The Silver Lining of Crypto Crash? Gaming could get cheaper in 2022 as GPU street prices hit – Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Nvidia (NVDA)

Hidden in the dark cloud that is the cryptocurrency’s recent crash may be a silver lining – the prices of gaming hardware made by such manufacturers NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices, Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) finally appears to be heading south.

What happened: The drop in price Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) and ether (CRYPTO:ETH) from 50% of its value in November leads to a price drop in GPUs used in games.

Tom’s Hardware compiled a week’s price data from the end of December compared to last week showing average GPU prices of eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY). The data tracked the prices of the latest graphics cards from AMD and Nvidia.

A Nvidia GE Force RTX3080 10GB, that sold on eBay for an average of $1,804.28 between December 20 and 27 went for $1,595.41 between January 17 and 24. That’s a decrease of 11.6%.

AMD’s Radeon RX6600 also experienced a price decline of 11.6% over the same period. The price of the GPU slipped from $586.89 to $518.66.

The RX 6600 competes with Nvidia RTX3060 12GB GPU in terms of 1080p gaming performance and is only 4% slower (in games without ray tracing) according to Tom’s Hardware.

The RTX 3060 12GB retails for $705 on eBay, which according to the data is significantly higher than what AMD is offering.

See also: How to buy NVIDIA (NVDA) stock

Why it matters: On average, almost every GPU fell 5% in price, while the RTX 3090, RTX 3080 (10GB), and RX 6600 fell more than 10%, according to Tom’s hardware data.

The data shows that the number of GPUs sold has also taken a hit. This drop in unit sales was seen across the board with a few exceptions like the RTX 3090 and RTX 3070Ti.

Nvidia introduced cryptocurrency mining graphics chips last year. During previous cryptocurrency bull runs, a boom in demand for GPUs was noted, followed by a subsequent collapse in demand.

If the cryptocurrency decline continues and GPU production picks up due to the easing scarcity of the key component ABF substrate, expect GPU prices to drop further, according to Tom’s Hardware.

Meanwhile AMD’s rival Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) announced last week that it plans to introduce an energy-efficient Bitcoin mining chip.

Price promotion: On Monday, Nvidia shares traded broadly flat at $233.72 in the regular session, falling 0.8% to $231.75 in after-hours trading. On the same day, AMD shares fell 1.9% in the regular session to $116.53 and another 1.7% in after-hours trading to $114.60.

Continue reading: Jack Dorsey’s block on why his bitcoin mining push is a “long-term imperative” for a decentralized future