GPU price drops look like they’re becoming more and more constant, which is music to the ear of graphics card-starved PC gamers.
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According to Overclock3D.net, GPU price drops have been increasingly occurring for both AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards. Average markups have gone from as high as 304% in mid-May to as low as 153% by July 4. Most graphics cards still cost double their original MSRPs, sure, but at least they don’t cost an entire month’s rent anymore.
The information comes from a website called 3DCenter, which crunched data from the German graphics card market. According to a report by VideoCardz, the German market posted the highest average pricing for graphics cards, which made GPU price drops much easier to spot there.
NVIDIA’s RTX 3000 cards headline the GPU price drops (now take note, these prices are USD equivalent at the time of this writing). For instance, the supposedly mid-range RTX 3060 is now down to as low as $700 from as high as $1180 back in May. The RTX 3080, the so-called “poster child” of the GPU shortage, now costs between $1418-$2178 from a high of $3547.
As for the top-end RTX 3090, current German pricing sits at around $2285-$3648 from a maximum of $3784. AMD cards didn’t quite reach sky-high asking prices as their NVIDIA counterparts in comparison, with only the RX 6900 XT topping out at $3535 (currently at a low of $1568-$2947).
These are still pretty expensive considering the cards’ original MSRPs, but they’re still far better than before. It’s also in line with Europe experiencing the biggest GPU price drops in the world recently.
Read also: AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT Costs Twice as Much as the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT at $2,011.12 | Scalper Prices
GPU Price Drops Reason #1: Crypto’s Fall from Grace
It can be safe to say that the current GPU price drops are due to the reduced profitability of crypto mining as a whole.
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According to a report by crypto mining watchdog The Tokenist, BTC hashrates are down by as much as 50% due to one thing: the crypto crackdown in China. Mining operations have been packing up their rigs and moving to more favorable areas. However, there are also reports that they’re selling off their graphics cards for cheap. Considering that China comprises around 65 percent of the world’s total BTC mining capacity, this is no small-scale change.
Even AIB GPU maker Asrock believes the same. According to them, graphics card demand from crypto miners is set to decline as the year ends. This could mean that prices for the most sought-after cards, like the RTX 3080, will go back to close to MSRP levels, hopefully before 2022.
GPU Price Drops Reason #2: Chipmakers Are Opening Up New Factories
TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp), the main chipmaker for both NVIDIA and AMD, is setting up shop in the US. In fact, they’re actually in the final stages of jumpstarting the operation of their new factories in America, according to TweakTown.
Once these fabs go full swing, graphics card supply shortages will be alleviated, which leads to prices going down.
Related: GPU 101: How To Extend The Lifespan Of Your Graphics Card
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Written by RJ Pierce
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