Anyone want to make a futurological guess as to when things will be back to normal? I'm putting my money on August.
Id say follow the Crypto markets. All the time its going the rate it is and the prices its very profitable for mining. We had to wait last time for it to practically fall on its arse and halve in value.
Some are saying 2022: https://www.techpowerup.com/278938/industry-specialists-expect-chip-shortages-to-last-until-2022
I wouldn't. I sold my 970 for £100 2 years ago in April, which was top dollar for it then. Right now they're averaging £100 with the Asus Strix model I had going for £120 minimum. As for the 3060 launch today, I seriously considered it. I'm in the US now and there's a MicroCenter store 10 minutes away that had 50+ cards in stock. But not at $329 - the cheapest EVGA model was $389.99 (11 stock) with the other models being $450-$510 when I looked at midday Central time (an hour after launch). By 6pm all had sold out. As much as I want one for my newbuild (and for me it's not an upgrade as my old gaming rig is in the UK), I'm not overpaying. $60 over RRP is 118.5% of the RRP - and that's for the cheapest card. nvidia really need to explain why these cards were so much over their suggested RRP.
For those thinking about buying at nearly any price because of the scarcity just remember that this isn't going to revolutionise your gaming experience and make your life better! I went from a R9 390 to a 3070 (snagged at £470 on launch day - yes I was lucky) and whilst yes I have a much better FPS I wouldn't say my overall experience is that much better. More shiny features in the game but ultimately game play > graphics. If you have a 10 series or better your upgrade can definitely wait! Save the money for when the pubs (or other activities) open up and do that instead.
True words. I had a 5600 XT and then i done a build for a mate who done me a straight swap my Pulse 5600XT for his 5700XT (as he only using is old PC for streaming) and it was a worthy enough upgrade to ignore all this silly business. I didnt though .. managed to get a 6800 Pulse for £699 .. Sold the 5700XT within minutes for £525. But the point im making is that i dont and wouldnt notice the difference from the older card .. nothing i play goes above 1440p so in hindsight i wished i hadnt bothered , sure was a nice upgrade for a couple hundred quid .. but in reality i did not need it, nor has it enhanced my gaming experience in any way at all. What i do need though is a 2nd GPU for the bedroom!! So far ive managed to scrape a AMD 5450 512mb ... just so i cant watch some Netflix and a bit of telly.
Likewise. The plan was upgrade and move my 1080 into my second rig (which would be a bit overkill but, well, it wouldn't cost anything). Prices are silly though, so silly it's putting pay to a gpu for my second rig.
Friend of mine bought 6 3070s for not far off RRP for mining, but after they arrived we realised he'd actually make about £400 per card just by selling them on eBay. My responses, in this exact order, were: "Dude, that's crazy, just sell them on eBay. .... OH wait, that's scalping, isn't it? Okay yeah don't do that, that's evil and basically the reason everything's ****ed."
I honestly have no idea. They're doing it through a business so I presume they had the admin team just camping Scan or some other site continuously.