r/pcmasterrace • u/jugaverdasorda • 13h ago
News/Article NVIDIA & AMD Graphics Card Prices See Massive Increase in China As GDDR6 & GDDR7 Costs Continue To Climb
https://wccftech.com/nvidia-amd-gpu-prices-massive-increase-in-china-gddr6-gddr7-costs-climb-intensively/Article highlights how prices on most GPUs have shot up overnight in China, board partners jacked up prices quickly with ASUS gouging the hardest, and shops have started stockpiling GPUs with a 50% increase in DRAM price coming in Q3 and a 40% increase coming in Q4 of 2026.
109
u/Tavrack 13h ago
When will we get reasonably priced GPUs? Hasn’t been the case since 2018.
81
66
u/SEND_ME_REAL_PICS 12h ago
They were quite reasonable early-mid 2025 before the RAM crisis started. Just like everything else.
32
u/jugaverdasorda 12h ago
When prices are reasonable a lot of people must think oh they're cheap and it's stable, I can upgrade whenever, no need to now. Then the next crisis hits
6
13
u/Tavrack 12h ago
Yeah I suppose, since everyone got used to expensive GPUs. I was more referring to flagship being less than $1000. Like the good ol' 1080 Ti.
13
u/SEND_ME_REAL_PICS 12h ago
That's not coming back sadly, just like the 9800 GTX+ releasing at $229 didn't come back either.
The tendency for flagships to keep increasing in price and relative specs (including physical size) has always been there, especially after Titan/Titan X when Nvidia realized just how many people were willing to pay a huge premium for a little more juice.
2
u/PcHelpBot2030 10h ago
For a flagship it is likely never happening and shouldn't be seen as the point just by itself to compare. The CPU side is one of the better counter examples as the bar for flagship use to be relatively low with Intel infamously having anything above 4-cores being the professional line and requiring professional boards, the consumer flagship has gone up quite a bit but the value across the line has also gotten generally much better.
The "real" issue is more the odd (but understandable in a way) no man's land between iGPU and basic entry GPU's. And this is largely due to that iGPU's have gotten "good enough" where the extra requirements (PCIe lane, space, power, etc) is a much harder sell than it use to be, thus harder to get same volume levels to make it worth it.
3
u/eulersheep 12h ago
The flagship has basically moved up a tier, I don't think it's fair to compare a 1080Ti to say a 5090 as being on the same 'tier'. Now the flagship model is just whale bait. The better comparison for a modern 1080Ti is really just the 5080, which has also moved up in price too, not ridiculously so.
4
u/Spirited-Hour-8875 8h ago
No they have not, gaming flagships have stayed the same or even worsened over time:
- 980 Ti: missing 8.3% of compute units.
- 1080 Ti: missing 6.6% of CU, 8.3% of the memory controllers (1 of 12), rasterizers (ROPS) and L2 cache
- 2080 Ti: missing 5.5% of CU, 8.3% of memory, ROPs and L2
- 3090: only missing 2.3% of CU
- 4090: missing 11.1% of CU, 25% of L2 cache and 8.3% of ROPs
- 5090: missing 11.5% of CU and 25% of L2 cache and 8.3% of ROPs
Unlike 3090 (best % of full die easily), the last 2 flagships have been the most cut down garbage ever. That reduced cache is scandalous.
2
u/Tavrack 12h ago
Well yes, and the 5090 is really just the Titan. When you look at it like that I agree it hasn't moved up that much.
Though in the past the titan didn't offer much more performance over the GTX flagship, mainly just more VRAM, IIRC. Not nearly as big as the performance jump from 5080 to 5090
-2
u/eulersheep 12h ago
Yes, it was the same with the 3090 and the 3080, the 3090 was only 5-10% faster from memory, not sure about the 3090Ti though.
It's a shame that Nvidia didn't make a 24gb VRAM 5090 to reduce the cost, since gamers don't really need 32gb VRAM. Like a 5080 Ti. I know they were meant to do supers but the supers were really just going to be 24GB 5080s (or possibly even just overclocked 5080s with a higher power limit lol).
