ExtremeTech  - Will Higher PC Component Prices Drive Gamers Away?
 
“On Friday, the computer industry passed a quiet milestone. Ampere — launched on September 17, 2020 — has never been widely available in-market at its official MSRP. This, of course, has not stopped Nvidia from making an absolute killing on GPU hardware over the past 12 months, but it has starved the retail channel of affordable hardware.
 
The prospect for near-term relief has faded as the semiconductor shortage stretches on. GPU prices may have dropped initially after the crypto market fell back somewhat, but they continue to hold steady at 1.5x MSRP or above. Now we’re being told not to expect normal volume or pricing before the tail end of 2022, which means the current situation could drag on for another 12-14 months.
 
This could impact the PC gaming market in several ways. PC gaming isn’t going anywhere, but the delivery system and method of experiencing those games certainly could. There are several ways this could play out.
 
One option that companies such as Nvidia and Microsoft are throwing a lot of weight behind is the idea of on-demand PC cloud gaming. Latency issues and ping times are still an issue in some titles and whether you can access these services depends on whether you live, but the overall quality has been improving the last few years.
 
There are other options too. Some PC gamers might switch to consoles, especially given how small the gap has become between consoles and PCs. The Xbox Series X’s load times feel like what you’d see on a high-end PC. Its frame rates are indistinguishable from a high-end PC in every title I’ve played.
 
The impact of shifts like this is often difficult to see in the moment because buying patterns don’t change overnight. But if these higher prices continue, we’ll see people shifting their purchase patterns in response. This isn’t necessarily something Nvidia or AMD are opposed to. All else being equal, we suspect both companies would rather ship huge numbers of enterprise GPUs, at enterprise prices, as opposed to catering to individual customers in the first place. Again, the consumer GPU market isn’t literally going to fade away, but whether we’ll see the relatively friendly pricing of the pre-Turing, pre-cryptocurrency, and pre-pandemic era return is very much an open question. If prices stay high for long enough and demand remains robust, AMD, Nvidia, and Intel are likely to see if they can leave them that way.”
 
My thoughts:  This is an interesting take on the future of PC gaming and the premise that the PC gaming industry may change.  The entire article is worth reading whether you play PC games a lot or just occasionally. 
 
As far as pricing returning to "normal" as mentioned in the last paragraph, I do not see that happening because of the increasing cost of manufacturing, transportation, inflation, etc.  I think we are seeing the new normal and future GPUs may have us wishing for the pricing of the present generation.

The fabs will catch up. Capitalism works because of these changes in consumer behavior. These next 24 months will set the tone. The fabs have under invested in capacity prior to the pandemic. Consumers paid the price for that. The question is, will supply and demand normalize? The next question is at what price? Maybe the future will decrease demand based on all these moves to cloud or consoles and supply holds up making prices go down. This is as good of a prediction as this article can give. I will not buy a GPU until the scalping market is at 1.05 times MSRP, far from the rate of 1.5.

ty_ger07
Will Higher PC Component Prices Drive Gamers Away?
I hope so. Demand needs an adjustment. I fear how this will affect MSRP prices to come. Look at the MSRP of the 3080 Ti vs the 3080.

+1     And for some the price of admission is a real barrier, especially GPU's.

The issue is bitcoin and any hash mining, right now I am stuck on console and I so badly want to back to PC, so
Here I am trying to get my 100 posts and add sime content to my posts because I cannot pay these outrageous prices and complete bot buying.

This is a good question for gamers. What is the alternative to it, consoles? Those have inflated prices as well.
 
I haven't and don't think I'll ever compromise towards a console, but I get why some might feel the need to buy a console.
 
It's easier, overall cheaper than a top GPU, not to mention a whole rig.
 
PC gaming will not die so easy, and the most die hard fans will remain.
 
Even if one year has passed, it's still too early to make such an asumption.

Most people are just buying into pre made PCs which is fine I guess. I would prefer to see people making their PC but it won't be possible for a decent amount of time

I think a lot of gamers will just sit on what they have. Hopefully things get better in late 2022. I could certainly use a GPU upgrade. But for the time being I've just been playing indie games that don't have have GPU reqs.

At the time I'm sitting on what I have but thankful I spent enough to get a flagship GPU 4 years ago or else I would have been in trouble.

However I am missing out on all the new features like Ray Tracing, DLSS, Resizable BAR etc.

The only new thing Nvidia gave me recently was Nvidia Reflex support in Escape from Tarkov.

My hope is that prices will return to a reasonable level. But not sure if that ship has already sailed. My desire is there to be more stock most of all. I'm still on the 1000 series, and hope everything that my GPU doesn't give out. 

Gaming is a diehard hobby so people would probably not be driven away permanently but would rather just change parts at longer periods, inevitably leading to not maxing settings all the time. Or wait one more year and jump on a lower tier GPU (I was going to jump on 3070 but probably will wait for 4060).

Elektra168
The issue is ... any hash mining....

That's debatable. An estimated 25% were sold to mining farms. An estimated 30% extra have been manufactured than previous generations. So, the rise in mining sales is offset by the rise in production. In other words, general ludicrous demand is the issue.

Here I am trying to get my 100 posts and add sime content to my posts because ...

100 posts gets you Elite status. What does Elite status get you? Nothing. So why are you doing it? Why do people want Elite status so badly? Is there massive misinformation being reported somewhere?

Yeah, it’s crazy how expensive things have gotten