The graphics processor unit drought may be over as retailers report inventory is plentiful with prices returning to pre-scarcity norms. Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Ti’s that were marked up to nearly double the MSRP on sites like eBay are now available for approximately their intended $2,300 price. “GPU prices continue to drop on a monthly basis,” reports Tom’s Hardware, attributing the favorable conditions in part to the cryptocurrency crash, which has “resulted in more mining firms shutting down,” selling off hardware and not competing for new units. The easing of COVID-19 supply chain bottlenecks is another mitigating factor.

GPU manufacturers are now “returning their prices to normal, and some of the models available are cheaper than before,” according to Tech Times, which predicts “no more shortages” in the coming months.

“For nearly two years, you’ve had to be incredibly lucky, skilled, or patient to get an Nvidia or AMD graphics card at MSRP,” writes The Verge, recounting how “trying to buy a GPU online, fighting against an army of bots.” But this week, the Best Buy website was abundantly stocked with all the latest Nvidia and AMD graphics processors, selling for their suggested list prices.

The Verge compared the models and pricing on eBay, and found that “sure enough, this week is the week the most popular graphics cards finally hit MSRP on the secondhand market as well.” During the first half of 2022, “the street price of a modern GPU has been chopped in half,” while “almost every graphics card we track fell by more than 50 percent on eBay since January — 30 percent of that since April alone.”

“It was also Nvidia’s most popular and best bang for your buck cards — the RTX 3060 Ti, RTX 3070, and RTX 3080 — that saw the biggest dips,” explains The Verge. “Of those cards, the 3060 Ti is the only used GPU that can’t be had at or under MSRP on average. Meanwhile, an average AMD card will cost you $100 less than MSRP.”

The downside to this abundance might be that “Nvidia and AMD may now actually have too many cards and are trying to order fewer new ones from TSMC because they allegedly overestimated demand,” The Verge speculates, noting “Nvidia has reportedly pushed back its launches of the RTX 4090, 4080, and 4070 to as late as October, November, and December, respectively.”

“It’s an interesting time for graphics cards, not only because they’re becoming cheap, but also because Nvidia and AMD are gearing up to release new generations,” writes Digital Trends, explaining that “Nvidia is working on its RTX 40-series graphics cards and AMD has its RX 7000 GPUs, and we expect to see both before the end of the year.”

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