GPU pricing - Then VS Now - How much has pricing changed?

GPU pricing is utter madness right now

| Source: OC3D Author: Mark Campbell

GPU pricing - Then VS Now - How much has pricing changed?

Today we thought that we would have a look back at the GPU prices of yesteryear, a time where things were a little bit simpler, where cryptocurrency mining was a lot less common, and GPU pricing was at levels which could be considered normal.



The UK market is very different to the US market, especially when it comes to electricity prices, making the cost to run a PC more expensive, making cryptocurrency mining less profitable than in countries where electricity is cheap and plentiful. Electricity pricing is a huge factor for large-scale mining operations, which is why nations that have competitive power costs are always hit by mining-related component shortages first, though when mining profits are there, there will also be demand in other regions.



Mining isn't the only thing that has driven GPU prices up, with increased demand for DDR memory causing a memory shortage and an increase in the cost of other materials like Silicon wafers, creating a bad situation for gamers.



What we have done here is list the prices of a selection of graphics cards both from the time we reviewed or previewed them and today, using Overclockers UK to reference today's pricing. Please note that the GTX 1070 and GTX 1080 both received a significant price decreases in March 2017, with the GTX 1080 getting a $100 decrease in MSRP. Please take this into account when comparing old/new GPU pricing.



One other thing to note is that the Radeon RX Vega 64 released with limited/standalone pricing at £449 with a Radeon Bundle version at £549, with the "standalone" version selling out within minutes of hitting retail.



Looking at our table below you can see price increases across the board for both Radeon and Geforce graphics hardware, though AMD GPUs have seen the sharpest increases in price.

GPU Price when Reviewed Date when Reviewed Today's price Percentage Change (%) MSI GTX 1050 2GB Low Profile £119.99 16/2/2017 £128.99 7.5% MSI GTX 1050 Ti 4GB Low Profile £149.99 16/2/2017 £199.99 33.3% Zotac GTX 1060 6GB AMP £269.99 19/7/2016 £289.99 7.4% ASUS GTX 1060 6GB Strix £329.99 19/7/2016 £379.99 15.15% EVGA GTX 1070 8GB SC Gaming ACX 3.0 £419.99 27/6/2016 £689.99 (Wut?) 64.29% ASUS GTX 1070 8GB Gaming Strix OC £479.99 15/6/2016 £599.99 25% Nvidia GTX 1070 Ti Founders Edition £419 2/11/2017 £529.99 (Not a FE)

(Cheapest @OCUK) 26.49% ASUS GTX 1080 Strix OC £619.99 7/6/2016 £649.99 4.84% MSI GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X Trio £749.99 19/10/2017 £889.99 18.67% PowerColor RX 580 Red Devil £249.99 18/4/2017 £428.99 71.6% AMD RX Vega 64 (reference) £449/£549 22/8/2017 £899.99 63.4-100% PowerColor RX Vega 64 Red Devil £589.99 29/11/2017 £949.99 61%

(These prices are from March 20th)



In short, GPU pricing is bonkers ATM, with many GPU models shipping with insane markups over their initial launch prices. Mid-high-end products are the hardest hit here, as they contain the most VRAM and are the most attractive hardware for miners given the hashrates that they can deliver per PCIe slot. Remember, the more GPU power that you can fit in a single PC the better, so miners don't want to waste PCIe slots on lower-end hardware.



Right now it looks like cryptocurrency mining is not going away anytime soon, though demand is starting to decrease thanks to the turbulence in the price of Bitcoin and other major crypto-coins.



You can join the discussion on today's insane GPU pricing on the OC3D Forums.

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