We are currently suffering from a widespread component shortage which is creating a crisis in the PC Gaming world. But how could it happen? When is it expected to be avabe?
In this article we explain the origin of this phenomenon that is making a graph not available with affordable prices. But keep in mind that it does not affect only GPUs, or consoles and it is not caused only by cryptocurrencies. It is all a series of factors that have caused us to find factories that cannot meet a demand for electronic components.
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Semiconductor factories, the focus of the problem
All this shortage of components and PC Gaming crisis comes from the fact that due to demands for computer products caused by the pandemic, factories are not able to meet the demand. Added to this is the effect of the pandemic that does not allow factories to have their highest production capacities. Also, our homes and lives are more connected to technology than ever, with what is increasing demand for electronic products.
The solution that manufacturers operating for third parties such as TSMC or Global Foundries have seen is to build more factories, but being very large and sophisticated facilities, their construction can take years until they can produce. Intel has its own semiconductor manufacturing plants, so this crisis has affected them less.
Silicon can't keep up with the increased demand
Silicon scarcity has also been blamed on this semiconductor crisis. But the silicon shortage will continue to be a constant and it will be a cyclical problem that will not be overcome as long as the demand for electronic products continues to increase.
It has been that due to teleworking and digital classrooms, many people have had to buy computers for their own use instead of a shared one for the whole family, which has increased the demand for PCs and routers. Two new consoles have also hit the market: Xbox Series S and Series X, and PlayStation 5, which have state-of-the-art graphics and an SSD. But those two are just one of the many sources that have made factories unable to meet an increase in demand.
Cryptocurrency mining is not so much of a cause that you can't buy a new graphics card
Cryptocurrency mining is blamed as one of the biggest causes of the shortages we are suffering from. But it is very difficult that these are unilaterally the culprits that you cannot have an NVIDIA RTX 3080, and in the future an SSD. The miners have obtained a large part of their graphics cards thanks to the resale and second-hand market, by users who have wanted to make a profit from their new graphics card by selling it several times above the market price.
In 2017 the previous Bitcoin and Ethereum bubble burst, and their prices have been rising ever since. By then, graphics cards like the AMD Radeon 7 or the RX 5700 XT were hardly in stock. Therefore, the direct relationship between a shortage of GPUs and the rise in cryptocurrency prices cannot be demonstrated. It does not mean that they are not partly to blame, but it cannot be said that it is solely and exclusively the fault of the miners for the shortage of stock.
As the cryptocurrency bubble is cyclical, it is to be expected that once the prices of Bitcoin, Ethereum and Chia fall due to overproduction and low demand, they will fall and mining will be less attractive for years. Then in time we can see new generation graphics at really low prices, either second-hand or new because many have been manufactured to meet the demand of mining. You can expect a stock of graphics cards at really low prices.
When will the shortage of components and semiconductors end?
It is the question that many are asking. Global Foundries and TSMC have commented that their production capacity will increase by the end of 2021. But that will not be the moment when IT products will be accessible again in terms of prices and stock.
Due to the steps necessary for its production, it will take several months for this increase in production to be noticed in the market, with which the crisis of the shortage of components is expected to last until early 2022.
It is possible that by the year 2022, the foundries will have settled down, adapted to the silicon crisis and other problems that have caused the shortage we find ourselves in. One of the future consequences is that there may be some excess stock of computer products because foundries will have produced many units of easy-to-make and accessible products. An example of this is that there is speculation about a general reduction in the prices of RAM memory in all its variants, which will be a good opportunity to increase the RAM capacity, or try to get DDR4 memory modules or DDR5 memory.
Most likely, the first products to recover from this component shortage will be the ones with the highest profit margins. Low-end consumer products that are in high demand but low profitability, such as routers, will be among the electronic products that take the longest to regain their normal production.
Has the component shortage on PC been fixed yet?
As of April 2023, you could say yes, in a way. It's not uncommon to see graphics cards available anymore. But prices have risen due to inflation, and supply chain problems related to the US-China trade war and the Russia-Ukraine war.
