Nvidia thinks it can solve the rising GPU shortage that led to the higher selling price. The company is recommending to retailers to sell only two units per buyer.
The proposition is in line with the graphics card maker's goal of prioritizing gamers when it comes to its high-demand GPU cards. The company is well aware that lately, Nvidia graphics have been out of reach.
If a unit becomes unavailable, the sticker price is normally inflated, in many instances by more than 100 percent. Now, Nvidia is actively doing its share to address the supply shortage that pinpointed to cryptocurrency mining as the chief culprit.
"For Nvidia, gamers come first. All activities related to our GeForce product line are targeted at our main audience. To ensure that GeForce gamers continue to have good GeForce graphics card availability in the current situation, we recommend that our trading partners make the appropriate arrangements to meet gamers' needs as usual," a company official told German-based news site ComputerBase.
However, the company is clear that its initiative is a mere suggestion, meaning Nvidia sellers can take heed or ignore the request.
The Fix To GPU Shortage
Nvidia cards becoming scarce not only make the products hard to secure. As a direct result of the limited supply in the market, the demand reaches abnormal levels that, inevitably, the law of supply and demand kicks in. The sticker price becomes ridiculously expensive, and to blame are enterprising online sellers.
For instance, the popular GTX 1070 is quick to disappear and buyers have no problem shelling out up $890 when the normal asking price is $380. In the same way, the more affordable GTX 1060 with 6GB RAM has a suggested retail price of no more than $250. No thanks to the shortage, the card can go as high as $530 per unit.
Even Newegg is getting into the game and sells the GTX 1080 Founders Edition by up to $6,700. To correct the anomaly, Nvidia is gaming the prevailing scenario by selling its GPU online. In the hope that profiteer will be forced to chop off the selling price, Nvidia sticks to the SRP level.
Combatting Cryptocurrency
Nvidia's efforts, however, is not seen to make a dent in cryptocurrency mining that is believed as the main reason for the GPU supply shortage. Taking advantage of the muscle and speed afforded by powerful graphics cards, Bitcoin miners are convinced that GPU cards will be their key to unlocking instant millions.
These miners simply ignore the astronomical GPU asking price and hold to the possibility of harvesting a digital currency that, one day, will command a price equivalent to a well of gold, leading them to scoop up graphics cards where and when they are available.
