The prices of graphical cards are falling as Bitcoin and altcoins are facing another downturn phase, according to a paper by John Peddie Research.
Video cards have been used by miners of cryptocurrencies for their operations as their cost-efficient processing power made them the perfect fit for mining rigs. As a result, graphics processing unit (GPU) worth $776 million were sold in 2017. The huge price spike at the end of the year prompted graphical card manufacturer Nvidia to recommend retailers to treat gamers with priority.
Now this trend seems to be reversing, according to a paper by John Peddie Research, Computer World reported. Popular options such as the GeForce GTX 1070 and GeForce GTX 1080 Ti have experienced price drops of between 15% and 40% in the last 3 months. These drops translate into a decrease of over 60%, compared to their peaks in the last 9 months. Even AMD Radeon RX 580, often sold out due to its high demand by crypto miners, is selling at just below $400, compared to $450 in April and an all-time high of $900 in January.
This drop in GPU prices comes after Bitcoin’s value fell below $6,400 this Tuesday. Other altcoins followed the downward trend. However, according to C. Robert Dow, manager of digital media at Jon Peddie research, most GPUs saw an average decrease of 5.6%.
Graph courtesy of camelcamelcamel.com
“We have predicted a drop in [video cards] as [crypto] currencies prices dropped,” Dow was quoted as saying by Computer World.
“The cost to run the mining rigs is not insignificant, so when the price for the currencies drop, people will run rigs and choose to dump [Add-in Boards] on the secondary market hoping to recover some cost.”
Stockpiled inventory and a secondary-used graphical cards market might have contributed to the decline in value. At the end of June, DigiTimes predicted a 20% drop in prices of GPUs.
Dow also explained that the worldwide graphics card market has an inventory of around several million units, while Nvidia has around a million of GPUs waiting to be released. As cryptocurrency miners are also expected to begin selling their used graphics cards, vendors are likely to offer major price cuts to compete.
This article appeared first on Cryptovest
