New figures show how much cryptomining has contributed to the high prices of graphics cards over the past year.
The year 2021 was undoubtedly one of the worst ever from a player perspective. At least for all those who wanted to buy a new graphics card. Because the accelerators were more expensive than ever before. In some cases, three times the RRP was required.
Although prices fell slowly over the course of the year, they have only settled down to a normal level in the last few weeks. There were several reasons for the exorbitantly high prices – at least that’s what we thought. A pinch of crypto mining with generally high demand plus bottlenecks due to the corona pandemic.
Crypto miners accounted for a third of graphics card sales
However, current figures from the information service provider Bloomberg, who in turn refers to Bitpro Consulting, prove that there can be no question of a pinch of cryptomining. On the contrary: According to Jon Peddie Research (via Wccftech) $51.8 billion total spent on desktop graphics cards in 2021, Accordingly, 15 billion are attributable to the miners alone.
That’s almost a third. But what does that mean for the next generation of graphics cards from Nvidia and AMD in the form of the RTX 4000 and RX 7000?
RTX 4000 vs. RX 7000
Nvidia should be a decisive step ahead of AMD
There are two aspects to consider here: On the one hand, many of the used graphics cards from the current generation are sloshing back onto the market because the miners no longer need them. Various models of the RTX 3080 have already been sold on Ebay for less than 700 dollars and the trend is pointing downwards. So there is a surplus of current graphics cards, which is in direct competition with the upcoming models.
On the other hand, the price of the Ethereum currency, which is important for graphics card cryptominers, has fallen from over 4,000 dollars at peak times to currently around 1,000 dollars. This is roughly the level of early January 2021, shortly after the start of the last mining wave. So trust in Ethereum seems broken at the moment.
The two aspects together indicate thisthat the new graphics cards could actually be available at RRP prices. At least right after the launch and, due to the oversaturation of the market, probably some time afterwards. For this purpose, Ethereum 2.0 should be launched this year and switch from the previous Proof-of-Work to a Proof-of-Stake procedure. This means that graphics cards are no longer required. Speaking of graphics cards:
A new wave of crypto mining cannot be completely ruled out
But although the signs are good that we will receive the new graphics cards at RRP prices, a new mining wave, perhaps with a different cryptocurrency, cannot be completely ruled out. The last one picked up speed by leaps and bounds at the end of December 2020. And as we now know, the miners accounted for around a third of the sales for graphics card manufacturers and, thanks to this high demand, probably contributed most to the crazy prices of the past year.
What do you think? Will we get the new graphics cards from Nvidia and AMD at MSRP prices? Or are you even assuming a new mining wave? Write it to us in the comments!
