AI demand has captured 53% of global DRAM capacity, driving DDR5 prices up by 210%. This surge in memory costs is pushing values up across the secondary hardware market. Used graphics cards now carry a higher resale price than they did last year.
Used graphics cards gain value from VRAM chips and PCB gold plating.
The used GPU market sees rising values due to the recovery value of VRAM chips and PCB gold plating. Retailers and recyclers are finding that older boards contain materials worth more when stripped for parts.
Recycling one ton of mobile phone circuit boards can yield up to 300 grams of gold. This high yield encourages buyers to treat discarded electronics as a source of precious metals rather than standard waste.
The RTX 4060 used market average price increased by 18% compared to Q4 last year. Older cards now hold more value in the secondary market because their internal components remain useful for both repair and material recovery.
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