Update from the 10th of July 2022
The fun part: multiple situations converged. First, a silicon shortage that caused an indecent price hike for silicon components. GPU units that were sold two to three times their MSRP! Then came the rising and crashing of the crypto market due to bans of all sorts, electical waste husting, etc. The looming specter of Proof of Stake in Ethereum —it can’t happen soon enough— made the market extremely volatile nigh unreliable. And the final nail in the coffin: an unprecedented energy crisis due to the war in Ukraine.
So, what happened? Seeing that all their units were selling extremely well notably thanks to the recommendation to stay home and safe due to a certain Covid-19 pandemic —note this update date—, silicon fabs decided to expand and GPU makers to produce more units obviously and increase their MSRP. With all the shenanigans mentioned above, some miners decided to cut their losses and reintroduce their GPUs to the market.
With a new generation incoming in an inundated market, we expect gaming to be accessible again unless GPU makers decide that keeping stocks is the better option to create an artificial component shortage. Who knows what will happen? By the way, when you reserve fab capacity at TSMC you absolutely need to use it or sell it to some other company.