The global supply of graphics cards is in turmoil right now. So finding a GPU in stock may be a win-win situation. But the fact that some excitement has been generated by rumors that Nvidia is expanding the supply of the TU117-powered GTX 1650 to the desktop market shows just how bad the GPU crisis has gotten.

Yay, a graphics card we might actually be able to buy.

TuringGPUs are the lowest spec silicon of the last generation, but they are said to have been biased toward mobile use due to the lack of supply to the desktop market and the huge success they had with budget gaming laptops. You can still buy GTX 1650 laptops today, and they are fine, but relatively slow compared to the latest silicon.

However, that means that the GPUs themselves are still being manufactured in reasonable numbers, and given the small number of desktop cards, it appears that Nvidia is beginning to bias production in yet another direction in order to supply more chips to the desktop DIY market.

Reports suggest that supply will increase in April and May, with more GTX 1650 cards getting into the hands of budget PC gamers everywhere.

And the reason these cards are likely to end up in gamers' hands is not because of smart hash rate limiters or clever anti-miner retail shenanigans, but because they suck too much for Ethereum mining. 4GB frame buffer and only 16MH/s at best. 4GB frame buffer and the fact that it produces only 16MH/s at best means that it is not ideal for mining.

Even Nvidia's weakest CMP GPUs deliver 26 MH/s. This is a mining-specific card, such as one based 100% on GTX 1660 Super silicon.

That said, if someone wanted to buy tens of thousands of GTX 1650 cards, they could probably still make a profit somewhere, but it seems like a daunting endeavor. Still, it's hard to get too excited about the possibility of increasing the supply of a single weak desktop GPU. Well, unless the card you are currently using dies and your entire rig is down because of it.

But perhaps the most depressing part of this depressing story is that the price of the GTX 1650 will actually be raised from $150. However, since this story comes from the Chinese media, it is not entirely guaranteed that there will be additional supply of desktops worldwide, but we are all suffering, so there is a good chance that this will happen.