Chip shortages, who is hurting, who isn't?


Was reading recently about two industries that are hurting right now, car makers and computer parts like CPUs and graphics cards but the chip shortage is being felt broadly. In audio this is going to be felt more by some makers and some products than others. My 4 year old graphics card for instance is now worth 4x what I paid for it not just because of crypto-miners but also because of a general contraction of silicon wafer manufacturing at a time when there has been heightened demand.

Consider for instance an Anthem, where practically all their products have significant digital circuitry in them. Same for streamers and DACs.

The tube gear out there has probably the least amount of reliance on chips, but I wonder if tubes too have been hurt by the pandemic, and worldwide supply shortages?
erik_squires
Everyone. No one is immune. This impacts many aspects of the global electronics supply chain, not just high end graphics cards which are also impacted by crypto. It is not even the high end processors that are hard to get. It is more the low-mid level stuff and semiconductor discretes.
I agree.   Everything requires computer chips these days.

Car companies and dealers are getting crushed.  In many areas lots are empty, even with dealers asking full list price plus markup.   

Interestingly video cards for PCs have been largely unavailable for over a year due to bitcoin miners.  


Interestingly video cards for PCs have been largely unavailable for over a year due to bitcoin miners.  


Microcenter and Monoprice are starting to get them in, but at least 2x the original retail.  This is actually better than a month ago when prices were 3x retail and most not even available.