Here’s how Trump tax affects the price of gaming graphics card. Reputable platforms, Tom’s Hardware and ExtremeTech warned last year that is a very bad period to build a High-end PC. And it looks like it’s getting worser everyday. That’s because a perfect storm is pushing the price of components like Nvidia or AMD graphics cards even further skyward — and Trump administration is to be blame.
The Trump administration is now imposing a 25 percent tax on graphics cards imported from China, and at least one PC component manufacturer has announced it’ll pass along part of that cost to consumers.
We’ve known for two years that PC components were being swept up in Trump’s trade war on China. In 2018, GamersNexus, explained in depth how PC parts might see a price increase between 10 and 25 percent due to the categories the Trump administration tried to tax.
In 2019, PC gamers and other graphics card buyers also managed to dodge the bullet of higher prices, when the Trump administration granted specific exemptions for “graphics processing modules” and “accelerator modules.” And as The New York Times reported last week, the government extended many of its tariff exemptions until the end of the year.
According to the US government’s Harmonized Tariff Schedule, those PC components would normally be free of import taxes. Now, under the “list 3” tariffs that were designed to tax $200 billion worth of Chinese products, graphics card and motherboard vendors have to figure out where to find the additional 25 percent to pay for tariffs.
Meanwhile, Asus, the largest motherboard manufacturer and well known GPU supplier, has said it will and has already increased some of its prices, as reported by Videocardz.
The question we should be asking now, is whether price hikes might become permanent.
In November 2020, AMD told Hardware Unboxed that the AMD RX 6800 XT should be available from its partners at the original $649 MSRP within eight weeks. Nearly six weeks later, it doesn’t seem that likely.
Trump’s tariffs aren’t the only thing that might make buying a GPU worse. Bitcoin prices are now at an all-time high, crossing $40,000 for the first time ever. The price of Ethereum has doubled over the past month and is approaching its previous record.