ASROCK’s expecting GPU demand from cryptocurrency miners to drop

Right now, ASRock expects GPU shipments to improve in the second half of this year, as supply constraints for substrates and other materials are alleviated. This should come as great news for Radeon fans, as this means that AMD’s RX 6000 series GPUs should be more readily available in the second half of 2021. 

Currently, China accounts for a large portion of the world’s demand for cryptocurrency mining hardware, be it in the form of ASICs or repurposed PC hardware. China’s declining demand can be seen as part of a broader, global trend. Today’s off-peak cryptocurrency values and increased mining difficulties has made cryptocurrency mining a lot less profitable. Beyond that, Ethereum’s planned move to a non-mining Proof-of-Stake system will kill Ethereum mining sometime this year. 

With Ethereum being one of the most profitable cryptocurrencies to mine, the cryptocurrency’s move away from traditional mining will cause many cryptocurrency mining operations to stop or lower their intake of new mining hardware. This will lower the demand for graphics cards from cryptocurrency miners and may cause some mining operations to shut down completely. 

If the GPU market sees increased supply and lowered cryptocurrency-related demand in the second half of 2021, gamers should start to expect increased availability and more reasonable prices for new graphics cards. That said, all it takes is another rise in cryptocurrency pricing to cause the world’s demand for graphics cards to spike again, so it is too soon to say that the days today’s graphics card shortages are numbered.