Picture Credit: ExtremeTech

Written By: Staff Writer EMC (EMC’s second article for News By Kids!)

GPUs (or graphics processing units) are an essential part of a computer, or any system needing fast graphics. You can find these in phones, game consoles, and workstations. But as 2020 has ended and 2021 has started, the price of these devices have skyrocketed. In the United States at least, people have found it really hard to get their hands on a decent GPU.

For example, the Nvidia GTX 1650 costs around $450, if you can find one in stock. Compared to the original price of around $150 this is one big jump, costing over twice as much. Another example would be the Nvidia RTX 2060 which now costs around $700 which is over two times as much as the original price of $300.

But why have the prices of these GPUs blown up so much? First of all, BitCoin has grown over 340% over the past year, leading to people flocking to make money over there. And GPUs come in really handy in this case. Crypto Miners that try to make money off of bitcoin take advantages over these things. Investing in Bitcoin is somewhat like investing in the stock market. It is very costly but might help in the long run. To start, Bitcoin works with various different mathematical problems to verify transactions possibly across the world. GPUs can do this really easily and so crypto miners take advantage of this. They buy these parts in bulk usually consisting of around a dozen cards. The more money you put in, the more you will probably get out.

GPUs are really important for this, as they can complete way more problems than a CPU in less than a second, which used to be the standard part for crypto mining. These people get money when they get compensated by Bitcoin when they add a new block overall growing bitcoin as a whole. A block is a virtual representation of a transaction that has happened overall going into a block chain, full of all the data that Bitcoin has. People have seen this as a way to make passive income, they set up their mining rig, and get to work usually generating around $8 every day of work.

Now, should you buy a graphics card in 2021? Well this depends on how much you need or want one. First of all, if you already have a personal computer and you just want to swap the GPU for a new one, then you most likely won’t lose a lot of money. Some people have even made profit, changing their old graphics card for a new, better one. But, if you are new and want to buy a new pc, then it just depends on your budget. If you want a decent computer, that costs around $1,500 then there are definitely options for you. But, people that are on a budget of less than $100, the chances of getting a decent pc are much slimmer.

All in all, the prices of GPUs have gone up a significant amount from November of 2020. People estimate that these prices will drop to around a normal price by April or May, however things could still change in the future.