The current state of PC gaming is looking dire at the moment. Anyone wishing to upgrade their system with a new Nvidia or AMD graphics card is finding themselves floundering as supplies of hardware continue to be at an all-time low. The situation only seems to be getting worse as recent reports indicate that shortages could go on well into 2022 and maybe even 2023. With everything that's going on with GPUs at the moment, what gamers don't want to read is more bad news and unfortunately, things are not looking up.
MSI, the world's leading gaming brand, has recently begun slashing warranties on some of its Russian GPU products, 19 in total, to just six months, sources are saying. Apparently, Gigabyte also launched a card which only comes with 90-days of warranty in total. At the moment it seems as though this may be only affecting graphics cards made for cryptomining, but it's entirely possible that this could impact other hardware under the Nvidia or AMD brand.
To put it into some context, most GPUs come with a 36-month warranty, so that means the reduction to just six or even three months is a significant slash. With graphics cards already difficult to get hold of, and companies such as Nvidia potentially re-launching old products to plug the gap, many may be worried about what this could mean for future hardware.
MSI is a huge company so while the majority of cards are currently unaffected by the warranty changes that it and Gigabyte are rolling out, there is the potential for a shift in the market. With crytomining cards being manufactured by AMD and Nvidia, this could be a trend which will see gaming cards also come out of the factory with significantly less warranty than people are used to. As the world waits for stock to become available, which again might not be until the middle of next year at the latest, what people don't want is to purchase hardware that's shipped with weak guarantees.
To reiterate, it only seems to be graphics cards designed for mining that have had their warranties reduced for the moment. Cryptomining has been blamed partly for the shortages as miners have been buying up stock in bulk and leaving hardly any left for gamers. One bitcoin company all but boasted about the fact that it had purchased nearly $30 million worth of GPUs, so it's hardly surprising that other consumers waiting in the wing may be a little frustrated.
Source: PC Gamer