AIB graphics card shipments increased by 25 percent over 2021, despite the apparent global silicon shortage. This raises questions about the impact of crypto mining and scalping on cards meant to reach the consumer market.
In order to buy a graphics card in 2021 you’ll need smarts, agility, and, most of all, a bit of luck on your side. Look at the bigger picture and the reason for this is simple: demand outstrips supply, leading to a semiconductor shortage. But what does it actually mean to not have enough chips? How did we end up in this situation?
Both scalpers and cryptocurrency miners have alternatively been blamed for keeping prices up, and it is possible that, despite a reasonable supply of GPUs from foundries, the lion’s share of AIB boards are being snapped up by miners or resellers.
AIB graphics card shipments increased by 25 percent over 2021
Sapphire’s recently uncovered move to sell RDNA2 GPUs at reduced rates to miners is indicative of what might be happening to GPUs that could’ve otherwise ended up in consumer hands.
With cryptocurrency mining remaining hugely popular despite pricing volatility, the issue with the consumer GPU market might not be due to silicon availability at all.
It could be because miners have replaced PC gamers as the target market for AIB cards.
That’s largely true of PC gaming, too. When things are going well, we tend to ease up on the analysis of overarching industry trends and supply chain, distribution, or logistical concerns.
We still care deeply about the manufacturing process of those parts that matter most to us. Though exact time and location of stock drop at your local Best Buy tends to go by without passing remark.
But we’ve also had quite a few ups and downs in the hobby as of the past half decade. I’m talking more than usual launch month jitters that see shelves emptied for hottest chips moment they go on sale. With them we’ve grown more attuned to the prevailing headwinds of semiconductor manufacturing.
No more so than the perhaps most deep-seated, unwavering, and ongoing silicon shortage. That, affecting the graphics card market, that has thus far continued through 2020 and into 2021.