Though Nvidia lowered really helpful worth of its flagship graphics card by $400 with the launch of the GeForce RTX 4090, it elevated the costs of different high-end choices considerably with its GeForce RTX 4080 fashions. It’s self-evident in Europe that the brand new GeForce RTX 4080 16GB value virtually the identical amount of cash because the GeForce RTX 3090 24GB a number of months in the past.
Costs of graphics playing cards have been rising steadily for the reason that early 2000s, however lately costs of the greatest gaming graphics playing cards rose fairly dramatically resulting from increased costs of graphics processing items (GPU) manufacturing at contract producers like TSMC and Samsung Foundry, increased prices of precise boards manufacturing, chip shortages/sophisticated logistics in addition to very sturdy demand from players, miners, and professionals.
With its Ada Lovelace household of GPUs, Nvidia faces increased prices at TSMC as it’s considerably dearer to make chips utilizing TSMC’s 4N know-how than on Samsung Foundry’s 8LPP manufacturing node on the similar die dimension and yields. Therefore, worth hikes had been all the time on the desk for GeForce RTX 40-series graphics boards. But, Nvidia’s worth hikes look to be extra vital than anticipated.
U.S. MSRPs don’t embody taxes, whereas German MSRPs embody a VAT of 19%. Moreover, when Nvidia launched its GeForce RTX 30-series two years in the past, the euro was significantly stronger in opposition to the U.S. greenback, so these boards had been dearer in Germany than within the U.S.
| U.S. Launch MSRP | German Launch MSRP | German Launch MSRP with out VAT | |
|---|---|---|---|
| GeForce RTX 3080 10GB | $699 | €719 | $602 |
| GeForce RTX 4080 12GB | $899 | €1,099 | $919 |
| GeForce RTX 3080 12GB | $799 | ? | ? |
| GeForce RTX 3080 Ti | $1,199 | €1,199 | $1,004 |
| GeForce RTX 4080 16GB | $1,199 | €1,469 | $1,230 |
| GeForce RTX 3090 | $1,499 | €1,549 | $1,297 |
| GeForce RTX 4090 | $1,599 | €1,949 | $1,631 |
| GeForce RTX 3090 Ti | $1,999 | €2,249 | $1,882 |
| GeForce RTX 4090 Ti | ? | ? | ? |
Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3080 10GB used to value $699 at launch two years in the past, and it was not low cost in any respect as a result of it was not the corporate’s flagship providing. But, Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4080 12GB now prices $899, and it isn’t even the second most potent product within the lineup. In the meantime, this 12GB board prices much more in Europe (€1m099, in accordance with Andreas Schilling (opens in new tab)), which makes it considerably much less interesting.
It will get worse with the GeForce RTX 4080 16GB which prices $400 greater than the corporate’s GeForce RTX 3080 12GB launched a couple of months in the past and carried the identical MSRP because the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti based mostly on a flagship GPU. After all, Nvidia’s AD103 GPU is significantly extra complicated and onerous to provide than Nvidia’s GA102, however GeForce RTX 4080 16GB just isn’t a top-of-the-range gadget to value effectively above $1,000.
Relating to flagship choices, Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4090 will value $1,599 at launch, which is $100 dearer than the GeForce RTX 3090 at launch and $400 cheaper than the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti at launch. We do not know why Nvidia determined to make its flagship choices extra reasonably priced (maybe as a result of it’s prepping GeForce RTX 4090 Ti that may sit above the RTX 4090). Nonetheless, well-known {hardware} blogger Kopite7kimi (opens in new tab) says that promoting the GeForce RTX 4090 for $1,599 was a ‘final minute determination’ by Nvidia’s chief govt.
Total, whereas there are goal explanation why Nvidia’s new graphics processors and graphics playing cards are dearer than their predecessors, they usually promise to be significantly sooner than the GeForce RTX 30-series components, their really helpful costs appear to be too excessive. In the meantime, if Nvidia makes last-minute choices a few worth drop for its GeForce RTX 4090, the corporate most likely has skills to promote its newest merchandise a bit cheaper.
