GPU Pricing Update: Hardware Still Overpriced?

Welcome to our monthly GPU pricing update. This series has remained remarkably popular even though GPU prices are closer to normal than when we first started these updates, in the middle of chip shortages which were compounded by miners demand.

But with new GPU launches, like the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti which launched this month, we get a good opportunity to revisit prices, see how those new products are slotting in the overall market, and look at demand. So let’s start there, with the RTX 4070 Ti, a product that’s received lukewarm feedback from reviewers and prospective buyers for the most part.

This stems from the fact that the 4070 Ti increased in price substantially compared to the RTX 3070 Ti. The MSRP rose from $600 to $800, and while the 4070 Ti is a much faster GPU, in our testing at 4K it only presented an 11% discount over the 3070 Ti in cost per frame at the MSRP and virtually identical value to the RTX 3070. It is among the better value products from this latest generation, but it’s hardly anything to get too excited about.

It’s been no surprise to see that demand for the RTX 4070 Ti has been relatively weak for a new GPU, with no real availability issues – and our understanding is this card hasn’t exactly been shipped in huge quantities. In most regions, the RTX 4070 Ti has been available since launch, even at the MSRP, which is in contrast to most “good” GPU launches where a respectable level of demand typically sees the product sell out instantly and remain hard to find for a few weeks.

With a slow launch for the RTX 4070 Ti, the demand isn’t there to see the card sell out, however we’ve also been told the card is a better seller than the RTX 4080, so that’s something (although the 4080 has been horrific for sales volumes in general).

Some of interest about the RTX 4070 Ti is that many reviewers got caught up a bit in the rumor mill and predictions that the RTX 4070 Ti would have a “fake MSRP” – in other words, the $800 advertised price would largely not exist in the market outside a very small batch of units, with most models and ongoing supply being priced more like $850 or $900.

This was made apparent by review titles and promos, and even in our review we expressed some skepticism that Nvidia would meet this $800 price point. But it turns out these claims and rumors were false, as Nvidia and their partners have had no issues supplying the RTX 4070 Ti to customers at the MSRP – right now you can grab a Gigabyte Eagle model from Newegg for $799 or this Zotac model for $799 at Amazon. We’ve been checking since launch and every time we looked we found at least one card offered at the MSRP. In Australia, there are like 5 MSRP models available right now.

Of course, there are a few caveats. Many board partner models are priced above $800 — you’ll see a lot of options between about $830 and even $900. But this is relatively common for GPU launches where you may see a few cards at the MSRP, while AIBs typically target a 10% premium for some variants.

Having many options above MSRP doesn’t mean the MSRP is fake though, if you still have the option of buying a card at the MSRP – which is the case here. What makes a fake MSRP is when there’s never any MSRP stock at all, or if the MSRP stock is overly limited, which are sold out nearly instantly, leaving the vast majority of buyers with no choice but to pay a premium. We saw that many times in the previous generation but buyers these days are much less accepting of that practice.

The other caveat is that possibly there was some intention to have a fake MSRP for the 4070 Ti, but sales volumes have been so low that even the initial low stock of MSRP models hasn’t been sold. But, given we’re now a couple of weeks post launch and MSRP cards haven’t sold out, that seems unlikely.

This sort of strategy would have (and possibly has) failed entirely, there is just no way buyers are going to be handing over $900 for a RTX 4070 Ti in the current market, even the $800 MSRP is hardly a must buy.

The RTX 4070 Ti not being very attractive at the MSRP will cause many of the $850+ models to sit on shelves for some time, until perhaps they are discounted to a more appropriate level. No different to the RTX 4080 and Radeon 7900 XT, both of which had poor launches.

It is very much a buyer’s market at the moment and voting with your wallet is working

It is very much a buyer’s market at the moment and voting with your wallet is working – we’ve seen the Radeon 7900 XT already sitting below its $900 MSRP, so if you keep sending the message to GPU makers that pricing is too high, we should see improvements at future launches and possible price reductions for current models.

