Graphics card prices continue to fall - buy now or wait for new Nvidia RTX 4000 GPUs?
[16:02 Mon,15.August 2022 by Thomas Richter]
As predicted, the cryptocurrency crisis has led to the long-awaited drop in graphics card prices. According to Tomshardware, prices for Nvidia and AMD GPUs dropped by around 57% on average from January 2022 to the beginning of July, and since then - as can be seen in the price history of the Palit GeForce RTX 3090 as an example - it went down even further and are now partly already below the manufacturers& recommended retail prices.
Price history of the Palit GeForce RTX 3090 GamingPro in the last 12 months.
Nvida has also now initiated the sale of the old Ampere top models to empty the warehouses before the first model of the new RTX4000 (aka Ada Lovelace) generation is launched. Originally, the launch date was planned for September - exactly 2 years after the first RTX 3000 GPU - but according to new information, the launch of the RTX 4090 is said to have been postponed to October, and the other cards might even come onto the market piece by piece in 2023, because there are still too many old RTX 3000 models in stock that cannot be sold otherwise.
Nvidia RTX 3090 Ti
Nvidia RTX 4000 Series
. The new RTX 4000 from Nvidia models promise - due to the new again downsized 5 nanometer manufacturing as well as a new design with a larger L2 cache, more CUDA cores and an even higher clock of 2.8-3.0 GHz - a nearly twice as great performance as the respective RTX 3000 predecessor models. The following is known through various leaks about the new series, which will include the RTX 4090 (Ti), 4080 (Ti), 4070 (Ti), 4060 (Ti), 4050, as well as a new top model, but the final specifications may also change in the frame, Nvidia seems to still want to balance performance and power hunger and price there.
As usual for Nvidia, the release will start with the strongest model of the new series, the RTX 4090 (with AD102-300-A1 graphics chip), which has 24G GDDR6X VRAM and 16,384 FP32 ALUs/CUDA cores at a base clock of 2,235 MHz and a maximum clock of more than 2,750 MHz and a TGP of 450 watts. The next model (probably a month later) will be the RTX 4080 (with AD103-300-A1 graphics chip) with 16G GDDR6X VRAM, 9,728 CUDA cores as well as a TGP of 320 watts. It will be followed by the RTX 4070 (with AD104-275-K graphics chip) with 12G GDDR6X VRAM, 7,680 CUDA cores and a base clock of 2,310 MHz and a maximum clock of more than 2,800 MHz with a TGP of 285 watts.
There is also said to be an unnamed top-of-the-line model (possibly a Titan Ada Lovelace) with an AD102-450-A1 graphics chip with a whopping 48 GB of VRAM, 18,176 CUDA cores and a massive 800 watts of power consumption.
Buy or wait?
If you&re flirting with a more powerful GPU, whether it&s for an upgrade or a new system - the question is: wait for the new generation or go for it now? One factor in the decision is of course how powerful a new GPU should be and how expensive it should be. The price slide plus sale makes the still current RTX 3000 top models, such as the RTX 3090/3080 (Ti), especially affordable right now.
Nvidia RTX 3080
Because the currently "normal" prices again are not a matter of course - since Nvidia will probably produce fewer RTX4000 models as a reaction to the prices, the prices for the new generation will probably increase again (and a new crypto boom that makes graphics cards scarce and expensive again cannot be ruled out after the previous experiences of boom/bust cycles). In addition, the increasing AI tools that can also be used by users could start a demand for powerful GPUs as a new user segment that needs power GPUs.
Be careful of used mining GPUs
. Of course, those who need to pay particular attention to price can also look for used GPUs - many cryptominers for whom mining new crypto coins is no longer profitable are now selling their graphics cards. However, caution is advised when buying such GPUs, because unlike normal used graphics cards, mining GPUs have spent their lives in uninterrupted continuous load and usually overclocked and are thus more susceptible to failures of, for example, the fans or other components.
To protect yourself from such potential bad purchases, you should make sure to only buy used graphics cards with original packaging and warranty, because Minng GPUs are usually only offered "naked".
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