In the context of the cryptocurrency market continuously fluctuating in value, the selling price of many graphics card models is also witnessing signs of cooling down as the demand for bulk purchases from ETH miners is no longer as high. In Vietnam, many GPU models are now cheaper by 3-5% compared to last month, according to representatives from a major computer company in Hanoi. However, it should also be added that although referred to as ‘cheaper’, the current selling prices of many graphics cards are still significantly higher than before the cryptocurrency craze exploded.
For example, the Nvidia RTX 2060 is currently being sold for about 14.8 million VND at a major computer company in Hanoi. This price is much higher than the 8 million VND in 2020.
Graphics card prices are showing signs of being cheaper as the demand from ETH miners slows down, but they have not returned to the prices before the cryptocurrency frenzy erupted.
In reality, not all users in Vietnam are willing (and able) to spend over 10 million VND to buy a graphics card. Instead, the segment of graphics cards priced between 3-5 million VND, or slightly higher from 5-7 million VND, is the most active market. Notably, finding a graphics card with acceptable gaming performance in this price range is not easy at the moment, to say the least, with very few options available.
With 5-7 million in hand, what graphics card can users buy for gaming?
In the price range of 6.5-7 million VND, users can only purchase the GTX 1650 graphics card released by Nvidia in 2019. The current price of the GTX 1650 is significantly higher than the 4.5 – 5.2 million VND it was priced at 1-2 years ago, depending on the version.
As a GPU model in the mainstream gaming segment from Team Green, the GTX 1650 does not receive particularly high ratings from gamers and reviewers. At the time of its release, the performance of the GTX 1650 was only average and fell between the GTX 1050 Ti and GTX 1060 – both of which have also been released for several years.
However, by July 2021, the GTX 1650 began to show signs of struggle with AAA games that have high-end graphics, such as Cyberpunk 2077. If users want to play this RPG game at Full HD resolution with an FPS of around 30, they must lower the graphics settings to Low.
Of course, the GTX 1650 will likely struggle to handle AAA games released in 2022 and beyond, as PC games began to demand higher specifications due to being developed alongside new console versions like PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. However, if your needs are limited to Esports games or popular online games like League of Legends, DOTA 2, Call of Duty Warzone, PUBG, the GTX 1650 remains a decent choice with acceptable performance.
If users only have about 5 million VND in their pocket, the ‘vintage’ Nvidia GPU without additional power is the GTX 1050 Ti, which is also a quite decent choice for Esports gaming or AA games that have been released for several years. Of course, with performance weaker than the GTX 1650, this 5-year-old GPU is certainly not a reasonable choice if you want to use it for a long time.
A very notable point is that, besides the GTX 1650 and 1050 Ti, Nvidia’s gaming GPU models priced below 5 million VND are almost ‘nonexistent’ – a stark contrast to many years ago. Certainly, users should ‘stay away’ from graphics card models like GT 1030 (priced around 2.5 million VND), as this is a GPU designed for… output, dedicated to office PCs or HTPCs, rather than gaming.
While NVIDIA fans have 2 options in the segment under 7 million, AMD enthusiasts, on the other hand… have no options at all. This time last year, GPU models like RX 570, RX 580, or RX 590 were the main players of Team Red competing with Nvidia in the 4-5 million VND segment.
However, everything changed completely in the first half of 2021, when the cryptocurrency boom rose. With the ability to mine ETH being quite good for the price, the RX 570 and RX 580 lines immediately sold out everywhere, if not entirely ‘disappeared’ from PC component distribution companies due to no stock available for sale.
GPU models in the price range of 4-5.5 million VND from AMD are almost completely absent from computer stores.
In general, at this time, accepting to ‘bite the bullet’ to spend up to 7 million VND for a graphics card with average performance like the GTX 1650 is not a good move, in the writer’s personal opinion. Instead, users should wait for another 2-3 months, when the GPU shortage situation gradually gets resolved. By then, GPU choices will be much more diverse, along with significantly better prices.