RTX 3080 Prices Could Drop Due to Cryptocurrency Bust According to NVIDIA Partner ASRock

Urian B., Tech Times 17 June 2021, 12:06 am

RTX 3080 prices could slowly go back to normal! The widespread cryptocurrency blast that happened last month did more than just massively slash the price of Bitcoin by tens of thousands of dollars, it also took a huge chunk off of the GPU demand in China.

Cryptocurrency Mining Demand for GPU

Due to the decrease in GPU demand for cryptocurrency mining, this could lower the prices for regular consumers! ASRock, a NVIDIA board partner, reports that it now expects its large graphics card sale to still continue to grow throughout the year, according to Digitimes.

The card sales continued to grow despite the flagging demand in China for the latest GPUs from NVIDIA Ampere as well as its competitor, AMD Big Navi. This results in a decline in GPU prices.

China Makes Up 65% of Bitcoin Miners

According to the article by CNBC, China has just recently extended its strict ban on cryptomining within the country and has started cracking down hard on different cryptocurrencies in general. China is now directing financial institutions as well as payment processors within the country to ultimately stop processing any transactions that include cryptocurrency.

China officially accounts for a whopping 65% of the whole world's total Bitcoin mining capacity. This would mean that China's really aggressive move against crypto is now expected to have a massive impact on the total demand for high-end GPUs that are needed in order to mine cryptocurrencies.

Global GPU Sales

The total impact is quite sorely needed and as early as this week, an analysis of global GPU sales for Q1 2021 indicates that up to 25% of GPUs sold within the quarter were actually intended for cryptominers, according to the story by TechRadar. ASRock, meanwhile, noted that its Q1 net profit had seen a massive jump as it increased by a whopping 167% year-over-year driven mostly by GPU sales.

An article by Tom's Hardware now notes that this made the Q1 2021 ASRock's recorded most profitable quarter ever. This was despite the underperformance when it came to the company's motherboard division owing to the whole ongoing semiconductor shortage.

NVIDIA and AMD GPU Supply

GPUs are technically expected to make a whopping 20% of the company's total sales in Q2 of 2021. The motherboard sales, on the other hand, are expected to make up 50%. The company now also reports that it currently expects AMD's very own GPU shipments to start picking up during the second half of 2021 after AMD finally made capacity adjustments as well as supply chain improvements.

The expectation, as of the moment, is that with cryptominers gone, the general supply of GPUs will increase and more and more people will be able to get their hands on much coveted GPUs at fair prices. With more GPU supply available, gamers and PC enthusiasts alike can finally get their hands on the latest GPUs like the RTX 3080.

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Written by Urian B.