GPU shortage woes have been affecting PC gamers all over the world for the past year. But maybe this is the start of good things.
GPU maker Asrock, according to Overclock3d.net, is apparently expecting graphics card demand from miners to drop very soon. This is mainly involving Chinese miners for now, since China has been cracking down on cryptocurrency mining as a whole because of its insane power requirements.
Asrock believes that graphics card shipments are going to improve during the second half of the year, because supply issues are starting to resolve themselves. And since Asrock is mostly known for AMD graphics cards, this might mean that RX 6000 series stocks might improve in the coming months.
The current global GPU shortage is a partial result of a crypto mining boom, and China accounts for perhaps the world's largest crypto market due to the massive demand for hardware there. But as recent trends suggest, mining has become less profitable because it's becoming more expensive to run even a small mining rig.
And it's not just great news for AMD Radeon fans, too. Europe is also likely seeing the beginning of the end for the worldwide GPU shortage. According to Tom's Hardware, graphics card prices seem to have dropped as much as 50% in several European countries.
Read also: NVIDIA LHR GPUs Put to the Test: Are They Actually Effective at Limiting Mining Performance?
GPU Shortage Resolving On Its Own
Asrock's predictions are a breath of fresh air. If you've been closely following the computer hardware space, you'll know why.
While the company is primarily an AMD partner, Asrock is also instilling hope to NVIDIA fans who have been hit extremely hard by the GPU-pocalypse. This is even more true in Europe, where graphics card prices were pretty insane a few months ago. The NVIDIA RTX 3000 series, for one, used to cost a fortune there. Even the RTX 3060, which is supposed to be a mid-range part, was priced at $1200.
One can attribute this to the continuing decline of cryptocurrency mining worldwide, not just in China. Digital Trends reports that around 25% of all GPU stocks basically went to miners in the first half of 2021. Over 700,000 graphics cards were sold to miners during that time period alone.
But then again, the last few months have been quite hard for miners, who are already struggling with maintaining their profit margins. Bitcoin was among the hardest-hit cryptocurrencies, with fewer establishments accepting crypto as a legal tender (not to mention Elon Musk's constant trolling).
What's Next?
This has been the crypto bubble burst that every tech-starved PC gamer has been hoping for since the GPU shortage began. If the trend continues, then the GPU shortage predicted to last until the end of the year could end sooner than expected. And there will be a lot of happy PC gamers by then because they'll finally be able to get the most sought-after GPUs they've craved for so long.
Related: NVIDIA Doing it Right This Time? The RTX 3080 Ti's Hash Limiter Apparently Isn't Limited to Ethereum
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Written by RJ Pierce