GPU Pricing Update, March 2023: Back to MSRP

It's time to look at the GPU market once more to give our monthly update on everything that is happening. As is fairly typical for the first few months of the year, March hasn't been an exciting month for graphics cards, but there have been a few price moves, plus the impending launch of the GeForce RTX 4070 that we're expecting to happen in April.

With AMD and Nvidia focusing on the high-end with their latest GPU releases, at price points that are out of reach for most customers, the graphics card market remains relatively weak with flat demand for the current line-up.

Updated: See our latest GPU Pricing Update here.

Meanwhile, the mainstream and mid-range segments haven't seen any significant changes in months. Surely, you're not rushing out to buy an RTX 3050 or Radeon 6600 at this point as pricing for those cards is the same now as it was six months ago.

New GPU pricing

Overall, the good news is that price inflation is mostly a thing of the past. There's abundant stock of new generation cards at or near the MSRP. This includes the GeForce RTX 4090 dropping to $1,650 down from $1,800 in February, and completely unavailable in January - a healthy situation for the fastest GPU you can get, with no signs of shortages at the moment. This gives the RTX 4090 a price tag that's just 3% higher than MSRP, which most high-end buyers will accept.

Meanwhile, the GeForce RTX 4080 continues to be available in volumes at its $1,200 MSRP. Right now there are four models on Newegg selling at that price, with another five within $50. The GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is available as low as $815 as it continues to sit just above its MSRP.

On the AMD side, it's good to see the Radeon RX 7900 XTX return to its MSRP of $1,000. But the bigger positive is the Radeon 7900 XT dropping in price from the ridiculous $900 it was listed on at launch - down to $800, or $100 below MSRP - just three months after release. This certainly would have been a more appropriate price to go with from the beginning.

In a recent shootout, we compared the Radeon 7900 XT and the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti across 50+ games and this price drop has evened up that battle considerably - $900 was just never going to work long term.

Also worth mentioning are Intel Arc GPUs. The Arc A750 is pretty compelling at $250 with our recent revisit review showing Intel's driver improvements if you're interested in a mainstream GPU. A combination of price adjustments and constant driver updates are making Intel GPUs more relevant contenders as of late.

Now, things haven't changed in terms of value for high-end models. The GeForce RTX 4090 being a flagship you could probably justify being priced at $1,600, which isn't that ludicrous after we've seen the fastest cards in each series priced well over $1,000 since Pascal and the GeForce Titan X. But other models are less enticing.

When the Radeon RX 7900 XTX offers the same performance as the RTX 4080 on average for $200 less, there is no way the RTX 4080 should remain at $1,200 - hence the reason it's not moving any inventory. The RTX 4080 should be $1,000 where it would be the clear buy over the 7900 XTX due to Nvidia's stronger feature set, which in turn would likely force the 7900 XTX down in price slightly. Right now the 7900 XTX doesn't look too bad at $1,000, but also isn't overly exciting and expensive for mainstream gamers.

In the battle of the RTX 4070 Ti and Radeon 7900 XT, these cards are hard to swallow because they don't offer strong value compared to previous-gen GPUs. The 7900 XT looks better at $800, but is only slightly better value than the 7900 XTX and previous generation cards like the Radeon 6800 XT. The 7900 XT should be priced at $700 as should the RTX 4070 Ti to be more convincing, otherwise they're not good value relative to older cards like the RTX 3080. At $700, the RTX 4070 Ti would be offering 18% more performance at 4K than the RTX 3080 for the same MSRP, not an earth shattering improvement but certainly it would be much more compelling.

RTX 4070 coming soon

Soon we will see the GeForce RTX 4070 land, possibly other lower-tier RTX 40 series cards, and whatever AMD is planning with their Navi 32 and 33 dies. Recent rumors suggest the RTX 4070 will debut at $750 with some partner cards priced up around $800, but we won't have the final confirmation until several weeks from now. What we're confident of, is that the RTX 4070 would be DOA at $750. If the RTX 4070 Ti should be priced at $700 to be a compelling buy, there is absolutely no way an RTX 4070 at $750 would be a good product to recommend.

We're expecting this upcoming model to perform somewhere in the vicinity of the RTX 3080 10GB, or around 15 to 20 percent slower than the current RTX 4070 Ti. The absolute minimum would then be a 15 to 20 percent cheaper price than the 4070 Ti, which would be around $650.

