AMD is winning a key battle against Nvidia in GPU price war
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AMD’s RX 6000 graphics cards look like attractive buys right now, with prices steadily falling, as shown in a new report for this month, while Nvidia GPUs stubbornly refuse to fall.
This will pass Tech Spots (opens in new tab) GPU price update for January 2023 (the site produces these reports monthly), which shows a slew of graphics card sales data, including retail prices (in the US), and additional nuances like the best value boards (in terms of raw ‘ cost per frame’, which means price/performance ratio).
The good news is that for last-generation products hitting the shelves, some GPUs from AMD have seen some significant price drops. Indeed, the top five RDNA 2 models have dropped in price, with the Radeon RX 6800 XT and 6950 XT leading the way with 14% and 13% price drops compared to last month.
The 6900 XT is also down sharply with a 7% reduction compared to December, and slightly more modest declines – but still worth it considering this is month over month – were seen on the RX 6800 and 6750 XT, with a decrease of 4% and 3% respectively.
Mid-range offerings like the RX 6650 XT and 6600 XT were also down 4% and 3% respectively, and the 6500 XT was down 6%, but prices elsewhere remained largely flat. There was an outlier in the RX 6600 that was up 12%, mind you.
The story was very different with Nvidia’s last-generation RTX 3000 GPUs, where the only card that actually dropped in price was the GeForce RTX 3060, which dropped a healthy 6% – and to be fair, that’s a pretty useful product to dropping a decent one.
While the RTX 3070 remained the same price, the other Ampere GPUs still available at US retailers increased – by a small 2% for the RTX 3070 Ti, but slightly bigger increases of 4% and 5% were seen with the RTX 3050 and RTX 3060Ti.
What about RTX 3080 and 3090 variants? Well, there’s no more stock of these cards, aside from scattered RTX 3080 10GB models (but TechSpot didn’t have a price to compare to in this case, as these cards have been out of stock for the past few months).
As for new products, the RTX 4070 Ti hit the market this month, and as TechSpot noted, the latest Lovelace graphics card remained in stock and sold for its MSRP (recommended price), an unusual situation – and one that could indicate a somewhat weak question. TechSpot does clarify that the RTX 4070 Ti supposedly sells better than the RTX 4080 – something we’ve seen clear evidence of elsewhere – while also pointing out that this isn’t a particularly big feat, as it wasn’t (and still isn’t) . ‘t) a very popular GPU.
Still, in TechSpot’s price/performance (cost per frame) chart based on MSRP pricing, the 4070 Ti ranks second, close behind the leader: AMD’s RX 7900 XTX. Those are the top performers for the RTX 3070 in third place, and the RX 6800 XT and RX 6800 following in fourth and fifth place.
Behind those cards is the RX 7900 XT in sixth place, but you have to go further down to find the RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 in ninth and tenth places respectively. (Remember, this is based on recommended prices, not actual current price tags).
Analysis: Some seriously tempting options from Team Red
Both the RX 6900 XT and 6950 XT graphics cards look like great buys right now, as they’ve dropped significantly over the past nine months. The latter in particular, which reached a low of $700 (about £570 / AU$1,000) in January, which represents more than a third knocked off the MSRP.
The RX 6800 XT also took a heavy fall, although a price spike in December made it somewhat cheaper. These are all attractive options for those looking for a powerful graphics card, but don’t want to pay more for the new generation RDNA 3 or Lovelace.
In the mid-range for AMD’s RX 6000 series, the declines are more modest, as noted, but there are still some really tempting options – like the RX 6650 XT for an asking price of $275 (about £220 / AU$395).
It’s disappointing that Nvidia graphics cards aren’t seeing the same kind of drops, but not exactly surprising. When GPU prices first started to fall (back from really inflated levels of double the MSRP, or even more), it was a theme that Nvidia’s products were more resistant to cuts. Though of course that’s partly a reflection of their relative popularity.
The better news with Team Green is that at least the RTX 3060 and 3060 Ti – important mid-range models – are now almost at MSRP in the US (they’re only $10 more in both cases). They may fall further, but we’re not counting on it, as Nvidia’s Lovelace mid-range seems a long way off in sight. Indeed, it is rumored that the RTX 4060 will not be released until mid-2023.
That said, the high-end RTX 3000 stock is now all sold out, so maybe it won’t be long before the excess RTX 3060 stock is cleared as well; and if so, perhaps Lovelace’s successor will emerge a little sooner than widely expected.