Question are video card prices headed down yet?

[lakedude]

Best price on an in stock card available for shipping I've seen on a while. There is hope!

 

[moonbogg]

$900 for an 8GB card in 2022. Yeah, things are really looking up! I have no hope for the next gen either. If they are a good value, they will be botted to death and on ebay instantly for 3X msrp.

 

[aigomorla]

$900 for an 8GB card in 2022. Yeah, things are really looking up! I have no hope for the next gen either. If they are a good value, they will be botted to death and on ebay instantly for 3X msrp.

excuse me while i cough out blood thinking $870 for highest middle tier was actually considered a good value.
the 3070 is not even upper tier, as that starts at the 3080 being lower upper.... 3080ti being mid upper, and the 3090 being highest upper.

Sigh... RIP us gamers....

 

[moonbogg]

Yep. We're done. Also, if the RTX 4070/80 surprises us with good price/performance I swear to all things holy and not, they will need 20 million of them on release day to make scalping less appealing and keep them in stock for more than 30 seconds. About 10 million will go straight to scalpers and gamers will tear each other's throats out for the other 10 million. This all assumes mining is absolutely dead. If it's not dead, then there is no number of cards that will suffice, at any time, no matter how many and for how long they pump them out.

 

[SMOGZINN]

Yep. We're done. Also, if the RTX 4070/80 surprises us with good price/performance I swear to all things holy and not, they will need 20 million of them on release day to make scalping less appealing and keep them in stock for more than 30 seconds. About 10 million will go straight to scalpers and gamers will tear each other's throats out for the other 10 million. This all assumes mining is absolutely dead. If it's not dead, then there is no number of cards that will suffice, at any time, no matter how many and for how long they pump them out.

This all assumes that NVIDIA does not realize that if scalpers can confidently buy 10 million cards on day 1 and sell them at 3x their previous MSRP, that scalper prices should be their MSRP. Why would NVIDIA leave that money on the table?

 

[PlanetLockdownFilm]

It depends on how crypto goes. My guess is that we'll se a large crypto drop this coming year because of government regulations. Let's say Bitcoin goes bust, then the confidence in crypto overall goes down, then there's a lot of graphics cards... On the other hand, if this doesn't happen (although I think it's very likely) we might see even bigger shortages because of other factors, although I think that's less likely as all the major players are involved in digital. I'd say it depends on what you want to risk: if you need a graphics card, to build a system, get something like a RTX 3060 or an RX 6600 but no lower since lower ones are really bad. You can also go second hand, the R9 280x is a good cheap option. If you'd like to hit the Jackpot, so to say, and be able to brag about it, it might be worth waiting for the right moment. My feeling is towards the latter but I'm just speculating... Speculative markets require prudence and temperance.

 

[lakedude]

Y'all things are "directionally correct". A $600 card selling for less than $900 is less than 50% additional markup. This is a huge difference from the recent past when cards were selling for 250% of MSRP.

The cheapest plain 3070 I could find just a week ago was $1000 so a Ti for $900 is a heck of a bargain, relatively speaking.

No I didn't buy one, still holding out for a card at MSRP but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

 

[Whirlwind]

Y'all things are "directionally correct". A $600 card selling for less than $900 is less than 50% additional markup. This is a huge difference from the recent past when cards were selling for 250% of MSRP.

The cheapest plain 3070 I could find just a week ago was $1000 so a Ti for $900 is a heck of a bargain, relatively speaking.

No I didn't buy one, still holding out for a card at MSRP but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Yeah, I have been watching for awhile also and tend to agree with you.

 

[igor_kavinski]

I have really bad luck when it comes to investments. If I were to own a 3090, prices would come down drastically.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I have really bad luck when it comes to investments. If I were to own a 3090, prices would come down drastically.

You Buy Now!

 

[aigomorla]

but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

you sure thats not a scalper holding a flashlight to trick you like a angler fish?

