We find ourselves in a strange space where the materials and components used in PC parts are essentially gold dust. Before the pandemic, we took this situation for granted, but now those of us who are trying to get our hands on any technology, especially GPUs and CPUs, are faced with the harsh reality that the market is not keeping up with increased demand.

In an effort to put an end to this tragic state of PC building, we are looking around for statements from technology manufacturers as to how long it will be before we can purchase GPUs and CPUs without having to fight for them.

Nvidia spouts that the GPU shortage "will continue for most of the year," and Intel and TSMC are even more pessimistic. Spoiler alert, the outlook is not good.

In an interview with The Guardian, Acer predicts that the chip shortage will last at least until the first or second quarter of 2022. Tiffany Huang, the company's co-chief operating officer, lamented that "we're in a serious shortage," and noted that "the downturn will continue through the first or second quarter of next year."

She continued, "On any given day, I can only meet 50% of the world's demand."

Thanks to this shocking statistic, the company has decided to put work and education-based devices at the forefront rather than gaming technology. Some argue how games teach important life skills and that some people's jobs are literally games, but I won't go into that here.

Ben Lee, senior principal analyst for semiconductors at Gartner, also supports Acer's prediction. He believes that the second quarter of 2022 is a more accurate forecast and that we will see a lot of price increases as a result.

"Fewer products means customers will have to pay more," Lee notes. [We are already seeing price increases, and we expect to see more of them over the next year.