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Interest in cryptocurrency sees GPU prices and demand soar

Interest in cryptocurrency sees GPU prices and demand soar

Cryptocurrency profitability is on the rise and so is the price of graphics cards.

As reported by PCGamer, the price of GPUs across the board has elevated thanks to renewed interest in digital currencies like bitcoin.

The site reports that a GTC 1080 Ti has risen by $100 more than its $699 launch price, while a 1070 Ti has increased by $65.

AMD cards have seen a higher bump, nearly doubling in cost from their launch price. The RX Vega 64 spiked from $499 to $800 while the RX Vega 56 increase to $700 from $399. The amount of money brought in by mining each month is also substantial, making it easy to see why people are looking to get involved in this market.

As well as GPU prices rising, the other side effect is that it's becoming harder and harder to actually buy a new graphics card. Purchases by miners have depleted stocks at retail.

This isn't new information, but is worth reiterating as the cryptocurrency market continues to boom - albeit in a very unstable fashion.

Last August, Nvidia CFO Colette Kress said that this sector was driving GPU sales, while data from research firm Context reported that the average selling price of GPUs had risen by 27 per cent.

This hardware sector also saw a 121 per cent increase in revenue after sales rose 35.7 per cent.

Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum are something of an unknown quantity, with financial institutions not being entirely sure what to make of them.

The rising price of Bitcoin has had some unintended side-effects - for example, Steam ditched the cryptocurrency as a payment method in December due to a massive hike in transaction fees for the digital money.


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.