It’ll be a while longer before we see stores shelves and online product pages populated with highly sought after graphics cards, but there is definitive evidence that things are improving. From online retailers to physical stores, Nvidia’s RTX 30 Series graphics cards finally appear to exist in limited degrees of availability. And we’re not talking about the grossly marked-up scalper prices, we’re talking about actual retail list prices, or at least near enough to them.
Recent searches on Newegg and visits to local Micro Centers turned up surprising results. For Newegg, we found the Gigabyte RTX 3070 Aorus Master in stock at the list price. There are other models available too, such as for the RTX 3070 Ti. The ASUS RTX 3070 Ti TUF and the Gigabyte RTX 3070 Ti Aorus are available at prices just north of what the AIBs typically charge. While admittedly far from Nvidia’s alleged $600 USD MSRP for these Ti variants, it’s still a positive sign of changing market conditions. Look elsewhere, and you’ll quickly discover that these prices are well below what other sellers try to charge. It’s also worth pointing out that the listings we mentioned above are sold directly by Newegg, which is an authorized reseller.
As far as Micro Center goes, we checked two different locations (in metro-Atlanta, Georgia if you must know) and found RTX 30 Series cards of various makes and models simply in stock and on shelves for list prices. Nothing sits around for too long according to our findings, but the trend has been consistent now for several weeks at least. The one drawback of course is the lack of convenience compared to online shopping, but that’s the tradeoff for a retail option that limits scalpers and is free from bots.
Visiting any Micro Center is still no guarantee that you’ll get the card you want, and it should come as no surprise that the pricey models sit around the longest.
Bidding farewell?
It’s also evident that prices on eBay are steadily falling, though trends vary based upon the make and model. If we reference our coverage from last summer, today’s prices are far better for consumers. For instance, many sellers are now struggling to find buyers for RTX 3070s in the $900 USD price range. By comparison, bidding regularly reached up to $1100-1200 USD last June. Buyers are also now far more selective, whereas compared to last year, price ranges for new and used models were relatively the same.
The silver lining is that as more scalpers realize smaller profits, there will be far less incentive to scalp in the first place, meaning graphics cards will reach end users much faster to smooth out demand across international markets.
Frankly, things still have a ways to go before the chip shortage is actually over, but confidence among manufacturers remains strong despite recent events. Nvidia RTX 30 Series graphics card availability, and chip supply in general, is still expected to improve throughout 2022. Intel’s projected 4 million ARC GPU contribution should also help things out a bit.
