It does seem to be that GPU prices have recently begun to trend down, heading towards their MSRP though with a ways to go yet. There is no definitive reason for such good news, but there are certainly some obvious factors, of which cryptocurrency is the most glaring. With more mature currencies close to being mined out, and being designed to run better on ASIC's anyways, that part of the crowd is no longer buying GPUs. The more recent altcoins which were designed for GPUs are having some minor trust issues at the moment, and there are those designing ASICs for those currencies which is also taking the heat off.
Also consider the maturity of both Vega and Pascal, they have been out long enough for supply to catch up with demand and in theory there are new products coming soon from both vendors which generally means they are looking to get rid of exisiting stock. Slashdot and other sites offer a variety of theories but no matter how you slice it, this is good news.
"If you were looking for a new graphics card for your PC over the last year, your search probably ended with you giving up and slinging some cusses at cryptocurrency miners. But now the supply of video cards is on the verge of rebounding, and I don't think you should wait much longer to pull the trigger on a purchase."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- Guru3D Rig of the Month – April 2018
- USB 3.2 Work Is On The Way For The Linux 4.18 Kernel: Report @ Slashdot
- Microsoft's Office 2019 is now available in preview for Windows 10 users @ The Inquirer
- Core Memory Upgrade for Arduino @ Hack a Day
- Huawei developing own Android and Windows 10 alternatives amid US tensions @ The Inquirer
- Windows USB-stick-of-death, router bugs resurrected, and more @ The Register
- Hard Drive Gives Its Life to Cool 3D Prints @ Hack a Day
- Paperback writer? Microsoft slaps patents on book-style gadgetry with flexible display @ The Register
This is still a bad time to
This is still a bad time to buy a video card, consider this, if there was no GPU mining craze going on, the cards would be sold at around 60-75% of their original MSRP, with occasional coupon codes and other sales bring the price down even more.
The next generation of GPU is already running late since people are still buying the older cards like crazy, but really, these cards are already outdated.
I noticed that the 1080s are
I noticed that the 1080s are down to $600, which was MSRP at launch, but 1080 Ti is still $1000, Vega 64s are still $800-$900, and 1070s are still a bit high at $500. I was ready to buy a 1080 for $600 at launch, but short stock and eventual price gouging killed that notion.
GPU prices are falling but
GPU prices are falling but will they ever reach MSRP! Ethereum’s price is going back up and until the Ethereum proof of stake change over happens then GPUs/loads of compute will still be needed. And once The Ethereum proof of stake, or even ASICs, happens what’s to stop some other proof of work coin from becoming popular.
GPUs wanted more for compute than for gaming has forever altered the base economics of lower GPU pricing going forward. And Folks will always be free to join up their GPUs in large networks to crunch blockchain transactions, and any other sorts of GPU compute networks for dollars.
Polaris, Pascal, Vega are going to be getting old but as long as the next generation of GPUs do not offer substantially better compute performance/watt at a low enough costs then expect that those older GPU designs to still remain popular for coin mining. Miners will just dial back the clocks/under volt and use more of the older GPUs if the latest generation of GPUs start out with a higher MSRP/higher pricing but do not also offer the extra compute performance/watt to justify the extra expense of coin miners for switching from the older GPU offerings.
AMD may still be able to sell Polaris Based GPUs for a longer period of time if they can still be assured of being able to sell Polaris to miners, ditto for Vega after Navi becomes svailable. Nvidia will also not have to be in much of a hurry to stop production of GP102 or GP104 based GPUs if AMD has yet to release any direct gaming competition to its GTX1080Ti(GP102 Based) gaming GPU. GP102 still offers up to 96 avaiable ROPs so that’s more than the GTX1080Ti’s enabled amount of 88 out of GP102’s 96 available ROPs.
AMD’s is in no hurry to even compete in the falgship Gaming GPU market compared to the larger revenue producing mainstream GPU market where the majority of revenues are made. And Both AMD and Nvidia after seeing the retailers reaping so much more off of the demand prices of GPUs will prabably be forced to set their next rounds of next generation GPU MSRP/wholesale pricing artifically high to allow the GPUs makers themselvs to benifit more than the retailers from the GPU makers’ years of hard work in creating the GPUs in the first place.
Both Lisa Su’s(AMD) and JHH’s(Nvidia) respective BOD’s and share holders probably are not too happy with the retailers making so much profits off of AMD’s and Nvidia’s hard work. So look for the MSRP’s to be set artifically high on the new generation GPUs and the GPU makers able to benifit more if any coin demand continues to make GPUs expensive. Both Companies’ CEOs have a fiduciary duty to their respective share holders so look for the BODs at each company to be wanting higher Wholesale/MSRP GPU pricing and the CEOs are accountable to their respective BODs and share holders who can send the CEOs packing.
Nvidia and AMD can always set their MSRPs and wholasle prices higher and then offer any gamers direct rebates with single rebates per houshould sorts of conditions. AMD and Nvidia need to charge as much as the market will allow for their products and not let the retailers net most of the rewards. And there is no rule that says that GPU’s can not be sold at or Below MSRP or even wholesale if the wholesale prices start out high from the beginning! That just gives the GPU makers more latitude with rebates to target gamers directly and limit the amount of rebates available to big mining operations.
And Flagship AMD gaming freaks, Vega 20 is a copute/AI product for the market with the higher markups that gameers will never pay. Vega 20 may very well just be a 7nm shrink of Vega 10 base die design with tweaks at 7nm so AMD can creat a dual GPU DIe on one PCIe card SKU/s to drectly compete with Nvidia’s Volta in the AI market.
AMD’s Lisa Su has to target the market with the highest markups that can get AMD’s gross margins even higher than 36%. AMD is sure to be focused on Epyc/Radeon Pro WX and Radeon Instinct for the professsional compute/AI markets where the markups are much greater than any consumer/gaming market can afford to pay and that professional market produces more revenues also.
If you are on a tight budget
If you are on a tight budget you can go for the 1070. Just oc it and you can get results similar to the 1080. Last month I save $5 on eBay with a valid ebay 20 off coupon. If you dont kinda care about money you can wait for the next generation.