Ever Get Cheaper after a period of consistent graphics card releases from Nvidia and AMD, things have cooled down in February. No new GPUs to talk about, no especially amazing deals or anything, but it’s still worth taking a look at how the market is behaving now that it’s settled down a bit, and what we can expect in the coming few months.
One of two key highlights in the past month: some lucky customers in the United States were treated to “clearance” prices at Best Buy for Nvidia GeForce 30 series cards. These included the RTX 3090 Ti dropping to $880, the RTX 3080 Ti falling to $720, and the RTX 3080 listed for an astonishingly low $420, down from its $700 MSRP.
While other mid-range cards saw no discounts, those that were able to pick up the RTX 3080 for $420 received a ripping good deal – and that’s really one of the only ways to get a good deal in the current market if you are interested in an Nvidia GPU at this sort of performance tier.
What’s interesting about this clearance pricing is that for the most part, despite being limited time deals, they really should just be the regular price for these graphics cards in 2023. Several of them, like the RTX 3060, are nearly two years old. Take the RTX 3090 Ti at its discounted price of $880. That may seem like a great deal considering the card launched at $2,000, but on a cost per frame basis it still makes the RTX 3090 Ti a relatively poor deal.
With the new GeForce RTX 4070 Ti coming in at $820 these days, the 3090 Ti at $880 actually has slightly worse cost per frame. Given that 4070 Ti cards have been abundant and easy to purchase, there’s no real reason to wait for the 3090 Ti to drop to $880, unless you specifically needed the 24GB of VRAM vs just 12GB on the 4070 Ti. In our opinion, in the current market a 3090 Ti-like GPU would need to be priced closer to $700 to pique our interest. That would give it superior value than the Radeon 6950 XT and for a clearance price would make it an obvious buy.
A similar analysis can be applied to the RTX 3080 Ti, with its discounted price of $720 looking like a good deal given the overpriced $1,200 MSRP. And while the 3080 Ti is indeed better value than the RTX 3090 Ti’s clearance we just discussed, it isn’t anything too special either. We’re looking at a mere 2% discount in cost per frame relative to the current price for the Radeon 7900 XT and just 6% discount compared to the RTX 4070 Ti. It also falls short of the value delivered by the Radeon 6950 XT.
The worst clearance “discount” was for the RTX 3060 though, even at $300 it simply isn’t worth buying compared to the Radeon 6650 XT which delivers similar performance at $265 – and that price has remained steady for several months now. A true clearance price for the RTX 3060 would have to be closer to $250 or even $230.
