Reports from the Heart of the Machine
Machine Heart Editorial Department
With an unheard-of overnight price cut of 35%, retailers seem to be trying to sell graphics cards at cost.
The global shortage of chips continues, while the price of consumer graphics cards has avalancheed. Recently, there have been more and more news of NVIDIA and AMD graphics card price reductions.
According to Australian YouTube channel HardwareUnboxed, the Asus RTX 3080 TUF dropped prices by 35% in just one day, from AU$2299 ($1685) to AU$1499 ($1100). While still much more expensive than the suggested retail price, the new price should be more convincing for potential buyers for the Australian market.
Nvidia and AMD graphics cards all dive into the water
In fact, AMD's RX 6500 XT graphics card is already below the recommended retail price in Germany. On the German retailer Mindfactory platform, the Dylan RX 6500 XT (ITX Gaming, single-fan) sells for 169 euros, which is 35% lower than the european suggested retail price.
That's not the only optimistic signal from the GPU market right now. Hardware Unboxed has been making product review videos about graphics cards. Sometimes the channel also does videos of graphics card price updates, such as watching for pricing fluctuations at another U.S. retailer, Newegg. They have said they hope that the days of making such videos will not be long, and that the graphics card market will return to normal by March 2022, but this does not seem to be the case.
However, Hardware Unboxed also found that the price inflation of some graphics cards above the recommended retail price has decreased.
Newegg GPU pricing for select Nvidia graphics cards in March 2022.
In a video updated March 19, Hardware Unboxed notes that overall, graphics card availability has become healthier across all regions this month. In the U.S. market, almost all graphics cards are available on Newegg and are available through first-party sales channels.
Note that all GPUs evaluated are still above their SUGGESTRP, but Nvidia's RTX 3080 Ti is now 19% higher than the MSRP, which is already much lower than it was not long ago.
Meanwhile, the graphics prices of most other Nvidia RTX 3000 models remain high, with the best being the RTX 3090, which is a 35% markup, while the RTX 3070 Ti is currently priced 42% higher than the suggested retail price at Newegg.
The average price of Ampere graphics cards has increased by 50%, and some models are still above the recommended level, such as everyone has seen that the RTX 3070 has a 72% premium.
There are also reports that Nvidia will reduce the price of GPUs for some board partners, a decrease of about 8%-12%, but this news has not yet been confirmed. But this means that the graphics card will be reduced again in the coming weeks, because unlike official price cuts or promotions, such price reductions or promotions will not take effect immediately. Therefore, it is expected that the price will fall further soon.
For AMD, the above-suggested retail price is on average at around 38%, with the 6500 XT unsurprisingly ahead, as in Germany, although it is still slightly above the suggested retail price. Another low-end model, the RX 6600, is 21% taller, while the 6700 XT is 25% taller.
The flagship RX 6900 XT is also one of the better performers, with a premium of 30%, and the 6600 XT also has a premium of 32%.
Newegg GPU pricing for select AMD graphics cards for March 2022.
Let's take a look at the eBay platform. Newegg shows the lowest price, while eBay's 'Scalper' pricing reflects the average price. Of course, considering that both NVIDIA and AMD will launch new desktop GPUs, this could lead to further price drops.
Overall, the GPU price of the RTX 30 series on eBay dropped by an average of 10%, and the Radeon RX 6000 series dropped by an average of 13%:
March 2022 eBay GPU pricing.
Hardware Unboxed also noted that the price of eBay for resale GPUs has declined, with the average price of new NVIDIA graphics cards falling by 10% in March compared to the previous month. For AMD, that's down 13 percent, a sign that, overall, things are moving in the right direction.
Why the price cut?
Judging from the current situation of the industry, the chip shortage problem has been going on for a long time. This directly led to the lack of graphics card supply, making the price of graphics cards high in the past two years. However, the recent increase in graphics card inventory in many places has eased the pressure on supply and demand, and the price has also declined.
Taking Nvidia as an example, the RTX 30 series, especially the 3080 and 3090, is difficult to find, and "scalper trading" is also common. There have been recent rumors that Team Green is trying to save some graphics card manufacturing costs, and consumers may soon benefit from it, which may be one reason for the price reduction of the RTX 30 series.
In terms of performance, some graphics cards are not competitive enough. For example, if a player already owns a GTX 1060 or RX 580, the RX 6500 XT upgrade isn't amazing, so it doesn't appeal much to many gamers, causing the price of the RX 6500 XT to drop sharply.
It is reported that Intel's Arc Alchemist graphics will be officially unveiled in May, which will undoubtedly greatly increase gpu inventory levels. If Intel can get a piece of the graphics market, it is expected that both the market landscape and the price of existing graphics cards will be affected.
In addition, there is another reason for the previous soaring price of graphics cards - "mining". Cryptocurrencies are in the limelight in 2021. Many times, the group of people who rush to buy graphics cards is not only gamers, but also "coin circle players" with greater demand overseas. Scalpers also see business opportunities in this, hoarding a large number of graphics cards to drive up prices. For a long time after the launch of the RTX 30 series, even though Nvidia introduced a restricted mining mechanism, the price of graphics cards was still so high that it was impossible to buy it with additional money.
Finally, is this a good time to get started with the RTX3080? On social networks, everyone has said that they will continue to wait and see, after all, there is still too much uncertainty in this field.
Reference Links:
https://www.zhihu.com/question/523982393?utm_source=wechat_session&utm_medium=social&utm_oi=56560353017856&utm_content=group3_supplementQuestions&utm_campaign=shareopn
https://www.cnbeta.com/articles/tech/1248273.htm
https://www.techradar.com/news/gpu-prices-fall-again-with-one-amd-graphics-card-now-35-below-its-launch-price
https://videocardz.com/newz/gpu-prices-are-falling-march-2022-update-shows-10-13-drop-on-ebay-listings