Following a huge rise in GPU prices during the pandemic, these cards were selling like hotcakes. So much so that retailers made sure to ride this wave by selling these at twice, thrice, or sometimes even four times the MSRP. It appears now that most people have finished their WFH builds and disassembled their mining rigs following the recent fall of crypto. As such, production has overtaken demand and NVIDIA might just have run into a GPU oversupply situation. Here’s the gist.

Most people know that the current lineup of NVIDIA GPU cards is the RTX 30 series. This serves as the heart and core of current-generation gaming systems and crypto mining rigs due to their reputation for sustained performance under high loads. Unfortunately, a huge drop in demand has led to a surplus, which is something we never expected amidst a continuing chip shortage.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has been quoted by the Verge as saying: “We found ourselves with excess inventory. Our strategy is to sell in well below the current sell-through levels in the marketplace to give the channel an opportunity to correct.”

“We’ve implemented programs with our partners to price-position the product in the channel in preparation for our next generation.”

This just means that the excess inventory was caused by a miscalculated forecast and this unforeseen drop in prices. However, there were already signs of this early on in the year, as seen with retailers’ price adjustments here and there. The market not only has to compete with other brands, but against the secondhand market as well. The world’s largest crypto mining organizations are beginning to conduct mass dumps of their used GPUs onto the preowned market, at extremely tempting prices.

The company has decided to maintain investor confidence by mentioning the upcoming generation of NVIDIA GPU chips, aptly named the 40 series. These cards are set to once again level the playing field by providing immense value through a stunning price-to-performance ratio, in the same way that the 30 series did to its predecessor. There is also no guarantee that prices will crash, since retailers have the freedom of pricing their items in a free market.

We’ll have to wait and see what could be next for the world of NVIDIA GPU chips. Hopefully, those who have held strong from buying at elevated prices throughout this pandemic are rewarded for their patience.