NVIDIA GPU Price Drop – Increased Nvidia 30 Series GPU Stock Availability

Nvidia GPU price drops continue and GPU stock availability continues to improve. Could the graphics card shortage be at an end? 

3DCenter have come out with some retail data (based on German and Austrian graphics card markets, so it’s not guaranteed that it will be indicative of global markets) that shows a dramatic fall in the prices of Nvidia’s 30 series graphics cards, but with the opposite story being true (to a degree) for AMD.

3DCenter previously reported how, back in June 2021 prices of Nvidia GPUs were falling whilst AMD’s were remaining steady, though it should be noted that AMD GPU prices were never as inflated as their Nvidia counterparts were. It looks as if the trend from June has continued for Nvidia, but with AMD’s cards now actually increasing slightly in price! A turnaround few would have seen coming and a potential blow to AMD, who has enjoyed the advantage of increased GPU availability over Nvidia for some time now.

NVIDIA GeForce Graphics Card Price Drop To MSRP Levels By End Of 2021?

Although the prices of Nvidia’s 30 series graphics cards are still 40-45% above MSRP, as can be seen from the graph above, if the downward trend continues then it may be possible we will see retail prices around MSRP for Nvidia cards around Christmas time (won’t that be nice!). Of course, there is no guarantee that this will occur, and there is a possibility that prices will plateau and not fall any further, though, with the increasing crypto clampdown in China, among other factors, it’s a definite possibility.

Why Is Nvidia GPU Availability Improving?

It seems as if the major effort made by Nvidia to improve the supply of their graphics cards has paid off. Earlier this year, Nvidia came out with a Lite Hash Rate (aka LHR) range of Ampere GPUs, which, due to hardwired restrictions on mining algorithms, effectively made them next to useless for crypto miners. The idea was that less demand from miners meant more GPU supply and lower-priced graphics cards for gamers, and it looks like this has worked.

Why Are GPU Prices Increasing For AMD?

Rumors coming from the various AIB partners that make Radeon GPUs based on AMD’s design, are that stock availability for the AMD Radeon RX 6000 series remains low.

It would appear the thing which is hampering AMD in this area is the use of the 7nm process node in their graphics cards, manufactured by TSMC. Due to the global silicon shortage, there are only a finite number of these chips available, and it would seem that AMD has made the decision to prioritize their use within their Zen 3 CPU range, and in custom SOCs in consoles, which are areas that the company is currently dominating in (vs Intel), compared to the graphics card market in which they face stiff competition from the dominant Nvidia.

This doesn’t look good for the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT, which many hoped would be a more available alternative to the RTX 3060 and RTX 3060 Ti. Still, we’ve got our fingers crossed that AMD has managed to stockpile enough of this card, which will no doubt be in high demand. See our Where To Buy AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT page to make sure you have the best chance of getting one of these new graphics cards.