I ordered a new video card over the weekend. This is a significant development because the video card market has gone bonkers for about the last two years. Shortages in components and chips meant card makers couldn’t make them in enough quantities to match the demand. Demand has been high due people wanting to play PC games and also due to filthy crypto-miners. For any commodity that has high demand, that means prices go up. Just four to five years ago, spending $300-400 would get you a decent mid-range video card and $600 would mean you’d get a top of the line one. Not anymore.
In the last two years, the manufacturer suggested retail price for video cards means nothing. Scalpers, stores, and online retailers have been selling cards for 3-4 times the MSRP. People have been trying to capitalize on the demand by gouging desperate PC gamers on eBay, Craigslist, and Facebook Marketplace. In the last two months, however, prices have started to come down quite a bit. Depending on the card you’re looking for and where you live, some cards are at MSRP or even below it.
The card I ordered is a mid-range card and it is still above MSRP but not enough so that I feel like I’m being ripped off. I’m not willing to wait any longer for the prices to drop because I’ve already waited two years to get another video card. I can no longer play the latest games with my current one and still not have it look like a blocky, pixelated mess.
The crazy thing is I merely put the order in. The order still hasn’t been confirmed yet, so it’s quite possible there is no inventory for the item I just ordered. Everything is in such short supply these days, from video cards, to cars, common sense, and general decency. The world is in a sad state.