Consider myself lucky

Sometime in November of 2020, a couple of months after the launch of Nvidia’s latest 3000 series GPUs, I saw someone on Carousell trying to sell an RTX 3080 from a pre-built gaming pc that he bought. He wasn’t interested in using it. Despite being in a prebuilt, with the GPU used and fixed in his gaming rig, I still went ahead to buy the GPU from him.

He was selling at close to S$1500 for an opened unit. That is roughly about S$200 to S$300 markup from MSRP pricing you would typically get from a brand new RTX 3080. The markup was significant, but I still went ahead to meet up with him and make the purchase.

Now, fast forward 6 month later, and even with the recent launch of a new SKU from Nvidia, the RTX 3080ti, stocks of their GPUs here and pretty much around the globe are still scarce. Stock availability is so bad right now that people are selling the same GPU that I got for more than S$2000. That is just insane.

Looking back, I am lucky to have gotten my hands on the seller’s unit. If I’d passed on the opportunity, I may never get my hands on one for months. And the S$300 markup that I paid for just get early access in using the GPU? A bargain.

GPU stocks is predicted to continue to be scarce throughout the year and possibly well into 2022 according to industry experts. They have become precious commodities in the gaming community (and controversially, also within the cryptocoin mining community). I fully understand how upgraders who have been trying so hard for months in getting one of these new GPUs must be feeling right now. Frustrated, resigned and feeling disrespected as consumers by NVIDIA (and to a lesser extent, AMD) for not doing enough to ensure stable supplies even after months following the release. My only hope is that Nvidia and AMD take strong action to discourage sales to crypto miners and do something about ramping up supplies soon.