 

[moonbogg]

Even without mining, I think the scalping industry is big enough to literally consume the entire generation of 4000 series cards for the entire duration of the product cycle. Scalpers are the new retailers now. As mentioned a few posts above, the only way to combat it is for Nvidia to set msrp 3X the "normal" price. The sad thing is if the RTX 4080 was $2000, it would be gone in an instant and no one would even question it at this point. If it's 50% faster than a 3090, people would be super thrilled to be getting such a great deal. I'd like to know who these people are and why they're willing to harvest their own mother's organs for GPU money. A lot of these people are young gamers and they don't have $2000 to throw in the toilet for a gaming toy, yet they do it without a single thought. They act like a crowd of starving people and Nvidia throws a loaf of bread in front of them.

 

[igor_kavinski]

You Buy Now!

I would rather all the people who want one at MSRP buy me one!

The moment it's in my hands, you can bet it's either gonna die or prices will drop. The Universe loves playing pranks on me.

 

[lakedude]

Even without mining, I think the scalping industry is big enough to literally consume the entire generation of 4000 series cards for the entire duration...

Strongly disagree. Price is a function of supply and demand. If mining shuts down demand goes down so prices go down.

The only reason miners can afford to pay higher prices for cards is because for them their cards basically print money. They will make their money back.

If miners disappeared overnight demand would plumet and so would prices. Scalpers who paid full MSRP would lose money so by by scalpers. High demand is the only reason there are scalpers.

You can get a Ryzen 5600x for well under MSRP now because competition drove demand down, Economics 101.

The opposite thing is happening with oil 🛢 right now...

Bad luck there. Had a couple hybrids while prices were low. Got my wife a Challenger with hemi and gas ⛽ shoots up!

 

[igor_kavinski]

The opposite thing is happening with oil 🛢 right now...

Bad luck there. Had a couple hybrids while prices were low. Got my wife a Challenger with hemi and gas ⛽ shoots up!

Your luck sounds like mine.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Strongly disagree. Price is a function of supply and demand. If mining shuts down demand goes down so prices go down.

The only reason miners can afford to pay higher prices for cards is because for them their cards basically print money. They will make their money back.

If miners disappeared overnight demand would plumet and so would prices. Scalpers who paid full MSRP would lose money so by by scalpers. High demand is the only reason there are scalpers.

You can get a Ryzen 5600x for well under MSRP now because competition drove demand down, Economics 101.

The opposite thing is happening with oil 🛢 right now...

Bad luck there. Had a couple hybrids while prices were low. Got my wife a Challenger with hemi and gas ⛽ shoots up!

Explain scalping of RX 6500 XT cards then, if miners won't touch the things???

Edit: Talking about Newegg US and Ebay US, not some redacted3rd-world country where they can't afford GPUs.





No profanity allowed in the tech forums.


esquared
Anandtech ForumDirector

 

[igor_kavinski]

All these scalpers, karma will get them. Whatever short term gains or happiness they have accumulated by causing distress to others, will be nullified. What goes around, comes around. If you are a scalper reading this post, you still have a chance at redemption. Give up your greed and do something honest with your life. Every being exists to benefit another being. You become too much of a nuisance to others, you will die tragically and benefit worms and microbes.

 

[lakedude]

Explain scalping of RX 6500 XT cards then, if miners won't touch the things???

The 6500 XT is a related good, like tea and coffee ☕.

When there is a big coffee shortage the price of coffee goes up but the price of tea also goes up as people switch, increasing demand.

The 6500 is tea.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Even without mining, I think the scalping industry is big enough to literally consume the entire generation of 4000 series cards for the entire duration of the product cycle. Scalpers are the new retailers now. As mentioned a few posts above, the only way to combat it is for Nvidia to set msrp 3X the "normal" price. The sad thing is if the RTX 4080 was $2000, it would be gone in an instant and no one would even question it at this point. If it's 50% faster than a 3090, people would be super thrilled to be getting such a great deal. I'd like to know who these people are and why they're willing to harvest their own mother's organs for GPU money. A lot of these people are young gamers and they don't have $2000 to throw in the toilet for a gaming toy, yet they do it without a single thought. They act like a crowd of starving people and Nvidia throws a loaf of bread in front of them.

- I think its partly a knock on effect of everything else happening in the world as well, more holistically speaking.

Imagine you're a young man with an ok starting job. Rent is through the roof so you live at home, dating prospects are rough thanks to pandemic... and thanks to living at home, houses are a twinkle in your boomer dad's eye and it looks like you will literally never afford one unless you inherit from your parents.

