PC gamers face higher hardware costs as tariffs on Chinese goods set to return

[midian182]

Why it matters: PC parts, including graphics cards, motherboards, and even PC cases, look set to increase in price by as much as 25% as the Biden administration prepares to resume all the Trump-era tariffs placed on Chinese goods following a five-month delay.

It was back in 2018 when then-President Trump told the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) to create tariffs of up to 25% on Chinese-manufactured goods. The 437 affected products included components used in the manufacture of PCBs and computer hardware, including graphics cards.

Trump himself suspended the tariffs from September 2019 until January 2021, after which point graphics card prices increased. The Biden administration created an exclusion list of 350 products in 2022 that included graphics cards and motherboards. This was supposed to last until December 2022, but the US Trade Representative (USTR) extended the pause for nine months, which later became twelve months.

US gamers breathed a sigh of relief in January when the USTR delayed re-imposing the full tariffs on Chinese goods for another five months as it sought industry feedback and considered modifications.

Those five months are now up. As reported by PCMag, the USTR has recommended to the White House that the "tariffs on covered products be maintained." This includes tariff codes 8473.30.1180 and 8473.30.5100, which cover graphics cards, motherboards, and desktop PC cases.

The White House has yet to officially state it is reinstating all the tariffs, and there's no indication of when this might happen. But with the Biden administration recently announcing an upcoming tariff increase on some Chinese-made goods, including electric vehicles and semiconductors, expect the re-introduction to come sooner rather than later.

In December 2021, Nvidia, Zotac, and Dell urged the Biden administration to make their products exempt from the tariffs as they were not manufactured in the US and in only limited amounts in Taiwan. Nvidia noted that efforts to produce the goods in other locations had been unsuccessful. The pleas came at a time when the pandemic was having a devastating effect on the GPU industry.

All graphics card manufacturers rely on China for at least some of their products' components, while many peripherals are manufactured entirely in the Asian nation. If you're planning on making a PC-related purchase, it might be better to do it now rather than wait a few more months.

Permalink to story:

PC gamers face higher hardware costs as tariffs on Chinese goods set to return

 

[letsgoiowa]

These tariffs are not a political win in anyone's opinion. They just affect US and that's literally the opposite of what politicians should be doing

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Now that protectionism is back on everyone's menu (traditionally a Dem position, but popularized among Republicans by Trump) I figure things are just going to suck for a good long while.

Hard to really fault anyone when countries like China heavily subsidize certain sectors to deliberately cripple industries in other countries. All that star eyed "end of history" crap after the fall of the Soviet Union is finally wearing off.

 

[takaozo]

US will have the same prices or worse then the rest of the world. Let say a $1000 RTX4080 will be $1250 before local taxes. This will translate into $1350-1450 depending on the state. Here east Europe an Asus RTX 4080 super is 1000 Euro + VAT = 1200 Euro.

Looks like hard times are coming for US PC market!

 

[Neatfeatguy]

US will have the same prices or worse then the rest of the world. Let say a $1000 RTX4080 will be $1250 before local taxes. This will translate into $1350-1450 depending on the state. Here east Europe an Asus RTX 4080 super is 1000 Euro + VAT = 1200 Euro.

Looks like hard times are coming for US PC market!

Most likely what'll happen is.

Nvidia: Now we charge $1250 to the US because tariffs. We also now charge 1250 Euro (which totals out to $1500) because $1250 = 1250 Euro (in their mind).

 

[takaozo]

Most likely what'll happen is.

Nvidia: Now we charge $1250 to the US because tariffs. We also now charge 1250 Euro (which totals out to $1500) because $1250 = 1250 Euro (in their mind).

We are used to 1 to 1 parity scam for now... The pumped prices were just beging to recover...

"life's a bltch and then you die"

 

[Eldrach]

Nice - The US is moving backwards in evolution. First the abortion laws, now third world protectionism. Next on the menu will be public hangings or something close to it

 

[Achaios]

I would still not give the Leatherman (Huang-NVIDIA) the satisfaction of upgrading.

I have just repasted my GPU, following "Igor's Lab" https://www.igorslab.de/en/ instructions and also replaced the pads with "GELID G ULTIMATE" pads.

My Palit Game Rock 1080 runs now better and cooler than when she was new and my 4770K soldiers on.

Go on and increase prices on any and all components by 25%, Idc.

 

[kiwigraeme]

Lots of companies are exiting China, the closing down of peoples liberties, the State sanction corruption. The stupidity of Pooh to not protect it's golden eggs. Corporations WANT stability and assurances, No one trusts Pooh anymore. One of the reasons Corps went to China was freedom from red-tape, no pesky human rights etc. However uncertainty in China , uncertainty with USA and Europe's response to China , just means move to India , Vietnam etc

China has entered an incredibly stupid fascist phase. Except for solar panels and maybe some other things, most of it's manufacturer is easily done elsewhere orat behest of foreign companies.

Their is huge capital flight from China. As the rich seek to protect their capitalistic gains from arbitrary seizure, That is now underway.

