So...I've done this before, but I never made a dedicated post to this. let's have an HONEST discussion about the GPU market and what it would look like if Nvidia didn't get greedy, and AMD didn't fall apart.
My starting point here would be around 2016-2018, when nvidia had the 1000 series and AMD had the 400/500 series/Vega. This was the last point where I'd say the market was anything close to normal. Anyway, let's look at what things cost:
GTX 1030- $80
GTX 1050- $110
GTX 1050 Ti- $140
GTX 1060 3 GB- $200
GTX 1060 6 GB- $250
GTX 1070- $380
GTX 1070 ti- $450
GTX 1080- $600
GTX 1080 ti- $700
And for AMD:
RX 550- $80
RX 560- $100
RX 570- $170
RX 580 4 GB- $200
RX 580 8 GB- $250
RX 590- $280
RX Vega 56- $400
RX Vega 64- $500
This is what I consider the golden age of the market
Anyway, let's fast forward to the 2000 series.
2018-2019
The 2000 series was where Nvidia got greedy. They started bumping all of their cards up a tier pricing where the 2060 was like 1070 pricing, the 2070 was like 1080 pricing, etc. And basically they did anyone dirty in the old 60 range and below. They came out with the 1660 and the like for those in the old price range and those werent RT capable and basically were as powerful as the 1070. It was kind of a joke, given the 1000 series was 2.5 years old and we often double performance every 3 years. However, moore's law was slowing down, so let's say they couldn't do that. Still, they should've kept the pricing equivalent to the 1000 series IMO.
GTX 1650- $120 (was $150)
GTX 1660- $180 (was $220)
GTX 1660 ti- $220 (was $270)
RTX 2060- $300 (was $350)
RTX 2070- $450 (was $500)
RTX 2080- $600 (was $700)
RTX 2080 Ti- $800 (was $1000)
Basically, I recommend around a 15-20% cut across the board.
Now AMD:
RX 5500 XT 4 GB- $130 (was $170)
RX 5500 XT 8 GB- $160 (was $200)
RX 5600 XT- $250 (was $280)
RX 5700- $300 (was $350)
RX 5700 XT- $350 (was $400)
Here, I do the same. To be fair I think the 5000 series cards were a better deal at the time, but at the same time, they also lacked RT and stuff so they did have to sell them cheaper. Here, I make them relatively competitive with Nvidia.
2020-2021
Here, we got COVID which screwed up pricing anyway, but I'm gonna ignore that and focus solely on having comparable pricing.
3050 6 GB- $120 (was $170)
3050 8 GB- $180 (was $250)
3060- $250 (was $330)
3060 Ti- $320 (was $400)
3070- $400 (was $500)
3070 Ti- $450 (was $600)
3080 10 GB- $550 (was $700)
3080 12 GB - $600 (was $800)
3080 ti- $700 (was $1200)
3090- $750 (was $1500)
3090 Ti- $800 (was $2000)
This is still a price increase over the 1000 series, but not as much as what things actually cost. I cut them significantly. A lot of people say the 3000 series was "such a value" compared to the 2000 series, but I just dont see it. Unless you were buying say, 70 series cards, it was still grossly overpriced. And if you were an old 60 buyer, you were basically screwed.
I also think there should have been an entry level "3030" type card (or 2650) for around $120ish for low end buyers. Instead, the sub $200 market is still stuck with 1650s and the like to this day, with only a 6 GB 3050 being available) (that could maybe be the 3030). Keep in mind that's only 590 level like 4 years later, so that's not a hard ask.
AMD:
RX 6400- $80 (was $160)
RX 6500 XT 4 GB- $110 (was $200)
RX 6500 XT 8 GB- $130 (was $230)
RX 6600- $220 (was $330)
RX 6600 XT- $270 (was $400)
RX 6700 XT- $350 (was $480)
RX 6800- $430 (was $580)
RX 6800 XT- $500 (was $650)
RX 6900 XT- $600 (was $1000)
AMD cards just dont hold their value like nvidia does due to weaker feature sets. The 6400 and 6500 cards were ewaste, yeah, they should've been HALF the price. heck, the 6400 should've been a hypothetical 6300 and the 6500 XT should've been the 6400. The 6500 should've been something in between the IRL 6500 XT and 6600 because there was almost a 2x performance gap (more like 75% but whatever) between the two. It was insane. They should've had a 5600 XT style card in there somewhere for like $180. But yeah, if you notice, this is somewhat similar to post COVID pricing, and what the pricing has largely been since then. And yeah nvidia is still more expensive here, but again, better feature set.
2023-2024
So now we get to what the modern market was until recently. AMD's 7000 series (and discounted 6000 series closer to the above pricing structure) vs the 4000 series. Sadly, the pricing structure here was STILL more expensive on the nvidia side in the real world than the 3000 series was, although radeon was pretty fairly priced.
RTX 4050 (hypothetical 2060 level card)- $150
RTX 4060- $220 (was $300)
RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB- $280 (was $400)
RTX 4060 ti 16 GB- $330 (was $500)
RTX 4070- $450 (was $600)
RTX 4070 ti- $600 (was $800)
RTX 4080- $800 (was $1200)
RTX 4090- $1000 (was $1600)
Again, my whole point here is to keep similar pricing structure to what we always had. Sure, things creep up a little bit because there IS some level of inflation in the economy, but let's face it, Nvidia is REALLY getting out of control here. The entry level GPU they sold was now $300. Go back to what the 1000 series was and you'll see how insane that was. And quite frankly, that WAS a 50 card in practice. Like, really, the 4060 should've been like a 4050 ti for $220. Heck, I'm not sure an 8 GB card should've even existed above $250 at all. Really, Nvidia's entire pricing structure is just...insane at this point.
