A Rocky Launch: Gamers Are Not Buying Nvidia’s RTX 4080

It’s time for our GPU pricing update for November and this update is especially interesting as we’re beginning to see an impact of new graphics card launches across the entire segment. Not only that, but we’re now a little over a month on from the launch of the GeForce RTX 4090, and about a week from the RTX 4080 launch, which gives us a good opportunity to recap those releases.

About that RTX 4080 pricing…

The launch of Nvidia’s RTX 4080 has not gone well in terms of sales, with very weak demand for a high-end product. For the past few generations (not to mention during shortages), Nvidia was able to release anything and a significant number of people would flock to buy those GPUs.

It would be typical for any new release to sell out almost instantly and buyers a little slow to hit the purchase button would have to wait weeks for a restock. That’s been the norm for many years and has been especially true for the series that are most often in demand, like 80 series models.

But with Ada Lovelace and the RTX 4080, this hasn’t happened. Cards have not sold out instantly and right now there is little difficulty buying an RTX 4080 if you want one. This is unusual and even contrasts to the RTX 4090’s launch which also became unavailable shortly after release.

It’s been our observation that in the US is where demand has been higher, but even there things aren’t looking amazing. On Newegg it took days for the GPU to fully go out of stock. Meanwhile, at Microcenter there have been widespread reports of 4080s sitting on shelves and even base models selling for the $1,200 MSRP are still available at some locations.

Outside of the United States it’s been easier to purchase an RTX 4080 with virtually no stock issues, thanks to even lower demand. Across a variety of retailers in Europe and Australia you can buy a 4080 right now and you’ll typically have your choice of model as well, including base level cards. Now, not every model is available at every retailer, and some variants have sold out, but large quantities of RTX 4080 cards are sitting on store shelves.

When we asked local retailers in Australia how the launch has gone so far, the general consensus was that it’s been a bad launch – and one even expressed concerns about how they were going to sell the 4080s they do have when the demand just isn’t there. Cards piling up without a decent sell through rate does make retailers nervous as they’ve already bought those models and there’s little they can do to adjust prices with such tight margins.

This brings up the question of why, most of which was covered in reviews. The RTX 4080 is a powerful new GPU and offers great performance, but the high price tag and lack of performance per dollar gains compared to existing models is turning many shoppers away.

There are other complications at play. One is that the $1,000+ graphics card market tends to attract a certain type of buyer, one with disposable income that wants the best performance and isn’t as concerned about value. That sort of buyer would jump all the way up to the RTX 4090 as it’s the fastest card and offers a similar performance per dollar compared to the RTX 4080. Spending an extra $400 for a large jump in performance is no biggie for many high-end buyers searching for the ultimate product.

Nvidia may have been able to convince more buyers to grab the RTX 4080 if it delivered a decent increase in performance per dollar relative to the RTX 4090 – similar to the RTX 3080 vs 3090 in the prior generation – but even that can be a dicey proposition when the card is priced so high. Right now it simply sits in a bit of a no man’s land: it’s not the fastest card, so it’s not attracting buyers with deep pockets that want the best; and it’s not priced low enough to tempt buyers that typically shop based on price to performance ratios or value. Back when the RTX 2080 Ti launched, the $1,200 price point did offer something as that was the fastest model, but today when Nvidia has raised flagship pricing up to $1,600 it’s made that $1,200 tier kind of obsolete.

Another factor is the impending launch of AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 series graphics cards. The smart play is to wait and see how those graphics cards perform before buying any new models — especially the RTX 4080 which is a direct competitor to the RX 7900 XTX. It doesn’t seem like waiting will see you miss out on a 4080 given how easy they are to buy, and having all the facts in front of you is the best move. But I personally don’t think this is a driving factor given there are many shoppers that will simply buy Nvidia with no consideration for AMD given Nvidia’s strong mindshare and it appears even these Nvidia-only buyers are turning their backs on the 4080.

The biggest issue is the price, and not just the price in the United States, $1,200 is not great and we believe it should be more like $900 – but especially the price in other countries. The RTX 4080 is disgustingly priced outside the US and it’s no surprise these models are sitting on shelves in Europe, Australia and other countries.

