Crypto miners blamed for Nvidia GPU price hikes — again
Gamers are again blaming cryptocurrency miners for driving up Nvidia graphics card prices — this time before they’ve even launched.
Chipset giant Nvidia is launching a new GPU on February 25, the GeForce RTX 3060.
According to industry outlet Videocardz, a number of European retailers are selling RTX 3060s for more than double their recommended retail price.
Some have even gone so far as to cancel pre-orders in a bid to force re-buying at inflated prices.
- Nvidia’s suggested retail price (MRSP) for RTX 3060s is 329 EUR.
- Europe’s ProShop reportedly takes pre-orders for 499 EUR, a 52% hike.
- It’s worse in Poland. ProShop is selling the GPUs for 75% above its MRSP.
Portugal’s PCDiga also reportedly boosted its prices to similar premiums as ProShop last week, also due to apparent demand.
[Read more: Nvidia can’t tell if crypto or gaming is wiping out its stock]
While GPUs have been useless at mining Bitcoin for the past five years or so, powerful chipsets like Nvidia’s RTX 30 series can generate decent profit with Ethereum and a raft of tiny altcoins.
Last month, Protos reported demand from crypto miners had contributed to extended supply shortages for slightly older GPUs like Nvidia’s RTX 3080 and AMD’s Big Navi.
[H/T: NotebookCheck]