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The price of graphics cards was finally dropping — until it suddenly stopped

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Recent news from Germany brought hope to many PC enthusiasts. This is due to the fact that the prices of graphics cards in Germany dropped rapidly. The drops in pricing were so major that some GPUs had their prices slashed in half. Unfortunately, the latest data suggests that the falling prices have come to a halt, at least for the time being.

Website 3DCenter.org has been keeping a close watch on the graphics card prices in Germany, and the initial findings were more than promising. In May 2021, the prices of Nvidia’s RTX 30-Series GPUs were at an all-time high of three times their MSRP. AMD cards were only slightly cheaper, being listed at twice their MSRP on a regular basis. This was combined with a persistent low stock of these cards.

A close-up image of Nvidia's RTX 3080 Ti graphics card.

Come July, the prices of GPUs in Germany had dropped considerably and settled at around 53% above their MSRP. This means that some of the best graphics cards halved in price in just a little over a month. Of course, this news brought a new surge of optimism to those who were hoping to buy one of the latest GPUs. Unfortunately, although many sources expected otherwise, it seems that the rapid drop in GPU prices has now slowed down considerably.

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The latest report from 3DCenter shows that Nvidia card prices dropped by just 3% in the period between July 4 and July 18. However, this average may be slightly off due to the fact that Nvidia’s latest releases, the Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti and 3080 Ti, continue to sell at very high prices.

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Although Nvidia’s 3% improvement is hardly encouraging, AMD card prices are doing worse, at least as far as the customers are concerned. The Radeon RX 6000 line of GPUs actually went up in price during those two weeks in July and is now, on average, 3% more expensive. This was the first increase for these cards since May.

When it comes to stock levels in Germany, the supplies are steady and most of the GPUs are readily available if one is willing to pay the inflated price. 3DCenter rated nearly all of Nvidia’s RTX 30-Series cards at least a 4 out of 5 in terms of availability. The only card that didn’t manage to get a 4-star rating was the RTX 3060 Ti. AMD’s stocks continue to be slightly lower, with the RX 6800 XT receiving a 3 out of 5 ratings and the RX 6800 getting a 2 out of 5.

It’s important to note that 3DCenter reports are only valid for the German and Austrian markets. The situation in the U.S., as well as worldwide, is still rather grim. GPU prices continue to be unreasonably high. However, the supplies have shown a marked improvement compared to just a few months ago. Getting one of the latest graphics cards used to be impossible, but the current stock levels are much more stable. As a result, it is possible to get an Nvidia RTX 30-Series card right now — as long as one is prepared to pay the extra price.

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Monica J. White
Monica J. White
Computing Writer
Monica is a UK-based freelance writer and self-proclaimed geek. A firm believer in the "PC building is just like expensive…
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