The prices of graphics cards and processors are expected to rise in 2022

The prices of graphics cards and processors are expected to rise in 2022

Announces price increases of up to 20 percent.

If you’re one of those people who are starting to get really tired of waiting for hardware prices – and then we’ll be thinking in particular about graphics cards – to come down to a decent level, unfortunately 2022 doesn’t look like it’s going to be much better than the last couple of years.

Because according to the industry newspaper DigiTimes For example, semiconductor manufacturer TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation, Ltd.) has notified several of its customers that it will increase production prices by up to 20 percent.

TSMC is one of the world’s largest chip manufacturers, and its client list includes Apple, Intel, Qualcomm, AMD, and Nvidia.

The backdrop of increased prices must relate, among other things, to failed supply lines, rising material costs and increased freight rates – all of this is a legacy of the difficult beginnings of the Corona pandemic.

In addition, of course, TSMC is able to increase prices simply because many customers have no real choice – with a consistent shortfall in semiconductors globally, there is little spare power at other plants.

Some chips — like upcoming processors from AMD and Nvidia that will be joined with the 5nm production process — can’t be made anywhere else anyway.

It seems that Apple, which is supposed to be one of TSMC’s biggest customers, already has He said he was ready To pay a higher price to ensure that the upcoming A16 processor is produced as planned. This processor should be manufactured at 4 nanometers.

So if nothing miraculous happens, unfortunately there appears to be a good chance that the prices of advanced electronics will increase in 2022.

Hardware prices going up and down isn’t exactly new. With the free market comes the joys and sorrows of supply and demand, which can easily become unbalanced, for example, when a plant is exposed to fire or flood.

However, although some components have sometimes become more expensive in shorter periods, the outlines show that computers and equipment have generally become less expensive over time.

Until the Corona epidemic hit hard – something now approaching two years ago. The problem began in earnest when disease and/or quarantine shut down factories and shipping facilities in the East, while home offices and other new needs increased demand in the rest of the world.

This left deliveries delayed, at the same time that production capacity was also required for new hardware from AMD, Intel, and Nvidia, among others.

As for graphics cards, by the way, the new cryptocurrency of the last year did not help much in terms of accessibility, and therefore the prices did not help either.