Ethereum Merge impacted this sector the most in China

ambcrypto.com:

Since graphics cards can no longer be used to mine a cryptocurrency, Ethereum’s long-awaited switch to proof-of-stake has had an even greater impact on the industry.

Following the Ethereum Merge earlier this month, prices for graphics processing units (GPUs) have dropped to their “lowest level ever” in China.

According to the SCMP, vendors of graphics cards in China have reported plunging prices for mid and high-end units over the previous two months.

The demand for Nvidia’s flagship GeForce RTX 3080 and 3090 models caused recommended retail prices to triple once ETH could be mined and the bull market was in full swing.

But retailers in Shanghai’s electronics retail market claim that during the previous three months, both demand and prices have fallen by roughly 40%.

The cost of graphics cards, which are normally used for video games, tends to rise along with the price of cryptocurrencies because of the unique properties of GPUs that make them well-suited for hashing, and the complex computations employed for mining on proof-of-work blockchains.

There are several independent producers of graphics cards for the market, such as Asus, Micro-Star International (MSI), and Gigabyte, but almost all of them use GPUs made by the two industry leaders, Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

One retailer claims that during the height of the mining boom, representatives from the mining companies barged into the stores with bags of cash and stole every graphics card in sight. “However, now check out the shops. The coronavirus has prevented anyone from purchasing new PCs, not to mention those looking to install new graphics cards, he continued.

Another retailer reported that the cost of some models had now fallen below the suggested retail