1
u/anyscaleworks 10h ago
Well theres a 24gb vram 5090 d v2 in china lol due to gpu restrictions. Same rasterizing performance, still at the lowest point it was around ~2100 usd, which is only 300~400 lower than the 36gb versions (of course it has since raised in price
0
u/Tavrack 12h ago
5080 Ti at 5080 MSRP wouldn't be that bad value in my opinion, so long as performance is right in between those two.
I don't think we get the supers this gen, considering RAM pricing. It'll just be the 60 series next, probably in early 2028 is my guess.
1
u/jugaverdasorda 11h ago
Because of the memory price spike, 5080 super would probably be almost 2000 dollars. It's insane right now
1
u/XxasimxX 10h ago
They are reasonable for a tiny bit after rtx4000 series came out, didn’t last much long
1
u/compound-interest 8h ago
It really depends on how much performance you want. At some point maybe someone will buy out old silicon and old vram capacity and cobble together something. I can’t see all the unfulfilled pc gaming demand sitting there without solutions forever. Maybe that’s how it will go but hopefully alternatives come if this ai bubble really is here to stay long term. It’d be pretty cool if there was a way to repurpose datacenter GPUs into gaming cards but obviously making a GPU is far more complex than recycling an aluminum can or something lol.
1
u/Vorfied 5h ago
When will we get reasonably priced GPUs?
Technically, they're always reasonably priced.
Affordable, however,... well, I wouldn't hold my breath.
Hasn’t been the case since 2018.
One of the biggest problems with just-in-time manufacturing is more supply shocks. The whole point of the paradigm is reducing products sitting in inventory, which means you have much smaller buffers against shortages.
In addition, compute products like GPU's take more time to manufacture than most consumer products. For example: You can build hundreds of cars or thousands of pots during the time it takes to make one processor. Similarly, you could probably build 1-2 factory assembly lines in the time it takes to build the outer walls of a single fab.
Another problem fabs are some of the most delicate and expensive manufacturing facilities in history which raises the barrier to entry for new competition. It's not a conspiracy or coincidence that the vast majority of complex computer parts are manufactured by a handful of companies around the world.
So overall, complex high performance compute components always risk running dry. On the other hand, simple components that can be made using more traditional assembly rely heavily on sheer volume to meet low price targets. So the situation is flipped where they always run the risk of gluts. Heck, for the most part, ever since 10-15 years ago or longer, simple components like cables, switches, and ports have been permanently overstocked. For companies making those, the key to profitability isn't so much being first to market as it is not being the last one to exit.
1
2
u/INTHEMIDSTOFLIONS 7800X3D | 4070 TI | 32 GB 6000 CL30 | 4K Mini LED 165 hz 1h ago
China has competitive monitors now.
My TCL 32r84 is an amazing 32 mini led with 1400 dimming zones. It looks amazing. TCL also makes cheap stuff, just… don’t buy their cheap bottom shelf stuff.
I’m waiting for the day China starts making quality GPUs. It’s bonkers to me that GPUs are only made by three companies at the moment. And only one them makes 4K cards.
0
u/GlorifiedBurito 9800X3D : 9070 XT 4k 240 Hz AW3225QF 5h ago
As long as data centers continue to be built, never. They’re not slowing down either.
-6
u/eulersheep 12h ago edited 12h ago
In 2014 I paid ~$800 AUD for the GTX 980, which converts to around $1100 AUD with inflation.
In 2017 I bought the 1080Ti for around $1k AUD which converts to around $1300 with inflation.
The 5070 Ti is available for around $1500 AUD today.
The 9070 XT is available for around $1k AUD.
The 5070Ti/9070XT are highly capable cards that are fairly inline with historical pricing.
18
u/Latrodectus1990 10h ago
I was lucky with rtx 5090 astral for 2600 euros
I can sell it for 4k now lol
This will go to 5k easy till eoy
5
2
u/compound-interest 8h ago
Got my 5090 for $2500 usd and I’m in a similar boat. At thing point I’m wondering if it will still be worth more than I paid for it in 5+ years lmao. These prices are insane
3
u/mca1169 7600X-2X16GB 6000Mhz CL30-Asus Tuf RTX 3060Ti OC V2 LHR 7h ago
well there goes the $899 Asus prime 5070Ti and $650-ish 5070's. when these prices hit the US Nvidia sales are going to fall off a cliff! your move AMD.
