TL;DR: Are you hoping to get a shiny new, or dirty second-hand, graphics card for the holidays? You might want to think about something else. The latest GPU pricing and availability report for Germany and Austria, which gives a good indication of global trends, shows the situation isn't improving. The RTX 3000 series' average price keeps on rising, and while the Radeon RX 6000 line is getting slightly cheaper, there's a simple explanation as to why.
As usual, the survey of Ampere/RDNA 2 cards comes from German publication 3DCenter. At first glance, we see that the Radeon RX 6000 series has fallen from 101% above MSRP to 90%. This might seem like good news, but the cards themselves aren't actually getting cheaper; it's because retailers have received shipments of non-XT RX 6800 cards, lowering the average price of the whole line.
There's no ambiguity about the average price of Nvidia's latest cards. Ampere has been on the rise since August 8 and now sits at 95% above MSRP. It's also the first time that team green's products have been more expensive than AMD's since July 18.
Looking at the painful subject of availability, Nvidia has seen no changes since the previous report arrived in early November, with the RTX 3060 Ti, 3070, and 3080 Ti on four-star ratings as the rest of Ampere languishes on just three stars.
AMD's availability has seen a minor change: the Radeon 6900 XT still has a four-star rating but the RX 6800 has gone from one star to two. The rest of the line is rated 3/5.
The depressingly familiar scenario is repeated in the second-hand market. Our examination of card prices on eBay shows Ampere up 6% and RDNA 2 up 9%. Even older generations are getting more expensive; the Nvidia 20 series (+6%), 16 series (+5%), and 10 series (+7%) all saw price hikes between October and November. The Radeon 5000 series was also up, by 9%.
| MSRP | eBay Average Price September | eBay Average Price October | eBay Average Price November | Current Price Inflation | Price Increase October to November | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GeForce RTX 3090 | $1,500 | $2,863 | $2,818 | $3,107 | 107% | 10% |
| GeForce RTX 3080 Ti | $1,200 | $1,880 | $1,851 | $1,916 | 60% | 4% |
| GeForce RTX 3080 | $700 | $1,673 | $1,534 | $1,584 | 126% | 3% |
| GeForce RTX 3070 Ti | $600 | $1,191 | $1,151 | $1,227 | 104% | 7% |
| GeForce RTX 3070 | $500 | $1,180 | $1,121 | $1,170 | 134% | 4% |
| GeForce RTX 3060 Ti | $400 | $866 | $860 | $946 | 136% | 10% |
| GeForce RTX 3060 | $330 | $708 | $692 | $739 | 124% | 7% |
| Average | 113% | 6% |
We all know that the chip shortage is the primary reason behind the card crisis, but the seemingly ever-increasing price of cryptos such as Bitcoin and Ethereum is another major factor. The upcoming holiday season is also influencing both prices and availability as people scramble to grab parts to upgrade their rigs in time for Christmas.
When will things get back to normal? Nobody can say for sure. The optimistic view is the second half of next year, while others believe 2023 is more of a realistic target.