpu vs. a gpu over that past year you will see a difference that would point to this very idea. Ram is very much needed to mine. Without high volumes of ram or “VRAM” then all that time or energy is wasted. Another factor that has cursed the gaming community is companies like Apple or samsung pushing the same phone every quarter with minimal changes but a higher price tag. Phones need vram also and this whole I need the new phone craze had dealt a blow to he new market. Now while as a consumer you can send all the hate mail you want to the leaders of the GPU market. Keep one thing in mind though. Those dudes are making freaking bank right now and could give two craps about you or I.

Just have to stay vigilant and keep an eye on retailers. I ran into the same problem choosing to build a new gaming rig end of January, the graphics card was always going to be my last purchase so I didn't even look into it until it was too late.

Had everything else ready to go, saw the market and everything sold out and wanted to cry.

Started checking my local best buys on a daily basis (through the website) and managed to snag a 1070ti at normal retail to ship to store for free. They were out of stock an hour later, and since then even Best Buy has been raising their prices on them.

a reply to: MarlbBlack

its high because Nvidia and AMD have an agreement to fix their prices so both can have profits.
they have a monopoly on all dcc or videogames cards. they're the only 2 real hardware makers, every card on the market is simply coded differently distributed by company x or y with fancy labels and packaging, but still Nvidia and AMD hardware.

a reply to: MarlbBlack

Everything I've read mentions bitcoin miners...because the programs used to mine bitcoins run better on the independent processing power of graphics cards.

Those $200 cards were bought en masse and production is not able to keep up with demand.

The price gouging is all on retailers.

Not the manufacturers.

Hell even Ebay prices for used is effing outrageous.

I checked every day multiple times to try to buy one from nvidia.

It was never in stock.

Did the same with EVGA.

Mining is not a get rich quick scheme.

It does pay for what your actually doing.

Renting out your hardware and get paid by a third party.

There is no reason to buy a low end graphics card when CPU have integrated GPU's now.

The best thing to do is put your money away and wait til the new series comes out.

a reply to: Allaroundyou

I never said a cpu has vram.

I said there are dedicated devices made to mine bitcoin. and a GPU will not surpass that.

what hyperbole over nothing I said. ?

I'll just plug in my excellent new graphics card...

let the other guy run this.. I'll be sure to out do them.

My fancy new GPU will surely beat this..