NVIDIA And AMD Graphics Card Prices Are Falling, Let's Start A GoFundMe For GPU Scalpers
Our sarcasm should be palpable, but just in case anyone thinks we're being the least bit serious about starting a GoFundMe for GPU scalpers, we're not. They don't need a GoFundMe, they can go you-know-what instead. Their financial well-being notwithstanding, the good news here is that prices of graphics cards in the secondhand market are trending downward.
Temper your expectation because we're not talking about a free fall or anything of the sort. However, those exorbitant prices you see for all levels of GPUs on eBay have been dropping. Some are down by more than 30 percent over their peak selling prices, like the GeForce RTX 1060 (3GB model), though newer generation cards are coming down as well.
Jarred Walton at Tom's Hardware waded through a ton of listings and compiled the average selling prices of various models, comparing what they sold for in January versus February. Here's a sample...
- GeForce RTX 3090: $2,341 in February (down 10.2%)
- GeForce RTX 3070 Ti: $1,001 in February (down 15.1%)
- GeForce RTX 3060: $636 in February (down 10.5%)
- GeForce RTX 3050: $455 in February (down 15.5%)
- Radeon RX 6900 XT: $1,421 in February (down 7%)
- Radeon RX 6700 XT: $783 in February (down 7.6%)
- Radeon RX 6600 XT: $568 in February (down 6.9%)
- Radeon RX 6500 XT: $272 in February (down 25.5%)
That's just a partial list of falling GPU prices on eBay. There's a separate list that compares maximum and more recent minimum selling prices, and the one consistent takeaway is that graphics cards are not fetching as much these days as they have over the past year.
The sobering news is that we're still looking at supply being woefully behind demand for a variety of reasons—scalpers, cryptocurrency mining, manufacturing capacity—and that's not going to change overnight. It's also disheartening that first-party vendors are cashing in with forced bundles and exclusive member restock events, the latter of which effectively serve as paywalls.
All that said, it's encouraging that prices are coming down. There are also factors at play that could see the trend continue, such as Ethereum switching to a proof-of-stake model and Intel entering the fray with its first Arc Alchemist graphics cards launching soon.
Here's hoping that a return to normalcy (whatever that is) will come sooner than later.
