Graphics cards and cryptocurrency mining: Will there be a new bubble that inflates prices?

I am very happy to confirm that the graphics card market is already in a fairly advanced stage of normalization. It is true that still full recovery has not occurred, and that some prices are still inflated, but fortunately we can already find graphics cards at more than acceptable prices, and it seems that the situation can only get better. Without going any further, we can now buy a Radeon RX 6600 for 369.90 euros, only 30 euros above its recommended price.

Some sources have insisted on trying to put “clouds on the horizon”, assuring that this will not last and that cryptocurrency mining will live. a new upswing very soon, which will cause graphics card prices to skyrocket again. You’ll be happy to know that this doesn’t make any sense, and is in fact highly unlikely to ever happen. Let’s find out why.

Mining with graphics cards is less and less profitable

And things will get worse and worse. Right now, mining with a GeForce RTX 3080 Ti in its LHR version, that is, the one that uses the algorithm that reduces mining performance, produces an average income in Ethereum of 2 dollars a day. This means that, to amortize the purchase of said graphics card, it takes at least two years, assuming that during that period of time the income obtained is not gradually reduced.

On the other hand, it must be taken into account that the launch of Ethereum 2.0 is scheduled for the end of this yearand that this makes buying graphics cards to be used for cryptocurrency mining no longer makes practically any sense, a topic that we already had the opportunity to see in this article that we published at the end of last year.

The drop in demand for graphics cards from the cryptocurrency mining industry has fallen sharply, and stock levels in the retail channel are increasing. As there is more supply and less demand, prices will continue to fall gradually, and in the end it is only a matter of time until we reach full normalization. Personally, I think there is a possibility that prices could even fall below the recommended level, especially if there ends up being an avalanche of graphics cards on the second-hand market.

We must not forget that we are also on the verge of launching a new generation of graphics cards, the Radeon RX 7000 and RTX 40, which will hit the market later this year. With these getting closer, retailers may have no choice but to clear stock sooner or later, and this will only be possible if they cut prices considerably.