ASRock Says China Crypto Demand Waning, GPU Prices Dropping: Report

News
By
last updated

Will it be enough to drop prices back to MSRP?

ASRock
(Image credit: ASRock)

According to a report from DigiTimes, ASRock is swimming in cash and soon expects to make even more. The company says it expects its sales to increase even though graphics card pricing is dropping and demand for GPUs for Chinese cryptomining operations is waning. The company also expects the supply of AMD GPUs to improve as more substrate production capacity comes online.

ASRock's predictions could prove to be good news for enthusiasts waiting out what is presumably the worst GPU shortage in history. The potential for reduced GPU pricing on the near horizon is certainly good news, but reduced Chinese cryptomining demand is also encouraging. China's recent cryptomining bans could spur miners to sell off GPUs on the second-hand market, drastically improving overall supply. For perspective, miners are thought to have purchased 700,000 GPUs in the first quarter of this year alone. 

According to the report, ASRock also expects higher production rates for AMD GPUs in the second half of this year thanks to capacity adjustments and increasing supplies of substrate materials. 

ASRock reported a net profit of $17.88 million for the first quarter of 2021, up 39.7% sequentially and 167% year-over-year, making Q1 of 2021 the most profitable year for ASrock ever. Thanks in no small part to the insane demands put on the technology industry as a whole.

Unfortunately, ASRock motherboard shipments have been underperforming thanks to shortages of both Intel and AMD CPUs. ASrock doesn't expect that situation to improve until Q4 of this year.

It's great to hear that the graphics card market could make a small comeback later this year. But it's fully possible that there could only be a partial recovery on the near horizon, and we won't see a full return to normal graphics card pricing and supply until next year. We've reached out to ASRock for additional detail and will update as necessary. 

Aaron Klotz
Aaron Klotz
Contributing Writer

Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

10 Comments Comment from the forums
  • ocer9999
    Thats good news, with more cards available the eTailer might be less greedy, the OC Formula motherboards were always legendary, the best thing you could buy for perofrmance , would love to get my hands on one OC-Formula 6900XT if the prices drop, that card is a beast..
    Reply
  • daworstplaya
    Now all the other countries need to ban Crypto (aka monopoly money) and we can have an end to this madness.
    Reply
  • caseym54
    Not sure I'd buy a used graphics card from a Chinese account at any price.
    Reply
  • watzupken
    I think Asrock just confessed that they have been selling cards to miners, and less to gamers. The problem I see is this, China has pretty much banned mining activities, which makes sense that demand for GPUs in China for the purpose of mining will drop drastically. The question is, for how long? If you can't mine in China, that does not rule out big mining operations will not move their mining activities outside of China, especially when it is still quite lucrative. So while demand has waned in China, I am pretty sure demand will eventually go up again elsewhere. So until all nations have some sort of ban in place, otherwise I don't see the miner issue going away.
    Reply
  • ClapTrapper
    caseym54 said:
    Not sure I'd buy a used graphics card from a Chinese account at any price.
    I'm sure I won't-but it is good news because many people will buy used GPUs (I don't-new ones don't seem to last long with me) and this will put downward pressure on new GPUs.
    Reply
  • VforV
    watzupken said:
    I think Asrock just confessed that they have been selling cards to miners, and less to gamers. The problem I see is this, China has pretty much banned mining activities, which makes sense that demand for GPUs in China for the purpose of mining will drop drastically. The question is, for how long? If you can't mine in China, that does not rule out big mining operations will not move their mining activities outside of China, especially when it is still quite lucrative. So while demand has waned in China, I am pretty sure demand will eventually go up again elsewhere. So until all nations have some sort of ban in place, otherwise I don't see the miner issue going away.
    As long as BTC keeps struggling between 40k and 30k USD (which affects ETH too) it will slowly get better for GPUs availability and prices. Yes, it still is profitable, but not nearly as much, as it was twice as profitable just a while ago, so less people are inclined to buy at scalper prices of x2, x3 over MSRP.

    Now there is a catch, if the prices drop to let's say "only" +50% on average, then even at these 30k-40k BTC values will be worth it again and the majority will want to by again for mining, so it's a double edged sword I guess.

    The only thing that can stop this is more crypto bans from more countries and fast. But that is not a certainty... I actually think crypto will never die, but slowly get stronger over time, even with all the anti-crypto measures in place.
    Reply
  • g-unit1111
    Oh man I sure hope so. This shortage has been ridiculous beyond words. I might get a 6800XT if they become more available and in stock.
    Reply
  • VforV
    g-unit1111 said:
    Oh man I sure hope so. This shortage has been ridiculous beyond words. I might get a 6800XT if they become more available and in stock.
    I'm interested in an RX 6800 myself, but even though it is "cheaper" now and more available it only dropped in price from x3 MSRP to x2 MSRP... which is irrelevant for me as I won't pay a dime over 580 euros for a stock variant or the normal +10% for a good AIB model - as in a normal world would be...

    I guess I'll be waiting a while still... I actually expect that by the time prices get to normal Intel with DG2 will be available and I'll and decide between AMD and Intel. nvidia can go **** themselves, I won't be buying from them again unless I can buy them at half the MSRP price and there is no other alternative from AMD/Intel.
    Reply
  • g-unit1111
    VforV said:
    I guess I'll be waiting a while still... I actually expect that by the time prices get to normal Intel with DG2 will be available and I'll and decide between AMD and Intel. nvidia can go **** themselves, I won't be buying from them again unless I can buy them at half the MSRP price and there is no other alternative from AMD/Intel.

    1. No way is that happening. There will always be alternatives, and no manufacturer would ever charge below MSRP on a big ticket item like GPUs, they would be operating at a loss at that point.

    2. That's not NVIDIA's fault. Blame the 3rd party retailers and scalpers for the reason price / demand went so sky high. AMD got affected by this too. And if somehow GPU-based mining skyrockets again, it will happen again.
    Reply
  • VforV
    g-unit1111 said:
    1. No way is that happening. There will always be alternatives, and no manufacturer would ever charge below MSRP on a big ticket item like GPUs, they would be operating at a loss at that point.

    2. That's not NVIDIA's fault. Blame the 3rd party retailers and scalpers for the reason price / demand went so sky high. AMD got affected by this too. And if somehow GPU-based mining skyrockets again, it will happen again.
    1. That's me saying "never", in other words...

    2. Are you sure I can't blame nvidia: like raising the halo product price to $1200 with Turing, from $700 with Pascal and $1500 with Ampere, raising it even more over Turing?
    How about raising the 3080Ti price last minute from $1000 to $1200?
    Or how about the 2080's MSRP of $800, which was also a lot more than the Pascal generation?

    These cases are solely on nvidia and nobody else.

    They've been raising prices and scalping us for years, it's just that in the last year we got extra scalped by everyone else on top of nvidia's scalping, that made things worse... but even if the prices stayed at MSRP, these MSRP prices nvidia put are horrible scalping prices. Official scalping prices.

    These are facts, not opinions.
    Reply