In the past two years, the graphics card market has really fluctuated, although according to the convention, each generation of graphics cards has the so-called "first guide price", even if different manufacturers will strengthen it as needed, the price will not exceed the guide price too much. However, due to various reasons, starting from the "20 Series", the guidance price of graphics cards has lost its meaning, and many graphics cards have doubled in price shortly after they are sold. This situation also reached its peak last year, taking the more mainstream RTX3070 as an example, its initial price was 3899 yuan, but the price doubled shortly after listing, and even broke through the 10,000 yuan mark after half a year, which also made most PC players call "can't afford to buy".
However, just as the so-called "feng shui rotation", since the beginning of this year, the use of graphics cards to "mining" has gradually ceased to become the mainstream, which has made the demand for high-end graphics cards for "miners" greatly reduced, and even some of the graphics cards used for "mining" have also flowed into the second-hand market. On the other hand, due to the miscalculation of the market by graphics card manufacturers and dealers, a large number of high-end graphics cards have been hoarded without "miners" to pay for them, and they can only choose to sell at a reduced price, which has also led to NVIDIA's stock price falling by 5% in the recent past.
For players, after two years of waiting, most people don't mind "waiting." After all, the graphics card is not a necessary hardware for the computer, the current mainstream processors have their own core graphics card, if the computer is only used to access the Internet and office, there is no problem with the graphics card. Even some mainstream online games such as "League of Legends" do not have high REQUIREMENTS for GPUs, as long as they do not open the highest quality, they can play smoothly with the core graphics card.
At the same time, the reduction in the number and quality of "AAA" masterpieces in the past two years has also given players a reason to no longer pursue high-end graphics cards. Although the highly anticipated Cyberpunk 2077 finally hit the market at the end of 2020, a large number of bugs and live-action footage that did not match the promotion disappointed many players. In fact, in the past two years, only a few works such as "Old Man Ring" can make people shine, but the domestic game "Original God", which does not have high requirements for graphics cards, has become a hit.
Since there is no excellent game work, players are naturally happy to continue to do "wait party". This makes manufacturers and dealers who hoard a large number of graphics cards panic. Therefore, since the beginning of this year, the price of graphics cards has fallen again and again, although each time it is only a slight reduction of about 200 yuan, but into the second quarter, the price of many graphics cards has fallen by more than 30% compared with the high price point in the past.
However, although the "graphics card plunge" has become a hot topic on the Internet recently, players familiar with the graphics card market know that the price of graphics cards is far from falling into place. Take the recently popular RTX 3070Ti as an example, its initial price last year was 4499 yuan, but at present, the 3070Ti of several mainstream brands is still above the price of 5000 yuan, and the so-called "graphics card plunge" is really a lonely fall!
We know that the price of commodities is determined by supply and demand, and when the buyer's demand becomes smaller, the price reduction of commodities is inevitable. In particular, graphics cards belong to consumer electronics, and according to Moore's Law, the price of graphics cards should continue to fall over time. That is to say, graphics cards such as RTX3070 listed in 2020 should be normal today after two years. Players who buy two years ago's graphics card at the original price will definitely lose money.
However, because some graphics card dealers are high-level hoarding graphics cards, their purchase price is probably even higher than the original "guidance price", which leads some dealers to choose "hard support", or even "group". In the past two days, a number of graphics card brands on a certain platform have played the slogan of "insured 618", which means that the graphics cards of these brands will not be reduced before the end of the 618 campaign, so that players can buy quickly.
To know that "618" is still 2 months away from now, graphics card manufacturers and dealers at this time shouted not to reduce prices, indeed some overconfidence. After all, for most players, there are not many games worth upgrading the graphics card now, most popular games can run smoothly with the 1060 of a few years ago, and even the entire "30 Series" can be skipped, and the "40 Series" at the end of the year can also afford to wait. These old graphics cards can survive the "618", can they survive the "Double Eleven"? In any case, the "Wait Party" will never lose!
In general, the demand for graphics cards in the "mining" industry in the past two years has made graphics card manufacturers and dealers earn a lot of money, but they have ignored the needs of ordinary players and hurt the most basic user groups. More importantly, the rise of "mining" has given graphics card manufacturers a faster way to make money, thereby reducing investment in game developers, resulting in a significant reduction in excellent "AAA" masterpieces, making games lose their attractiveness to players and interrupting the law of game-hardware spiral upgrades. Eventually destroyed the ecological environment of the entire graphics card market, so now even if the price of graphics cards begins to decrease, the majority of players are no longer willing to act as the wronged head of the high-level "takeover".