Despite small improvements to GPU supplies this year, signs suggest that finding a reasonably priced graphics card will become even harder amidst rising prices and decreasing availability.
As reported by 3DCenter (and spotted by PC Gamer), Nvidia‘s GeForce RTX 30-Series and Amd‘s Radeon RX 6000-Series graphics cards are losing availability while becoming even more expensive to buy.
The report notes that over the summer, the lowest price for these GPUs were “only” 50 to 60 per cent higher than standard retail price. Since then it has hiked through August and September, with GeForce RTX 30s selling for 70 per cent higher than standard pricing as of September 19.
It also adds that while availability in GPUs hiked significantly in May and June, overall supply has been dwindling since mid July and has continued to decrease through September.
3DCenter also identifies that even the most expensive graphics cards – namely the RX 6900 XT and RTX 3090 – are selling for 59 per cent higher than usual. Due to the already high price of these cards they have usually enjoyed high availability and low price inflation, but now it seems like even the most securely-priced cards are not immune to high demand and low supply. This does not bode well for lower-performance GPUs, as price hikes at the top could signal even harsher prices for older GPU models.
The report identifies the 6800, 6800XT and 3070Ti models as suffering from the worst levels of availability, with the 6900XT being the most expensive card, reaching prices up to €3632 (£3,118).
Much of the volatility surrounding GPU prices revolves around a global chip shortage, which STMicro’s CEO has recently warned will last until the “first half of 2023”.
In other news, Dota 2 has dropped support for outdated hardware “in order to keep the game and the Source 2 engine fresh”.
