Remember when we started pointing out a few months ago that the last quarter of the year could be a great time to upgrade your PC or build a new one? Well there are more and more indications that we were not wrong, although of course we still didn’t have all the information we have now. And it’s because, to the points we’ve been collecting throughout this year, one new one has been added, which is not particularly positive for manufacturers and distributors, but it can be for users.
Two key factors for lower component prices are crypto winterwhich virtually eliminated the demand for graphics cards to implement mining infrastructures for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and the approaching arrival of new generations AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards, as well as AMD and Intel processors, which are also progressing in terms of DDR5 adoption (mainly AMD, since they will only allow this type of memory for Ryzen 7000, although Intel will also prefer it). In the coming months, we can expect a drop in prices for current and previous generations of graphics, processors and DDR4 memories, although DDR5 is also falling due to its popularity.
At the beginning of the year, when the word shortage entered the technology market on a daily basis, we could not count on the fact that a few months later it would be solved and at the same time the demand could decrease. Consequence? That we went from a situation where distributors had almost no stock and warehouses were practically empty to one where their stock keeps growingto such an extent that the decline in the pace of production is already a reality on the table of many manufacturers.
Adapting the speed of production to demand is of course a logical step, but it does not solve the problem of accumulated stocks, a fixed asset that carries costs for all parties involved, and this no longer only affects the components market, but has also spread to the already assembled computer market, especially notebooks. And the point is that their assemblers also begin to accumulate raw material (in this case, already assembled components and devices) in their warehouses.
Today, the China Times echoes the plight of several major manufacturers, reporting that after two quarters (the first and second of this year) of production at full throttle, they begin to face the need to get rid of the accumulated stock, something that is problematic in any industry, but even more so in technology, where the leading products at one point are relegated to the second division within a year or even less. And the same would happen with component manufacturers, who are affected by both changing manufacturers’ production rates and end-user demand.
And all this leads us to an increasingly likely conclusion: component and system prices are coming down which will also push the arrival of the aforementioned new generations. It will not affect some types of components (and therefore final products) to the same degree as others. Next-gen graphics cards and processors will remain at their recommended prices or even higher, depending on demand in light of the initial volume of shipments, but in everything else we can expect good news in the form of prices. months ago.
You don’t have to wait a few months to get a fast, versatile and cheap PC, just a few days ago we told you how to get a gaming PC for just 721 euros. But we can certainly shoot you in a few months any other equally interesting and economical option.