And that’s exactly what we’re doing in this article.
They’re always overpriced mid-range or premium models, sometimes priced even higher than during the last restock.
We’ve examined the line-ups from each company and their listed prices at major retailers.
Then we’ve selected some data points from the rest of the line-up.
The next model up from the base version becomes our baseline real-world price for that graphics card.
But the market is far from normal right now, so the data will be quite revealing.
Normally, these cards would cost around 10 15% above MSRP.
And we’re certainly seeing restocks heavily biased toward these premium models.
For example, this is the RTX 5070 Ti lineup from MSI in Australia.
The next model up is the Ventus 3X OC, which becomes our baseline real-world price.
Then we’re also noting the price of the Vanguard SOC, the premium model.
This cleared out the market and caused prices to rise for remaining stock.
Therefore, the few remaining cards today don’t fairly represent what those cards cost throughout their lifespan.
TheRadeon RX 9070 XTshould offer a 19% lower cost per frame than theGeForce RTX 5070 Tiat 4K.
TheRX 9070should be 8% cheaper per frame than theRTX 5070.
TheRTX 5080should be 6% cheaper per frame than theRTX 4080 Super, and so on…
These margins shift slightly at 1440p compared to 4K.
Nonetheless, this still places the Radeon model in a solid position.
For the latest generation of cards, this data is based on listed prices at Newegg.
As we can see, many models have drastically increased in price.
So how does this affect value?
Well, directly comparing current-generation models, it basically maintains the status quo.
And good luck if you’re gaming at 1440p.
The dynamics at play can be totally different in other regions, so let’s look at Australia.
We examined real list pricing for each lineup at PC Case Gear and Scorptec to create these average prices.
The company benefiting the most here is AMD.
Therefore, we’ve listed the cheapest available prices here.
While these comparisons between current models are informative, overall pricing is disappointing compared to previous-generation GPUs.
Realistically, the RX 9070 XT should be priced below $1,000 to make sense.
Even the better-priced RX 9070 still offers worse value than the RX 7900 XT.
Remember, we’re strictly discussing rasterization performance here, not other factors like ray tracing and FSR 4.
On Nvidia’s side, the situation is even worse.
In Australia, this GPU realistically should be around $1,300, not nearly $1,800.
And let’s not even discuss the RTX 5090. Who would pay nearly $6,000 AUD for anRTX 5090?
This data comes from German retailers.
While we could have included many other countries, the German market provides a clear picture of broader trends.
We see similar pricing trends for the RTX 5080 and RTX 5090, both extremely overpriced.
As a result, they’re poor value compared to previous-generation models.
The question then becomes: which card currently offers the best value?
We wouldn’t call this a great deal, considering it still represents worse value than previous-generation GPUs.
Clearly, this is a very bad situation.
Of course, in most situations, you currently can’t buy either current or previous-generation models easily.
And if it’s not these models, it’s often even more expensive ones.
The MSRP is the only price point that genuinely makes sense.
At MSRP, the RX 9070 XT is 19% cheaper per frame than the RTX 5070 Ti.
Unfortunately, this scenario hasn’t materialized.
On top of this, it’s important to remember that graphics cards typically sell out around launch time.
