Below is the original text for our look at GPU prices at the start of December, 2021, showing prices from eBay for the month of November. The text below here has not been edited since the original post.
-------------------------------------
As we predicted last month, the looming holidays and beginning of the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales didn't do GPU prices any favors. Every GPU (minus one) increased in average eBay pricing compared to October, with the overall trend being about 6% higher. Perhaps because of those higher prices, the quantity sold on most cards was down quite a bit, with a few exceptions we'll discuss below.
Bitcoin and Ethereum prices reached all-time highs in early November, but Bitcoin's price contracted slightly toward the end of the month, seemingly stabilizing at just under $60,000. Ethereum meanwhile sits at around $4,700, just a bit shy of its $4,850 peak on November 10. Any hope of Ethereum's shift to Proof of Stake helping things has been pushed off to some time in the first half of 2022, though it's anyone's guess as to whether it will really happen this time or get delayed again (I'm betting on the latter).
We've switched to doing monthly updates now, with data for all of AMD's RDNA and RDNA 2 GPUs along with Nvidia's Turing and Ampere GPUs. Here's a look back at the month of November 2021.
| GPU | Avg eBay Price | QTY Sold | Gross Sales | FPS/$ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GeForce RTX 3090 | $2,936 | 1305 | $3,831,389 | 0.0520 |
| GeForce RTX 3080 Ti | $1,895 | 1483 | $2,810,033 | 0.0788 |
| GeForce RTX 3080 | $1,720 | 1448 | $2,490,184 | 0.0827 |
| GeForce RTX 3070 Ti | $1,201 | 1258 | $1,511,474 | 0.1035 |
| GeForce RTX 3070 | $1,193 | 2380 | $2,840,316 | 0.0977 |
| GeForce RTX 3060 Ti | $1,002 | 2166 | $2,169,596 | 0.1061 |
| GeForce RTX 3060 12GB | $749 | 2159 | $1,616,897 | 0.1117 |
| Radeon RX 6900 XT | $1,599 | 206 | $329,301 | 0.0926 |
| Radeon RX 6800 XT | $1,384 | 283 | $391,768 | 0.1028 |
| Radeon RX 6800 | $1,332 | 123 | $163,802 | 0.0982 |
| Radeon RX 6700 XT | $945 | 661 | $624,526 | 0.1185 |
| Radeon RX 6600 XT | $665 | 857 | $570,076 | 0.1326 |
| Radeon RX 6600 | $588 | 377 | $221,815 | 0.1278 |
Average prices for Nvidia's RTX 30-series GPUs increased by 9.2% compared to October, while the average price for AMD's RDNA 2 GPUs was mostly flat (1.1% higher). However, part of that is thanks to significantly higher numbers of RX 6600 cards sold — 156% more than in October — which brings the average down. Individually, every current generation GPU increased in eBay pricing by anywhere from 3% to 10% (7.8% average across all GPUs).
With the increase in prices, it's no surprise to see reduced numbers of cards sold — at least on eBay; we don't have any direct insight into the number of GPUs sold elsewhere. Nvidia's unit sales dropped by 18.2% while AMD's dropped 11%, with an overall drop of 17.1%. Nvidia continues to outsell AMD by a ratio of nearly 5 to 1, while overall sales in dollars spent favor Nvidia by a 7.5 to 1 ratio.
We don't try to distinguish between Nvidia's LHR and non-LHR cards, though that only applies to the RTX 3080, 3070, and 3060 Ti. If you're specifically looking for a non-LHR model, prices tend to be about 10–20% higher. That's because most of the eBay sales are still likely going to cryptocurrency miners, though certainly there are desperate gamers trying to get a new GPU still.
As far as value — if we're only looking at the cost of the graphics card, which isn't necessarily the best approach as the rest of the PC should also factor into things — in terms of fps per dollar spent the AMD RX 6600 XT comes out on top. The RX 6600 comes next, followed by the RX 6700 XT and then the RTX 3060. As you'd expect, halo cards like the RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3090 deliver the worst overall value. That of course changes if we factor in $750 for the rest of the gaming PC. Do that and the RX 6800 XT and RX 6700 XT take top honors, followed by the RTX 3070 Ti and the rest of the RX 6000-series. Food for thought.