AMD:
RX 7400 (16 CU hypothetical)- $100
RX 7500 (24 CU hypothetical)- $150
RX 7600- $200 (was $250)
RX 7600 XT- $250 (was $330)
RX 7700 XT- $350 (was $450)
RX 7800 XT- $400 (was $500)
RX 7900 GRE- $450 (was $550)
RX 7900 XT- $600 (was $900)
RX 7900 XTX- $700 (was $1000)
Again, not the 6000 series pricing any more. Cards throughout this era are and were priced similarly to the way they should've with the 6000 series AT LAUNCH. And that was 4-5 years ago now. Again, I'm ignoring COVID here, just focusing on MSRPs, but yeah. Again, trying to keep a somewhat sane pricing here. I think this is perfectly fair. Even here, the low end market is getting squeezed out and I'm having to invent new low end SKUs to keep the real budget buyers happy, ya know, instead of expecting them to pay $150 for 6400s or 1650s or something in 2024ish.
2025
This brings us to the present, and what would be good pricing for the newest series of GPUs. Currently Nvidia has most of their cards now out, although AMD is still cooking theirs in the oven, only having launched their high end SKUs. Still, I'll provide a rough pricing structure here.
RX 5060- $220 (is $300)
RX 5060 ti 8 GB- $270 (is $380)
RX 5060 ti 16 GB- $320 (is $430)
5070- $400 (is $550)
5070 ti- $550 (is $750)
5080- $700 (is $1000)
5090- $1000 (is $2000)
Again, keeping to a similar pricing structure. Also, maybe add more VRAM by now. it's not 2016 any more. 8 GB is pathetic. The 1070 had 8 GB in 2016. So did the 480 on the AMD side. it's pathetic.
Speaking of AMD:
9060 XT 8 GB- $200 (assuming it matches the 5060 in raster) (is $300)
9060 XT 16 GB- $250 (is $350)
9070- $450 (is $550)
9070 XT- $500 (is $600)
AMD is still tricky and tentative, we know what we get with the 9070 cards but we still lack the 9060 cards data.
Anyway, with all of this said, let's really discuss the OG 1000 series vs this lineup:
1080 ti ($700)-> 5090 ($1000) = 42% inflation
1080 ($600)-> 5080 ($700) = 15% inflation
1070 ti ($450)-> 5070 ti ($550) = 22% inflation
1070 ($380)-> 5070 ($400) = 5% inflation
1060 6 GB ($250)-> 5060 ti 16 GB ($320) = 28% inflation
1060 3 GB ($200) -> 5060 ti 8 GB ($270) = 35% inflation
1050 ti ($140)-> 5060 ($220) = 57% inflation
Keep in mind, not every product matches exactly what we had in 2017. The 70 ti series became its own thing with the 4000 series having an inferior 4080 that was rebranded a 70 ti card so that's like a new tier itself and I kinda put it where the old 70 tier barely has any inflation and the ti is now where the 80 is where the 80 is closer to the OG 1080 ti in price. Same with the 60 cards. Now we're getting 3 tiers of 60s when only 2 used to exist. And given 50s don't exist any more, well, let's face it, the new non ti 60s are basically what the 50s used to be.
Even if I account for all of this, we still see pretty significant inflation. Keep in mind, we've had 34% inflation since 2016. And all things considered, if I average out the inflation of all of these GPU tiers, we get around 29% inflation in my prices. So maybe a hair below what things would be if they kept up with inflation, but I'm pretty close on the whole. And as we can see, the inflation hits the budget buyers and the high end ones the most. Nvidia keeps creating new tiers and raising prices while stagnating performance. And then the low end just gets eliminated.
If we account for the ACTUAL prices of the above products:
1080 ti ($700)-> 5090 ($2000) = 186% inflation
1080 ($600)-> 5080 ($1000) = 67% inflation
1070 ti ($450)-> 5070 ti ($750) = 67% inflation
1070 ($380)-> 5070 ($550) = 45% inflation
1060 6 GB ($250)-> 5060 ti 16 GB ($430) = 72% inflation
1060 3 GB ($200)-> 5060 ti 8 GB ($380) = 90% inflation
1050 ti ($140)-> 5060 ($300) = 115% inflation
And keep in mind, there's nothing below that other than outdated cards like 3050s, 3060s, 4060s, and even stuff like 1650s still being sold. It's crazy. Heck, let's just assume the 3050 is the new 1050:
1050 ($110)-> 3050 8 GB ($220) = 100% inflation
1030 ($80) -> 3050 6 GB ($190) = 138% inflation.
it's insane.
Overall inflation of GPUs in the past 10 years is basically 98%. It's crazy. This is why I get so angry and butthurt at the GPU market. It's not that I don't expect there to be SOME level of inflation, but again, my hypothetical yielded 29% inflation in a time span where we saw 34% inflation economy wide. GPUs have gone up at WAY higher than the rate of inflation, to the point that purchasing power is still halved.
AMD is a little better, but let's face it. They're like -10-20% nvidia on everything. I thank them for giving us stuff like the RX 6600, the 6650 XT, the 7600, the 6700 XT, stuff like that at reasonable prices for a while, but still. That should've been what that stuff cost all along at launch. And now it should be even cheaper as that launch window was 4 years ago and I bought 2.5 years ago. So yeah. We should be seeing prices go down EVEN MORE.
Anyway, that's my take on the GPU market, and any time someone says "BUT INFLATION" on it, I think I'm just gonna show them this.
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