This A stock of CPUs and graphics cards continues to be in short supply, and it is time to get an update in the market to see what the current situation looks like and if there is any rest for buyers in the coming weeks. 

A previous article on this topic was well received when we released it about a month ago. Since then we have gotten so many ideas and information, let's start ...

GPU Market Update

The most troublesome part of the PC market, a month has passed since our last update and the situation still remains that you can't buy an MSRP graphics card, which I think won't surprise anyone. There is no sure end to the problem in sight, with several major companies including TSMC and Nvidia warning that demand will exceed supply for most of 2021.

However, as companies are quick to explain this, I believe it is important to note that these phrases do not imply that the current situation of low availability and ridiculous prices will remain the same throughout the year. 

Nvidia and AMD both anticipate improvements in the second half of the year, which means that prices are likely to return to nearer to normal, with some well-available products. 

These comments relate more to product lines as a whole, and what will almost certainly happen in late 2021 is that some products will be available while others will not be available, as demand and manufacturing restrictions differ depending on the specific product.




In most regions, not much has changed in terms of the actual GPU availability. On Newegg, the cheapest GPU available in anything close to MSRP is Nvidia's GeForce GT 1030, which you can get for about $ 120. The current generation has run out of cards, and cards from previous generations like RTX 2060 are grossly overrated. 

There are no real changes there.

In other parts of the world, we see what we talked about last time: Some GPU of them are available for purchase, at greatly inflated prices. This will vary by region and store. In Australia, for example, on Case Gear Nvidia GPU is harder to find than it was a month ago, while AMD RX 6900 XT and RX 6700 XT graphics cards are available.

Many retailers prefer to distribute these products in raffles or "early access" deals rather than merely listing them. This will depend on your local store but again, higher prices and low availability remain a reality.

What's Going On?

The number of people working in field A has continued in the past few weeks to provide more information on why the situation is exactly that, and it can be divided into three main areas:

#1: AIBs Keep Raising Prices

Card manufacturers (AIBs) themselves continue to raise the prices of their products or keep prices high. Essentially, while Nvidia and AMD can set a reference price (MSRP) for a specific line of GPUs - let's say RTX 3070 with $ 500 of MSRP - the actual board makers have their own price list on partner versions. Custom painting. Since demand is still very high, AIBs are not interested in shifting profits to the scalper market, so they gradually raise their MSRP over time.


We're not going to name any specific AIB addresses, but we've heard from many retailers that some brands are bolder at increasing MSRP than others, and often the prices you see on retailers' websites are not crazy retailers - inflated prices, but the official price Actual for those cards in that region as determined by AIB. 

You can check back in a week to see the prices rise. Well, that's almost certainly because AIBs raised their MSRP again for their latest batch of stocks.


Often these price increases only apply to high-end models in the family. Suppose, for example, the Asus Strix OC model versus the Asus Dual model, which maintains the appearance that some cards are less expensive because lower-tier cards do not undergo the same heights. 

If you check out PCCG, for example, Dual is listed at $ 1,239 out of stock, while Strix OC is priced at $ 1,659 - which is a huge variation in price there. But when it comes to physically equipping GPUs, AIBs will only produce higher-end, higher-margin cards at inflated new prices and will not offer any models at the lower end.

Of course, from an AIB perspective, this makes perfect sense. They want to maximize profits and they want to exclusively produce the more expensive variants that they can sell at the highest price. This is likely to continue while demand greatly exceeds supply. 

In fact, some samples of the "vanilla" cards have essentially been completely discontinued as AIBs indicated they would not manufacture them, causing chaos for retailers who placed pre-orders. 

If a lot of people pre-order a card and then it's turned off, the retailer will be in for little trouble, which is why pre-orders for these products are not available across the vast majority of retailers - the risk is so high that the card may not be present or it may be more expensive to purchase when Actual time to purchase inventory.