BYD EVs etc are heavily subsidised. Japan was punished for dumping in the 1970s , same such apply to China

The stupidity is they can make good phones. TVs ) TCL & Hisense etc

Russians are natural masochists, and can sustain being cut off - ( young , smart, not full of propaganda false fear will leave and make better lives elsewhere )
But China can not put the genie back in the bottle
Huge banking and real estates scandals and losses . Pooh and his fellow cronies need to continuedly prop it up

We will see the increasing rise of nationalistic pinks aka Stasi like oppression , of anyone not kotowing to the daily party line. Won't be surprised if tannoys everywhere start broadcasting endless state propaganda all day long , like they did under Mao and later

 

[Marco Mint]

US will have the same prices or worse then the rest of the world. Let say a $1000 RTX4080 will be $1250 before local taxes. This will translate into $1350-1450 depending on the state. Here east Europe an Asus RTX 4080 super is 1000 Euro + VAT = 1200 Euro.

Looks like hard times are coming for US PC market!

Yes, much the same prices here in western Europe and all I wanted was a good gpu for 1k euros or under. Had my eye on the Sapphire Nitro+ 7900XTX but it never quite dropped below that 1k, so never bothered.
C'mon AMD/Nvidia, gimme a reason to spend some money without thinking I'm being ripped off, or the things gonna go on fire.

 

[brucek]

The US could eventually re-build the ability to manufacture these items, which may be in its best interests in some cases.

But even after successful completion of that long road, there will be no answer to the US's higher labor and other costs making it uncompetitive with the rest of the world. Some mainstream consumer goods will no longer be attractive at higher prices, leading to lower volume, causing even higher prices, etc ending in a death spiral for all but most the critical items.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world will continue purchasing the goods from China, allowing it and all other counties to widen their lead for all goods that require these products, which covers a lot of industries and markets.

So I'm not sure I see how this works out to US advantage in the long run. I think rather than a tariff it would need to provide a subsidy on US-manufactured goods until the volume moves in its direction, perhaps along with export controls on technical advances (which would just be stolen anyway.)

 

[Watzupken]

There is always a trade off. Cheaper products from China or wherever benefits consumers. But the flip side is that you lose jobs locally.

On the other hand, if you want to onshore production for a limited market, it is going to cost more and consumers will be the ones feeling the brunt of the cost increase. But of course, it creates job.

At a time when inflation is sky rocketing and companies are laying people off left right and center, the timing of onshoring efforts and increasing tariffs/tax is going to hurt consumers really hard.

 

[RudyBob]

Tariff the heck out of them

 

[brucek]

But of course, it creates job.

It's hard to believe it will create jobs overall. It will probably create some jobs for the specific tariff item, assuming it's still attractive at the higher cost. But it will almost certainly cost many more jobs in all the downstream markets that are no longer globally competitive and/or no longer attractive to US consumers.

 

[Starfals]

Cool, the US will finally know the pain of 1300 (to 1500 cus some stores scalp too!) euro RTX 4080 lol. Hell, there are some 4070ti that sell for 1150! Anyways, this whole thing sucks and im worried it might make it somehow worse for the rest of us lol.

 

[godrilla]

For reference the 4080 super fell to $949 BY PNY and 4090 can be found at MSRP again.
https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/pny...ition-dlss-3/apd/ac894518/graphic-video-cards
7900xtx at $899
7900xt as low as $689.99

Tarrifs will probably benefit the second hand retain value for the seller assisting the impact of upgrading.

 

[zx8086]

I would still not give the Leatherman (Huang-NVIDIA) the satisfaction of upgrading.

I have just repasted my GPU, following "Igor's Lab" https://www.igorslab.de/en/ instructions and also replaced the pads with "GELID G ULTIMATE" pads.

My Palit Game Rock 1080 runs now better and cooler than when she was new and my 4770K soldiers on.

Go on and increase prices on any and all components by 25%, Idc.

I'm all up for maintaining old hardware, but the reality is that if you want to play the latest games with >= 60fps, 1440p, High settings, you need to periodically upgrade.

 

[MarcusNumb]

Another good reason not to upgrade every 2 or 3 years. Make it 5 to 7 years and we'll see how NVIDIA adjusts itself.

 

[loki1944]

I'd pay more if they just built the GPUs in the US; all this will do is make me buy GPUs 2-3 years later used.

 

[Atmajaya2020]

Great.. with this and my country's currency poor exchange rate, then I can kiss say my next upgrade goodbye..

 

[VaRmeNsI]

Nice - The US is moving backwards in evolution. First the abortion laws, now third world protectionism. Next on the menu will be public hangings or something close to it

Third world protectionism? The US had tariffs throughout most/all of its existence.

 

[systemBuilder22]

These tariffs are not a political win in anyone's opinion. They just affect US and that's literally the opposite of what politicians should be doing

You do realize that the USA used to assemble almost all PC cards back in its heyday in the 1980s and 1990s? Each country should assemble its own cards, imho, that's not a huge ask. Many of the manufacturers need a kick in the rear to move their factories to vietnam or someplace else that doesn't want to attack taiwan ...

 

[brucek]

You do realize that the USA used to assemble almost all PC cards back in its heyday in the 1980s and 1990s? Each country should assemble its own cards, imho, that's not a huge ask. Many of the manufacturers need a kick in the rear to move their factories to vietnam or someplace else that doesn't want to attack taiwan ...

Cavemen used to assemble their own clubs and loincloths, and there's probably been less technical evolution in clothing and beating sticks in the last 10,000 years than there has been in modern electronics mass production in the last 40 years.

The US de-prioritized and under-valued manufacturing expertise in this area at every level - starting with college courses and other training, and continuing through every stage of career development. We've got a lot of expertise to re-learn and re-train before we're ready to do it all here at any cost.