Graphics cards are still quite difficult to purchase at reasonable prices in most regions, but the month of August in particular has seen a number of developments…
It’s time for our monthly update into graphics card pricing and availability, a series that we’ve been running since March, giving us a ton of useful insight into the current state of the GPU market. Graphics cards are still quite difficult to purchase at reasonable prices in most regions, but the month of August in particular has seen a number of developments that are worth talking about. The market is still facing complications that are affecting GPU prices. If you’re new to this series, in previous articles we’ve described this as a multi-factor situation. Many people are quick to place all the blame on one area or another, but the reality is there are many contributing factors. As we sit here in August, high demand for gaming GPUs, cryptocurrency mining, supply shortages for key graphics card components, limited wafer allocations at fabs, logistics issues due to the global pandemic, tariffs and several other reasons are all contributing to the current state of the market. It’s a complicated situation. A couple of weeks back we ran a survey, asking HUB’s YouTube community what factor you blame the most for current GPU prices.41% of people responded that global supply constraints for components was the main driver, while a further 32% placed the most blame on cryptocurrency mining. Indeed, these two factors appear to be the most significant at play at the moment. Interestingly though, only 5% of users thought high demand from PC gamers was to blame. Let’s talk about what’s happened this month. The launch of the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT took place, which I think is fair to say received only lukewarm reception. A high MSRP, positioning it as a “1080p GPU,” and issues with a limited x8 PCIe bus. There was some hope that a new mid-range GPU would help shift graphics card prices lower, but are we seeing that in the market today? From certain angles, the answer is yes. As we talked about in our recent investigation of whether AMD lied about 6600 XT’s ample stock and availability, the 6600 XT actually launched in reasonable quantities, far higher than any other recent GPU launch. This means that if you do want to spend around the $400 to $500 mark, depending on where you live, it’s now easier to buy a GPU. In Australia, it’s been 10 days since launch and you can still find 6600 XTs for as little as $680 AUD, which is $100 above the local MSRP but significantly cheaper than Nvidia’s RTX 3060 and RTX 3060 Ti. It’s unlikely we’ll see these GPUs hit the MSRP again soon, with retailers describing this $680 price as more the “true” MSRP based on the shipments they are seeing. And as we discussed at length in the 6600 XT availability investigation, despite these seemingly attractive prices,6600 XTs aren’t exactly flying off shelves since it doesn’t offer killer value or performance compared to what you’ve been able to buy for the past few years. We’re also starting to see some movement on pricing for graphics cards around the 6600 XT. In particular, we’re seeing increased shipments of GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GPUs with LHR (Lite Hash Rate). We’ve seen many more limited runs of cheaper 3060 Tis in the past few weeks than in prior months, which seems to be Nvidia’s response to the 6600 XT. It’s been pretty crazy to see some RTX 3060 Ti models available for less than the current going price for the RTX 3060, and retailers are telling us that as soon as they get stock they can price below $720, they just fly off shelves. The RTX 3070 and 6700 XT remain quite expensive, and higher end models are either completely unavailable or still sitting on shelves at ridiculously inflated prices. That’s something to keep an eye on in upcoming months. We also surveyed users about the position you are currently in with your GPU. A higher proportion than ever have said they have managed to buy a current-gen GPU. Of the respondents that do want to upgrade and aren’t fine with their current GPU, just under half have been able to buy a new GPU, while around 40% are still waiting for price reductions. A further 11% of this group said there are no GPUs in their price range, indicating they are waiting for more entry-level cards to hit the market like a GeForce RTX 3050-type product. Other major updates this month concern the cryptocurrency market and crypto mining. We don’t want to spend ages talking about mining since a lot has been going on, but we’ll quickly summarize the key points on how this is affecting GPU pricing.
