GPU PRICES FALLING

MINING BAN STABILIZES MARKET

AT LAST WE HAVE SIGNS that the ridiculous prices charged for graphics cards have peaked. There is still a healthy premium, though, and supplies remain tight. The finger of blame is generally pointed at cryptocurrency miners. In the first quarter of the year, they consumed around 700,000 mid- and high-range graphics cards—about a quarter of the entire market. Thankfully, demand is dropping, thanks in a large part to the Chinese government, which has started restricting the mining and trading of cryptocurrencies, and is even considering an outright ban. China currently mines over 70 percent of the world’s coins, often in remote areas such as Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang, where electricity is cheap. It is also largely from coal, which isn’t popular. Market analysts predict prices will return to near normal by next year.