Spending a lot of money on a high-end graphics card or continuing to wait is becoming a problem that plagues many computer gamers today.
"Getting a 40-series graphics card now is seriously over budget. But if you buy a 30-series graphics card, you are worried about buying an obsolete mining card. Gamer Liu Zhi told the Beijing News shell financial reporter that the second-hand graphics card market is still relatively chaotic. Although the price of many graphics cards is almost halved, for ordinary players, these graphics cards have hidden mining card risks, and it is easy to get tricked if you don't pay attention.
Previously, in January 2023, the well-known graphics card manufacturer NVIDIA launched a new generation of graphics card RTX 4070 Ti, according to public data, the price of this graphics card is 6499 yuan, compared with the previous generation RTX 3070 Ti price is 2000 yuan higher, many long-awaited players are difficult to accept.
NVIDIA RTX 3070 graphics card. Photo: IC Photo
"No one expected that at the moment when the virtual currency market is gone, 'buying a graphics card' will still become a problem that plagues players." He Fei said, "Players who cannot afford 40 series high-end graphics cards will either continue to be 'wait for the party' and look forward to the subsequent new graphics cards." However, according to the previous law, the price of the subsequent 40 series mid-range graphics card will not be too low. Perhaps the graphics card with a people-friendly price will be gone forever. ”
Wait for the party to fail? The price of the 40 series graphics card has skyrocketed
"I wanted to assemble a computer, but as soon as the configuration was written, I found that the price seriously exceeded expectations." Post-90s player He Fei was helpless, "Let's continue to play with the old computer for a while." ”
He Fei told Shell Financial Reporter that as early as half a year ago, he planned to upgrade his home computer, "I was worried about buying a 'mining card', so I was waiting for a 40-series graphics card." As a result, after waiting so long, I found that I couldn't afford it. ”
At present, the price of the latest 40 series graphics card released by computer hardware manufacturer NVIDIA obviously exceeds the expectations of many players. Public data shows that the price of the 4070 Ti graphics card is 6499 yuan, the price of the 4080 graphics card is 9499 yuan, and the price of the 4090 graphics card reaches 12999 yuan. For a while, there was a lot of talk about graphics cards abandoning gaming users. Others have called encounters with graphics card "assassins."
Previously, the RTX3070Ti was listed at 4499 yuan. The price of 4070Ti is directly 2000 yuan more expensive. This premium is simply not something that the average player can afford. He Fei said, "This means that if you want to assemble a console that experiences the highest quality of mainstream games, you need at least 20,000 yuan." ”
Shell financial reporters found on social platforms such as Tieba and Weibo that voices complaining about the high price of 40 series graphics cards abound. "Players who are willing to spend a lot of money to buy 4090 and 4080 graphics cards are a minority after all, and more people will choose 4070 Ti graphics cards. The price not only exceeds everyone's expectations, but also indicates that the price of the subsequent 4070, 4060Ti and 4060 graphics cards will not be too low. Liu Zhi, who is also enthusiastic about digital products, said.
"There are deeper reasons for the increase in the price of NVIDIA graphics cards." Ma Jing, an observer of the game industry, told reporters, "From a business point of view, this may be a future market layout of the company." ”
As the most mainstream graphics card manufacturer in the current hardware market, the game business has always been one of NVIDIA's main businesses. Public data shows that its revenue in the first quarter of fiscal 2023 was $3.62 billion. However, the situation declined in the second quarter, with the game business only $2.042 billion in the quarter. In the third and fourth quarters, the game revenue was only $1.574 billion and $1.83 billion. According to its announcement, full-year 2023 game revenue was $9.07 billion, down 27% year-on-year.
Behind the decline in business revenue, in addition to the impact of the global economic downturn, the personal computer market fell into a downturn, but also related to the previous "mining tide".
At that time, the mining boom was hot, and the rigid demand for graphics cards in the market continued to increase, and NVIDIA had launched a large number of graphics cards. With the retreat of the mining fever, not only the graphics cards in the hands of dealers are slow-selling, but also the market is full of second-hand graphics cards, which directly affects the sales of NVIDIA graphics cards.
The survival space of low-end graphics cards has been squeezed, and NVIDIA is bound to make efforts in the high-end market. Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang has also publicly stated that the price of graphics card raw materials has risen sharply, and in order to achieve a leap in performance, the company has also invested heavily in the entire stack.
Most players don't buy it, "Although the 40 series graphics card can improve the gaming experience, this price is obviously unacceptable, at least discourage a large number of players from upgrading in the short term." Liu Zhi said frankly.
The mining card hidden second-hand graphics card market is still chaotic
He Fei had to rethink the computer configuration. He had planned to go to the second-hand market to find a 30-series graphics card. But in the end, the idea was dismissed.
"Now more than 90% of the second-hand market is 'mining cards'. If you don't pay attention, you will be hit. He Fei told reporters that when he browsed the second-hand platform, he noticed that it was full of a large number of cheap graphics cards, but after observation, he found that most of them were mining cards, "It is expected that millions of mining cards will flow into the second-hand market, and even enter the consumer market after renovation." ”
The reporter logged on to a number of second-hand platforms to search and found that many merchants are selling graphics cards in large quantities. Most of these prices have fallen by nearly 50% from their original prices. The price sold by one merchant dropped to "3060 graphics card 2000 yuan, 3070 graphics card 3000 yuan".
