To be clear by 'here to stay' I'm not talking about ongoing mining influences and low supply boosting prices through next year, I'm talking a 'permanent' realignment to a position where people can't just drop £300 every couple of years and get a big upgrade.
Traditionally I have held the view that graphics card prices will eventually return to 'normal' levels, i.e. nearly all cards priced below £1000 and midrange cards under £500 at some point (perhaps 2023) when supply has ramped up (new manufacturing comes online) and potentially a drop in the mining validity. Similar to what we saw after the 2017 boom.
However, I was wondering if a sustained period of elevated pricing with stock jumping off shelves might convince manufacturers that they have been underpricing GPUs and should be launching new product at higher levels. So something like a RTX3080 equivalent would have an RRP of £999 for example instead of £649, with 3070 at £749 and 3060ti at £499. Just examples, the numbers don't really matter.
My brain tells me that market forces should drive down the prices towards a lower equilibrium level, due to the potential for undercutting competitors (once the supply situation improves). But my heart tells me maybe there's an opportunity here for a real shift, make high end PC gaming what it was 25+ years ago, a very expensive hobby. The one thing I'm not sure about though is sales volumes, is there enough demand to sustain high pricing even with higher supply volumes, or is the reality that despite everything being out of stock, there aren't actually that many units being shifted?
Traditionally I have held the view that graphics card prices will eventually return to 'normal' levels, i.e. nearly all cards priced below £1000 and midrange cards under £500 at some point (perhaps 2023) when supply has ramped up (new manufacturing comes online) and potentially a drop in the mining validity. Similar to what we saw after the 2017 boom.
However, I was wondering if a sustained period of elevated pricing with stock jumping off shelves might convince manufacturers that they have been underpricing GPUs and should be launching new product at higher levels. So something like a RTX3080 equivalent would have an RRP of £999 for example instead of £649, with 3070 at £749 and 3060ti at £499. Just examples, the numbers don't really matter.
My brain tells me that market forces should drive down the prices towards a lower equilibrium level, due to the potential for undercutting competitors (once the supply situation improves). But my heart tells me maybe there's an opportunity here for a real shift, make high end PC gaming what it was 25+ years ago, a very expensive hobby. The one thing I'm not sure about though is sales volumes, is there enough demand to sustain high pricing even with higher supply volumes, or is the reality that despite everything being out of stock, there aren't actually that many units being shifted?
