This story is part of Jacob Roach's ReSpec series, covering the world of PC gaming and hardware. 2022 was a roller coaster for GPU prices. Prices started high, with the crypto boom on the verge of collapse, they crashed around the middle of the year, and now GPU prices are holding steady at much more reasonable costs. Or, at least, compared to the massively inflated prices we saw during the GPU shortage.
Related Let’s start with the RTX 4090. It has remained out of stock since it launched, at least at major retailers like Newegg and Micro Center. You can still buy a new card with marketplaces like Newegg or Amazon, but you’ll spend around $2,200 at minimum. Many cards climb above $2,500.The secondhand market isn’t much better. $2,000 is the minimum on eBay if you score a deal, but again, you’ll spend $2,200 for the vast majority of cards and even above $2,500 in some cases.
The situation we’re in right now isn’t a GPU shortage. If you recall the past few years, everything was out of stock and marked up on the secondhand market. This case is unique to the RTX 4090 and maybe the RX 7900 XTX, but we’re still too close to AMD’s launch to tell. Last-gen options are worse. The RTX 3080, which should retail for $700, starts at around $900 despite it being more than two years old. Lower down the stack, Nvidia’s prices are better. The RTX 3060 Ti is about $50 over list price, as is the RTX 3060, and the RTX 3070 Ti is $100 over list price. It’s important to remember the age of these cards, though. They’re last-gen, and they should be selling for less than list price at this point.
In August, when Nvidia said it had “excess inventory” of RTX 30-series GPUs, the writing was already on the walls. Nvidia’s pricing is so much more expensive this generation compared to the previous one. The RTX 4080 is $500 more than the card it’s replacing, and the rumored RTX 4070 Ti could be similarly more than last-gen’s RTX 3070 Ti. With much higher prices, Nvidia doesn’t have to compete with its last-gen offerings, and they can continue to sell at or above list price.
The second reason is that we’re past the flagship phase. Throughout 2023, AMD and Nvidia will release the GPUs lower in their product stacks, and that’s when we’ll start to see current-gen and last-gen GPU prices really competing. AMD has already put some pressure on Nvidia with its RX 7900 XTX going up against the RTX 4080, as well. In the $300-$500 price bracket, a similarly competitive GPU from AMD would force Nvidia’s hand.