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GPU prices are in freefall. This is excellent news for punters looking to get their hands on the latest graphics cards, which have long been sold out or marked up at extremely high prices over the last few years thanks to the global semiconductor shortage in addition to other external factors. However, this is seemingly changing. We’ve previously reported that GPU pricing was due to come down in March, and brands such as ASUS have already adjusted their MSRPs to be lower than we’ve seen for an extremely long time. The predictions were that pricing was due to drop by around 11%, however after we take a look at some of the other examples around the world, GPU pricing is dropping by as much as 37% to normalize towards their original MSRP pricing after years of being inflated.
RTX 3080 prices crash down by 35% in Australia
As reported by HardwareUnboxed, the RTX 3080 pricing is currently plummeting downwards. We’ve seen ASUS drop their prices in the UK by around 10%, but to see the RTX 3080 drop in price by 35% is unprecedented, and it could be due to a mix of a few factors. Firstly, there are now more chips going around, meaning that you can get your hands on an RTX 3080 easier than ever before. With more shipments reaching shores, and supply and demand beginning to normalize across the market, you can expect that previously inflated pricing is now coming down.
This can also be attributed to scalpers not wanting to purchase the cards, as cryptocurrency prices continue to plummet, and far more attractive options on the market for dedicated mining cards become available. Secondly, scalpers may now be less attracted to the cards because of this, as the majority of people purchasing a scalped graphics card is going to be someone who either has a lot of cash to burn or someone who knows that they will earn back the money in time by mining. This knock-on effect is compounded with factories resuming production to their maximum capacity, after being impacted by lockdowns due to the global pandemic.
But, one of the single most important factors involved in this is going to be the manufacturing process is now more mature, compared to what it was just a few years ago when the Ampere cards launched. With factories shutting down mid-pandemic, foundries have had to stop-start this process over and over again until more stable production resumed. This almost certainly had an impact on the industry, as the manufacturing nodes on the chips need to be mature to ensure that yields on the chip improve as the founding process matures. You can expect supply constraints on Lovelace and RDNA3 to be somewhat similar, as those upcoming chips will once again use new processing nodes.
RTX 3090s now 37% cheaper in Germany
In Germany and Austria, prices of the RTX 3090 have dipped by almost 37% when compared against their prices in May 2021. This is equally unprecedented, and indeed reflective of the cards not only getting more supply but also that the demand for the cards has gone down, too. Almost every card is getting cheaper, with less inflated pricing, with the savings passed on to the consumer, and the latest reports that suggested that prices would be coming down have held true, we just didn’t know that the drop would be this sudden and dramatic. We can only hope that the factors involved in getting these cards continue to remain stable for as long as possible, as it enables more actual gamers to get their hands on the GPU than scalpers or miners, who have now taken a seeming disinterest in the GPU market after the aforementioned crash in cryptocurrency pricing.
The RTX 3090 is one of the most prized GPUs out there, but also one of the most expensive, too. Therefore, demand for the card will be lower. This dramatic drop is demand might not be reflected with many of the consumer-friendly cards like the RTX 3060, you should instead expect around a 10% droip in prices for that, if the previous reports are to be believed.
More cards in the stack means more GPUs for sale
Before Nvidia managed to release a full stack of Ampere graphics cards, you were limited by the number of options on sale, which means less choice for consumers and ultimately, fewer cards on the market. This was a calculated tactic by the company as they reviewed the binning process on each chip, which helps the company categorize what chips to release in the future. For example, chips that were made and didn’t make the cut to become and RTX 3080 soon became RTX 3070 Ti’s, but a good number of chips had to be binned in the 3070 Ti category after the RTX 3080 release to even be released. Therefore, the chips that failed the binning process for a 3080 had to be repurposed into a 3070 Ti, and stock had to build up from there before launching the card out into the world. It can often take as much as a few years to see the full stack of chips being released, and now that we’re finally here with the Ampere cards. Availability is naturally going to get better as each card is going to be binned into their own little category, and consumers will have more options for the kind of card they want to buy, too.
Ultimately, this is good news for the consumer, even if it might mean more constrained stock levels closer to launch. It’s tough to get a good picture of what goes on behind the scenes at a foundry, or what many of these companies plans are. But, one thing is for certain, GPU stock is starting to stabilise, and we hope that with it will come the end of the great GPU shortage that has been plaguing us for years.
We’re almost out of the woods folks, let’s keep our figners crossed that the good news keeps coming.
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