Graphics card lull: availability, assessment, perspectives and alternatives

In short supply and possible reasons

I recently put together a new car at a vehicle dealer. A beautiful body with a top drag coefficient, large trunk, classy fittings, sports seats, automatic gearbox, great sound system and more. But then the shock: When choosing the engine variant, I was told that I should either wait at least six months to get the car at the same price level as last autumn, or I would have to pay so much for the engine that the car is just 20 percent more expensive.

Table of contents

Page 1 Graphics cards: In short supply and possible reasons 1.1 In short supply and possible reasons Page 2 Graphics cards: Alternatives 2.1 Transitional alternatives hardly in sight Page 3 graphics cards: RTX 3060 and rising prices 3.1 GeForce RTX 3060 - Savior in an emergency? 3.1.1 Prices - it's getting worse and worse Page 4 Graphics cards: ways out for those looking for graphics cards 4.1 No sufficiently powerful graphics card - what to do? Page 5 Image gallery for "Graphics card lull: availability, assessment, ... There's nothing like that? With computers, however, exactly this has been happening for a few months, whereby the engine is a metaphor for the graphics card It is difficult to say exactly what this has to do with - of course, in the end there is the simple realization that demand is higher than supply. But why is that? It is obviously a mixture of several factors that I would like to list here at the beginning without assessing which of the factors weighs particularly heavily.

Demand due to Corona - since many people around the world spend their free time at home due to the Corona pandemic, the demand for consumer electronics has increased. Of course, this also applies to the purchase of game PCs and upgrading existing PCs in order to be able to enjoy newer games with pleasant FPS values. Evasive reactions - the new RTX 3000 graphics cards came on the market from the end of September, but were almost immediately sold out. Likewise the new AMD RX 6800 graphics cards released in November. At the same time, production of the old RTX 2000 models was discontinued. At AMD, the RX 5700 XT was the best alternative - from around 400 euros there was practically nothing to buy at an acceptable price. Therefore, many have switched to a weaker graphics card so that they are not left without a graphics card suitable for modern games. The result: What cost 140 to 400 euros in the fall is also practically sold out and now costs, if you find a copy, sometimes over 100 percent more than in October 2020. Lack of production - both AMD and Nvidia seem to be producing not to run optimally. Increasing the supply doesn't seem to be possible, which is also due to the increasing demand for many other electronic products due to Corona, so that everything that has to do with chip production is heavily used. For example, AMD may want to get Samsung on board in order to be able to produce enough chips. It is difficult to say whether there are other unpredictable problems or whether you have simply underestimated the demand and now cannot find any free production capacity. Crypto currencies and miners - especially the price of the crypto currency Bitcoin rises in ever higher spheres, and since one can earn money on the trend by providing computing power - one also speaks of "mining", hence the term "mining" - Apparently, miners (especially from countries with low electricity costs) are also buying graphics cards en masse from the market. There are also rumors that graphics cards have been sold in large quantities to professional miners without going on the market. In Iran, mining is said to have even caused individual power outages. The picture is supposed to show expensive gaming notebooks that were only purchased for mining. Source: Twitter The exchange rates of the currencies are currently so high that it is worth buying a gaming graphics card that is completely overpriced from a gamer's point of view. Even buying expensive gaming notebooks is apparently worthwhile, as the picture on the left is supposed to show. But as I said: which of these factors is particularly relevant cannot be said. However, AMD and Nvidia as well as numerous experts and analysts do not expect any significant relaxation in the next few months. AMD, for example, speaks of a lower supply for the entire first half of 2021. And as long as miners ask for graphics cards on a larger scale, there is of course always the temptation for manufacturers and dealers to enter so-called backdoor shops, where the graphics cards do not even reach the shop area that is accessible to normal customers.

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