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Nvidia Slashes Prices of GeForce RTX 30 'Ampere' Graphics Cards
Without much fanfare, Nvidia slashed the prices of its GeForce RTX 30-series graphics cards this week. Depending on the exact model, Ampere graphics boards are now $100 to $500 cheaper than they were just days ago. It is believed that Nvidia is lowering prices to reduce the inventory of its current-generation products ahead of the imminent launch of next generation GeForce RTX 40-series 'Ada Lovelace' GPUs.
New Prices
Benchlife (via VideoCardz) was first to report the alleged price cut without any formal confirmation from Nvidia or its add-in-board (AIB) partners early on Thursday. Based on the information from Benchlife, Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3090 Ti will now cost $1,499 (-$500), GeForce RTX 3090 will be priced at $1,299 (-$200), and the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti will carry a $1,099 (-$100) price tag. Furthermore, the GeForce RTX 3080 12GB finally received its official MSRP — $799. Meanwhile, other boards in the Ampere lineup for consumers have not seen any price cuts so far.
By now, multiple retailers in the U.S., as well as EVGA, have begun offering high-end Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Ti/3090/3080 Ti/3080 12GB graphics cards at new prices that are $100 to $500 lower than they used to be a week ago (remember that we are talking about boards that are still among the best graphics cards around). Meanwhile, all the boards are sold at a discounted price or with an instant rebate, so there is no formal confirmation of Nvidia's price cut.
For example, over at EVGA.com, all GeForce RTX 3090 Ti (except the Kingpin version) and GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics boards are priced at $1,499 and $1,099 (respectively) no matter how high they are clocked and what cooling they use. For instance, EVGA's GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FTW3 Ultra Hybrid Gaming received a $700 instant rebate, whereas the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti FTW3 Ultra Hydro Copper Gaming comes with a $430 instant rebate. Other high-end boards from EVGA's GeForce RTX 30-series lineup are also sold at their new MSRPs at EVGA.com. Meanwhile, the remaining SKUs from EVGA's Ampere family are sold below their official prices, but for the sake of truth, it has to be said that their price tags are higher than those recommended by Nvidia.
Retailers like BestBuy(opens in new tab) and Newegg(opens in new tab) also slashed prices of their higher-end Nvidia GeForce RTX 30-series boards. Meanwhile, Newegg offers not only EVGA's boards at their new MSRP but also GeForce RTX 3090 Ti graphics cards from Gigabyte(opens in new tab) and Zotac(opens in new tab) at $1,499, while Gigabyte's GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is available for $1,099(opens in new tab).
BestBuy even calls its new prices a 'clearance' sale, so perhaps it does not expect to receive new batches of certain boards. Meanwhile, entry-level, mainstream, and performance mainstream boards are still sold at prices that exceed their MSRPs, but at least they are significantly cheaper than they used to be weeks ago.
Ada Lovelace Looming
The new MSRPs of higher-end GeForce RTX 3090 Ti/3090/3080 Ti/3080 12GB graphics cards indicate that Nvidia wants to sell them off first before it launches its new GeForce RTX 40-series products later this year. This is logical as enthusiast buyers do not tend to buy previous-generation products.
The fact that Nvidia has not 'semi-officially' cut prices on products that sit below the RTX 3080 12GB model may show that the first Ada Lovelace boards will address premium market segments with graphics boards that cost $799 and above (but this is, of course, our speculation).
But even though it does not look like Nvidia is formally cutting down prices of GeForce RTX 3080 10GB and slower products, they are still sold with discounts both by EVGA (which is a very close partner of the green company and which market tactics usually reflects Nvidia's plans) and retailers. So we can conclude that Nvidia and its AIB allies want to get rid of those products sooner rather than later.
What remains to be seen is whether aggressive price cuts on the high-end of the GeForce RTX 30-series lineup signal that Ada Lovelace may be closer than we might think.
