GPU prices seem to keep on falling right now, but it's still not good enough-more so if you want to get your hands on a powerful graphics card to game on.
A group of graphics cards, including (L-R) an MSI GeForce GTX 1050 OC 2GB, Zotac GeForce GTX 1060 AMP Edition 4GB and an Asus GeForce GTX 1070 Strix OC Edition 8GB, taken on January 20, 2017.
TechRadar reports that all of the most popular GPUs out there have all experienced slight price drops based on their current street pricing. Mainly, this involves all of the newest cards in NVIDIA's RTX 3000 and AMD's RX 6000 lineups. These cards experienced 6-12% price drops during the past two weeks.
Here's the current situation in the US at the time of this writing. The card with the biggest recent price drop is AMD's RX 6700 XT, which now costs $687 on average on eBay. This was a 12.2% drop from its February average.
Next on the list is NVIDIA's RTX 3070, which dropped 10.2% to an average eBay price of $887. This is then followed by the RX 6800 XT (9.6% drop to $1,064 average price), the RTX 3090 (9.2% drop to $2,126 average price), the 3070 TI/3080 Ti (both dropped 8.2% to average $919 and $1,579, respectively).
The card with the smallest price drop is the 12GB variant of the RTX 3060, which only had a 4.2% price decrease. It now costs around $610 on average.
GPU Prices Also Dropped Overseas
GPU prices used to soar even higher abroad when products would need to cost a bit more when sold at retail due to import/export duties. But prices there have been dropping as well, according to a recent analysis by the German site 3DCenter.
From a 2022 high of 185% MSRP (NVIDIA) and 178% MSRP (AMD), average graphics card pricing has dropped to 141% and 135% MSRP. This is even more pronounced when you compare it to 2021's peaks, wherein Team Green GPUs reached an insane 318% MSRP mid-May, while Team Red ones peaked at 216% MSRP.
But one thing remains the same: all of the cards are still too expensive, especially the high-end and mid-range ones. Only the prices of entry-level models remain manageable even then, they're still quite inflated.
Read also: How To Upgrade The Storage Of An Xbox Series S: The Basics
Analysts Are Hopeful For The Year
Two years have passed since the GPU-pocalypse started. But even if things were pretty bad, analysts are now hopeful that pricing parity can be reached sooner than expected.
A group of PC graphics cards, including (L-R) a Zotac GeForce GTX 1060 AMP Edition, MSI Radeon RX 470 Gaming X 8G and an AMD Radeon RX 480 8GB, taken on July 22, 2016.
According to PC Gamer, the downward trend in graphics card prices indicate that a potential "normalization" of everything could be achieved by summertime. Much of these price drops can be attributed to the increased availability, meaning NVIDIA and AMD's promises of shoring up their inventory weren't in vain.
Aside from that, there's also the looming threat posed by Intel and its Arc graphics cards. While the release of Team Blue's GPUs remains elusive, the fact that they are coming is excellent for the market because it finally brings major competition to the long-standing duopoly.
They say not to tempt fate, but things are looking good for PC gamers down the line. Who knows? You might finally get your hands on that sweet RTX 3080 that you've coveted for so long-all without spending your entire month's rent on one.
Read also: 'Sifu' Mod Transforms Male Avatar into 'The Matrix' Star Neo
Story posted on GameNGuide
Written by RJ Pierce
