Retailers like Newegg have paired motherboards with highly desirable graphics cards like the GeForce RTX 3080 and Radeon 6800 XT to such an extent that DigiTimes is reporting a 10-15% drop in global mobo sales. For some, buying these bundles is the only way to buy a new GPU outside of third-party auction sites (at the risk of buying an incredibly inflated scalping product), resulting in selling to low price of unwanted motherboards. It's also likely that everyday gamers and DIY PC builders aren't primarily responsible for the oversaturation of low-cost motherboards available online. Crypto miners have been widely criticized for buying GPUs en masse to mine Bitcoin and Ethereum, and scalpers have been known to use bots to buy large amounts of RRP shares to later resell for a profit on sites like eBay and Facebook Marketplace. Crypto miners and resellers don't use the other hardware associated with elusive GPUs, so these ``bulk'' purchases are likely contributing to the large numbers of discounted motherboards.
A ray of light?
I advocated for a lottery system for high demand PC coins like #RTX3080 so it's great to see @Newegg finally implement it. But the combined "agreements" must be abandoned. You can't build an AMD + Nvidia computer without buying an Intel motherboard. #fail #AMD #Nvidia #Intel pic.twitter.com/HeQjypjWsR Jan 20, 2021 More Info High-demand graphics cards have been sold in combination with other components for some time, as seen in @RyuGTX's tweet above January 2021. These packages could be a boon for anyone looking to boost their business. Anyone looking to upgrade existing equipment adds unnecessary cost to an already expensive purchase. Even for those who are new to PC gaming, it may be a better financial option to buy a gaming laptop or pre-built gaming PC right now. That said, while the current GPU shortage isn't easy on our wallets, we could also see other components hit at a discount due to these bundle sales. NotebookCheck predicts that SSDs and processors could also make their way to sites like eBay, as Cryptominers are of no use to them after purchasing bundles. The current forecast is that we will see a decline in motherboard sales through the end of 2021, and with other essential components expected to be downloaded cheaply on online marketplaces, it might be worth looking for good deals to upgrade your version. current. Hopefully, GPU stock availability can eventually increase to meet demand before your newly upgraded system requires another rebuild. Today's best graphics card deals
Via TomsHardware