Graphics card prices continue to fall, and in more cases are falling below the recommended price (MSRP), with prices on the second-hand market falling positively in some cases – thanks to a perfect storm surrounding crypto mining (we’ll be back to that point later).
First, let’s see the raw statistics published by Tom’s Hardware (opens in new tab)which regularly monitors the average prices of current-gen GPUs (RTX 3000 and RX 6000) in the US, both for retail and eBay (used) sales, and just came up with a bunch of new numbers in mid-June.
So what we’ve seen in the last couple of weeks, since the beginning of June, is that the retail prices of graphics cards are down 2% overall, but that average is skewed a bit by an outlier in the form of a 9% increase. . for Nvidia RTX 3080 12GB model.
There are some big drops, including a 7% drop in the asking price for the RTX 3070 and RTX 3070 Ti, and a 6% drop with respect to the RTX 3050. Nvidia’s flagship RTX 3090 Ti is also down 5%. .
The movement with AMD graphics cards at retail has been more modest, but there was a drop of 3% for the RX 6900 XT and 6800 XT, as well as the 6600 XT and vanilla RX 6600.
Nvidia’s graphics cards are seeing yet another decline in part because they have yet to get back to MSRP – while many of AMD’s RX 6000 series have already dropped below MSRP, that’s not true with any of Nvidia’s top RTX 3000 offerings.
In Nvidia’s case, only the high-end GPUs – the RTX 3090 Ti, RTX 3090 and RTX 3080 Ti – have dropped below the recommended price (well, the 3090 is on par with its MSRP). All other Ampere GPUs, from the RTX 3050 up to and including the vanilla RTX 3080, are still priced above MSRP at retailers. While for AMD, only the 6800 XT and 6800 remain above your MSRP.
As for the used market, eBay’s average selling prices have witnessed some huge drops – remember, this is just over the course of two weeks – with Nvidia’s RTX 3060 Ti dropping 19% and the RTX 3080 down 17%, with the RTX 3070 not far from it, with a 15% reduction.
The biggest drop on eBay, however, is AMD’s RX 6950 XT, which is down 21%, and the 6800 XT is down 17%, as is the 6500 XT, with some other Big Navi GPUs seeing drops of 12% to 14%. .
Ignoring AMD’s new graphics cards – which are basically not available on eBay, or hardly at all – eBay’s overall average selling price is down a staggering 12%, and to emphasize this again, it’s more than a fortnight.
Analysis: Cryptocurrency Storm, With Big Caveats on Used GPUs
A mix of factors are now contributing to produce these price drops, particularly in the second-hand market – with much of it tied to the cryptocurrency market. We’ve just seen a big crypto crash, of course, and rapidly rising electricity prices mean that cryptocurrency mining has been hit simultaneously by huge cost increases and large chunks being taken out of profitability.
The predictable result is that people are considering giving up their mining ventures and rushing to put GPUs on auction sites to sell them. Mainly because they realize that others will have the same idea, and they want to win the race and get a better price, before a flood of second-hand graphics cards hitting the market further depresses asking prices (which we can see is already happening ).
Also, there are high-end GPUs from AMD and Nvidia on the horizon, and they could be on sale as early as September (we’ve even heard a rumor that Nvidia might fire up to August, but we have doubts in that regard – although a paper launch can happen).
Either way, it won’t be long before we at least start hearing about the RTX 4000 and RX 7000 GPUs, and it will make people think twice about buying current-gen GPUs – why get one of these when you can wait for the which are apparently much more powerful models just around the corner? And that will put even more downward pressure on prices.
For that reason, while prices are dropping with some momentum right now, it’s probably a good idea to wait longer, particularly for Nvidia graphics cards which are generally still above the MSRP. That situation will change quickly, no doubt, when the next generation of Lovelace is announced…
The second-hand market is quite a different proposition, and while there are some pretty hefty price drops, which can be exciting – you have to be careful when buying a used GPU that’s on a mining rig. These are graphics cards that ran 24/7 and pushed hardand a bit like a car that has been driven hard and crashed by its owner, they have far more proverbial miles on the clock than their age would indicate – and potentially far more likely to go wrong in the future as a result.
The second-hand market is tricky because sellers are likely to avoid declaring that a graphics card has been used for mining – precisely because they don’t want to discourage buyers due to the aforementioned concerns – and thus take a used GPU at a time from miner sales. cryptocurrency is a minefield in this regard.
We urge you to be very careful here and suggest that rather than pulling the trigger on eBay right now, you’d be better off waiting for prices for new graphics cards to drop a lot more – which, in all likelihood, is what will happen as this year advances.
