I've looked at all the GPU prices this Black Friday, and most of the 'real' deals are on Intel Arc graphics cards

Intel Arc GPUs
(Image credit: Acer, ASRock, Sparkle, Tom's Hardware)

If you're looking for a great deal on a new graphics card for Black Friday, you're not alone. Because who wouldn't want a GPU upgrade at a discount? The problem is that determining which GPUs are true deals and which are simply slight discounts can be tricky. Lots of places list original MSRPs that are, frankly, fantasy land in the current climate. There are other cards, like the banned-in-China RTX 4090, where prices are heading in the wrong direction and aren't likely to change any time soon.

I've got data from earlier this month, before most of the "deals" started showing up. I've compared current prices to former prices to help sift the real discounts from the pretenders. Of course, even some of these prices are merely matching the best former prices, but that's better than costing more today than a GPU did two months back.

I've found that, outside of a couple of exceptions from AMD, the best deals right now are all on Intel Arc GPUs. And that's a bit of a shame, because even though Intel's Arc drivers have improved a lot over the past year, and the prices are quite good, it also means the best you can hope for is somewhere around midrange GPU performance ... from the RTX 30-series and RX 6000-series. Intel's fastest Arc A770 16GB is now at an all-time low of $249, but it's not going to compete with an RTX 4060 — on performance, features, or power use.

Here's a table, with purchase links to the lowest prices I could find at the time of writing, looking at all the current and previous-generation graphics cards. Check our GPU price index for potentially lower prices, as that will get updated far more frequently.

Acer Arc A770 16GB: now $249.99 at Newegg

Acer Arc A770 16GB: now $249.99 at Newegg (was $379.99)
Intel's fastest GPU is the Arc A770, and the Acer card comes with 16GB of VRAM, giving it plenty of capacity for textures or AI LLMs.

Sparkle Arc A750: now $179.99 at Newegg

Sparkle Arc A750: now $179.99 at Newegg (was $219.99)
The mainstream Arc A750 competes with the RTX 3060 and now costs well under $200, while providing good 1080p gaming performance.

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GPU Price Change vs. Early November Pricing
Graphics CardBest PricePrice ChangeFPSFPS/$Last PriceLaunch MSRP
Radeon RX 7900 XTX$910-4.2%126.30.139$950$1,000
Radeon RX 7900 XT$730-6.4%115.80.159$780$900
Radeon RX 7800 XT$5000.0%97.50.195$500$500
Radeon RX 7700 XT$430-2.3%86.20.200$440$450
Radeon RX 7600$240-7.7%54.40.227$260$270
Radeon RX 6950 XT$590-1.7%103.20.175$600$1,100
Radeon RX 6900 XT$7007.7%98.30.140$650$1,000
Radeon RX 6800 XT$450-6.3%93.30.207$480$650
Radeon RX 6800$370-7.5%81.90.221$400$580
Radeon RX 6750 XT$322-5.3%70.60.219$340$550
Radeon RX 6700 XT$300-3.2%65.90.220$310$480
Radeon RX 6700 10GB$230-20.7%58.10.253$290$430
Radeon RX 6650 XT$220-4.3%52.70.240$230$400
Radeon RX 6600 XT$230-4.2%50.70.221$240$380
Radeon RX 6600$185-2.6%42.50.230$190$330
Radeon RX 6500 XT$140-5.2%$148$200
Radeon RX 6400$130-7.1%$140$160
Intel Arc A770 8GB$220-24.1%56.60.257$290$330
Intel Arc A770 16GB$250-13.8%60.60.243$290$350
Intel Arc A750$180-18.2%55.50.308$220$250
Intel Arc A580$160-11.1%50.30.314$180$180
Intel Arc A380$100-16.7%19.00.190$120$140
GeForce RTX 4090$1,9508.4%162.70.083$1,799$1,600
GeForce RTX 4080$1,0801.9%140.00.130$1,060$1,200
GeForce RTX 4070 Ti$715-7.1%123.40.173$770$800
GeForce RTX 4070$515-1.0%105.10.204$520$600
GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB$425-1.2%82.50.194$430$500
GeForce RTX 4060 Ti$345-6.8%82.40.239$370$400
GeForce RTX 4060$2900.0%67.10.232$290$300
GeForce RTX 3090 Ti$1,6490.0%126.10.076$1,649$2,000
GeForce RTX 3090$1,3004.1%118.60.091$1,249$1,500
GeForce RTX 3080 Ti$1,0004.2%115.20.115$960$1,200
GeForce RTX 3080 12GB$8700.0%112.30.129$870$800
GeForce RTX 3080$7951.7%103.30.130$781$700
GeForce RTX 3070 Ti$400-2.4%86.80.217$410$600
GeForce RTX 3070$360-1.4%82.00.228$365$500
GeForce RTX 3060 Ti$3301.2%73.60.223$326$400
GeForce RTX 3060$2500.0%55.60.222$250$330
GeForce RTX 3050$2100.0%40.00.191$210$250
GeForce RTX 2060$180-10.0%42.50.236$200$300

