Most of Nvidia’s best graphics cards are currently readily available for sale, but that’s not a good thing. No one is buying Nvidia’s ill-fated RTX 4080, and a price cut might be on the way.
Will this situation give an edge to AMD, which is currently seeing an uptick in GPU sales?
We all thought that the days of the dreadful GPU shortage were well and truly over, and for the most part, that has been true. GPUs are available in stock most of the time — the only real exception is the RTX 4090, which still continues to sell out whenever it appears at a reasonable price. However, more expensive models are still up for grabs at various retailers.
Although we’re not in the midst of the shortage anymore, it can feel like we are because of the inflated GPU prices that, as Nvidia CEO himself has said, are unlikely to ever drop again. A recent report from MyDrivers sheds some light on both those things — GPU pricing and stock levels.
According to the publication, Nvidia’s RTX 40-series graphics cards will become harder to come by in the first part of 2023. This includes the RTX 4090, RTX 4080, and RTX 4070 Ti. The cause might be limited shipments or delays caused by the Lunar New Year.
Now, it’s hard to predict the impact this will have on the consumer market. One thing is pretty clear, though — if Nvidia limits the shipments of the RTX 4080, most people are not going to miss it. At the current pricing, it hasn’t been a favorite, and recent sales figures prove that many shoppers turn to the RTX 4070 Ti instead — despite its worse value.
We don’t have the sales figures for every store, but we do have the numbers for Mindfactory, a German retailer, shared by TechEpiphany on Twitter. The sales of RTX 4080 are not going all too well, but AMD sales have actually risen in the last three weeks. When we last reported on this, the RTX 4070 Ti was dominating, and it continues to do so — but the margin is now smaller. In the sixth week of 2023, the RTX 4070 Ti sold 340 units versus 545 in the third week, while the RTX 4080 still lags behind with just 215 units sold.
Meanwhile, AMD is seeing an uptick in sales as a whole. While the RX 7900 XT and RX 7900 XTX sold fewer units, the overall share for AMD went up to 43.62%. The last-gen RX 6700 XT still remains a favorite alongside the RTX 3060, showing that current-gen offerings are still priced a little high for many people’s tastes.
Rumors from MyDrivers show that Nvidia might want to boost the poor sales of the RTX 4080 by lowering its price soon. That could be a critical move. AMD recently admitted to “undershipping” GPUs, signaling that demand for graphics cards is much lower than it previously was. With plentiful stock of the RTX 4080, Nvidia might be forced to slash the price to stay competitive.
Where does that leave us? With Nvidia and AMD both keeping a pretty tight hold on stock levels, GPU prices are unlikely to drop by much anytime soon. If you were hoping to buy a card but are holding out for sales, the rumors of a shortage might derail those plans in the next few months. GPUs will most likely be in stock, but it doesn’t sound like either GPU giant plans to make any major price adjustments — unless the RTX 4080 price cut rumor truly does check out.