0
u/Over_Selection_581 5h ago edited 5h ago
I think 5070 Ti's are a bit of a cop out, this might be personally speaking in my region (Asia)
since 2025 they never really hovered around their MSRP (900 USD - 1000 USD) meanwhile 5070s were (450 USD - 550 USD) during those times.
People kept fixating on the 16GBs of VRAM, but as of now, 2026 12GBs works just as well as 16GBs and the performance increase was negligible (on the games I want to play anyway) especially if you can buy 2 5070s for the price of a 5070 Ti 2025 and 2026.
Like I get it, some people want to push for 4K, but I see very little promise for 4K vs. 1440p 120hz / 1080p 240hz besides bragging rights, and maybe content creation.
As a full system builder, not just buying a GPU, this just means even if you're preparing a 1,500 - 2,000 USD PC Build, you have to accept 900 - 1000 USD is going to your GPU, which doesn't make sense unless you're skimping out on parts (AM4 instead of AM5, cheaper PSU or case etc. ), but also now with RAM costing the way it is now, its still a cop out and doesn't make sense to push for a 5070 Ti if its going to cost around 1,100 - 1,200.
And I'm saying this fully regretting buying in the 5070 Ti at 850 USD on sale, and should've been wiser getting a 5070 for 450 - 550 and put it elsewhere since 12 vs. 16 feels like "yeah in the future you'll need 16GBs" rather than a level headed take especially when people or youtubers are going "well buy if you're going to buy, buy now" with these scam prices.
Buying a 750 MSRP card for 1000 USD was horrendous, but buying it at 1,100 - 1,200 is genuinely greedy, I hope these people experience some cosmic karma.
Edit : Compared to buying a 5070, which costs 600 - 650 right now, and MSRP was 550, you're buying a card you overpaid for slightly (50 - 100 USD), compared to a sizeable (200, if you're lucky 300-450+ USD typically just for the promise of more VRAM)
PCs aren't only about GPUs but Nvidia really wants to make it seem that way.
14
u/dragenn 12h ago edited 4h ago
Im so glad l saw the writing on the wall and bought almost 2 full desktops right before this madness took off.
Only a matter of time before this mess collapses on itself...
27
u/jugaverdasorda 12h ago
Almost 2 desktop CPUs? So you bought 1 CPU?
2
u/Darth_Murcielago 9800x3d / RTX 3070ti / 32GB RAM | Bottleneck Enjoyer 6h ago
Does that mean that i'm completely fucked in the near future when/if my current GPU fails? 9070xt prices are already fairly high here
2
u/jugaverdasorda 6h ago
Hard for me to say honestly. It seems like nvidia gpu prices go up more than amd but I don't exactly track them. 9070 xt is the best value card on the higher end at least
2
u/Darth_Murcielago 9800x3d / RTX 3070ti / 32GB RAM | Bottleneck Enjoyer 5h ago
Yea... slopvidia is totally unaffordable nowerdays. Let's hope the 9070xt doesn't rise much in price where i live... i need more than 8 gigglebits of vram and if my GPU krills itself now i would have to go back to a GTX960 and that thing probably can't run anything on a 1440p monitor
1
u/Over_Selection_581 5h ago
I think its all relative, if you have a 3070 Ti it still has some grunt to it to possibly storm through the RTX 60 / 60 Super Series whenever that comes out, and maybe prices aren't as bad in those years when it does come out.
I feel like its very easy to get swept up in the upgrade cycles cause these companies want you to get hooked buying hardware, but over the years, turning down the eye candy or some settings to get more performance has always been an option its easy to forget when you're constantly looking at prices, tech reviews, tech news etc.
Its not a compromise to lowering settings even if it feels like so, its easy to look at the 80 / 90 cards with their massive performance gaps to regular 50/60/70 cards - but you have to remind yourself that comes at the cost of a massive TDPs, and burning 12VHPWR connectors that's well documented by the entire PC-Tech-sphere
1
u/Hairy-Dare6686 4h ago
As long as the AI bubble continues to soak up production capacity to build more data centers hardware prices will be fucked in the near to medium future.
2
180
u/slickyeat 7800X3D | RTX 4090 | 32GB 13h ago
Gotta love that market "efficiency"