Rejoice! The Graphics Card Shortage Is Over!

Ol’ Grampy Biden is ripping open the oil reserves to salve our aching wallets. Newegg, the discerning gamer’s favorite PC store, has new Nvidia cards for sale for hours, even days at a time. You, dearest reader, can buy an Xbox Series X. Let the bells ring out, the chip shortage is coming to an end.

Since the refuse inferno which was 2020, it’s been almost impossible to get your lil’ Cheeto stained hands on a graphics card. Largely because of the world wide chip shortage which has affected everyone from the most audacious Tesla wanters, to the humblest of gamers just tryna see some of that good, good ray tracing. Semiconductor chips or microchips are complex and tiny, much like Ariana Grande. They, unlike Ariana Grande, are in everything from cell phones, to cars, to, that’s right, Xboxes and graphics cards. 

The shortage originally came about for a range of reasons, all stemming from the global Covid-19 pandemic. There was a massive surge of demand for microchips as folks moved their offices into their homes and needed to up their tech capabilities. Then there were the actual factory shutdowns which meant as demand grew, supply lessened. On top of that, add a dollop of global supply chain failures and now a fun oil crisis, and the few graphics cards which do exist, weren’t going anywhere fast (at least not without a ton of extra cost). 

Shipping is getting back on track and oil prices are stabilizing (a tiny bit… for now… god I wish I had a Tesla). Global manufacturing is revving up again, although we should still expect some stops and starts due to China’s strict Covid policies. Plus, enough time has passed since their original releases that you can now get an Xbox Series X and an Nvidia GeForce RTX provided you are someone with that kind of money to spend. This is also good news for pricing, enough time has gone by that you can buy from authorized resellers, instead of turning to shady scalpers. If you’ve been waiting for the day you can see Aloy’s peach-fuzz in full detail, or looking to get into crypto mining, that day has finally come. Hope you have $700 to $1400 stashed away.