GeForce RTX 3090 Ti for US$1,499.99 and RTX 3080 for US$799.99: EVGA's RTX 30 Series sale with some "lowest prices ever" leaves gamers with mixed feelings

It has been widely reported that graphics card prices are coming down across the board, which is in part due to the massive crypto crash that has wiped a couple of trillion dollars of value off the market. With the addition of Ethereum slowly moving toward a proof-of-stake mechanism, GPU customizers have found themselves with more cards to shift as crypto miners aren’t snapping them up at a heavy rate anymore. So now, EVGA is offering a big “Back in Stock” sale full of GeForce RTX 30 Series cards at discounted prices, with some of them apparently at their "lowest ever" price level. But even then, some of the deals are still above MSRP, with gamers scoffing at the fact that so much is wanted for two-year-old tech (GA10x chips appeared in 2020).

SKUs such as the EVGA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FTW3 ULTRA HYBRID GAMING board certainly look like a deal, at a price of US$1,499.99 thanks to an instant rebate of US$700. This is lower than Nvdia’s MSRP for the card, which is US$1,999. But other “deals” still leave units at prices that are higher than the MSRPs, for instance the customized RTX 3080 cards at US$799.99 and US$969.99 (MSRP: US$699; US$799 for the 12 GB variant), and the RTX 3050 and RTX 3060 units at US$329.99 (MSRP: US$249) and US$429.99 (MSRP: US$329), respectively. It’s worth pointing out that Nvidia partner companies like EVGA do add considerable customizations, for example the expensive EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 FTW3 ULTRA HYDRO COPPER GAMING features a custom cooling system, metal backplate, and LEDs.

But the announcement from EVGA has been met with a mixture of scorn, despair, and a little cheer. The despair appears to issue from gamers based in regions outside of North America, such as Europe, where prices are still eye-wateringly high. The EVGA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FTW3 ULTRA GAMING is priced at €2,019.99 (US$2,018) on the Europe site at the moment and that doesn’t even include VAT. The scornful comments are mostly based around the age of the tech involved, as even though the RTX 3090 Ti was only launched in March 2022, its GA102 GPU is based on Ampere architecture that was released in 2020. In addition, many have bemoaned the fact it has taken this long (and under specific crypto-negative circumstances) for the cards to reach these price levels. However, EVGA does have some followers who seem pleased about the price cuts, especially in regard to the high-end RTX 3090 Ti models.

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