RTX 3080 Ti Hits MSRP at Newegg as GPU Prices Slowly Normalize

Is there light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to outrageous GPU prices? If the downward-trending prices during Q1 2022 are any indication, things are slowly getting back to normal regarding the best graphics cards for gaming. While we've seen board makers like EVGA sell their branded graphics cards at MSRP for a few months now, retailers have been a bit slower to retain sufficient stock at MSRP. However, that no longer appears to be the case regarding the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti over at Newegg.

Newegg is currently selling the Gigabyte RTX 3080 Ti Gaming OC at $1,199. Unlike the Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition, which uses a blower-style cooling setup, Gigabyte has opted for a more traditional triple-fan arrangement. As a result, the Gigabyte RTX 3080 Ti Gaming OC boasts a slightly higher maximum GPU clock, coming in at 1,710 MHz versus 1,665 MHz.

The card is still in stock at Newegg and is offered with free shipping (which is notable because EVGA typically hits customers with around $20 in shipping charges for its in-stock RTX 30 Series graphics cards). If you want a slightly loftier maximum GPU clock, 1,725 MHz boost to be exact, the RTX 3080 Ti XC3 Ultra Gaming is $80 higher at $1,279.

If $1,199 or more is too rich for your blood, the EVGA RTX 3080 FTW3 Ultra Gaming is currently on backorder at Newegg (estimated arrival shipping date of today) with a price of $869. The RTX 3080 Founders Edition costs $699, but the chances of finding one of those at MSRP is near impossible these days. The $170 premium for the EVGA is somewhat expected given its higher GPU clock, iCX3 cooling technology, metal backplate and abundance of RGB lighting.

Moving further down the performance ladder, the Gigabyte RTX 3070 Ti Eagle OC sells for $699. Again, this is a custom card with a higher GPU clock than its $599 Founders Edition counterpart, so the $100 premium is expected. Newegg says that the card is currently on backorder, but you can still place an order at $699 and lock in your pricing when they come back in stock.

Unfortunately, markups on RTX 3060 Ti and RTX 3060 graphics cards, as a percentage of their actual MSRP, are unfavorable for Newegg customers. For example, the RTX 3060 Ti has an MSRP of $399 (Founders Edition), but the cheapest counterpart at Newegg is the MSI RTX 3060 Ti Ventus, priced at $579.

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Brandon Hill is a senior editor at Tom's Hardware. He has written about PC and Mac tech since the late 1990s with bylines at AnandTech, DailyTech, and Hot Hardware. When he is not consuming copious amounts of tech news, he can be found enjoying the NC mountains or the beach with his wife and two sons.

10 Comments Comment from the forums

bolweval

$1200 for the second tier card is normal???
Reply
hotaru.hino

bolweval said:
$1200 for the second tier card is normal???
If we continue to believe that $500 for a flagship card is normal, then sure, this is abnormal. Although video cards used to launch for $300.
Reply
Eximo

3rd tier, 3090 Ti is out there, but I would lump all three in the excessive category. When I was shopping for a card, it was either a $1000+ 3080 or a 3080Ti at MSRP ($1400 for the FTW3)

2080 at launch was $800, then the super was re-released at $700 just like the 3080.

2080Ti was also $1200 at launch for the FE. MSRP for the later launched AIB cards was $1000

Looking back, GTX 480 launched for $500 in 2010, which is $659 today. So they really aren't far off. Just that they've made excessively larger and larger GPUs in new price categories.

GTX480 529mm with 3 billion transistors =~5.6 million transistors per mm squared.
RTX 30880 is 628mm with 28.3 billion transistors =~ 45 million transistors per mm squared

So bang for the buck is certainly a thing.

We just happened to live through a golden age where prices remained fixed while performance went up. People still believed in Moore's law. Not so much now.
Reply
C.wolf

hotaru.hino said:
If we continue to believe that $500 for a flagship card is normal, then sure, this is abnormal. Although video cards used to launch for $300.
Right,,, and in 1955 you could buy a new Volkswagen for $999.
Reply
jacob249358

Just wanted to throw this out there for the people talking about how prices are rising. 1. SLI is no longer a thing.
2. What does that hardware get you compared to what games are out there? You can play anything at 4k with a 3080 which ¨should¨ cost $800. 5-6 years ago you needed multiple GPUs to do that. (at least I think so)
Reply
10tacle

"The $170 premium for the EVGA is somewhat expected given its higher GPU clock, iCX3 cooling technology, metal backplate and abundance of RGB lighting."
As a long time EVGA buyer, you also pay for their industry leading customer support. I only had to use it once with a failing GTX 970 which was no longer available (I had 2 in SLI), and after verifying the card went bad after I sent it to them, they gave me a $300 credit towards a new purchase which I bought a 1080 Ti with (my SC model cards originally were $339 a piece). The whole process took less than two weeks between reporting the failure and getting my discounted 1080 Ti.

