It’s Time We Sat Down And Had The Talk About … GPU Prices

Source: The Register It’s Time We Sat Down And Had The Talk About … GPU Prices

Get Back Here, It’s Not All Disgusting

The subject of GPU prices, and their complete disconnect from MSRP has been a sore point for a few years now and so it is a topic not often broached in polite company.  This seems to be slowly changing for the better due to a variety of factors, a very welcome change for the enthusiast community.  The first bit of good news is for the US only, as it involves the end of tariffs against China.  The change only applies to GPUs, aka “printed circuit assemblies for rendering images onto computer screens (graphics processing modules).”  The change means that GPU prices from ASUS, and presumably a few other vendors, will drop in price by 25% in the near future.

The second main reason is the profitability of mining, which has thankfully dropped recently because of both the drop in value of many coins, the price it costs to get a GPU that is effective at mining and finally the rising price of energy.  According to nicehash, unless you are rocking a Radeon VII or an RTX 3090, you are creating $2-$3 a day at best, not including power nor the cost of the card.  If you are running one of the more effective cards, you might be able to double that to $6, but again when you take the electricity costs and the cost of the card into account.

If you take a peek at Amazon, you will see GPU prices less than twice their MSRP and if you shop at Brett’s favourite store, Microcenter have some cards barely 50% over MSRP, which are actually in stock.  The same holds true up here in Canada, with a variety of cards selling a mere 50% above what they should cost; though we never had to deal with the tariffs in the first place.

We have a while to go yet, but the fact that cards remain in stock and there is a sustained downward trend in pricing should give you a bit of hope you might see prices come within your reach.  The new Intel GPUs could also have an effect on pricing, depending on how well they perform and the price they are released at.  We could even hope that they have found ways to reduce crypto performance on their cards; though that would unfortunately be against their best interests; companies don’t really care what you do with the card after you’ve bought it, only that you did purchase their product.

Asus has promised the prices of some of its graphics cards will decline by up to 25 per cent starting next month. The company is cutting prices on Nvidia's GeForce RTX 30-series graphic cards from April 1, including the RTX 3050, 3060, 3070, and high-end 3080 and RTX 3090 cards.

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About The Author

Jeremy Hellstrom

Call it K7M.com, AMDMB.com, or PC Perspective, Jeremy has been hanging out and then working with the gang here for years. Apart from the front page you might find him on the BOINC Forums or possibly the Fraggin' Frogs if he has the time.

7 Comments

  1. willmore

    I seem to remember someone saying again and again last year that the prices of GPUs would come back to normal by last fall.

    Reply
    • Jeremy Hellstrom

      T’was not me!

      Reply
  2. Ed Lee

    We need to get back to msrp for all things, I’m sick of getting ripped off on gpus, cars, insurance, watches.

    Reply
  3. collie man

    If you look at the more entry level cards things are starting to go down a little faster, like you can get a rtx3050 or a rx6500xt for around or less than (cdn)$500. I even saw a 1650 for under $250. It’s still higher than it should be but it’s nice to see things going down.

    Reply
  4. BigTed

    You can buy pretty much any GPU here in the UK for 20 to 30% over the mystical RRP. I reckon they’ll be coming down further over the next couple on months – most will want to wait it out now for the 4000/7000 series.

    Reply
    • Sebastian Peak

      I cynically think that companies have just been training us through all of this to think that MSRP is a good deal.

      Reply
      • willmore

        This^^^^

        Reply

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