Nvidia and AMD Seriously Want to Offload Current-Gen GPUs

In the lead up to next generation GPUs, current graphics card prices continue to dominate the discussion. We're expecting next-gen graphics to be unveiled in a few months, and it feels like Nvidia and AMD are getting desperate to sell their current stock at the highest possible price before new cards are announced. There are still a few horrible deals out there, a few decent buys, and of course some news to talk about in our latest GPU pricing update.

Updated: See our latest GPU Pricing Update here.

In the last week, Intel's Arc A380 has become available to pre-purchase in the United States ahead of its August 22 release. For $140, the Asrock Challenger Arc is now up on Newegg as a backorder product, using a very basic design but that's to be expected in this entry-level segment.

Unfortunately for Intel and Asrock, the A380 is not competitively priced if the $140 pricing holds true. Currently you can purchase the Radeon RX 6400 for $135, and we recently found across a 51 game benchmark that the A380 is on average 9% slower at 1080p.

Intel's GPU does have a few advantages like media encoding support and more display outputs, but the A380 isn't a good buy at $140, especially as the RX 6400 is already a pretty horrible GPU. We believe the A380 needs to be priced closer (or at most) at $100 to become an attractive budget proposition.

We've also been reporting that Nvidia and AMD are apparently eyeing off further price reductions for current generation GPUs at the end of August. This is more of a rumor from Chinese news outlets, but it's been widely reported already.

Nvidia GPU Pricing

As of writing this, we don't know whether any further official price cuts will be made, however it's likely that Nvidia and AMD will continue to try and sell their existing inventory at lower prices the closer we get to new GPUs, so it's definitely something to keep in mind towards the end of this month and next month.

There is still a significant backlog of new GPUs yet to be sold based on what we're hearing, and current prices for many models are still quite unattractive.

Speaking of unattractive graphics card prices, let's look at Nvidia's line-up for the month of August based on current retail pricing. Last month we did see some official price cuts for a few of their high-end models, but further price movement has been slow in August, with cards dropping by just 6 percent on average.

This includes any rebates available on Newegg, but doesn't include any flash sales like EVGA selling an RTX 3090 Ti for $1,150 for a few days, although that price is still not great.

The main issue with buying an Nvidia card at the moment is that the top of the line-up are discounted below MSRP but are too expensive in the face of next-gen products that we expect to be much faster.

Meanwhile, the lower part of Nvidia's offerings are still significantly inflated, particularly for cards like the RTX 3060 and RTX 3050 which should be at MSRP or lower at this point. Trying to sell an RTX 3060 for nearly $400 is madness in the current market given the supposed launch pricing of $330, which even today is basically a myth.

Even today we haven't seen enough price movement across the GeForce 30 series to say you should jump in and make a purchase. What we're looking for at the very least is tier-below pricing, so the price of an RTX 3080 becoming the price of an RTX 3070 and so on.

Higher-end cards like the RTX 3080 Ti and above will need more than tier below pricing to be worth recommending, too, given their extremely overinflated launch MSRPs. So none of these cards scream "buy" at the moment and we'd like to see at least another 20-30 percent price reduction before recommending you to purchase. Price drops have been too slow to keep up.

AMD GPU Pricing

On the Radeon side we've also seen a six percent drop in pricing on average, though this situation is a little more palatable given the majority of AMD's line-up is sitting at or below MSRP. Single-digit drops for the mid-range and mainstream options continue to push the price a decent level below MSRP and some of these cards are good value, especially considering the Nvidia competition is yet to reach the advertised launch price.

Before we thought cards like the Radeon RX 6600 had reached a price floor, but it turns out there's still room for those cards to get cheaper, even though it's unlikely we'll see next-gen cards targeting below $300 until well into 2023.

AMD does suffer from some of the same issues as Nvidia when it comes to higher-end models though, especially the RX 6950 XT. This card is ludicrously priced at $1,000, when the 6900 XT has fallen to $700, so it makes no sense to buy the slightly faster flagship variant.

That card needs a huge discount to be worth considering. And while the 6900 XT at $700 is a 30% price drop relative to the MSRP, that's merely bringing it in line with the price to performance of the RX 6800 XT. After all, the 6900 XT is currently about 10 percent more expensive than the near-MSRP 6800 XT for about 10 percent more performance.

When considering imminent next-gen products, anything in the Radeon 6800 series and above should be sitting closer to $500 to get good value in our opinion. As silly as this might sound given how far it's fallen, we think the 6900 XT needs to get cheaper.

While tier below pricing is yet to occur in the high-end, it has been occurring for the mid-range and below. The Radeon 6700 XT has fallen steadily over the last few months to sit just below $400 now, which is getting close to the MSRP of the 6600 XT.

In turn, this is pushing the lower end of the stack lower and honestly the Radeon 6700 XT at that price isn't too bad. If it gets down to ~$350 that would be a very compelling deal given how unlikely it is that we'll see next-gen $400 GPUs this year. With that said, the Radeon 6500 XT and RX 6400 aren't great and both should be priced well below $150.

GeForce vs Radeon Price Points

When looking at direct head to head pricing, there's a stark difference between the two brands. The Radeon 6950 XT has become a lone operator for AMD at the high-end since the 6900 XT has fallen to $700, while Nvidia seems happy offering three cards above $800 despite wanting to move inventory before next-gen arrives.