Although similar graphics cards are cheap, ordinary players can easily cause money losses if they buy it rashly.
"Most used graphics cards on the market today have been used to mine coins. This means that they have experienced a year-round high speed of '24 hours a day, 7 days a week', so much so that both quality and performance have dropped significantly. One player told reporters, "This means that the second-hand graphics card you buy may appear at any time with a broken screen, black machine or even greater risk." ”
A boss who previously operated a digital product store told reporters that when the virtual currency market was hot, many dealers threw money into 30 series graphics cards and then sold them to miners at a premium. Even if the goods have been booked before they arrive, as long as there are purchase channels, you can make money. ”
With the cooling of virtual coins, the price of graphics cards has dropped significantly. The graphics cards that were previously snatched by the market are now rarely bought, even if they are hung on the second-hand platform at a low price, no one consults.
In order to sell the accumulated goods in their hands as soon as possible, dealers do not hesitate to use various methods to eliminate the traces of the use of graphics cards, and even clean them by rinsing, drying and other methods, and then hang them on the platform after simple tests to sell them at low prices with the gimmicks of "self-use" and "95 new".
"In order to trick unsavvy players into buying mining cards, they also trumpet the advantages of mining cards." The above-mentioned merchants told reporters that there was once a video of "mining card measurement" in the market to prove that mining cards would not affect performance and attract players who did not know how to buy.
In fact, a number of gamers said in interviews that although the price of 40 series graphics cards is too high today, they still will not consider buying 30 series graphics cards. Even some netizens said excitedly that buying a 30-series graphics card now is not only spending money to gamble on luck, but also taking over the "scalper".
Ma Jing analyzed that the reason why most players are in the "wait-and-see" stage today is that, on the one hand, it is now a transition period for graphics card changes, and everyone is waiting to see the follow-up products and prices of the 40 series; On the other hand, because most of the graphics cards on the market may be second-hand "mining cards", there are certain problems with quality, and even the possibility of scrapping cards is not excluded.
"Now players are being 'talking about card color change' by mining cards, and no one is willing to risk digging for second-hand graphics cards." Liu Zhi also said that with the chaotic position of miners in the market, ordinary players have formed the perception that "second-hand graphics cards are mining cards", "A large number of bad dealers first bought out the malicious premium of goods, and now they deceive players with old shoddy." This behavior disgusts consumers, and there is a boycott of second-hand graphics cards, which ultimately hurts the entire industry. ”
Two strong competition to change the three-legged graphics card market reshuffle?
The graphics card market is changing.
The reporter learned that today's graphics card market is not only NVIDIA and AMD in the traditional perception. Since Intel announced its full entry into the graphics card market in 2021, the industry has begun to show a three-pronged trend.
In August 2021, Intel announced the upcoming launch of the high-performance graphics brand "Ruixuan". In October 2022, Intel officially released a number of desktop graphics cards such as the A380, A750, and A770.
According to media reports, Intel's first graphics cards will be named after the "Alchemist" codename. Subsequent products were the Battlemage, the Celestial, and the Druid. For players, it is not difficult to see from these code names that the future development focus of Intel graphics will be focused on games.
According to the test data of a number of institutions, the performance of the A770 in some games is comparable to that of NVIDIA's RTX3060Ti.
"It is worth noting that the A770 is much cheaper than the other party when the performance is comparable." A senior gamer told reporters that the price of A770 is 3200 yuan, and the price of its target 3060 Ti graphics card is mostly around 3500 yuan, "More importantly, A770 is not favored by mine owners, which means that it is difficult to 'buy mining cards'." ”
It makes sense that Intel locked the first graphics cards in the low- and mid-range market. According to the statistics of the well-known game platform Steam, the game graphics cards with the highest market share of players today are still concentrated in the mid-range graphics cards, and even only one RTX 3070 among the top ten graphics cards can be regarded as a sub-flagship graphics card, which is enough to prove that most consumers still tend to choose similar grades when buying graphics cards.
A number of players also told reporters in interviews that although the Intel graphics currently listed cannot be compared with the top products of NVIDIA and AMD such as RTX4090 and RX 7900XTX, it is enough to meet the needs of most netizens in games.
According to reports provided by overseas statistical agencies, in the fourth quarter of 2022, global sales of discrete graphics cards fell sharply, from 26 million to 13 million. With the performance of the 40 series graphics card in the market, NVIDIA's market share reached 82% in the quarter, AMD's market share shrank from 18% to 9%, and Intel's market share increased from 5% to 9% in the same period.
This means that Intel has reached the same market share as AMD in only one year, adding more variables to the market.
"Although AMD is being chased, it is not without opportunities to fight back." Ma Jing analyzed to reporters that Intel's products will not be too frequent in the short term, and AMD only needs to continue to launch several graphics cards with price and performance that match consumer needs, which can naturally consolidate its position in the graphics card rivers and lakes, "but the emergence of Intel has changed the existing graphics card market situation, not only allowing consumers to have more choices, but also allowing NVIDIA and AMD to consider more in the future when pricing, which is bound to have a good role in promoting the graphics card market." ”
Beijing News shell financial reporter Qin Che
Edited by Xu Chao
Proofreader: Zhang Yanjun
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