Graphics card prices are rising in China, reflecting a global trend

[midian182]

What just happened? More sad news for those who nostalgically look back on the days when graphics card prices and availability weren’t the stuff of nightmares: prices in China are now on the increase as a result of reduced GPU shipments, a trend we’re also witnessing in other countries.

Yes, graphics cards prices are starting to rise again after spending several months moving closer to their MSRP. According MyDrivers (via TechPowerUp), the increases within China stem from reduced GPU shipments. The problem is particularly bad with Nvidia’s RTX 3060, which has seen its supply fall 50 percent and is not expected to improve for several weeks.

MyDrivers has tracked the price of cards from several AIB partners, including Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI. Some increases aren’t too significant—the Gigabyte GTX 1050 Ti jumped by just $12—but others are more extreme: the Asus RTX 3070 Ti is reportedly up by $92. That marks a 15% increase over its $599 MSRP, not that you’d find it for that price anywhere. MyDrivers also reports that Nvidia has felt the supply issues more than AMD.

Last week brought more depressing news from 3DCenter. The German site’s regular report, which examines average selling prices of Ampere/RDNA 2 cards at retailers in the country, found products from both Nvidia and AMD had risen in price throughout August. In the case of team green, this came after almost three months of declines. 3DCenter notes that availability is also worsening.

	MSRP	eBay Average Price June	eBay Average Price July	eBay Average Price August	Current Price Inflation	Price Increase July to August
GeForce RTX 3090	$1,500	$2,962	$2,599	$2,607	74%	0%
GeForce RTX 3080 Ti	$1,200	$2,187	$1,905	$1,815	51%	-5%
GeForce RTX 3080	$700	$1,948	$1,623	$1,643	135%	1%
GeForce RTX 3070 Ti	$600	$1,323	$1,085	$1,170	95%	8%
GeForce RTX 3070	$500	$1,261	$1,075	$1,228	146%	14%
GeForce RTX 3060 Ti	$400	$1,255	$1,012	$952	138%	-6%
GeForce RTX 3060	$330	$830	$723	$752	128%	4%
				Average	109%	2%

It’s a similar story in the second-hand market. Our own GPU availability and pricing update for August reveals card prices (on eBay) rising by a few percentage points.

Interestingly, it seems people are still buying Ampere cards, presumably from resellers, as the latest Steam hardware survey shows all but the RTX 3090 experiencing a user share increase during August.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/91118-graphics-card-prices-rising-china-reflecting-global-trend.html

 

[Nobina]

People complain yet the same people go out and buy them at inflated prices thus contributing to price increases for reddit upvotes.

 

[SirDigby]

I'm so sick of this, I really wish cryptomining would just die out. Its really not been the revolutionary rebirth of currency some people said it would be.

 

[NicktheWVAHick]

I stayed the obvious months ago on this site and basically got laughed at….it’s not cryptomining, it’s not chip shortages, it’s not worker shortages, it’s not global warming……ITS INFLATION, STUPID. It’s what happens when u spend and spend and spend and then on top of spending you giveaway trillions in free money…slot of it to people/businesses that don’t need it. Now the price of EVERYTHING is more expensive and will continue to rise. It’s whatever the free market will bare from now on. Your days of getting cheap ANYTHING much less a graphics card or motherboard memory are LONG GONE. Just make more money and you will be able to afford whatever you want….whether it comes from a scalper on EBay or standing in line 4 days at Microcenter. The future is here and we are all screwed.

 

[Xex360]

I stayed the obvious months ago on this site and basically got laughed at….it’s not cryptomining, it’s not chip shortages, it’s not worker shortages, it’s not global warming……ITS INFLATION, STUPID. It’s what happens when u spend and spend and spend and then on top of spending you giveaway trillions in free money…slot of it to people/businesses that don’t need it. Now the price of EVERYTHING is more expensive and will continue to rise. It’s whatever the free market will bare from now on. Your days of getting cheap ANYTHING much less a graphics card or motherboard memory are LONG GONE. Just make more money and you will be able to afford whatever you want….whether it comes from a scalper on EBay or standing in line 4 days at Microcenter. The future is here and we are all screwed.

It's a combination of multiple things, people working from home, covid affecting factories and deliveries, people working from home.
From history we know that we need to stimulate the economy in situation such as this, hence some inflation.

 

[Dimitriid]

Just get an APU and intentionally downsize out of AAA games just enjoy smaller indie titles and older games. I'm on my first few days of just using a 5600g even though I do have a working 1070 just to test the waters and as I suspected: you can have more than enough entertainment with a 40 year backlog of PC gaming and close to the same amount of titles you can mostly emulate with just an APU which is good all the way up to some PS3 titles.

 

[Sausagemeat]

So I either spend literally thousands to update my gaming PC, maybe a little bit less on a gaming laptop. Or I go to my local retailer and pick up a PS5 which is now in stock for £500.

