The global chip shortage shows no indications of slowing down anytime soon, which means that gamers will continue to struggle to obtain hardware components.
This is especially noticeable with the top gaming cards, which have been in short supply and grossly overpriced for well over a year. Unfortunately, things don’t look to be improving, according to a post from the Board Channel Forums (via VideoCardz) about AMD’s Radeon RX 6000 GPU in the works.
As if costs weren’t already out of control, AMD reportedly informed its add-in board (AIB) customers that it will boost Radeon RX 6000 GPU pricing by about 10%. Depending on the GPUs purchased by AIBs, this could result in a $50 to $100 rise in retail prices.
GPU | Avg eBay Price | MSRP |
Radeon RX 6900 XT | $1,512 | $999 |
Radeon RX 6800 XT | $1,314 | $649 |
Radeon RX 6800 | $1,260 | $579 |
Radeon RX 6700 XT | $859 | $479 |
Radeon RX 6600 XT | $631 | $379 |
Radeon RX 6600 | $559 | $329 |
AMD attributed the price rise to increasing foundry costs linked with its chip fab Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). But keep in mind that TSMC passes on the additional prices to AMD, who then passes the baton to its AIB clients. That means we, as customers, will notice a rise in retail prices as well. However, given how out of whack GPU pricing is right now, another $50 to $100 hike in MSRPs doesn’t appear to matter much in the larger scheme of things.
According to the most current GPU Price Index, third-party marketplace eBay price greatly outpaces the MSRP for Radeon RX 6000 Series graphics cards. The Radeon RX 6800 and Radeon RX 6800 XT, for example, sell for more than double the MSRP at $1,260 and $1,314 respectively. Even the recently released entry-level Radon RX 6600, which has an MSRP of $329, is now selling for roughly $559.