The RTX 3080 used to be the poster boy of the global GPU shortage. But in Australia, the prices for NVIDIA's high-end graphics card seemingly dropped off a cliff overnight.
rtx 3080 render
Popular tech review YouTube channel Hardware Unboxed recently tweeted that local prices for the 3080 experienced a sudden, massive 35% price drop overnight. According to WCCFTech, combining this with numerous retailers looking to offload inventory could mean PC gamers will be looking at heaven on Earth soon.
You don't see a major price drop like this happen in just one night. But it happened, which means that the GPU-pocalypse could be ending sooner rather than later. And it's not just Australia (and the RTX 3080) that's seeing crazy price drops like this.
This follows another price drop for NVIDIA's top-end RTX 3090, which is now only 20% above MSRP a couple of weeks before Team Green launches the RTX 3090 Ti. According to VideoCardz, anticipation for the new top dog GPU likely made the former top dog GPU less desirable, with prices in Europe reaching below the €2000 ($2216 USD) mark for the first time since August 2021.
If you didn't know, the original MSRP for the 3090 is still a prohibitively expensive $1499. But this is still far closer than it's ever been, especially considering how prices reached their absolute peak madness just late last year.
Slow But Steady
Tom's Hardware recently took a look at the average eBay prices of NVIDIA's RTX 3000/2000 series and AMD's RX 6000/5000 series to see whether they've also dropped in price. The short answer is they did, and it's an amazing sight to behold. All graphics cards experienced a 9% average price drop during the first half of March.
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.
The only ones that didn't drop as much were surprisingly the older cards, namely a few members of the RTX 2000 lineup. The RTX 2080 Super, for example, only dropped a measly 1.6%, followed by the base RTX 2080 at 3.4%.
Read also: 'Star Wars Eclipse' Is NOT Delayed, Quantic Dream Confirms
Does This Mean You Can Get An RTX 3080 Now?
Perhaps. The RTX 3080's price did fall a considerable 7.9% on eBay as per Tom's Hardware's computation. But the card is still too expensive for the performance it brings, which is where the question of purchase timing comes into play.
Should you buy one right now? Probably not. Graphics card prices at the rate that they're falling as of the moment could still fall lower. As such, you might get a card for what you think is a good deal, only to realize that the prices dropped again without you looking.
Aside from easing up inventories, companies like NVIDIA are also mulling to cut their own prices. WCCFTech recently reported that Team Green "quietly" informed their board partners of an 8-12% cut in its GPU prices.
For now, it might be safer to wait until prices drop even more. That way, you can be sure that you'll get a great deal.
An Asus GeForce GTX 1070 Strix OC Edition 8GB graphics card, taken on January 20, 2017.
Related: GPU Prices Keep On Falling, But High-End And Mid-Range Cards Are Still Too Expensive
Story posted on GameNGuide
Written by RJ Pierce