If you check the price change column, you'll quickly see why I say the Intel GPUs have the best discounts. Every Arc GPU has dropped to match or beat its previous all-time low. We've seen the A750 at $179 before and the A380 at $99 before, but everything else represents a new record. Compared to just three weeks ago, each GPU also saw a double-digit percentage drop.

Outside of Intel, there are a few noteworthy sales on AMD and Nvidia cards — far more of the former than the latter. The RX 7600 at $239 is the lowest we've seen, though you're still basically getting RX 6650 XT levels of performance (except in Stable Diffusion, where the RDNA 3 architecture has improved quite substantially). RX 7900 XT has also dropped 6%, about the only other noteworthy 7000-series sale. Otherwise, some RX 6000-series parts have dropped a bit, with one big exception: The RX 6700 10GB is at an all-time low of $229, and about $50 lower than the previous best price on that card. (Update: it's sold out now!)

For Nvidia, only three GPUs show more than token discounts, and a few even went up in price — including an 8% increase on the RTX 4090, which is mostly selling at over $2,000 now. The RTX 4070 TI can be had for $714, the lowest we've seen for that GPU. The RTX 4060 Ti costs $344, which is also a 7% decrease from earlier in the month (but not quite as good as the $329 we saw earlier in the week). Finally, the RTX 2060 — yes, the nearly three-year-old card that only has 6GB of VRAM — is down to just $179. You'd be better off with an AMD RX 6600 in most cases, but if you want access to DLSS upscaling, it's at least generally faster than the RTX 3050, and it's a way better option than the now-overprices GTX 16-series cards.

It's also worth mentioning that the RTX 30-series is basically dead now. Anything above the RTX 3070 Ti has stupidly high pricing, and you'd be better off getting a 40-series part, and even the lower 30-series parts have been supplanted. The 4060 TI might not be our favorite GPU, with just 8GB of memory and a 128-bit interface, but it does slightly outpace the RTX 3070, costs less, and is far more efficient. Note also that the RTX 4070 basically matches the RTX 3080 10GB in performance, again while using far less power, which is why no one should be buying the upper tier 30-series GPUs these days — though you could always check eBay prices if you're willing to consider purchasing a used graphics card.

Jarred Walton

Jarred Walton is a senior editor at Tom's Hardware focusing on everything GPU. He has been working as a tech journalist since 2004, writing for AnandTech, Maximum PC, and PC Gamer. From the first S3 Virge '3D decelerators' to today's GPUs, Jarred keeps up with all the latest graphics trends and is the one to ask about game performance.

  • hotaru.hino
    Intel's likely doing decent sales because either they want to dump the remaining stock of video cards they have (and they're throwing in the towel) or they're trying to get enough market penetration for Arc video cards to appease investors that this is a good idea to continue dumping money into.