So you're living at home, can't go out, don't have any significant personal expenses, no one else to spend your money on... so you have a wad of cash burning a hole in your pocket and video games as escapism. What do you do?

YOLO buy a $3000 3090 and call it a day. Hell YOLO and buy 2 when they were $1500, scalp one, realize that scalping makes you more money than your "actual" job and just start doing that instead.

Mom and Dad start wondering where all the fancy cars and money come from, till they walk into your room one day and you're snorting lines off a gold plated 4090 engineering sample. They call the cops for some tough love who cuff you and send you to jail, then auction off all your stuff.

You get out in 15-20 years because the Judge was actually a elder millennial gamer who blames you for all of his problems with securing a video card, woulda given you a lighter sentence for crack, and decides to destroy your life.

Its now 2042, you have nothing to your name, your parents died during the 12th or 13th wave of Ultra Covid and left the house to your more handsome and successful younger brother. Walking by the bombed out windows of your local microcenter (run by your local MS13 affiliate now that world order has collapsed) you see it on the shelf... a dusty box with the letters RTX 20800 TI.

You run in and grab it, but you're tackled by MS13 enforcers, who drag you to the back to "meet the boss". You actually do meet the boss and it turns out its a guy you did time with and protected from getting shived. He decides to repay the favor by inducting you into the gang. You start out working corners. You're proficient, you're hungry, you work your way up the chain of command.

One day the boss calls you into his office. "I've been hearing rumors" he says "that someone is working with the police"

"I don't know what you're talking about" You say.

"Oh, I think you do" he says. Suddenly a bag comes down over your head, you're stuffed into the trunk of a rusted out first gen Tesla X series and driven out to the local fraking waste water pond.

There, on your knees, your life flashes before your eyes. The last thing you think, the last thing you ever think, is "why did I have to scalp that 3090?"

Fin.

 

[moonbogg]

If mining dies, scalpers will make up for the drop in demand easily. They will simply buy them all and they won't let up. Fights were breaking out among scalpers during Best Buy drops. You think that insane level of religious-like fervor will suddenly stop? If they do that, they win. All they have to do is simply buy them all and sell them at any price they ask for and GAMERS will pay it, no matter what it is. They will pay $2000, $3000, or even more. The days of sensibilities are well behind us. The madness started with Kepler and now you get to pay $2000 for a GPU that used to cost $500. Nice job, you impulsive, animalistic, instinct driven, smooth-brained meat droids.

 

[fleshconsumed]

If mining dies, scalpers will make up for the drop in demand easily. They will simply buy them all and they won't let up. Fights were breaking out among scalpers during Best Buy drops. You think that insane level of religious-like fervor will suddenly stop? If they do that, they win. All they have to do is simply buy them all and sell them at any price they ask for and GAMERS will pay it, no matter what it is. They will pay $2000, $3000, or even more. The days of sensibilities are well behind us. The madness started with Kepler and now you get to pay $2000 for a GPU that used to cost $500. Nice job, you impulsive, animalistic, instinct driven, smooth-brained meat droids.

That's not how scalping works. Scalpers can't be hoarding cards indefinitely with jacked up price till people buy if there is enough supply. They'd have to keep buying and buying every stock available, at some point they won't be able to keep buying if they can't make profit.

Scalping only works for limited supply items like concert tickets. It doesn't work on stuff like water.

 

[VirtualLarry]

It doesn't work on stuff like water.

Tell that to Nestle...

 

[maddie]

Tell that to Nestle...

Seriously? Is there a gun to head?

Ever hear of purifying your own? Can't do that with video cards however.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Seriously? Is there a gun to head?

Ever hear of purifying your own? Can't do that with video cards however.

Hard to do that when Nestle buys a local aquifer, drains it dry to sell bottled water out of it, and the water table drops and local residents' wells go dry too.

Sure, you can then always buy their bottled water off of store shelves at a price that they set.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I hate this “scalper” talk.
IMO to scalp something it really needs to be something that MUST be had. Like baby food or gas after a blizzard or hurricane or tornado.
The idea that one can scalp a video card which is made to play games, not power a monitor for a business or home machine is a perversion of the word “scalping”.
Nobody is required to be able to run a game at 100+ fps. Life continues as always with your old video card that runs the same damn game at 30 fps on medium settings.

I am prepared to be down voted.