4 Reasons for Graphic Card shortage

If you are in for a new GPU in market you may have a hard time finding the right one or any for that matter. GPU market is ruthless right now which happened due to several factors, so lets dive in and discuss some of those.

COVID-19 PANDEMIC:

Pandemic was the ultimate factor, it bought restrictions such as nationwide lockdowns which translated into less labor and hence less manufacturing plants being operational, then the huge obstacles in transporting something from one part of the world to another almost ceased due to tougher restrictions on cargo and shipments which made it impossible to buy the raw materials from one location, to assemble them on another location and then supply them to third party.

SILICONE SHORTAGE:

Silicone is the most important component of making a computer or graphic card chip, without a chip there is no graphic card that works. Silicone is used because its a pure semi-conductor which a chip needs, there are many other materials that can be used but using only silicone has two simple reasons A) its cheap B) Its vastly abundant.

Now Silicone shortage is interlinked with pandemic, more lockdowns hence less skilled labors to turn raw silicone into end products. On top of that to turn silicone into a product that can be used in various electronic devices it needs to go through a process which requires other raw materials such as monomers. Monomers supply was also disrupted creating a double whammy for already struggling silicone industry.

SCALPERS:

Now Nvidia launched RTX 3000 series at the price and performance that left everyone amazed, it was mouth watering event for every PC enthusiast be it gamer, editor, miner etc. It could cater to everyone's individual needs at a very reasonable budget.

BUT! as only everyone thought! until the scalpers make them heard as soon as the card went for the sale. Before any normal person could add and buy the GPU from given website, Scalpers would take it away in seconds by using bots. Many steps were taken to curb the bot invasion but the situation was beyond the control, hence Nvidia has to pull off some of their cards from official website and made them available through physical stores, which created huge lines and camping outside stores across states.

BOOM IN CRYPTO:

Paired with everything else final nail in the coffin for the manufactures to meet supply and demand was the unprecedented boom in cryptocurrencies across the horizon. Some major crypto currencies like Bitcoin saw a boom of over 100% while Ethereum of over 200%.

There were many reasons for it like people who lost their employments jumped on the crypto bandwagon for quick returns, invested in graphic cards to start mining of these priced currencies. Not gradually but with full speed the trend only increased further. NVIDIA launched RTX 3060 'not optimal for mining of bitcoin' to restrict miners, AMD hasn't bothered much. but safe to say neither of the tactics in placed has worked to a substantial degree and the gap between demand and supply of GPU wouldn't lessen any soon.