Trying to get your hands on a GPU in recent years has not been easy. As a result of massive demand combined with COVID issues and a global chip shortage, you have to be very lucky (or extremely eager) to get your hands on a restock of the latest GeForce RTX 3080.

But there may be hope over the horizon, according to a DigiTimes Asia report: GPU shipments are expected to increase by 10% during 2022. While this is a small increase, one would hope that it will make purchasing a new GPU a little less of a hassle.

High-end graphics cards are a key component to playing the best PC games. Modern games can offer higher resolutions, better frame rates, superior graphics, and fancy features like ray tracing. And all these perks are only available if you have a GPU powerful enough to handle it.

But GPUs have also long been sought after by cryptocurrency miners hoping to cash in on the soaring digital currency.

Supply chain issues are the main reason graphics cards are so hard to come by. The world is currently suffering from a chip shortage that is hardly ending, affecting the production of everything that requires silicon chips, including automobiles, PS5, Xbox Series X, and even printer ink.

Naturally, the COVID-19 pandemic has also had a major impact on this. People forced to stay home have caused an increase in demand for consumer electronics, companies producing those components have had to deal with shutdowns, and staff infected with COVID and forced to be quarantined. Not to mention the logistical problems related to international transportation.

The recent surge in Omicron stock has certainly not helped these companies regain normalcy. However, news of increased shipments suggests that steps are already being taken to ramp up production.

DigiTimes also notes that consumer demand for GPUs is beginning to decline; PCGamer speculates that this may be due to a decrease in demand for crypto miners, and that Ethereum's "proof-of-work" system to a "Proof of Stake" system, which appears to be partly due to the difficulty in recouping the cost of expensive mining rigs.

Only time will tell, but at this early stage it may be easier to figure out where to buy an Nvidia RTX 3080 or other graphics card. We emphasize the word "may," however, because we cannot predict the future, and there is no guarantee that something might emerge that would disrupt supply again.