AMD RX 6000-Series GPUs Are Much Cheaper Than Nvidia RTX 30-Series Cards

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(Image credit: AMD)

Radeon RX 6000-series GPUs have come down in price substantially quicker than Nvidia's counterparts, with AMD selling almost all of its RDNA2-based products at MSRP or lower. Nvidia on the other hand is seemingly still struggling with inflation issues, as nearly all of its RTX 30-series lineup remain inflated over MSRP, with rates going as high as 40%. Here's how prices are stacking up currently (as of May 18th).

For reference, we have gathered pricing data on Nvidia and AMD's aftermarket graphics cards alone, since they are more widely available and AMD has stopped selling reference RX 6700 XT, RX 6800, RX 6800 XT, and RX 6900 XT graphics cards at its own store.

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RTX 30-Series GPU pricing — Aftermarket Cards
GPU ModelCurrent Price (May 18th)MSRPMarkup
GeForce RTX 3090 Ti$1999.99 - EVGA FTW3 - Newegg$19990%
GeForce RTX 3090$1699.99 - Gigabyte Gaming OC - Newegg$149913%
GeForce RTX 3080 Ti$1199.99 - Gigabyte Gaming OC - Newegg$11990%
GeForce RTX 3080 12GB$919.99 - MSI Ventus - NeweggN/AN/A
GeForce RTX 3080 10GB$849.99 - MSI Ventus - Newegg$69921%
GeForce RTX 3070 Ti$699.99 - Asus TUF Gaming OC - Newegg$59917%
GeForce RTX 3070$609.99 - MSI Ventus 2X OC - Newegg$49922%
GeForce RTX 3060 Ti$559.99 - MSI Ventus 2X OCV1 - Newegg$39940%
GeForce RTX 3060$409.99 - MSI Ventus 2X - Newegg$32924%
RTX 3050$329.99 - EVGA XC Gaming - Newegg$24932%

Nvidia's RTX 30-series products have seen decent price declines since the start of 2022, but most of its product stack still suffers from severe price markups. The only exceptions are Nvidia's high-end product stack. Only the RTX 3090 Ti (unsurprisingly) and RTX 3080 Ti are selling at Nvidia's official MSRP, but those MSRPs are effectively marked up already.

The RTX 3090 lands in a strange spot right now. It's priced 13% over MSRP, with gaming performance that's similar to the 3080 Ti but with twice the VRAM. Apparently, either supply is limited and driving prices up, or there's enough desire for a 24GB card that it can maintain something of a premium.

The rest of Nvidia's lineup unfortunately have much higher markups, ranging from 17% on the 3070 Ti to 40% on the 3060 Ti. The vanilla RTX 3070, 3070 Ti, and RTX 3080 10GB are potential options at around 20% "inflation" relative to the MSRPs. The RTX 3060 might also be worth a look, at $410 right now.

The GeForce RTX 3080 12GB remains an interesting curiosity. Depending on the card, performance can nearly match the RTX 3080 Ti, and prices aren't that much higher than the 10GB variant. Nvidia never announced an MSRP for this model, but paying $70 more for the extra 2GB VRAM might be worth considering. You can almost get 3080 Ti levels of performance and save $280.

Unfortunately, Nvidia's "budget-friendly" RTX 3050 is one of its worst values compared to MSRP. Currently, the cheapest model still costs $330 at Newegg. The worst offender comes in the form of Nvidia's RTX 3060 Ti, still sitting at an eye-watering 40% over MSRP. That's probably because, based on MSRP, it would otherwise be one of the best values.

Note that we looked around at various retail outlets, but for Nvidia cards Newegg ended up as the best price in every case. Well, best prices assuming you don't want to give eBay a shot.

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RX 6000 Series Pricing -- Aftermarket Cards
GPU ModelCurrent Price (May 18th)MSRPMarkup
Radeon RX 6950 XT$1099.99 - ASRock OC Formula - Newegg$10990%
Radeon RX 6900 XT$899.99 - XFX Speedster Merc 319 - Newegg$999-10%
Radeon RX 6800 XT$799.99 - XFX Speedster Merc 319 - Newegg$64923%
Radeon RX 6800$759.99 - ASRock Phantom Gaming D OC - Newegg$57931%
Radeon RX 6750 XT$549.99 - Gigabyte Gaming OC - Newegg$5490%
Radeon RX 6700 XT$484.99 - MSI Mech 2X - Newegg$4791%
Radeon RX 6650 XT$399.99 - ASRock Challenger D - Newegg$3990%
Radeon RX 6600 XT$379.99 - XFX Speedster SWFT 210 - Newegg$3793%
Radeon RX 6600$299.99 - XFX Speedster SWFT 210 - Newegg$329-9%
Radeon RX 6500 XT$199.99 - XFX Speedster QICK 210 - Amazon$1990%
Radeon RX 6400$159.99 - PowerColor ITX - Amazon$1590%

RX 6000-series prices are faring much better than their Nvidia's counterparts, and with the help of AMD's new RX "6x50 XT" cards, prices are now even more in favor of AMD.

Nearly every RDNA 2 card can be found around MSRP, or potentially with up to a 10% discount. The only exceptions are the RX 6800 XT and RX 6800, which are currently going at 23% and 31% over MSRP still. Again, that's perhaps thanks to the "too good to be true" launch prices, as these cards tend to compete well against Nvidia's RTX 3080 and RTX 3070 GPUs.

