Gamers or multimedia professionals in the market for a new graphics processing unit (GPU) might be in it for a tough time, as the recent cryptocurrency surge has depleted the supply of graphics cards again.
According to DigiTimes, the prices of GPUs both from NVIDIA or Advanced Mirco Devices (AMD) will get higher due to this situation. The price hike can range from $5-$20 and might come in the near future to compensate for the low supplies of the GPUs due to bulk buying from cryptocurrency miners.
This can also be attributed to the expected normalization of GPU prices at the end of the year due to the decreasing demand of cryptocurrencies which require GPUs. Unfortunately, this did not happen, at least not quickly as expected, which is why supplies for GPU's are still limited at the start of the year, hence the price hikes.
This, however, is only bad for the regular consumer since companies which manufacture GPUs also benefit from the increased profits they gain from the bulk-buying by miners. PC Gamer has stated that the root cause of the limited GPU supplies is still unclear despite the popularity of cryptocurrency.
TweakTown, however, has indicated that "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" (PUBG), one of the most popular game right now, might also have been responsible for dwindling GPU supplies. This was because the game is immensely popular in China where a huge chunk of the game's player base is from the said region.
"PUBG" is a graphics intensive game and requires a reliable mid-range GPU in order to run properly. It uses the same GPU tier which is also used for cryptocurrency mining since they provide a perfect balance between cost and performance.
As such, "PUBG," combined with the currently increasing prices of cryptocurrencies, might have had a combined effect on the GPU supplies worldwide and might have indirectly caused the price hikes for the said PC components. It remains to be seen whether the prices will become normal again as 2018 progresses.