However, we also like to argue that the RTX 4070 Ti should be closed to $700, so extrapolating that to where we think the RTX 4070 should be, we get an MSRP of $550 to $600. That would be an attractive price for a new mid-range GPU - it would be over 20% faster than an RTX 3070 Ti for the same sort of price. And if Nvidia wants to redeem this generation, RTX 3080 performance for $500 would be killer though it's very unlikely to happen. Realistically, we expect the next $500 GPU to be only slightly faster than the RTX 3070.

It will ultimately depend on performance, so this is just us working through some examples based on speculated performance. If it's faster, Nvidia could get away with a higher price, if it's slower, it needs to be cheaper.

This also applies to any future GPUs from AMD. If they manage to get Navi 32 performance up around the RTX 3080 10GB, then it too should be priced around $550 to $600 to be acceptable value. I personally think AMD should price their cards a bit cheaper to entice more sales and market share - a $500 MSRP would certainly send waves through the enthusiast market - but AMD's Radeon division seems to botch these things lately, as seen with the 7900 XT launch.

It's crucial that a GPU is priced well at launch to avoid terrible reviews and a poor early reception, which has a lasting impact as these reviews will be viewed throughout the lifespan of the card. Not every outlet is going to re-review a card when the price is adjusted, so you'd think getting things off to a positive start would be the winning strategy.

In any case, it'll be interesting to see where these upcoming graphics cards are priced and whether AMD and Nvidia are feeling the pressure of a slow market. There's definitely some demand sitting and waiting to be activated, but the current pricing structure isn't cutting it for most.

Nvidia GeForce GPU pricing

Looking at previous-gen GPUs like the RTX 30 series, there isn't a whole lot to say as pricing is similar to previous months. The big mover in March is the GeForce RTX 3070 dropping back to $500, its MSRP, which it last hit in September 2022. We suspect Nvidia will soon make a push to clear RTX 3070 and RTX 3070 Ti cards from the market to make room for the RTX 4070 and other mid-tier cards.

AMD Radeon GPU pricing

AMD Radeon 6600 series GPUs continue to get slightly cheaper, though that isn't the case for all models. The Radeon 6950 XT dropped to a new low of $680, down $20 from last month. We also saw the return of historic low pricing for cards like the Radeon 6650 XT, which hit $260. But as with Nvidia cards, most models are relatively stable in terms of pricing.

Used GPU pricing

As for the used market, there has been no pressure to reduce used prices with consistent pricing on the new market, and that's been the case for several months now. For example, Nvidia RTX 30 series cards dropped just 2% on average month on month, and most cards remain at a ~25% discount comparing used to new. For Radeons, it makes no sense to buy used over new. For example, you're getting a mere 12% discount (on average) buying a used Radeon RX 6800 over buying one new, which isn't worth it when you're not getting a warranty.

The older GeForce RTX 20 series saw no change to pricing. The GTX 16 series is slightly cheaper but effectively the same, offering the line-up below $140. The Radeon RX 5000 series has been fluctuating a bit but still roughly the same, with some of these offering good value all things considered - and there's a lot of Radeon 5700 XT sales volume, which we suspect are mostly ex-mining.

What We Learned

Overall, the GPU market continues to be pretty slow and will likely remain that way until Nvidia and AMD finish launching their new generation product stack. The amount of people still interested in spending over $800 on a new graphics card has dwindled massively, so it's now a matter of waiting so we can move to newer price points with new launches. Until gamers see something below $500 that's worth buying, we wouldn't expect a flood of sales in 2023.

It is good to see AMD correct course with the Radeon 7900 XT, dropping the price to $800, and further increases to MSRP or near-MSRP stock for cards like the 7900 XTX and RTX 4090. We consider we very much are in a normal-to-weak market right now, there is no need to spend money on a price inflated GPU, supply is in good nick and there are good options at the MSRP.

With the impending launch of the GeForce RTX 4070, we'd hold off buying a graphics card in the $500 to $800 range for now, as you may want to see what Nvidia has to offer there. Even if it's not too compelling from a price-to-performance standpoint, you will have all the information in front of you and can make a solid decision. We highly doubt the RTX 4070 will launch at $750 as it would be dead on arrival at that price, so we'll see what happens next month.

The used market is also an option, though we'd avoid AMD Radeon 6000 cards at the moment as they are overpriced on eBay and you may as well buy a new card with a full warranty instead. Other segments appear to be priced appropriately, continuing what we've seen over the last six months.

Shopping Shortcuts:

• Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti on Amazon
• AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT on Amazon
• Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 on Amazon
• AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX on Amazon
• Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 on Amazon