[cptskippy]

The article states that oversupply is in low-end GPUs. Did Nvidia incorrectly assume there would be a demand for low-end GPUs somewhere?

My understanding is that the demand for high-end GPUs was driven primarily by the shortage of middle-tier GPUs. High-end GPUs obviously are faster at mining but their cost and power consumption meant that they were lower profit and higher risk. Thus miners were buying up all of the middle-tier GPUs. Lower-end GPUs were largely overlooked due to RAM limitations the presented that limited their useful life as miners.

The shortage of middle-tier GPUs meant that gamers could either go for higher or lower tier GPUs or just hold out. Thus high-end GPU prices rose as some people chose to upgrade. When crypto currency prices peaked last fall this created futher demand for the high-end GPUs limiting their supply and further driving up prices. Now that crypto currencies prices are falling and demand for GPUs has waned, the artificial demand for high-end GPUs has disappeared.

But was there ever a demand for the low-end GPUs? If you absolutely needed a GPU sure, but the last 3 generations of GPUs have been all about 4k or VR gaming at 60+FPS. This isn't a market that low-end GPUs can satisfy. Most people looking to upgrade, want an upgrade. If you have a 3 year old middle-tier GPU it can hold it's own or beat most current low-end GPUs.