GeForce RTX 3050 Pricing Skyrockets Ahead of Release

By Aaron Klotz
last updated

More expensive than scalped Radeon RX 6500 XT's

MSI GeForce RTX 3050 8GB Gaming X
(Image credit: MSI)

Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3050 might still be a few days away from launch, but that hasn't stopped online retailers from putting the ray tracing focused "budget" GPU on the presell market already. According to XanxoGaming (via VideoCardz), a Peruvian retailer already has RTX 3050 listings available with incredibly high prices -- well above the cards' MSRP of $250. There's also an RTX 3050 listing on Newegg that shares the same story.

The Peruvian retailer in question is preselling a Palit RTX 3050 Dual OC for a whopping $453. For $53 more, the retailer is also preselling a bundle with the same RTX 3050 model, paired with Geil Orion DDR4-3200 memory for a total of $506. Despite the deal, the bundle won't make the RTX 3050's highly scalped price any sweeter.

Even worse is Newegg's listing showcasing an MSI RTX 3050 Gaming X selling for an absurd $699.98. In fairness to Newegg, this is a marketplace listing from an aftermarket seller, meaning Newegg hasn't assigned the pricing.

Nonetheless, the price is absurd and nearly three times the card's original MSRP value. For $699, you can find more capable cards such as the RTX 3060 for similar prices on sites such as eBay.com.

If these prices mean anything, they are a good indication of future scalper pricing for the RTX 3050. We've already seen AMD's new entry-level Radeon RX 6500 XT going for $500 on eBay, so we wouldn't be surprised to see RTX 3050's going for even more money thanks to the GPUs' beefier specifications.

Speaking of that, Nvidia's RTX 3050 will pack 2,560 CUDA cores paired to 8GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit memory bus. In preliminary advertising, Nvidia states the RTX 3050 will be nearly twice as fast as its predecessor, the GTX 1650, which, if true, would make the RTX 3050 a sweet upgrade to Nvidia's entry-level lineup. Not to mention the fact it has RT cores and Tensor cores as the cherry on top.

Early benchmarks revealed that the RTX 3050 is a much faster card than the RX 6500 XT, but in turn, this will also increase its value on the "scalper market." So if Nvidia can't keep up supply, you can say goodbye to a sweet $250 performance bargain.

Aaron Klotz
Aaron Klotz
Freelance News Writer

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

17 Comments Comment from the forums
  • btmedic04
    After 16 months of this crap, are any of us pc enthusiasts really surprised by this? Its a shame because at $250, the RTX 3050 was looking like a solid part at that price
    Reply
  • jacob249358
    pls i just want to upgrade :(
    Reply
  • Phaaze88
    btmedic04 said:
    After 16 months of this crap, are any of us pc enthusiasts really surprised by this?
    No, but its exhausting having to keep seeing this. 'Wake me up when its over' sort of thing.

    If this really is the new normal where people are mining crypto to make back some of their money spent...
    Many will see themselves getting priced out, or 'tiered down', if not doing the above to offset costs of more mining favorable cards - compromises will have to be made.
    Reply
  • spongiemaster
    Phaaze88 said:
    No, but its exhausting having to keep seeing this. 'Wake me up when its over' sort of thing.

    If this really is the new normal where people are mining crypto to make back some of their money spent...
    Many will see themselves getting priced out, or 'tiered down', if not doing the above to offset costs - compromises will have to be made.
    Early reports have shown this card is total garbage for mining. Around 13Mh/s. Even if miners managed to remove the LHR completely, it would only top out around 20Mh/s. At the $250 MSRP, you're looking at a year and half to break even. Any price above the MSRP is not going to be miners driving the price up. So there is hope this card could settle down to less absurd prices than the cards above it.
    Reply
  • Phaaze88
    @spongiemaster
    Edited previous post.
    Reply
  • spongiemaster
    Phaaze88 said:
    @spongiemasterEdited previous post.
    Understood. Anyone who does their homework on this one, should not be mining with this. After power costs, you'd be lucky to make a quarter a day mining 24-7. Every $50 over MSRP you spend is 7 months of mining to break even. The return on this card is so low, that mining should just be ignored. It isn't worth it.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    spongiemaster said:
    Early reports have shown this card is total garbage for mining.
    Yup, so there is a chance crypto-miners will leave those alone and without miners sucking the distribution channels dry, there is a chance there will be too many available for scalpers to dictate market prices after a while.

    It would be nice if the last month's steady crypto-coin decline caused some large miners to start ditching GPUs while the going prices are good ahead of ETH 2.0-merge1 which could see the market flooded with used GPUs, then scalpers still holding onto stock they overpaid for would have to eat their losses on remaining stock.
    Reply
  • spongiemaster
    Why do all Ampere RTX GPU's appear to have Taiwan stamped on them when they are supposed to be made by Samsung with no fabs in Taiwan?

    Reply
  • InvalidError
    spongiemaster said:
    Why do all Ampere RTX GPU's appear to have Taiwan stamped on them when they are supposed to be made by Samsung with no fabs in Taiwan?
    Likely because Samsung sends the wafers to Taiwan for packaging since that is where most manufacturers who ultimately put the chips on boards. A million chips occupy a lot less space as wafers than they do as trays of BGAs.
    Reply
  • bigdragon
    InvalidError said:
    It would be nice if the last month's steady crypto-coin decline caused some large miners to start ditching GPUs while the going prices are good ahead of ETH 2.0-merge1 which could see the market flooded with used GPUs, then scalpers still holding onto stock they overpaid for would have to eat their losses on remaining stock.
    I don't think miners are going to dump GPUs because of ETH's planned/delayed changes. Likewise, I don't see volatility in the crypto market deterring them either. We've learned from the NFT market that people are more than willing to make stupid bets with their money. There are so many cryptocurrencies to gamble on now. Hardware can easily be repurposed to mine something else. HODL is a thing. No GPU flood is coming -- the situation is significantly different from the last crypto crash.

    Gamers are going to have to get used to PC graphics stagnating or falling behind consoles. Things are not likely to get better until GPU production increases dramatically -- that's the only way to beat a supply problem that AIBs and retailers have failed to manage. The 3050 will suffer the same supply, scalping, and pricing issues as every other GPU until production meets the new normal.
    Reply