For example, take the UK at Overclockers.co.uk and Scan.co.uk. Across those retailers the cheapest RTX 4080 in stock is about 1350 pounds with the cheapest out of stock models at 1300 pounds. When we convert that to US and adjust for tax, which is included in the price listed in the UK, but excluded in US price listings, we see that the RTX 4080 is priced at a minimum of $1,290, and $1,340 for the in-stock offerings. That’s $100-150 over the already expensive MSRP.

Our friends in Canada at Newegg are looking at the cheapest RTX 4080s in stock being priced at $1,800 Canadian, with the cheapest overall listings at $1,700. That puts the effective Canadian MSRP at ~$1,270 US, and about $1,350 for the cheapest in stock models.

In Australia, it’s horrific. The cheapest RTX 4080 is $2,440 AUD at PC Case Gear, which converted to USD is a whopping $1,480. Apparently the MSRP here should be $2,220 – or $1,360 in US equivalent pricing – but that price doesn’t seem to exist. So you can quickly see why every single RTX 4080 model is currently in stock; the prices quoted in most reviews simply don’t apply to other territories.

One explanation could be that GPUs are simply more expensive in all of those countries, but that doesn’t hold up when looking at the RTX 3080 as an example. In the US this GPU has been selling for ~$750 for a while now when in stock. US equivalent pricing in the UK is $740, in Canada is $760 and in Australia is $760. It’s clear that the RTX 4080 is overpriced outside the US and that’s leading to lower demand and plenty of stock.

Nvidia GeForce GPU Pricing

Looking at Nvidia’s GeForce 30 series on Newegg, there’s recently been a big push to sell through remaining RTX 3080 inventory and above. Nvidia seems to have a clear plan to wipe these cards from the market and leave only the RTX 4080 and 4090 as high-end options…

The RTX 3090 series has been a little harder to find over the last couple of months, but now these supply shortages are headed for the 3080 as well, which is interesting given the gulf in price between the RTX 3080 and 4080. This could be in preparation for the arrival of whatever becomes of the unlaunched RTX 4080 12GB, which is expected in January.

It’s not unusual for older models to be discontinued at the launch of a newer generation, the only lingering question is about the supposed massive amounts of RTX 30 cards yet to be sold. At least in the US, it seems that since the collapse of crypto mining in September and the huge drop in GPU prices across 2022, most of this remaining inventory for higher end GPUs has been sold. That’s not as true in other countries though, where the RTX 3080 is readily available, but the 3090 series is becoming harder to find.

Outside of high-end models, there’s been some small price movement that edges Nvidia’s older GPUs closer to their real MSRPs. Astonishingly though, cards like the RTX 3060 and RTX 3050 have yet to sell at the MSRP. We’ll probably see some discounts across Black Friday that will make models like the RTX 3060 hit its $330 MSRP, so look out for those.

AMD Radeon GPU Pricing

AMD Radeon GPUs fell on average across November but it’s clear that price reductions are slowing now for some models, and the availability of higher end GPUs is dwindling in a similar way to Nvidia’s line-up.

The biggest price movements were for the Radeon 6750 XT and 6700 XT, which are reaching astonishingly low prices of just $350 for the 6700 XT. But on average the entire AMD 6000 series is sitting 25% below MSRP which feels about right for 2 year old products just about to be superseded by a new series.

Crucially, many models are sitting at tier below pricing, for example you can currently buy a 6800 XT for the MSRP of a 6700 XT, and a 6700 XT for the MSRP between a 6600 XT and 6600.

GeForce vs Radeon Price Points

With Nvidia not interested in lowering prices or reaching MSRP levels, AMD’s line-up in a price comparison is looking quite attractive at the moment. Not a whole lot going on at the high-end except for Nvidia’s RTX 40 series, but below $700 it’s pretty competitive.

The RTX 3070 is going head to head with the RX 6800 XT at around $520, while the 6700 XT is matching up on the RTX 3060, a pretty brutal battle for Nvidia. In rasterization performance at 1440p the 6700 XT is about 35% faster, while ray tracing trades blows depending on the title.

