When to expect the graphics card price slump?

To many people, including myself, the introductory price for Nvidia’s new ray tracing-enabled graphics cards seem very steep. Yet, we’re all dreaming of upgrading our PCs soon – even though we don’t know how soon this new technology will actually be an advantage for us.

Given that ray tracing will only be used selectively in upcoming games, I reckon most of you can live without having the latest card generation. However, you would probably like to be able to afford a GTX 1080 or even a 1080 TI soon – at a moderate price, that is. So when can we expect a price slump?

Our Category Marketing Specialist has some insight

Jan Heidenreich is a Category Marketing Specialist for gaming and PC components. I was going to consult a soothsayer but soon realised that Jan was the man to see.

Jan, is it worth buying an RTX card at this point in time? Have you?

I haven’t ordered one yet. My GTX 1070 TI still does the job for me. I got it early this year. What’s more, the latest generation cards are still too expensive for my taste.

How come?

Over 1000 francs is a lot of money. Particularly considering that it’s still not quite clear how much of an advantage the new generation will be. To date, we’ve only seen benchmarks from the manufacturer. I’m not buying a pig in a poke.

What if money’s not an issue?

If you’re dying to experience the latest graphics technologies, there’s no way around a RTX card. However, only a handful of games that support this technology are due for release in the next months.

How long will we have to wait for prices on RTX cards to come down?

It’s highly unlikely that prices will come down in the next few months. One reason being that Nvidia is unrivalled when it comes to the new cards. They are expected to be more powerful in all areas and are also capable of ray tracing.

Any change AMD will pull something out of their magician’s hat and cause a stir?

The only thing that is known about AMD is that they’ll be introducing new cards sometime in 2019. However, it’s still unclear when exactly.

What if AMD reduced prices for their current cards – would that change anything?

A price reduction of the Vega is unlikely because of its expensive HBM2. Maybe AMD could increase the pressure on Nvidia’s previous generation with the models RX 560, 570 or 580. But I don’t think this will happen. AMD has been keeping a low profile and their prices are well positioned. Besides, AMD’s card stocks are currently quite low, so that’s only adding to the unlikeliness of them decreasing prices.

So what will it take for RTX prices to go down?

Nvidia will be able to continuously reduce graphics cards production costs with the 12nm process. In theory, they could pass the reduction on to customers. Another scenario could be that customers start holding back, thereby decreasing the demand and forcing the manufacturer to lower their prices. But pre-orders of the new RTX cards are off to a good start so it doesn’t look like this scenario will become reality. As I said before, I think we’ll have to wait for the next generation from AMD before the market noticeably brings down prices.

What about Black Friday – will digitec surprise us with a graphics card promotion?

I doubt it.

What about the previous generation – Nvidia's 10 series. Will prices be dropping here?

My crystal ball tells me that the next six months will only bring a slight price reduction. In other words, I wouldn’t expect prices to be slashed.

What are the best graphics card deals in terms of value for money?

When it comes to Nvidia, it’s the GTX 1060 or maybe the GTX 1070 TI if you need more power. AMD’s best deals are the RX 580 8G and the RX 570 8G.

What do you think? Do you agree with our specialist? Personally, I’m hoping for something unpredictable to happen that will bring prices down faster.