Across the current generation, the only two models that have been a success are the GeForce RTX 4090 and Radeon RX 7900 XTX which are largely out of stock at most retailers, especially if you’re after one at MSRP.

This leaves third party sellers as your only choice, offering these models at inflated prices that just aren’t worth buying, especially for something like the 7900 XTX which at $1,300 right now is poor value, as we discussed in our recent cost per frame feature.

Nvidia GeForce GPU Pricing

Most of the high-end models in the GeForce RTX 30 series are unavailable to purchase new, as they’ve been replaced by the RTX 40 series at price points at and above $800.

Pricing hasn’t changed substantially in January compared to December for less expensive models, further confirming that some of these mid-range and mainstream GPUs were given a fake MSRP. If we look back at almost 12 months of new GPU prices, at no point have we found consistent stock available at the MSRP for several of these cards, maybe a flash sale here or there, but never really on shelves at that price.

GeForce Pricing Trend – Lowest Price on Newegg (3rd week of the month)

If we specifically look at the sub-$600 market, you’ll see the RTX 3070 Ti never coming into the picture at all. That’s because its cheapest price was $610 during September and October last year. The RTX 3070 did briefly touch $500, but has since gone up in price.

(same data, < $600 data points only)

The RTX 3060 has yet to hit $330 in our price tracking, and same with the RTX 3050 and its $250 MSRP – both of those models have been fairly consistent in price now for the last few months. It’s only been the RTX 3060 Ti that has been available at or below MSRP for two or more months in our tracking.

AMD Radeon GPU Pricing

On the AMD side with the Radeon 6000 series, pricing has fallen by 4% on average this month which is a small but reasonable drop considering the last few months of price movement. Right now there appears to be one final push to rid the market of higher end models, stock for GPUs such as the Radeon 6800 XT is low and can be spotty, same for the 6900 XT, where only a single option is available.

The Radeon 6950 XT has fallen to a new low price point of $700, but for other models pricing has been more stagnant, for example, we can see the best time to buy an RX 6800 XT was back in November when they were around $500.

Radeon Pricing Trend – Lowest Price on Newegg (3rd week of the month)

AMD is doing a much better job of servicing the mid range and lower parts of the market, with many more options available stretching down to under $200. But pricing has been relatively flat since September for many of these cards, so we’re very much still at the bottom of the market here aside from the occasional fluctuation.

(same data, < $600 data points only)

These prices are effectively the “new normal” for Radeon GPUs, and we wouldn’t expect any significant changes until before new models launch in this price range, which could still be many months away.

For further details on which cards are the best to buy in the new market right now, check our cost per frame update which has everything you need to know across the US, Europe and Australia.

Used GPU Pricing

What about used GPUs? If you’re interested in an RTX 30 series Nvidia GPU, things are interesting. The top end of the market, including the RTX 3090 Ti and RTX 3080, haven fallen in price in response to the launch of the RTX 4070 Ti.

It’s hard to justify buying any 30 series product for $800 or above given the RTX 4070 Ti can be had for that price and delivers performance only a touch behind the RTX 3090 Ti.

Used RTX 3090 Tis are actually a bad deal and should only be considered if you need the extra VRAM. We don’t see much appeal in the 3080 Ti used at $740 either – it’s 8 percent slower than the RTX 4070 Ti and is 8 percent cheaper used vs a new 4070 Ti, so it makes no sense. We’d expect more price drops in the coming weeks for those cards.

For mid range and mainstream offerings, you’re getting a 20 to 33 percent discount on average buying used with no substantial price changes except for the RTX 3050.

The gap between new and used AMD GPU pricing is less than what we saw for Nvidia. Whereas $600 Nvidia GPUs and lower were on average 24% cheaper buying used, for AMD we’re looking at an average 16% discount.

Right now it’s actually more expensive to buy a used 6950 XT than just grabbing the cheapest model on Newegg, which is silly. A few other cards are only available for around a 10% discount, which is hardly worth it given the lack of warranty.

The aggressive nature of AMD’s GPU pricing is causing a few problems here and makes it hard to recommend some of these used options.

