Three million graphics cards were sold to cryptocurrency breakers in 2017

At the end of last year, the market was hit by a global shortage of graphics cards, where inflated prices and non-existent stocks made life miserable for users who wanted to build a new system. The crisis has continued into 2018, where neither AMD nor Nvidia has enough capacity to produce enough circuits to meet the demand created by the trend of breaking cryptocurrencies.

According to a new report from Jon Peddie Research, the lack of graphics cards had a negative effect on sales in the last quarter of last year. Where the fourth quarter before the Christmas weekend has historically been flat or slightly rising, compared to the previous quarter, a decline of 4.6 percent in sales was now seen instead. The result over the year, however, increased sales by 9.7 percent compared to 2016.

The report also states that 3 million of the graphics cards sold in 2017 went directly to the purpose of breaking cryptocurrencies, where the value of these amounted to SEK 6.32 billion. Although no specific figures were presented, AMD is said to have been able to take advantage of the majority of these profits.

Finally, the report suggests that both the higher prices and the lack of graphics cards will hold up well into the year, which goes hand in hand with previous data from unofficial sources.