I’m going to have to learn how to use a controller again I think. I’m not spending so much extra just to play modern games. It’s really not worth it.

 

[VaRmeNsI]

I just got another card at MSRP for mining, was very easy to get with some patience, clearly many here lack it.

 

[R00sT3R]

I just got another card at MSRP for mining, was very easy to get with some patience, clearly many here lack it.

Like I said, Miners...human trash.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

People complain yet the same people go out and buy them at inflated prices thus contributing to price increases for reddit upvotes.

It’s a catch 22.

The cards are being bought up by crypto miners.

The cards are being bought up by scalpers.

The regular consumer can claim that they refuse to buy at the inflated price but then they will completely miss out on buying at all.

The traditional model would say that if consumer demand goes down that the prices should go down as well. Unfortunately the prices are being kept artificially high by cryptocurrency which simultaneously hurts the consumer that simply wants a video card to build a gaming computer.

Crypto is a PONZI scheme and it should have been stopped by governments worldwide simply because of the amount of energy resources it wastes.

 

[Dimitriid]

So I either spend literally thousands to update my gaming or PC, maybe a little bit less on a gaming laptop. Or I go to my local retailer and pick up a PS5 which is now in stock for £500.

I’m going to have to learn how to use a controller again I think. I’m not spending so much extra just to play modern games. It’s really not worth it.

Actually, you might be better served by picking up a Series X or S instead. Sure the PS5 is often cited as having "better exclusives" (And while I disagree, this is subjective so fair enough) but given the direction Microsoft is going right now you've got far better chances of playing whatever games you happen to purchase for the Series console on a PC later on.

I even know there's ways to get a non-insignificant portion of PC games working on a Series X console: remember it can run a full featured version of Edge (read: chromium) and that enables both Microsoft VMs as well as other ones you can run on your own, includying subscription services like Geforce whatever (Can't remember what they call their cloud gaming service) on that same console.

It's a shame that for some people this might actually lead away from the world of customized PC gaming and into walled gardens running but well it was bound to happen: AAA PC gaming as an industry has no checks and balances and anyone can easily interfere with the free market and price out most consumers out of the necessary hardware to participate.

 

[Sausagemeat]

Actually, you might be better served by picking up a Series X or S instead. Sure the PS5 is often cited as having "better exclusives" (And while I disagree, this is subjective so fair enough) but given the direction Microsoft is going right now you've got far better chances of playing whatever games you happen to purchase for the Series console on a PC later on.

I even know there's ways to get a non-insignificant portion of PC games working on a Series X console: remember it can run a full featured version of Edge (read: chromium) and that enables both Microsoft VMs as well as other ones you can run on your own, includying subscription services like Geforce whatever (Can't remember what they call their cloud gaming service) on that same console.

It's a shame that for some people this might actually lead away from the world of customized PC gaming and into walled gardens running but well it was bound to happen: AAA PC gaming as an industry has no checks and balances and anyone can easily interfere with the free market and price out most consumers out of the necessary hardware to participate.

You have poor taste. PlayStation is much better than Xbox.

And I do still have a PC. It’s just a Radeon RX480 but that can still play most if not all Xbox game pass games.

Buying an Xbox is really foolish if you plan to later on upgrade a PC.

 

[Dimitriid]

You have poor taste. PlayStation is much better than Xbox.

That might be, but the rest of the argument stands: Unless you want to get nothing but Sony games and consoles in perpetuity then you might want to consider the platform that's more than slightly more open for options: Xbox games can be used on a PC without having to repurchase at all.

Sony might be a really cool island with lots of games you enjoy, but it is still an island: there's nothing else Sony doesn't explicitly allows.

 

[Sausagemeat]

That might be, but the rest of the argument stands: Unless you want to get nothing but Sony games and consoles in perpetuity then you might want to consider the platform that's more than slightly more open for options: Xbox games can be used on a PC without having to repurchase at all.

Sony might be a really cool island with lots of games you enjoy, but it is still an island: there's nothing else Sony doesn't explicitly allows.

Lmao, your “argument” doesn’t hold up at all! Buying a PS5 doesn’t lock you into Sony for the rest of your life! Where do you get this stuff from!? Why are you trying to get me to buy an Xbox!?

I already own a PC, buying an Xbox would just give me a graphical upgrade to my library but not actually give me any new games. If I’m going to get a console I’m going to buy one that can play games a PC can’t!

And beside, the PlayStation exclusives are amazing. Why anyone would pick an Xbox over a PS5 baffles me. Or even why anyone would pick an Xbox over a switch.

Xbox consoles are garbage. Game pass on PC however is decent.

 

[Dimitriid]

Lmao, your “argument” doesn’t hold up at all! Buying a PS5 doesn’t lock you into Sony for the rest of your life! Where do you get this stuff from!?

I think the rest of the people understood the argument. However I can understand why a Sony enthusiast would be completely and utterly baffled by the concept of cross platform support or backwards compatibility.

This isn't a reflection on you mind you, but your tone is so I'm respectfully declining any further comments.

