During the pandemic, there was no such thing as a mainstream graphics card. nvidia‘s (NVDA -1.31%) The RTX 3060, which launched in February 2021, was already on the pricey side for the flagship card with a launch price of $329. For comparison, the GTX 1060, launched in 2016, went for $249. The GTX 1660 Super from 2019 went for $229.
That launch price means little in the pandemic-crazy graphics card market. The extremely high demand from gamers and cryptocurrency miners has caused the prices of graphics cards to skyrocket in 2021.
If you can find one at retail, the RTX 3060 will cost you several hundred dollars more than the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP). Prices finally started to cool off in 2022, and now the pricing situation is much closer to normal.
Break under $300
Nvidia revealed three new RTX 4000 series graphics cards on Thursday. Notably, the cheapest one will sell for just $299, which is the lowest launch price for this level of graphics card in a few generations of products. Unlike in 2021, demand for these cards will be a much stronger function of price.
The $299 RTX 4060 will be available in July. While this card does have some limitations — notably only 8GB of VRAM — it may be the most significant product Nvidia announces.
There’s a huge install base for mainstream graphics cards before the pandemic, and those gamers were largely unable to upgrade while prices were in the stratosphere. According to a hardware and software survey conducted by Steam, the GTX 1650 and GTX 1060 were the top two graphics cards used in April. The latter is about 7 years old.
As prices go up, the RTX 4060 Ti will come in 8GB and 16GB variants. The first will be available later this month for $399, while the second will join the cheaper RTX 4060 for a July launch at $499. Given the state of the graphics card industry today, the retail price shouldn’t be all that different from the MSRPs.
Nvidia provided some details about performance, but we’ll need to wait for third-party reviews to see the full story. In games running with DLSS 3, Nvidia’s artificial intelligence (AI)-powered frame generation technology, the RTX 4060 Ti can deliver 1.7 times the performance of the RTX 3060 Ti and 2.6 times the performance of the RTX 2060 SUPER. In games without DLSS 3, the company still claims a 1.6x performance improvement over the RTX 2060 SUPER.
prevailing competition
with Intel Jumping into the graphics card market last year, there’s a lot of competition around the $300 mark. Intel’s Arc A770 retails for $329 or $349, depending on memory size, and beats Nvidia’s RTX 3060, on average, by a wide margin, according to Tom’s Hardware.
advanced micro devices Budget options also offer, with the company’s latest RX 6000-series cards priced lower. The RX 6700 XT, for example, can be found for as low as $329 and outperforms Nvidia’s RTX 3060 and RTX 3060 Ti. Nvidia still has an advantage in games that support ray tracing, but that’s less of a concern in the mainstream market segment.
Both AMD and Intel are likely to launch new flagship cards in the coming months. It will likely be powered by AMD’s mainstream RX 7600 graphics card, and Intel is expected to refresh its lineup of graphics cards later this year, with next-gen versions due in early 2024. While the RTX 4060 would be an attractive option, The players will do that. Being spoiled with choices in the mainstream part of the market.
Nvidia’s affordable flagship cards have the potential to kick-start an upgrade cycle and help the gaming sector recover in the second half of the year. At $299, the RTX 4060 could be a big winner.
Timothy Green has positions at Intel. The Motley Fool has and recommends positions at Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends Intel and recommends the following options: January 2023 $57.50 long calls on Intel and January 2025 $45 long calls on Intel. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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