MSI to increase video card pricing throughout 2021?

How are things with video card prices right now? Not good, unfortunately, and the situation may last a lot longer than expected.

MSI expects tight GPU supply throughout 2021

Until recently, it was hoped the tight GPU supply would ease in the second half of this year but now signs are popping up that it may take longer. MSI chairman Joseph Hsu says the manufacturer will increase the pricing of its video cards to reflect the reality that the current imbalance between supply and demand may persist until the end of 2021.

Hsu told investors that sales of motherboards, video cards, and gaming laptops increased 30 to 50 percent year-over-year in 2020. He expects that for the full year of 2021, these product segments will see double-digit growths again as demand is expected to remain high:

Hsu, at an investors conference on March 23, pointed out that end demand for motherboards, graphics cards and gaming notebooks are likely to stay robust for the rest of 2021 and each product line's shipments in 2021, after registering on-year increase between 30-50% in 2020, are expected see double-digit growths again.

Yes, video card prices are horrible

ExtremeTech took another look at video card prices and concludes the situation is the worst they've ever seen. I will not keep you waiting in suspense, the conclusion is that street prices of AMD's Radeon RX 6000 series and NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 30 lineup are at least 2x higher than the official MSRP. For some cards, it's 2.5x or even 3x:

Today, no fewer than 7 GPUs out of 9 are running above 2x, while two are running above 3x. This is the worst GPU prices have been in my two-decade career. It’s not even close.-- Joel Hruska

One sliver of good news is that PlayStation 5 prices are coming down from previous highs. Here is the comparison chart from The Verge:



ExtremeTech also points out how absurd it is right now to see the relaunch of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti. This 4GB card is currently sold in Japan for 22,800 yen, or about $200. Originally, this model launched for $140. It's almost comical but $200 for this card from 2016 almost seems like a good deal considering it's selling for at least $262 in the US right now. The site suggests the best bet right now for an economical graphics solution is to rely on integrated graphics -- and wait for more reasonably priced GPUs.