Nvidia GPU prices tumble with RTX 3070 and RTX 3060 Ti falling fast
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Nvidia’s graphics cards have fallen in price over the past week, and so have AMD’s GPUs (in many cases, anyway).
Yes, the major easing in graphics card price tags continues for RTX 3000 and RX 6000 products, and it’s not surprising that Nvidia’s GPUs, in particular, are falling, given that the RTX 4000 series was unveiled earlier this week. And also, the Ethereum merger recently took place, which reduced the demand for graphics cards on the crypto front.
As Tom’s hardware (opens in new tab), our sister site that regularly monitors GPU prices, reports that the main drops for Nvidia’s current-generation GPUs were seen with the RTX 3090 and — drumroll — the RTX 3060 Ti, both of which fell 11% in US retailers. Remember, that’s only a week away, so it’s a pretty steep drop in that short time frame.
The RTX 3070 also dropped a significant 7%, and the RTX 3050 8%, with most other Nvidia graphics cards seeing a decent 2% to 3% drop. There were a few models for which the price did not change, namely the RTX 3090 Ti, RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3060.
As we mentioned at the outset, there was also significant downward movement for AMD GPUs. That includes big drops for the RX 6700 and 6700 XT, both of which are down about 15%, and the RX 6750 XT’s price tag is down 11% compared to a week ago.
However, there were exceptions with AMD graphics, on the top and bottom, with the flagship RX 6950 XT actually increasing in price by 4%, and the RX 6500 XT up 5%, while the RX 6400 was up 4%. a hefty 9%.
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This is generally great news, with an average price drop of 3.5% for all current-generation GPUs. Also very welcome are the discounts on more affordable Nvidia graphics cards, which have so far resisted quite stubborn price drops, like the RTX 3060 Ti and RTX 3050, both of which are down about 10%.
What’s odd is that some of AMD’s budget offerings have moved upwards, and there’s really no explanation for what comes to mind. The flagship RX 6950 XT that is increasing in price can be explained – it has just come out of sale, as Tom’s Hardware points out.
As for the RTX 3090 Ti, which didn’t go up, but didn’t go down either, the price that stays the same is probably due to the fact that this flagship GPU has come a long way lately. And the RTX 3060 that remains the same price is probably a reflection of how popular this graphics card is right now, as one of the more affordable models. But now that the RTX 3060 Ti doesn’t cost that much more, you’d better spend a little extra to get that extra performance, something we made clear in our review of the 3060 Ti.
Or you could alternatively look to an AMD RX 6600, which is an excellent value proposition at this point, as Tom points out, if you’re willing to consider going to Team Red. Or indeed, you could just wait – because prices could fall even further. With these reductions occurring over a week, it’s probably wise to see what another week or two brings.
That said, Nvidia’s inbound Lovelace cards will start with just the RTX 4090 and a few RTX 4080 variants, so there won’t be an RTX 4070 or 4060 for a while – most likely not until early 2023. You might remember Team. Green said it’s going to use a tiered strategy where next-gen and current-gen GPUs will be sold together for the foreseeable future, and so movement on the mid-range and lower RTX graphics cards may be more limited after these initial bigger drops after Lovelace’s announcement. Still, waiting and seeing can’t hurt, because we can’t see things happening on the Nvidia GPU front.