GPU Prices 2023: June Update

Here's the update from early June 2022, covering the May 2022 sales, unmodified below this line.

We mostly skipped the update last month, due to the launch of several new AMD graphics cards, though you can see a belated update for April on the next page. For May, we have four newcomers: the RX 6950 XT, RX 6750 XT, RX 6650 XT, and RX 6400, and you can find benchmarks for those in our hierarchy already.

Month over month, GPU prices took another hit, and that's coming from several months of 10% or more drops. In May, the average Nvidia GPU price on eBay dropped by 14%, headlined by the RTX 3090 Ti and RTX 3090 that were down about 20%. AMD took an even bigger hit, with average GPU prices down 15.5% from April. All indications are that, with the drop in cryptocurrency values and mining profitability, demand from that sector has effectively evaporated. Actually, it's worse than that, as many miners appear to be clearing out inventory. AMD and Nvidia make projections for sales typically six to twelve months in advance, and there's every reason to suspect we'll now be entering a phase of oversupply for the current generation graphics cards.

What's bad for the graphics card makers is good for consumers, as this should hopefully spur price cuts. You can almost see the gamers chanting, "How low can you go?" as GPU prices do the limbo with MSRPs. At present, eleven of the 21 current generation graphics cards are selling at prices at or below the official MSRPs. Here's how things looked during the month of May 2022.

Outside of the new AMD RX 6x50 XT cards, which had very low sales volumes on eBay — another good indication that scalpers and miners just aren't interested in risking the purchase of additional GPUs — all of the current generation cards dropped again in price. We're particularly pleased to see the RTX 3090 Ti selling for around $200 less than the official MSRP, which was severely overpriced to begin with.

Of course, the most desirable cards, meaning the ones that didn't have extreme MSRPs, continue to sell at inflated prices. Nvidia's RTX 3050 through RTX 3080 are still going for 28% more than their official MSRPs on average, with the RTX 3060 Ti being the worst offender at 45% over the $400 starting MSRP. AMD's GPUs are in a better state, with only the RX 6800 XT and RX 6800 selling above MSRP, though many of AMD's MSRPs are higher than their direct Nvidia counterparts to begin with.

With the increase in supply and an apparent drop in demand, at least as far as eBay sales go, fewer cards exchanged hands. There were over 10,600 current gen GPUs sold on eBay in April, compared to about 9,000 GPUs sold in May. That's a 16% drop in sales, with AMD's unit numbers down 28%, though do note that AMD unit sales were up 15% in April.

The best values continue to be AMD's RX 6600 and 6600 XT, followed closely by the RX 6700 XT, RX 6650 XT, and RX 6750 XT. For Nvidia, the RTX 3060 and 3050 represent the best bang for the buck, with diminishing returns as you go up the performance scale from there.

GPU prices on previous generation cards fell by 15% on average as well, though generally speaking you'll get a better value buying a current generation GPU over the previous generation. Or at least, that used to be the case. Most of these GPUs are now used models, though, so you should pay less.

Nvidia's GTX 1660-series cards all had significant price cuts this past month as well, with the 1660 Super falling 21%. AMD's RX 5700 XT and RX 5700 also dropped by around 20% month over month. Again, all of those GPUs were popular among cryptocurrency miners, hinting at an increased rate of sell off. Should you buy a used graphics card? In the current market, we'd exercise caution, particularly on models that were popular mining cards. Basically, you get what you pay for.

May GPU Pricing Summary: Oversupply Incoming

Just like we saw with the last major cryptocurrency boom in late 2016 to mid 2017, eventually things return to some semblance of normal. Basing production and sales forecasts on the cryptocurrency market is risky, and with the long expected collapse now upon us, all the new AMD and Nvidia GPUs getting manufactured now have to compete with used cards flooding the market.

We're far from done with the crypt-apocalypse, as most of the GPUs are still within spitting distance of their official MSRPs. The biggest markdowns are on the RX 6900 XT and RX 6600, with both of those selling at around 12% below MSRP. The 6900 XT had a big margin to work with, and even the RX 6600 was quite overpriced since it nominally replaces the RX 5600 XT level GPUs from the previous generation.

If  you want to get an idea of where things may end up, remember the Radeon RX 570, a GPU that launched at $160 and then shot up to well over $400 during 2017. When Bitcoin prices and mining profitability tumbled, the RX 570 cards ended up selling for $120 for the next two years, and it wasn't until the latest crypto boom in late 2020 that the Polaris 20 GPU supply finally dried up. We suspect AMD and Nvidia were more cautious this round, but there's still a good chance to see some cards selling well below MSRP in the coming months.

What will happen with the launch of Ada and RDNA 3? The Turing launch in 2018 was likely delayed by several months just to help clear out excess inventory. Rumors are swirling that RTX 40-series GPUs will arrive in the next few months, but if there are a lot of RTX 30-series cards sitting on shelves, don't be surprised if there's a bit of a delay once more.