EVGA has just dropped the price of its entry-level RTX 3090 Ti graphics card to $1,000 below US MSRP, in a clear sign that high-end GPU prices are still falling rapidly.
Yes, one eagle-eyed resident of Twitter spotted that there clearly is thousands of dollars from the FTW3 Gaming model (opens in new tab)which has an MSRP of $2,150 and is now $1,150 on the card maker’s online store, so it’s now very close to half price.
Holy Crap, but Jay said to buy now? pic.twitter.com/G96qqouSqHAugust 6, 2022
The FTW3 Ultra Gaming model isn’t much more expensive at $1,200, it comes with a slightly higher boost speed (so it’s definitely another option in case the base FTW3 graphics card runs out).
Note that the official MSRP for the RTX 3090 Ti is $2,000 (£1,879, AU$2,499), but EVGA has put a small premium on the FTW3 versions due to the enhanced cooling systems that allow the GPU to run a bit faster.
Analysis: Buy or Wait?
To put that price into perspective with the rest of the lineup, EVGA’s RTX 3080 Ti runs at $1,100 right now, so you can get the 3090 Ti for just fifty bucks more, making it a total no-brainer for those wanting a top-of-the-line Finally Ampere graphics card from EVGA at the moment (assuming the PC case, thermals and PSU can handle the 3090 Ti of course).
As you may recall, recently Nvidia officially dropped the RTX 3090 Ti to $1,500 (along with price cuts on other top-of-the-line Ampere graphics cards), but the flagship GPU seems to be dropping fast even from that reduced level. At Newegg you can pick up a Zotac 3090 Ti for $1,240 right now, for example, but EVGA’s price is almost another hundred bucks lower.
Something we’ve been hearing consistently through the grapevine lately is that Nvidia partners have excess stock of RTX 3000 cards to clear out, and this seems to be a pretty clear indication that this may indeed be the case.
It’s certainly a big price cut from EVGA, and if the next-gen Lovelace GPUs are about to be released now, the first to launch will supposedly be the RTX 4090 – so it makes sense to apply the biggest discounts to the top end first the RTX 3090 and 3090 Ti, as these will quickly become less enticing propositions as Lovelace’s release timeframe approaches.
What could happen now is that more graphics card manufacturers drop the 3090 Ti (and perhaps other high-end Nvidia models) prices, and we could see a race to sell them – possibly. That said, if we’re looking at almost half the price already, there has to be a limit to how low things will go, and at its current price, the EVGA RTX 3090 Ti doesn’t look shabby at all to say the least.
On the other hand, when Lovelace arrives, rumor has it that the RTX 4070 could be on par with the 3090 Ti (or maybe even a touch faster) – but then it’s expected to be the most popular model of the higher-end Lovelace offerings. quality , so buying it at MSRP could prove to be a challenge (or even buying it, perhaps, in the first place). Especially if the 4070 offers as impressive a value-for-performance proposition as speculation seems to suggest.
And with the RTX 4070 potentially not coming this year, as another rumor claims, getting the RTX 3090 Ti when it gets even cheaper might not be such a bad move after all – at least for those who can’t wait to see how the launch situation and Lovelace stock evolves. We’d recommend waiting for ourselves, but then again, we’d understand those who want to take the leap now…
Via VideoCardz (opens in new tab)