    I don't expect any decent discounts on hot ticket hardware items. If they're still in large demand and people are still buying them up at market prices, there's no real incentive for them to have a sale.
    Reply
  • JarredWaltonGPU
    hotaru.hino said:
    Intel's likely doing decent sales because either they want to dump the remaining stock of video cards they have (and they're throwing in the towel) or they're trying to get enough market penetration for Arc video cards to appease investors that this is a good idea to continue dumping money into.

    I don't expect any decent discounts on hot ticket hardware items. If they're still in large demand and people are still buying them up at market prices, there's no real incentive for them to have a sale.
    Oh, absolutely. Intel and AMD both need to clear out inventory on their "old" GPUs. Intel's aren't as old as the RX 6000-series, but with roughly similar performance (to the various RX 6600-class parts), it can't charge a premium. I also hope this means Battlemage will come out sooner rather than later, though Intel is still keeping mum on that subject.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    How is idle power looking on the A770, these days? That's one of the main things that's been holding me back.
    Reply
  • JarredWaltonGPU
    bit_user said:
    How is idle power looking on the A770, these days? That's one of the main things that's been holding me back.
    It's not great, though I suppose it depends on what you're after. Looking at the A770 16GB Limited Edition, I'm seeing a pretty steady ~45W at the desktop, doing nothing, using the latest 4972 drivers. I think that's better than in the past, by maybe 10~15 watts, but still about triple what the RTX 4060 draws at idle.

    Related: I'm pretty sure AMD finally fixed the high idle power draw with certain monitors (Acer 4K 144Hz Predator X27 being my particular sample point). But by "fixed" I mean it's now something like 30~40W rather than 80~100W at idle. (I'd have to plug in to confirm, but last time I retested an AMD, in Alan Wake 2, I'm pretty sure I saw substantially lower idle power before I loaded the game.)
    Reply
  • bit_user
    JarredWaltonGPU said:
    it's now something like 30~40W rather than 80~100W at idle. (I'd have to plug in to confirm, but last time I retested an AMD, in Alan Wake 2, I'm pretty sure I saw substantially lower idle power before I loaded the game.)
    Is that AMD quote for a 7900 XTX?

    FWIW, I'd get a 7800 XT, if anything AMD. Speaking of which, I'm not seeing its idle power listed in the review:
    https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-radeon-rx-7800-xt-review/9
    Did I miss it?
    Reply
  • JarredWaltonGPU
    bit_user said:
    Is that AMD quote for a 7900 XTX?

    FWIW, I'd get a 7800 XT, if anything AMD. Speaking of which, I'm not seeing its idle power listed in the review:
    https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-radeon-rx-7800-xt-review/9
    Did I miss it?
    I haven't spent time listing idle power, sorry. It wasn't normally a concern, and then Arc and RX 7000-series happened and idle power shot up! (Also: Your specific monitor can matter quite a bit it seems. Not sure why that is...) But yes, 30~40W is on the 7900 XTX now. The 7800 XT was I think in the 25~30 watts range. Again, I'd have to plug in some GPUs to check... which would require me stopping all the deal shilling for Cyber Monday. Sigh...
    Reply
  • bit_user
    JarredWaltonGPU said:
    yes, 30~40W is on the 7900 XTX now. The 7800 XT was I think in the 25~30 watts range.
    Thanks!
    JarredWaltonGPU said:
    Again, I'd have to plug in some GPUs to check... which would require me stopping all the deal shilling for Cyber Monday. Sigh...
    Oh, it's not urgent. I was just curious. Maybe, something to keep in mind for future reviews.

    I have always been interested in idle power, ever since I picked up an AMD HD 5450 for its alleged 6.4 W idle. I don't know if that was independently measured or AMD-specified, but I saw it in this Wikipedia page:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMD_graphics_processing_units#Radeon_HD_5000_series
    According to that, the HD 5870 had a 27 W idle. So, you could say high-idling cards aren't new for AMD. But, it seems to have come down with GCN, as the HD 7970 claims only a 15 W idle. That's also about the list point where idle power is listed.
    Reply