The biggest discount at present comes in the form of the RX 6900 XT, currently going for as little as $900 on Newegg. Of course, that card has nearly the same specs as the lower priced RX 6800 XT — it's only about 7% faster at best. The vanilla RX 6600 also goes for 9% less than MSRP, making it a great value as it easily eclipses the RTX 3050 in general gaming performance.

Note that AMD has said it will keep selling the RX 6900 XT and RX 6700 XT, while the RX 6600 XT will be phased out, to be replaced by the RX 6650 XT. You can get a 6600 XT at MSRP right now, but we expect prices to get worse as supply dries up.

AMD Takes the Lead for Now

For now, AMD easily wins the price wars against Nvidia at almost every price bracket, with additional help from its recent RX 6x50 cards. This might win some additional mindshare to team red, as Nvidia still remains the far more popular option among mainstream gamers.

It remains unclear how long AMD will have this lead. Graphics prices as a whole are still trending downwards every month, meaning that in a few month's time, Nvidia should have many more cards at MSRP compared to today. But we might also see AMD's GPUs start falling well below MSRP, which was relatively common in the past (e.g. with the RX 5000-series prior to 2020).

Next-generation graphics cards are also on the horizon. Many rumors have reported an unexpectedly early July release for the RTX 40 series graphics cards, which if true could change the GPU landscape completely. We expect Nvidia Ada GPUs to deliver great performance, though we don't know how much they'll cost. AMD meanwhile should release its RX 7000-series GPUs based on RDNA 3 later in the year, we expect in the Q4 time frame.

If you're looking at buying a graphics card right now, AMD offers some good values. However, with prices in freefall, buying a soon to be previous generation GPU right before the new cards arrive might not be wise. But that's what we said in 2020, just before the RTX 30-series launched, and we all saw how that turned out. Here's hoping GPU history doesn't repeat itself in 2022.

Aaron Klotz
Contributing Writer

Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

  • hotaru.hino
    The lack of markup on AMD's side may be more of a market perception. Unless somehow TSMC managed to ramp up production such that supply is outpacing demand.
    Reply
  • Eximo
    Pretty sure AMD MSRP class for class has always been cheaper this generation. Just a reflection of that I would gather. AMD cards are actually hitting their MSRPs though and Nvidia is still about $100 over.
    Reply
  • King_V
    Minor nitpick - in the table for RX 6000 Series Pricing, the 6600XT is showing a 3% markup. That should be 0%.
    Reply
  • JeffreyP55
    Admin said:
    AMD's RX 6000 series graphics cards have dropped in price by a surprising amount, to the point where almost all 6000 series GPUs are cheaper than Nvidia's 30 series counterparts.

    AMD RX 6000-Series GPUs Are Much Cheaper Than Nvidia RTX 30-Series Cards : Read more
    I was borderline Rx 6900 or EVGA 3080ti FTW3 Ultra. Paid 1299.99 (MSRP) for the FTW3 Ultra 20 days ago. The 3080ti performs like a champ and I am very happy with my personal choice.
    Reply
  • icmn223
    hotaru.hino said:
    The lack of markup on AMD's side may be more of a market perception. Unless somehow TSMC managed to ramp up production such that supply is outpacing demand.
    Nah, it's just because AMD 6000 series GPUs are not good for mining ETH, etc. whereas 3000 series Nvidia cards are.
    Reply
  • hotaru.hino
    icmn223 said:
    Nah, it's just because AMD 6000 series GPUs are not good for mining ETH, etc. whereas 3000 series Nvidia cards are.
    Well crypto has been going downhill, so to me that doesn't really explain why NVIDIA cards are perceived to have higher value.
    Reply
  • Sleepy_Hollowed
    hotaru.hino said:
    Well crypto has been going downhill, so to me that doesn't really explain why NVIDIA cards are perceived to have higher value.

    It is partly crypto (though its fall is driving lower prices), but also because nvidia cards are still sought after for compute power for those that can afford them in workstations. They're cheaper than their pro cards, with acceptable performance as long as it's nothing heavy.
    Reply
  • dk382
    hotaru.hino said:
    Well crypto has been going downhill, so to me that doesn't really explain why NVIDIA cards are perceived to have higher value.
    DLSS has been a really big deal actually. If FSR 2.0 manages to compete well with DLSS, that will be a big win for AMD. And even though many people still see ray tracing as a gimmick, I think there's a general unwillingness to spend $500+ on a card in 2022 that doesn't do it well. You at least want the option, especially if UE5 games will be shipping with hardware Lumen as the default.
    Reply
  • sizzling
    Some good reasons above. I also still have a nervousness about AMD drivers. I admit this is probably outdated but once bitten many years ago there is always that nagging in my mind.
    Reply
  • Sleepy_Hollowed
    sizzling said:
    Some good reasons above. I also still have a nervousness about AMD drivers. I admit this is probably outdated but once bitten many years ago there is always that nagging in my mind.

    Oh I remember those days. The non-beta AMD drivers are solid, though AMD lags a bit on the newest games compared to nvidia, so if you play the newest games, I can see you going for team green.

    I tried their beta drivers and... wowza, not even windows likes them.
    Their official releases are solid across operating systems though, crazy as that might sound.
    Reply