C.wolf said:
Right,,, and in 1955 you could buy a new Volkswagen for $999.

People just don't get it. GPUs have grown in both importance and power in a gaming rig, and with every higher resolution monitor launch, it requires a more powerful GPU. In the old days, we'd just add a second card for SLI or Crossfire for that. But that ship sailed years ago. Everything now is a single GPU solution for game developers (you can thank consoles for that starting with the PS3 and XB), and if you want to play with the eye candy and high resolutions while hitting at least 60FPS - or the more recent trend of faster 120-240Hz monitors at lower resolutions matching that FPS - you'll have to pay. Prior to my $749 1080 Ti the most I ever paid was $539 for a 2GB 680. That 680 was a regrettable purchase with the longevity span of a gnat in computer relevance as I moved up to my first 2560x1440 monitor. My two 970s in SLI cost more than that 1080 Ti but didn't have the performance at higher resolutions where VRAM matters (and yes, I filed for and got the $30/per card refund from the Nvidia lawsuit).

^^And Jacob essentially states the same thing, and is correct.

But back to card prices, today's $330 EVGA 8GB RTX 3060 XC Gaming wrecks the $499 Founder's Edition RTX 2070 or the $459 reference RTX 1070 Ti. The $749 RTX 3080 wipes the floor of the $1,100 RTX 2080 Ti just as an example of relevance with each new generation, their tiers, and their respective price points .
Reply
SunMaster

10tacle said:
People just don't get it. GPUs have grown in both importance and power in a gaming rig, and with every higher resolution monitor launch, it requires a more powerful GPU. In the old days, we'd just add a second card for SLI or Crossfire for that. But that ship sailed years ago. Everything now is a single GPU solution for game developers (you can thank consoles for that starting with the PS3 and XB), and if you want to play with the eye candy and high resolutions while hitting at least 60FPS - or the more recent trend of faster 120-240Hz monitors at lower resolutions matching that FPS - you'll have to pay. Prior to my $749 1080 Ti the most I ever paid was $539 for a 2GB 680. That 680 was a regrettable purchase with the longevity span of a gnat in computer relevance as I moved up to my first 2560x1440 monitor. My two 970s in SLI cost more than that 1080 Ti but didn't have the performance at higher resolutions where VRAM matters (and yes, I filed for and got the $30/per card refund from the Nvidia lawsuit).

So, by your logic, what should a 5950x or 12900k cost, bearing in mind a Z80 cost 29.95 in 1978 and considering everything is much more complex these days? At least $20k - considering you needed to run at least two pentium IIs just to get two processor cores in an SMP board at the late 90s?
Reply
Johnpombrio

Here is my "recent" EVGA buying history and cost. All were bought at MSRP and it took forever for the 2080Ti and 3080Ti to be in stock at MSRP prices so that delayed my purchases for at least 6-9 months for each. I would expect the 4080 to be more quickly available at MSRP with the economic slowdown and crypto turmoil I suspect will happen.

Nvidia EVGA GTX 1080 FTW 2016-08-16 $686.19
NVidia EVGA GTX 1080 Ti FTW3 2017-05-15 $749.00
NVidia EVGA RTX 2080 Ti FTW3 2019-03-05 $1399.99
NVidia EVGA RTX 3080 Ti FTW3 2021-10-18 $1,419.99 (first state tax payment and shipping of $20 so total $1531.66)

I was surprised to see how expensive the 2080 Ti was compared to the 3080 Ti.
Reply
Eximo

SunMaster said:
So, by your logic, what should a 5950x or 12900k cost, bearing in mind a Z80 cost 29.95 in 1978 and considering everything is much more complex these days? At least $20k - considering you needed to run at least two pentium IIs just to get two processor cores in an SMP board at the late 90s?

As before, Moore's law was most relevant back then. You could upgrade a computer every 6 months and see huge improvements. 8-bit vs 64-bit, core count (not to mention SMT), cache amount, memory bandwidth, and IPC. And you are talking all the way back to micro meter nodes.

That would be $130 today. So it would more favorably compare to something like an i3, not a flagship processor. Even then I'm not really sure how to directly compare such CPUs. They don't really publish the fine details like they did back then. So no calculations per second or anything to really go off of.

Still. Intel has had huge influence on keeping CPU prices stable until very recently when core counts started going up.

Pentium Pro boards if you wanted multi-core early on. But in the server space multi-core was somewhat common by that point. AMD's first dual core was what 1999 or 2001?

Having a 16 core CPU priced almost twice as much as a same generation 8 core is pretty reasonable to me...
Reply
DayneTreader

"Unlike the Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition, which uses a blower-style cooling setup"
The 30-series don't use blowers. Get your act together, author.
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