A "card" is hard to find

　　Double the price

　　Guangzhou Daily (all-media reporter Xu Xiaofang) Since the beginning of this year, the price of graphics cards has skyrocketed and demand exceeds supply, which has aroused market concern.

According to the market, it is currently impossible to buy graphics cards at the original price from official channels, and can only be purchased from other channels at a higher price.

The industry believes that the shortage of graphics cards is closely related to the rise in virtual currency prices.

Prices have soared since last year

　　According to CCTV reports, since the end of last year, the price of graphics cards has risen sharply.

Take the RTX 3070 graphics card launched in September last year as an example. When it first went on the market, the official sales price of each brand was 3899 yuan, but a reporter from Guangzhou Daily browsed major shopping websites and found that the price of 3070 graphics cards of each brand had reached 8,000. Yuan and above.

In just six months, the price of this model of graphics card has more than doubled.

"The price of 30 series graphics cards on the market has basically doubled compared with last year, and many more than doubled." Industry insiders told reporters that the current graphics card prices are high, and a "card" is hard to find.

　　In the case of a severe imbalance between supply and demand, consumers are even more confronted with "one price per day".

Game player Xiaolong told reporters that he bought a 3080 graphics card last year, and he bought it for 8,000 yuan that day, while the day before, the graphics card was only about 7,000 yuan.

It is understood that the market price of this graphics card is now as high as 14,000 yuan.

It is reported that ASUS executives recently revealed at its investor meeting that in view of the decline in Nvidia’s GPU supply in the first quarter, the shortage of graphics cards is expected to continue.

ASUS believes that the lack of supply may be caused by Nvidia’s lower-than-expected GPU output.

Some industry sources told reporters that the price of graphics cards has risen, but the current manufacturer’s price of complete computer shipments has not increased.

"Mining fever" intensifies "graphics card fever"

　　Industry insiders told reporters that the high price of graphics cards is due to the strong demand for PC and game graphics cards in 2020.

IDC data shows that in 2020, the global PC market shipments exceeded 300 million units, an increase of 13.1% year-on-year, setting a new high in recent years.

Among them, global PC shipments in the fourth quarter of 2020 increased by 26.1% year-on-year to 91.6 million units.

Data show that Nvidia provided approximately 9.1 million GPUs for desktop computers in the fourth quarter of 2020, and shipments increased by approximately 1 million year-on-year.

But still unable to meet the market demand, the price of graphics cards has been rising.

　　On the other hand, since last year, the price of virtual currency represented by Bitcoin has increased sharply, which has exacerbated the "graphics fever".

It is understood that graphics cards are the core product in the process of virtual currency mining. As the price of virtual currency rises, more and more people join the ranks of mining, thus further pushing up the price of graphics cards.

　　It is worth noting that currently in my country, Bitcoin and other virtual currencies are defined as a specific virtual commodity, which does not have the same legal status as currency, and cannot and should not be used as currency in the market.

In addition, any organization or individual that provides "virtual currency" transaction services within or outside China, establishes RMB channels and capital pools within China, and collects transaction fees is prohibited by law.