 

[Sausagemeat]

I think the rest of the people understood the argument. However I can understand why a Sony enthusiast would be completely and utterly baffled by the concept of cross platform support or backwards compatibility.

This isn't a reflection on you mind you, but your tone is so I'm respectfully declining any further comments.

I don’t really understand why you are trying to “argue” me into buying an Xbox.

Oh and I’m no Sony enthusiast, I haven’t owned one since the PS2. But to me, I either choose an Xbox which can only play games my PC already can (albeit at 1080p). Or I can buy a PlayStation and play loads of games that neither an Xbox or a PC can.

And yes, in future please do decline to try and tell me what I should be buying. You certainly do not know what’s best for me.

 

[VaRmeNsI]

Like I said, Miners...human trash.

As opposed to gaming which produces nothing?

 

[Geralt]

I don’t really understand why you are trying to “argue” me into buying an Xbox.

Oh and I’m no Sony enthusiast, I haven’t owned one since the PS2. But to me, I either choose an Xbox which can only play games my PC already can (albeit at 1080p). Or I can buy a PlayStation and play loads of games that neither an Xbox or a PC can.

And yes, in future please do decline to try and tell me what I should be buying. You certainly do not know what’s best for me.

You should buy a Nintendo console.

 

[Sausagemeat]

You should buy a Nintendo console.

I work and live on boats a lot and I’ve been taking my Switch (and then switch lite) with me for years. It’s easily the best console around in my opinion. But I am getting bored of it now.

I want an RTX GPU above all else but I’m not spending the kind of money they cost just to play games when I’m on land. I’m considering a gaming laptop, they are too big and heavy for the boat but are way better value than desktops atm.

 

[fluffydroid]

I just got another card at MSRP for mining, was very easy to get with some patience, clearly many here lack it.

How did you manage to get a GPU? I am running a Chrome extension for the past 3 months. It alerts me immediately when 6700xt, 3070, 3070 ti are in stock. It has sent alerts several times over the past few months for Bestbuy. However, when I go to the website within 5 seconds or less of the alert, the graphics cards are already sold out. Are you running a bot or script?

 

[Kosmoz]

I just got another card at MSRP for mining, was very easy to get with some patience, clearly many here lack it.

So I guess you think everybody in the world has the same opportunities as some "privileged" countries, right?

Not everyone is living in Murica, or UK, or whatever that one more country that has prices at MSRP, still. Most of the world does not have that luxury, not because people have no patience, but because they don't have the option at all...

Sometimes ignorance surpasses all limits.

There is this quote attributed to Einstein: "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe!"

 

[punctualturn]

AMD was mentioned 2 times and once in the chart, then the rest, as the new usual, all nvidia.

as the latest Steam hardware survey shows all but the RTX 3090 experiencing a user share increase during August.

Sigh.... sadly this was at the end, so it was too late for me to stop reading another loaded article.

 

[Dimitriid]

So I guess you think everybody in the world has the same opportunities as some "privileged" countries, right?

Not everyone is living in Murica, or UK, or whatever that one more country that has prices at MSRP, still. Most of the world does not have that luxury, not because people have no patience, but because they don't have the option at all...

Sometimes ignorance surpasses all limits.

There is this quote attributed to Einstein: "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe!"

This: I could actually buy a 3060, 3080ti, 6700, 6800 or 6900 today if I wanted to: All are available, consistently, on a store local to me.

The catch is that for example the 3060 is usually 850 usd. It's restocked fairly often because this stores serves a big city where I live (5 million population) so there's more than enough rich people building rigs.

But on top of inflated MSRP prices we also have a 33% import tax on virtually any tech product except some which have fairly wide distribution available due to the extremely widespread use (Processors, storage, peripherals, power supplies are usually available locally without the import tax due to a more involved supply chain that establishes those companies locally)

So for a regular person, best you can do that makes sense is a 3060 for 850 USD which by the way it's something like 4 times the minimum wage per month here. Even the "average" salary if we take into account all millionaires and billionaires here it's still just around 1000 USD per month, something only highly educated specialist can usually expect.

 

[VaRmeNsI]

How did you manage to get a GPU? I am running a Chrome extension for the past 3 months. It alerts me immediately when 6700xt, 3070, 3070 ti are in stock. It has sent alerts several times over the past few months for Bestbuy. However, when I go to the website within 5 seconds or less of the alert, the graphics cards are already sold out. Are you running a bot or script?

Preordered everywhere back in September.

 

[VaRmeNsI]

So I guess you think everybody in the world has the same opportunities as some "privileged" countries, right?

Not everyone is living in Murica, or UK, or whatever that one more country that has prices at MSRP, still. Most of the world does not have that luxury, not because people have no patience, but because they don't have the option at all...

Sometimes ignorance surpasses all limits.

There is this quote attributed to Einstein: "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe!"

Well if you decide to live in such countries you get what you deserve, which in this case is no card.