There weren't been any real graphics card deals during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend, and we expect that to continue for the coming months. In fact, last-minute shoppers may drive GPU prices even higher during December — we'll be back next month to sift through the numbers.
| GPU | Avg eBay Price | QTY Sold | Gross Sales | FPS/$ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GeForce RTX 2080 Ti | $1,137 | 338 | $384,201.22 | 0.1040 |
| GeForce RTX 2080 Super | $860 | 189 | $162,522.99 | 0.1187 |
| GeForce RTX 2080 | $775 | 174 | $134,867.40 | 0.1232 |
| GeForce RTX 2070 Super | $701 | 222 | $155,721.90 | 0.1297 |
| GeForce RTX 2070 | $763 | 351 | $267,728.76 | 0.1062 |
| GeForce RTX 2060 Super | $701 | 212 | $148,707.40 | 0.1101 |
| GeForce RTX 2060 | $571 | 503 | $287,197.91 | 0.1201 |
| GeForce GTX 1660 Ti | $532 | 266 | $141,485.40 | 0.1086 |
| GeForce GTX 1660 Super | $558 | 755 | $421,101.25 | 0.1038 |
| GeForce GTX 1660 | $457 | 317 | $144,751.71 | 0.1098 |
| GeForce GTX 1650 Super | $333 | 340 | $113,311.80 | 0.1304 |
| GeForce GTX 1650 | $308 | 544 | $167,573.76 | 0.1036 |
| Radeon RX 5700 XT | $963 | 962 | $926,713.84 | 0.0898 |
| Radeon RX 5700 | $872 | 123 | $107,248.62 | 0.0899 |
| Radeon RX 5600 XT | $568 | 111 | $63,089.07 | 0.1251 |
| Radeon RX 5500 XT 8GB | $466 | 64 | $29,806.72 | 0.1044 |
| Radeon RX 5500 XT 4GB | $349 | 43 | $15,019.90 | 0.1240 |
As with the current generation GPUs, GPU prices on previous generation cards were almost universally higher in November compared to October. The sole exception was the RX 5600 XT, which showed a 7.5% drop on eBay, and the GTX 1650 was flat. Everything else increased in price by 4–12%, with an overall average GPU price on previous generation GPUs going up 2.8%.
The only GPU selling at less than its original MSRP is the RTX 2080 Ti, and that's only if you use the $1,199 MSRP of the Founders Edition and not the "sometimes available" $999 starting price on basic cards. The average price on Turing cards increased 3.7%, while average pricing on AMD's RX 5000-series was up by 7.4%.
Unit sales were mostly down, with two exceptions: The GTX 1650 Super and the RTX 2060, with the 1650 Super shooting up by 42%. But perhaps that's because we're only talking about a few hundred GPUs total. As a whole, the number of previous generation GPUs sold on eBay dropped 8% compared to October, with AMD's numbers plummeting by 25% thanks to a big dip and RX 5700 XT, 5600 XT, and 5500 XT 8GB numbers.
Looking just at the GPU, the GTX 1650 Super and RTX 2070 Super come pretty close to matching the fps/$ of the best current-gen GPUs. Factor in a PC price of $750 and most of the RTX 20-series cards come close to matching the "value" of the best RTX 30-series and RX 6000-series GPUs. The RX 5700 and 5700 XT continue to be the worst overall picks as far as gaming value goes, thanks to their rather decent mining performance.
GPU Prices Summary: Holiday Shopping Spree
Even without the effect of cryptocurrency mining, December generally isn't a great time to find GPU deals — unless there's a massive surplus and companies are trying to clear inventory, which clearly isn't the case right now. In fact, Nvidia has confirmed the upcoming RTX 2060 12GB cards are real with its latest drivers. Miners didn't want old Turing GPUs and didn't want to pay Nvidia's high CMP prices, so instead gamers have the chance for some warmed over entry-level RTX 20-series. Nice.
The best way to get a reasonable price on a GPU right now is to buy a complete PC. If you factor in $200 for the assembly and support, plus the Windows license, those willing to buy a complete prebuilt may only be paying about 25–50% more than MSRP on the GPU. Which is why GPU shucking on prebuilts is becoming more of a thing.
If you can hold off on any GPU upgrades for the time being, that's the best course of action. Alternatively, if you have a working previous generation GPU, selling it to help finance the purchase of a current generation card isn't a terrible idea, and you might be able to get top dollar in the coming weeks. But then you're likely stuck paying top dollar as well.
Early 2022 should at least see the arrival of Intel's Arc GPUs, and we can only hope that they hit the performance and price targets we've seen floating around. Intel isn't using its own fabs, though, so Arc ends up competing with AMD and Nvidia for wafers and that means pricing could end up looking similar. Except, at least at launch, we suspect there will be less demand from miners, at least until the mining software gets updated to work properly on Intel's DG2. Let's hope that takes a while.
