If you've been patiently waiting for a GPU at a decent price then it could almost be go time - we're now dangerously close to MSRP on a number of Nvidia and AMD cards.
This week specifically has seen some of the deepest falls in graphics card prices at leading online retailers in both the US and UK. We've always got an eye on the market here at TechRadar and, while things are moving quickly, we reckon we've just observed the biggest drops yet at leading retailers like Amazon and Newegg.
Specifically, as of writing this on Thursday AM, we've seen small but consistent discounts on everything from the humble RTX 3050 all the way to the RTX 3090. Things have held steadier on AMD cards this week - but they were already at lower asking prices versus their Nvidia counterparts.
To highlight this, we've rounded up some of the drops we've seen in the past day alone. Here's what we're seeing, tracking the lowest prices found on each card:
| Header Cell - Column 0 | US | UK |
|---|---|---|
| RTX 3050 | $349 to $329 | £278 to £269 |
| RTX 3060 | $437 to $389 | £389 to £379 |
| RTX 3070 | - | £548 to £538 |
| RTX 3070 Ti | $799 to $769 | £638 to £629 |
| RTX 3090 | $1,699 to $1,679 | - |
| RX 6500 XT | $224 to $209 | - |
| RX 6600 | - | £319 to £299 |
| RX 6600 XT | $439 to $409 | - |
| RX 6700 XT | $569 to $529 | - |
| RX 6800 | $889 to $799 | - |
It's worth noting that the above price drops are discounts that we've just observed from one day alone while updating our daily graphics card prices page. Taken into context, you could tack these onto pricing data from the past few weeks for even bigger cumulative price drops. We don't have the data for that yet though.
The biggest daily drop today? The AMD RX 6800 at Newegg, which has dropped a whopping $80 from $899 to $799. The RTX 3060 has also significantly dropped at this retailer too, from $437 to $389 - a sum that brings it to within $80 of MSRP.
Note, it's likely by the time we publish this page we'll see some minor fluctuations in these prices so please forgive any minor errors. Things tend to move quickly these days with retailers updating their listings on a daily basis.
This week's cheapest graphics card prices
If you're interested, here's our daily roundup of the best graphics card prices on every recent Nvidia and AMD model. As previously stated, please allow some minor fluctuations in the prices here - they're the cheapest we've found at publication but it's not uncommon to see small bumps or drops in prices.
- 🟩 Cheapest Nvidia GeForce prices 🟩
- RTX 3050: $329 a Newegg | £269 at OCUK | AU$479 at Mwave
- RTX 3060: $389 at Newegg | £379 at OCUK | AU$599 at Mwave
- RTX 3060 Ti: $589 at Newegg | £479 at OCUK | AU$759 at Scorptec
- RTX 3070: $699 at Newegg | £538 at OCUK | AU$979 at PLE
- RTX 3070 Ti: $769 at Amazon | £629 at OCUK | AU$1,099 at Scorptec
- RTX 3080: $999 at Amazon | £788 at OCUK | AU$1,399 at Mwave
- RTX 3080 Ti: $1,299 at Amazon | £1,049 at Scan | AU$2,099 at Scorp
- RTX 3090: $1,679 at Newegg | £1,649 at OCUK | AU$2,849 at Mwave
- RTX 3090 Ti: $2,099 at Amazon | £1,879 at OCUK | AU$3,339 at Scorptec
- 🟥 Cheapest AMD Radeon prices 🟥
- RX 6500 XT: $209 at Newegg | £169 at OCUK | AU$299 at Mwave
- RX 6600: $369 at Newegg | £299 at OCUK | AU$479 at Mwave
- RX 6600 XT: $409 at Newegg | £389 at OCUK | AU$679 at Mwave
- RX 6700 XT: $529 at Newegg | £548 at OCUK | AU$899 at Mwave
- RX 6800: $799 at Newegg | £769 at OCUK | AU$1,429 at Scorptec
- RX 6800 XT: $919 a Newegg | £859 at OCUK | AU$1,499 at Scorptec
- RX 6900 XT: $1,069 at Newegg | £999 at OCUK | AU$1,699 at Mwave
Is now a good time to buy a graphics card?
It's the best time in the past 18 months to buy a graphics card, for sure. The question on our minds right now is whether there's further wiggle room for prices to drop further. Right now, all signs point towards that being the case.
Firstly, we've got the new RTX 4000 series of cards from Nvidia looming now. Details are very thin on the ground - especially release dates - but we expect them to drop before the year's end. If they do drop fairly soon then you can expect prices on the RTX 3000 series to really take a tumble.
There's also the much anticipated Ethereum shift to proof of stake this summer, which should mean crypto mining is no longer profitable on the most heavily mined coin. It's hard to judge when this will land, or how things will play out, but it's likely we'll see a glut of graphics cards land on the used market if mining is no longer an option.
So, waiting it out isn't a bad idea in general. Of course, this doesn't help you if you need a graphics card now. In which case, we'd say it's not a bad time to pick up a card. While some cards (specifically the RTX 3070 and 3080) are still way above MSRP, we're starting to see some mid-range 1080p cards like the RTX 3060 and RX 6600 get close to original pricing now. While that won't help those looking to run 4K or high-end 1440p machines, for the average gamer, these mid-range cards are starting to look like decent buys.