In the mid to high-end range, the current battles are pretty fair. While we think these products remain overpriced in general, the RTX 3080 is competing against the 6900 XT at around $700, which are pretty evenly matched products based on our latest testing, especially at high resolutions like 4K.

Meanwhile, the RTX 3070 Ti is up against the Radeon 6800, which is a solid head to head battle.

It's in the mid-range and lower segments where AMD becomes to the more obvious choice. The Radeon 6700 XT having fallen to just $400 is directly competing with the RTX 3060 which is currently just $15 cheaper, and that's not a good match-up for Nvidia given the 6700 XT is closest to the RTX 3060 Ti in performance.

Some may choose to spend the extra $50 on the 3060 Ti over the Radeon 6700 XT due to features like DLSS and superior ray tracing support, but the RTX 3060 still seems badly priced at the moment, spending near $400 on a card of that performance is bad.

It gets more interesting in the sub-$400 markets. The Radeon 6600 XT and GeForce RTX 3060 are evenly matched in performance based on our last 50 game benchmark a few months ago, with the 6600 XT showing just ~2% slower performance at 1440p on average. But the 6600 XT is a full tier below in pricing, instead going directly up against the RTX 3050, in fact the 6600 XT is slightly cheaper than the 3050 at Newegg right now. This makes the 6600 XT a great value purchase, the RTX 3060 a poor buy and the RTX 3050 absolutely horrendous value.

In our most recent 50 game benchmark pitting the RTX 3050 against the Radeon 6600, the latter is 23% faster at 1440p on average, so the RTX 3050 not only doesn't get close to the 6600 XT which it's priced to compete against, it's also slower than AMD's equivalent which is a tier below in pricing.

This would be a closer battle were the 3050 available at its $250 MSRP, but even then it wouldn't be a great buy, the RTX 3050 should be sold for no more than $200 given where AMD is currently positioned in the mainstream market.

For the budget cards, it's a complete mess at the moment between the terrible Radeon 6500 XT and RX 6400, the awful Arc A380, and the atrocious GTX 1630. The low-end market has rarely been worse than right now where three companies are all producing cards you shouldn't buy.

Used GPU Pricing

Luckily, we have the used market to save us and right now there's a ton of used graphics cards priced below $200, although price movement has been slower this month than in prior months.

The GeForce 20 series has only fallen in price by 6 percent, matching the price reductions seen in the new market. Some of these are not great value, for example, we wouldn't buy a used RTX 2080 Ti when we could get a new RTX 3070 for $20 more, or better, a Radeon 6700 XT for less than $400.

But the RTX 2060 for just $214 used is a much better buy than the RTX 3050 at $300+ new if you want an Nvidia GPU, as the RTX 2060 is faster than the 3050.

The GeForce 16 series has hit bottom pricing. These used cards are providing competition to cards like the Radeon 6500 XT and GTX 1630, and they are absolutely the better buy.

The GTX 1660 Super for $175 is a much better option than the 6500 XT at the same price. It's not only 30% faster than the 6500 XT in a best case scenario with PCIe 4.0, it also has a proper hardware encoder.

The Pascal series stagnated last month but has fallen by 7 percent this month. It's not worth buying GTX 10 series cards right now as Steve showed in one of his recent tests where Pascal-era products are usually last to receive new game optimizations, if they get them at all.

The Radeon RX 6600 is 13% faster than the GTX 1080 at 1440p, and while it is a little more expensive, we think it's a far better option moving forward.

The Radeon RX 5000 series has also stagnated, hitting a floor with the 5700 XT at about $270. AMD's old mid-range card has held up well for gaming, though it was highly price inflated by miners across the past year. Currently sits at around $20 more than the RTX 2060 Super although it's 13% faster at 1440p, and about $100 cheaper than new RTX 3060 – despite also being faster than that card.

Other older GPUs like Vega are not great buys and probably only suitable as a stop-gap solution while you wait for a final upgrade. Something like the Radeon RX 580 will be decent to tide you over for a while, similar to the GTX 1060 6GB, but we're talking about 5-year-old products, so we wouldn't expect much life left moving forward.

Wrap Up

The graphics card market in August is not unlike what we've seen the last few months. GPU manufacturers and AIBs are still trying to squeeze as many dollars from buyers as they can before demand evaporates when next-gen products are announced.

There's been a slowing of price movement compared to previous months and there's not much to be excited about. For most cards we don't think pricing is low enough to be worth considering.

Our current stance for high-end shoppers is unchanged in that you should wait for at least tier-below pricing, which neither AMD or Nvidia are offering right now for their Radeon 6800 and RTX 3080 series and above.

We also wouldn't consider much of Nvidia's mid-range and budget offerings, which are still being sold for well above the MSRP.

The only products that we can recommend are some mid-tier GPUs from AMD which are aggressively priced, below the MSRP, and much better value than what Nvidia are selling. These products are also unlikely to be superseded soon by next generation GPU launches, as these typically focus on the high-end first and so we don't expect new GPU launches in the sub $400 market until 2023.

There are also a few deals to be found on the used market, but the real benefit buying used at the moment is as an alternative to the atrocious low-end cards we have right now. You're much better off buying a used GTX 1660 Super than you are buying any entry-level GPU from Nvidia, AMD or even Intel which all range from bad to abysmal.

Shopping Shortcuts:

• AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT on Amazon
• Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 on Amazon
• Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti on Amazon
• AMD Radeon RX 6800 on Amazon
• Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 on Amazon
• AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D on Amazon