Question are video card prices headed down yet?

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Trefugl

Member
Dec 3, 2013
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I have a hard time believing that the tariffs will not have an exemption, but I've been wrong before... been holding out for a slightly better GPU price for years now, and crazy things like the used market going up yet again (referenced above) catch me off guard.
 

adamge

Member
Aug 15, 2022
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I have a hard time believing that the tariffs will not have an exemption, but I've been wrong before... been holding out for a slightly better GPU price for years now, and crazy things like the used market going up yet again (referenced above) catch me off guard.

Both companies that have it in their power to reduce prices employ a lot of very highly paid professionals whose main responsibility is to maintain prices at an escalated and highly profitable level. They are taking all the steps necessary to maintain this, and nothing can threaten it. They have enough levers to maintain their favorable advantage.
 

blckgrffn

Diamond Member
May 1, 2003
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Both companies that have it in their power to reduce prices employ a lot of very highly paid professionals whose main responsibility is to maintain prices at an escalated and highly profitable level. They are taking all the steps necessary to maintain this, and nothing can threaten it. They have enough levers to maintain their favorable advantage.

That sounds a little conspiratorial to me. I am pretty sure the market forces will dictate volume and prices. Q3 was one or the largest and worst declines in dGPU sales in recent history according to other sources posted here.

Lobbyist and the like have only so much power.

It'll matter at some point, I believe its why nvidia is slow walking the 4xxx series even though it would normally make sense for them to drop new product as interest wanes in their older offerings.
 

Aapje

Golden Member
Mar 21, 2022
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Ultimately, even collusion/monopolies can't beat customers walking away. You can choose to postpone upgrades or switch to a lower tier when your card dies.

But the high prices during the mining boom don't prove that there is some genius level marketing at work, but that it's easy to sell products when demand is exceptionally high and production can't be increased to match it.
 

Muadib

Lifer
May 30, 2000
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That sounds a little conspiratorial to me. I am pretty sure the market forces will dictate volume and prices. Q3 was one or the largest and worst declines in dGPU sales in recent history according to other sources posted here.

Lobbyist and the like have only so much power.

It'll matter at some point, I believe its why nvidia is slow walking the 4xxx series even though it would normally make sense for them to drop new product as interest wanes in their older offerings.
Oh Nvidia had it's drop on the 4000 series. They just sold out what they had for sale, which was the 4090. 4080 hasn't been selling though.
 

Muadib

Lifer
May 30, 2000
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I was talking about lower tier cards, like the 60 series. You know, the volume sellers, like the only recently deposed 1060s.
Nvidia always staggers new releases. If I had to guess, you won't see 4060 until Jan-Feb.
 

blckgrffn

Diamond Member
May 1, 2003
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Nvidia always staggers new releases. If I had to guess, you won't see 4060 until Jan-Feb.

I get that. On a typical down market, you'd expect them to be beating their drum about their new cards and pulling that in.

Shareholders don't care about staggered releases. They want profits, more than yesterday but now.

4xxx cards should be a slam dunk, a new process giving them tons of headroom and likely the potential for them to get back to power efficiency (and lower bom cost products) on relatively tiny chips if they wanted to.

It seems they do not want, and the why being fairly well documented. The lower tier card releases are being dictated by stock of last gen product, it seems. Which points to nvidia miscalculating rather than being in the drivers seat.

Which runs counter to the narrative of the market being dictated by the chipmaker cabal. That's just the point I am making, and if you don't agree then I guess that's ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 

amenx

Diamond Member
Dec 17, 2004
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I wonder how the tariffs would be applied. Is it dependent on % of components the GPU is made of that originate in China? Or where the whole GPU is manufactured? Because if the latter, they could just shift manufacturing to other Asian countries like Malaysia or Vietnam, etc.
 

Trefugl

Member
Dec 3, 2013
32
20
81
I wonder how the tariffs would be applied. Is it dependent on % of components the GPU is made of that originate in China? Or where the whole GPU is manufactured? Because if the latter, they could just shift manufacturing to other Asian countries like Malaysia or Vietnam, etc.

I thought I had read that they already were doing that and this extension of that review of exemptions is running out. I cant find it now so I might be mixing news stories.


Regardless, this quote from another article makes it sound like new GPU prices already incorporated the higher cost.. though that could be political posturing.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/us-tariffs-on-gpus-motherboards-might-return-in-january said:
“Because American businesses must make supply chain and sourcing decisions many months in advance, the uncertainty created by USTR’s inaction compels our companies to incorporate 25 percent price increases into product lines that may soon be without a Section 301 tariff exclusion,” the group told(Opens in a new window) the USTR in October.
 

SMOGZINN

Lifer
Jun 17, 2005
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Regardless, this quote from another article makes it sound like new GPU prices already incorporated the higher cost.. though that could be political posturing.
That might be true, but it won't stop them from using it as an excuse to raise prices again when the exemption runs out!
Never let a good crisis go to waste!
 

blckgrffn

Diamond Member
May 1, 2003
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fleshconsumed

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Feb 21, 2002
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When was the last time nVidia cut prices so soon after release? Last I personally remember was GTX 260/280 price cut after 4870 got released, but that was 14 years ago...
 

scineram

Senior member
Nov 1, 2020
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Now that there will be no reason whatsoever to buy Radeon, AMD should again strongly consider exiting the discrete gaming graphics market while they are ahead.
 

GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
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Mind the source, but still 4080 prices may be coming down a bit soon to compete with AMD launch.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Reportedly Getting Price Cut By Mid of December To Make It Competitive Against AMD’s 7900 XTX

-Tin Foil Hat: There are a lot of signs that the RDNA 3 launch had a pretty late "go" date where AMD realized it was going to have to launch or cede the market to NV for a substantial portion of time and miss the Christmas season. I'm starting to wonder if it all feeds back into the "hardware defect" rumor and relatively late in the game AMD decided they had a working part and it was time to bring it to market rather than send it to another couple respins to get it to where they really wanted it.
 
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dlerious

Platinum Member
Mar 4, 2004
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Now that there will be no reason whatsoever to buy Radeon, AMD should again strongly consider exiting the discrete gaming graphics market while they are ahead.
Intel and AMD are going to be adding features to GPUs that only work with their CPUs. With Nvidia failing to buy ARM, it looks like they're at a disadvantage.
 

blckgrffn

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May 1, 2003
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Intel and AMD are going to be adding features to GPUs that only work with their CPUs. With Nvidia failing to buy ARM, it looks like they're at a disadvantage.

Pretty much. In the next 5-10 years, the unwashed asses of PC gaming will likely have excellent options that require no dGPU at all. It's a slow crawl, but we'll get there. Already the sub $100 gpu market disappeared, and took so many great (lol) slow cards with it. The sub $200 market is next, imo.

I became a believer when I realized that only slightly tuned 3400G provided a very similar gaming experience to a GTX 950 when I used them both. The add in card was better, but hundreds of dollars better? And plenty of folks will play at 1080p/30fps/settings the game picked when it launched because they are there to game. Not play "software configuration simulator" :)
 
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blckgrffn

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Haha, I am not saying nvidia will fail, I am thinking they will continue to pivot to highly profitable AI, HPC and other non-retail facing markets. Even professional graphics with the big $$$ per card.

They will be forced to focus on their highest margin product lines and projects because that's business. The consumer arm has to be valuable but I can't believe its the most profitable card they hold.