You may recall Club386 looked at Nvidia GeForce and AMD Radeon discrete graphics card pricing in mid-January 2022. Analysis considered average cost of the last five completed eBay sales for each model and compared against the manufacturer’s recommended figure.
Reading was grim for PC gaming enthusiasts, as significant scalper-induced mark-ups were evident, but there are firm signs pricing is coming down to more reasonable levels. To that end, we have repeated the same exercise by examining the most recent pricing this morning, March 1.
| Graphics Card | Launch RRP | Average Cost Jan 17 | Average Cost March 1 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GeForce RTX 2060 | £329 | £460 | £427 | -7.2% |
| GeForce RTX 3060 | £299 | £595 | £519 | -12.8% |
| GeForce RTX 3060 Ti | £369 | £820 | £670 | -18.3% |
| GeForce RTX 3070 | £469 | £887 | £761 | -14.2% |
| GeForce RTX 3080 | £699 | £1,262 | £1,158 | -8.2% |
| GeForce RTX 3080 Ti | £1,049 | £1,327 | £1,246 | -6.1% |
| Radeon RX 5700 XT | £379 | £816 | £764 | -6.4% |
| Radeon RX 6600 XT | £349 | £509 | £474 | -6.9% |
| Radeon RX 6700 XT | £420 | £699 | £722 | +3.3% |
| Radeon RX 6800 | £579 | £1,057 | £1,049 | -0.8% |
| Radeon RX 6800 XT | £649 | £1,175 | £1,125 | -4.3% |
Analysis
10 of the 11 cards have dropped in price, ranging from a maximum 18.3 per cent reduction on GeForce RTX 3060 Ti to just 0.8 per cent on Radeon RX 6800. The outlier is RX 6700 XT, which is now 3.3 per cent more expensive than on January 17, but can be explained away by having fewer listings when compared to other cards.
Overall, though, there is an average 7.4 per cent drop when all cards are considered, and that is a meaningful amount when most GPUs cost over £500.
Part of this drop may well be due to better supply, and it’s certainly possible Nvidia has more stock in the channel than AMD, which helps keep Team Green’s pricing at a more palatable level.
Recent widespread fluctuations in cryptocurrency value may also help explain price dampening. Though there has been a concerted comeback in the last three days, the price of one Ethereum coin, used as a good proxy for mining, was £2,450 on January 17 and as low as £1,850 in the last week. Looking at it from a short-term perspective, lower coin value perturbs small-scale miners from taking the plunge.
Then there’s the ongoing spectre of escalating energy prices. Mining profitability is directly related to the spot price of cryptocurrency and cost of mining. As one falls and the other rises, squeezing profit margins, there’s less motivation for hobbyist miners to indulge in tying cards up 24/7.
That said, it’s clear miners are favouring high-end GPUs whose per-card throughput is immense. Radeon RX 67/68xx and GeForce RTX 3070/80 have held up well, which is unfortunate for anyone contemplating a premium build in early 2022.
Nevertheless, our rudimentary research reveals pricing is moving in the right direction. Another 7.4 per cent across-the-board drop would be most welcome in a few weeks’ time. Perhaps Intel can help supply matters along when the Arc line of graphics cards are introduced in notebook form this quarter and desktop next quarter. Plans are afoot for Team Blue to ship four million cards this year alone.
