Many people analyzing the GPU market are overlooking some important facts about economics.
By focusing on crypto mining, tech enthusiasts are overlooking something critical: lower demand for the crypto mining hardware isn't a big deal. For those who prefer to buy used, their prices naturally drop as miners flood that sub-market with cards. That much is obvious. However, counting it as the main driver behind new prices falling is unreasonable. The demand from other people is still quite high, so there's no real reason to reduce prices there in response to that demand. That's not what's happening. Crypto is only a buzzword, as brands continue to shift the blame onto crypto miners - even though the majority of them are only individuals looking for a little extra money. So, what's actually happening? Being conveniently ignored is the fact that production and GPU shipments reached a high right as prices started to fall. As markets stabilized when tariffs and trade embargoes in response to COVID fell apart, GPU shipments essentially spiked. Manufacturers ramped up production to catch up and flooded the market themselves. They also introduced new products that widened the range of components that are available. Literally more GPU's of various tiers are available. This caused production cuts to bring down the amount of units hitting the market so that it can stabilize. To prevent as many issues as possible and have a better guarantee of longevity, most buyers would still rather purchase new. This is actually what's happening here. To stabilize the market faster, scalpers were dealt critical blows after price gouging. Buying limits were imposed, so a huge chunk of the reseller market was simply dissolved. That makes it significantly more difficult for shops to justify high prices due to shortages. So, the new products being released are much less negatively impacted by scalpers intentionally shorting supply by purchasing as much as they can, holding them until buyers become desperate, then finally selling their stock for hugely inflated prices. To cut their losses, they drop their prices to near MSRP, which benefits them less than it benefits shops. To shut scalpers out of the market, shops hold sales and further reduce prices below MSRP to make it up in sales volume. MSRP is only the suggested retail price, which includes profit margins. When using this method, a shop willfully narrows its profit margin per unit in exchange for an overall larger long-term profit through a greater number of units sold. You can still see some incredibly stubborn scalpers hawking GPU's for prices that are several times the suggested retail price. Those parts don't sell, so they have to bring them down. These are the people who missed the prime scalping window trying to snag a sucker who didn't do his / her research, and using the sunk cost fallacy. They bought late to sell high, and they refuse to cooperate so they can cut their losses. Only this usually doesn't work because the financial damage has already been done. With more new GPU's available for sale, their stock is less valuable. We held these discussions and personally informed buyers since January 2020 that this is the solution. We were right. The very thing that everyone told our team wouldn't work is exactly what's working. Just saturate the market with variety, increase production and shipments, and crackdown on scalpers. Don't keep falling for the scam. The answer was obvious, they're carrying it out right now, and the responsible parties are denying all accountability for this mess. You're welcome. Thanks for reading. Until next time! Coming as a surprise to most of the TechTube community yet again, Stadia is set to expand instead of sound it's death rattle this year. Seriously, we don't understand the doubling down on Stadia hatred. Not only is the player base gradually growing, bad press is shrinking as the platform rolls out more features and games.
We already received news of Google opting to upgrade to more powerful Nvidia GPU's. There wasn't a lot said as to what the goal for this is. Stadia renders games perfectly well, so some are assuming that it's for easier development support. But the real kicker is that Stadia will be added to Samsung's new Gaming Hub interface, along with Amazon Luna, GeForce Now, and Xbox Cloud Gaming. This is huge, as it's being included with platforms that are more popular in the gaming community. For a tech giant like Samsung to officially recognize Stadia means that the platform is getting something right. It's also growing into Mexico. Ignore all of that recycled old garbage being pumped out of gaming "journalists" today. Their takes are identical, and just as hot, as they were when it first launched. These are bad opinions based on nothing still relevant today. Stadia has matured, the games library has greatly expanded, there are many more features, and the gameplay experience is great. And don't fall into the false dichotomy. Consoles and gaming PC's aren't dying just because cloud gaming is here to stay. We're all just going to have more ways to connect, and have more fun along the way. Coming as a surprise to most, but not to us, the GeForce GTX 1630 causes an uproar in the PC gaming community. We saw this coming and couldn't understand the intense hatred for the Radeon RX 6400. It seems that gamers are struggling to match their expectations with economic realities. Let's get into it.
According to reports, the 1630 is as powerful as the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti. This isn't actually true. It's a step behind the 1050 Ti, losing half of the gaming tests by a few FPS, winning only four, and tying only in one of those gaming tests. Meanwhile, the RX 6400 beat the favored GTX 1650 in 4/6 gaming tests. It's hilarious, to be honest, as the 6400 remains probably the most hated GPU released this year. Why? It's because TechTubers despise it because it doesn't match their completely unrealistic predictions, demands, and expectations. The RX 6400 lacks hardware encoding vital for capturing gameplay clips. The overwhelming majority of PC gamers don't, and will never, use Xbox Game Bar for this. Though we would use it, we have options. We can use third party software solutions, and we actually fault Microsoft for this because it's really not a necessary restriction. AMD deserves some fault as well, seeing as how there are installation issues with the software. The parts are compatible with the software, but the installer is riddled with bugs. For those who are lucky enough to get Xbox Game Bar to work with their supported APU, there's no actual problem. But for those of us who are unlucky, Xbox Game Bar won't recognize our supported 5600G's. See the real problem? An added insult to injury is that the GTX 1630 launched at a higher price point than the RX 6400. Priced at $199 on launch, the budget card costs $40 more than the RX 6400. What are gamers paying more for? It requires more power than the faster 6400, and it may support mGPU but no one's talking about it - however, Nvidia doesn't exactly have a good reputation with budget options in this area (they blocked the feature on the GT 1030 and other non-RTX / non-GTX cards). It looks like the grass wasn't greener on the other side this time around. If you're a smart budget shopper in the market for a good budget card, swallow your pride and buy the RX 6400. It beats the GTX 1650 and costs $40 less. You can capture clips with third party software, it's an easy set up process, it's a single-slot design by default, and it has easy-enable mGPU support. We're having a blast with our twin 6400's, and we disabled mGPU because we don't even need it yet. All hail the true budget king! Down with the GTX 1630! |
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