GPU pricing is still above MSRP so late in the life cycle
Has the decrease come too late?
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Another month, another update from 3DCenter on the GPU pricing in the German Austrian market. The site has been tracking the trend since January 2021 and it finally shows the retail price of graphic cards is coming close to MSRP. Ever since the release of the current generation, GPUs have been expensive and it has been a struggle to buy them for the appropriate price.
However, 3DCenter now shows that AMD Radeon cards are only 7% above MSRP with Nvidia 14% above MSRP. Although this average is skewed with the more popular cards higher and the lesser cards below MSRP. Such as using the RX 6700 XT, 6800, 6800 XT, RTX 3060, 3060 Ti, 3070, and 3080 you will get an average of 22% above recommended price. So even though in general they are cheaper it’s not exactly the ones you may want.
It’s especially frustrating when we are so far through the life cycle of the current generation. The RTX 30 series and RX 6000 series launched in late 2020 and we expect a two-year lifespan. So there are plenty of rumors of the ADA and RDNA3 cards coming in the second half of 2022. As well as Intel ARC Alchemist cards coming in the summer. Along with a much higher supply and lower Ethereum price you’d expect the price at this point below MSRP.
Will the next generation be above MSRP?
With such a demand for graphics cards over the past couple of years, there has been a show of customers willing to pay for them. Even with the higher price that has been demanded even at resale. So that shows the manufacturers that they may get away with charging more for the upcoming cards. Especially with the supposed performance increase of them, they may use that to justify the price hike.
There is also continued demand with many enthusiasts, like us, holding off on spending more than necessary on their components. Especially with the next generation changes, like AMD changing sockets to AM5 it may be the case many are waiting for one big major change over small increments. And so we may see a repeat of two years ago of the shortage.
