Have you ever had this dilemma where you want to buy this new game but then suddenly, you stopped and think, "Will my Graphics Card be able to handle this game?" So then instead of buying the game, you quickly changed your thought process and head straight to "Shouldn't I just upgrade my graphics card first?"
Well, you won't have that dilemma anymore. With the crazy high prices of GPUs right now, you probably wouldn't think about buying a new graphics card right now.
I bought my MSi 1660 ti Gaming X 6G for 17,500php (around 360 USD) in March 2019. And just this month, a friend of mine who just bought a Custom PC said that an MSi Ventus 1660 super which supposed to be a more back-for-the-buck option is priced at 28,000php (around 577 USD) we bought our Custom PCs at the same shop, this truly boggled my mind. This led him to buy a lower graphics card to stay within budget.
But why did graphics cards become this expensive?
The main reason is lack of supply. With the situation today, you are lucky to see a graphics card is in supply. Graphics card manufacturers can't keep up with the demand and thus they resorted to increasing the prices. But another question is, why is the demand for GPUs so high the even big manufacturer can't keep up?
The answer to that question is cryptocurrency. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have climbed up in value as of late. This made cryptocurrency mining very popular right now hence, more and more miners buy more and more graphics cards to up their mining capabilities.
So what does this mean to the gaming community?
Well, this could greatly affect not just the gamers themselves but also the companies that create and produce games. Since newer and newer games demand higher processing power from CPUs and GPUs, it means people will be forced to buy new GPUs if they want to game at a playable framerate. But with the prices of GPUs right now, along with the lack of supply, more and more people are discouraged to upgrade their rigs. This would mean that they won't be able to play new games at an enjoyable or even just playable rate, which would mean they wouldn't even bother buying the games after all. A chain reaction, greatly affecting gamers and game creators.
So is there some way that could change the way it is right now?
I see three possible solutions.
One is if graphics card manufacturers could keep up with the demand, and develop graphics cards specializing more in cryptocurrency mining, this could help balance the pricing on "gaming" GPUs.
Another is if cryptocurrency suddenly, and continually deflate in value to a point where mining with GPUs would be deemed unprofitable. Making the demand for GPUs less and less. Hence, a drop in their prices.
A third one would be stricter regulation on GPU pricing itself.
Any of these possible solutions would bring great help to balancing the prices of GPUs once again. But as long as GPU prices are this high, gamers will continually be discouraged to buy new games.
I hope this gave insight as to what the effects of the insane prices of GPUs could mean to the gaming community.
And as always, keep your cool. Cheers!
