When looking for available graphics cards, you no longer have to hope for a rare oasis.
Let’s rewind the time a year to early 2022: The situation on the graphics card market was still very tense and the new models RX 4000 (Nvidia) and RX 7000 (AMD) were many months away. As a result, the RTX 3080 still cost an average of 1,500 euros on Ebay at the end of January 2022, as we reported at the time. So more than double their RRP. And today?
The RTX 3080 is not only easily available, but also at significantly lower prices in the range of its RRP of 699 euros for Nvidia’s Founders Edition. But things are even better with the current GPUs, which came onto the market at the end of 2022, at least at first glance.
All current models from AMD and Nvidia can be bought in stores without any problems, and not only that: the minimum prices are always below their RRP for the release. This is sometimes only just and sometimes quite clearly the case, as the following table shows:
| RRP at release | Current retail price | |
|---|---|---|
| RTX 4090 | 1,949 euros | approx. 1,700 euros |
| RTX 4080 | 1,469 euros | approx. 1,250 euros |
| RX 7900 XTX | 1,149 euros | approx. 1,100 euros |
| RX 7900 XT | 1,049 euros | about 850 euros |
| RTX 4070 Ti | 899 euros | approx. 890 euros |
| RTX 4070 | 659 euros | approx. 640 euros |
The big catch is obvious
What the table also makes very clear: So far, not a single model of the new GPU generations from AMD and Nvidia is really cheap.
Even the new Geforce RTX 4070 from Nvidia, with a cost of over 600 euros, is in a range that not so long ago was only due for the fastest high-end models.
Anyone who was still hoping at the end of 2018 that graphics cards for four-digit sums like the RTX 2080 Ti, which was supposed to cost 1,200 euros at the time of release, would remain the absolute exception, will now be bitterly disappointed.
A look at the comparison of the RRP of the new RTX 4070 and the GTX 970 from 2014 makes it clear how significantly the situation has changed: While the RTX 4070 has an RRP of 659 euros, the GTX 970 was still for half or for to have an RRP of 330 euros.
Since then, nine years, some of which were very eventful, have passed and the reasons for the higher costs are complex. However, it should be undisputed that PC gaming has become a significantly more expensive hobby.
How do you rate the fact that current graphics cards are now readily available and are always available at least just below their RRP? Despite the generally high prices, a reason to be happy, an absolute matter of course that should always have applied, or something completely different? Let us know what you think about the current situation in the GPU market in the comments!