Then there’s the 6650 XT up against the RTX 3050, with the Radeon GPU offering over 50% more rasterization performance, and the cheaper RX 6600 also offering superior performance.

So with Nvidia unable to hit MSRP it doesn’t make much sense to buy a new mainstream Nvidia GPU unless they can push prices much lower than they are currently sitting. In the current market the RTX 3070 should be about $400, the RTX 3060 about $250, and the RTX 3050 a little below $200.

Used GPU Pricing

If you were thinking about buying an RTX 30 series GPU used, unfortunately it’s not particularly attractive to do so. With prices relatively stagnant on the new market, and several models going out of stock, pricing hasn’t changed substantially on the used market.

Many models are getting sold in large numbers, so it seems there’s somewhat of an acceptance that current pricing is what it is, so things have flatlined. Generally, you’re looking at about a 25% discount buying used compared to new, though that can be as high as 30+% for some models. Pricing in many cases approaches the values we were just talking about for the RTX 3070 through 3050, where they should be to compete with AMD.

Looking at AMD GPUs on the used market is pretty similar. Several models aren’t being sold in significant enough quantities to track them, and the discount you get buying some of the higher end models is rather small. But other models see a modest to acceptable discount.

Like Nvidia GPUs, it seems pricing is bottoming out to some degree, so waiting for further discounts may not be fruitful throughout the rest of the year.

As for older models, Nvidia’s 20 series saw modest price drops in November, just 4% on average which is about half what we saw in October and November. There is some evidence that prices are plateauing though. That could be because of a number of factors, including stagnation for new GPU pricing, increased demand during the holiday period, and weak reception for the value of the newest GPU releases.

The GeForce 16 series is seeing a 6 percent price reduction on average month on month. These GPUs present a good option as an entry-level buy right now considering all are priced below $150, while new GPUs in that sort of price range remain quite weak.

Nvidia’s Pascal series only dropped in price by 4% this month, largely due to a modest price reduction for the GTX 1060 series, those cards are still getting sold in volumes on the used market.

AMD’s GPUs from the Radeon RX 5000 series have seen the steepest discounts over the last few months as miners flog them off – the vast majority of these cards in the hands of people were used for mining since they became poor value for gaming during 2021.

Right now the 5700 XT can be had for as little as $160, which is a ludicrous deal and a much better option than buying a 6500 XT, provided you can stomach the likelihood that the card has been used heavily for mining.

AMD’s older GPUs have also fallen by 9 percent on average including a large reduction for the RX 590 and RX 580’s value. Like Nvidia’s Pascal series, these cards are a bit old and lots of people are looking to upgrade from them to something newer – though buyers might find value here as a stopgap or something extremely cheap.

What We Learned

This has been an interesting month for the GPU market despite the slower movement. The weak reception for the RTX 4080 means the card remains readily available in most countries, which has come as a bit of a surprise, despite mixed or negative reviews in a lot of cases, but it seems clear that in the current market GPU buyers just aren’t interested in a bad deal – and the RTX 4080 in a lot of countries is a terrible one.

The overall GPU market has plateaued for now with prices only creeping slightly lower throughout November, despite significant volumes of cards still getting sold on the used market.

We think it will be key to look out for flash sales throughout the holiday shopping period to get the best deals, especially for Nvidia GPUs which haven’t reached MSRP level pricing in many cases.

AMD Radeon GPUs present a strong option in the sub-$500 market and used GPUs are available at a reasonable discount.

Where GPU pricing goes from here we believe will hinge significantly on whether AMD’s Radeon RX 7000 series GPUs are well received and are available in decent quantities.

There’s a lot of buzz about the RX 7900 XTX “only” priced at $1,000 despite being positioned as an RTX 4080 competitor, so if AMD is able to shake up the GPU price-to-performance equation, that will have flow on effects for the rest of the market. But if they can’t quite achieve that, we think we’ll see more stagnation around current prices, which aren’t awful, but at the same time aren’t amazing either considering the age of many of these products.

Shopping Shortcuts:

• Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 on Amazon
• AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT on Amazon
• Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 on Amazon
• Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti on Amazon
• AMD Radeon RX 6800 on Amazon
• Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 on Amazon