Cost per Frame for Used GPUs

Here’s a look at cost per frame for these used GPUs using average eBay pricing and our 6 game medium settings average from our previous feature. We’ve also thrown in the cost per frame of three new GPUs: the RTX 4070 Ti and Radeon 7900 XT which are the cheapest current-generation models… and the RX 6700 XT which is one of the best value new GPUs.

In our opinion there is no point buying a used high-end GPU right now, pricing is too high on average, you’d just grab either a new GeForce RTX 4070 Ti or a new 7900 XT instead.

There’s also a bit of a roadblock in place for mid-range cards when the Radeon 6700 XT is available new for $360. The used RTX 3070 only matches that new card in cost per frame, while buying a used RTX 3060 is actually worse value than a new 6700 XT. However it is good to see a clear discount for other models, such as the RTX 3060 Ti and RX 6700 XT used.

What’s also interesting to observe is that the used market sees AMD vs Nvidia head to head performance battles tighten up considerably. The Radeon 6700 XT and GeForce RTX 3060 Ti are almost neck and neck in value, and same could be said for the RX 6800, RTX 3070 and the RTX 3070 Ti which trails just behind.

When we looked at new GPU pricing, the Radeon 6800 was 24% cheaper than the RTX 3070 in cost per frame, but on the used market it’s basically identical as the 3070 is 33% cheaper than new on average, while the 6800 is only 13% cheaper.

However, there are some outliers, such as the RTX 3050 still a rubbish buy, and the Radeon 6800 XT doing particularly well for its performance. There is also still a tendency for higher end products to be priced at a premium, it’s not a totally flat market where every GPU has a similar cost per frame. The variance is certainly a lot less: here the RTX 3090 is 73% more per frame than an Radeon 6600, whereas on the new market it’s 130% more – but the premium is still there.

For older GPU series there’s been no substantial change on the used market. The RTX 20 series is priced at or below $400 these days, which makes sense: the 2080 Ti is quite old now and sells for $383 on average, almost the exact same price as the RTX 3070 that goes for $384 on average; both GPUs offer similar performance.

The GTX 16 series is basically flat compared to prior months, offering decent value for buyers looking at a cheap GPU around $100 to $140 – certainly far better options than the atrocious Radeon 6400 and GeForce GTX 1630.

Meanwhile, the Radeon RX 5000 series pricing is basically flat. These cards are offered in large quantities still, especially the 5700 XT which is priced at $170 on average. Back in May 2021 that GPU was being sold on average for $1,184 which goes to show just how drastically prices have fallen for the best mining GPUs since its collapse in 2022.

The State of the GPU

January hasn’t brought any huge changes to the GPU market compared to December 2022 which was the end of the holiday season. The GeForce RTX 4070 Ti hasn’t shaken up the market at least not for now at its current price. It’s selling slowly, which is actually a positive sign and its relatively high price hasn’t put pressure on other GPU models to receive discounts.

The high end market isn’t looking great at the moment and we think a lot of buyers after that premium experience would be very disappointed in the state of things. The RTX 4090 and RX 7900 XTX are hard to come by, other current generation options are poor value, and there are few other options.

The best value ‘high end’ GPUs these days are things like the Radeon RX 6950 XT, but even that model presents basically a tier below in performance relative to something like the RTX 4080.

But the good news is that unlike in 2021, gamers aren’t rushing to spend big dollars on a poorly priced graphics card, so the bad practices of GPU manufacturers aren’t being rewarded and eventually they’ll be stung into action. We certainly wouldn’t recommend buying a middling card just because it’s the only option.

The mid range and entry-level parts of the market are where the action is at right now, competition is healthy, Radeon cards in particular are great value and there’s a lot of decent buys in the used market.

When looking to grab a used GPU we’d just caution buyers to make sure you check new card’s prices and make you aren’t overpaying, but if you play things right you can get a good deal, especially if you want something for less than $200.

Shopping Shortcuts:

• AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT on Amazon
• AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX on Amazon
• Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 on Amazon
• Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti on Amazon
• Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 on Amazon
• AMD Radeon RX 6800 on Amazon
• Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 on Amazon