Things are not back to normal yet, but GPU prices are steadily dropping

Graphics card prices are still pretty much inflated compared to what they were a few years ago, but the good news is that things are finally looking like they’re continually getting better, not worse.

To determine this, Jared Walton AT Tom’s devices and analyzer John Pedy Gathered data about current and historical GPU prices. The only modern card that consistently tracks close to the manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $199 AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT Hard Reviewed, which currently retails for an average of $220, according to Peddie’s data, and $237, according to Walton’s. But overall, prices are down a lot from their 2021 peak.

Nvidia’s RTX 3080 pricing shows where the market is now – the card currently sells for an average of $1,200 to $1,300, and you can buy some models from retail sites like Newegg for 1000 dollars. The cost is still higher than the card’s MSRP of $699, but it’s about a third less than its peak price of $699. 1800 dollars.

Anyone following this situation can name the factors that drove up GPU prices in the first place. New products like the RTX 3000 series leapfrog the promised performance over previous generations, just as next-generation game consoles have been leading the way. New developments in game engines and graphic fidelity. These normal factors have collided with supply chain problems, chip shortages, and a crypto-mining boom to drive up demand. The increased demand also attracted speculators, which made the situation worse.

Peddie specifically blames speculators, crypto miners, and retailers for the larger price increases, rather than chip shortages or supply chain issues. He notes that the cost of a standalone graphics card (or “AIB” for “add-on board”) “is at least 2x, and possibly 3x, more expensive than notebook GPUs.” In other words, miners and speculators weren’t just buying gaming laptops en masse just to use in mining or reselling them, and in the absence of these demand distortions, supply and pricing for gaming laptops wasn’t as bad as it was for desktop GPUs. Independent office. As the profitability of the cryptocurrency drops (and also some currencies like Ethereum Prepare to quit GPU mining entirely), the prices of these standalone GPUs have gradually fallen.

Deficiency or not, the technology that powers these GPUs is still running in the background – all three major GPU companies are said to be planning to release a GPU sometime this year. Intel already has Recorded on GPUs for ArcWhich is due to arrive this summer. nvidia Power-hungry RTX 4000 Series GPUs It is also said they come this year, as it is AMD RDNA 3 Series Radeon 7000 Series Cards.

And the launch of new GPUs brings with it a set of new questions: Will MSRPs for new cards go up because people are used to paying more for GPUs? Will current-generation models continue at lower prices or gradually fade away to push consumers to newer products? Will consumers still be interested in buying “last generation” cards, or will they decide to keep buying newer models instead? GPU prices may drop, but we can expect them to remain unpredictable for the foreseeable future.