Why are GPU price gaps so weird? (atleast where i live)
Posted by rucekooker@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 55 comments
I’m trying to make sense of current GPU pricing and it just doesn’t add up.
I’m from Indonesia, so prices might be a bit different, but still…
A few months ago I picked up a used NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 for around $320. Amazing 1440p performance, no complaints.
Now I’m looking at the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070(USED), and it’s going for about $700+ here.
The weird part is performance. From Techpowerup relativity chart, the 4070 is only around \~3% faster in raw rasterization compared to the 3080, yet it costs more than double.
It gets even stranger with newer cards:
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB is about $700
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8GB is about $510
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is around $830
I understand you’re paying for newer features like Frame Generation, DLSS 4.x, and better power efficiency, but the price-to-performance jump still feels off.
Am I missing something, or is the GPU market just really skewed right now due to the AI bubble?
XDM_Inc@reddit
I wish for GPU prices to go down again. Right now a 5090 is more expensive as my entire build was in 2020 (And I had top of the line back then with a 3950x and a 3090 w 32gb ram)
ai_richie@reddit
What’s confusing is people assume GPUs have something like a “fair price” based on performance.
They don’t.
The same GPU can vary a lot depending on region, inventory, and timing. Local markets (like Indonesia) make it even more extreme because supply is tighter and pricing power sits with a few distributors.
On top of that, newer cards are getting priced based on more than just gaming performance... things like power efficiency, VRAM, and even AI/compute demand are pulling prices up.
So you end up with situations like yours where a 3080 looks like a steal and everything else feels overpriced.
I came across this recently when comparing prices across providers: https://www.mercatus-ai.com/gpu-index
The spread is honestly bigger than most people expect.
Any_Deal_7332@reddit
What's strange about it? Honestly don't even look at the 50 series have a look at the 9000 series AMD GPUs better price to performance imo
rucekooker@reddit (OP)
Lmao, the 9070 is about $788 here, and the 9070 XT is around $830
Indonesia is so fucked up
Any_Deal_7332@reddit
Good news 9070XT smashes a normal 5070
Inevitable_Case_9931@reddit
9070XT goes against the 5070 Ti and it does not smash the Ti….
That’s like me saying the 5070ti smashes the 9060…. You comparing apples to oranges…. 9070 vs 5070 9070xt vs 5070Ti
Orallover1960@reddit
I bought the 9070xt but I agree with you. The 9070 xt and the 5070 ti are about even. Each winning some benchmarks and losing others.
rucekooker@reddit (OP)
Is the 9070XT worth the inferior FSR over 5070's DLSS support though?
Truenoiz@reddit
Yes, DLSS is still blurry and messy in spots. 9070XT has 16 GB vram, 5070 has 12 and will age out faster, no matter how good memory compression/framg gen works.
Inevitable_Case_9931@reddit
If DLSS is still blurry in spots what is FSR? Blurry in even more spots that’s what it is
Truenoiz@reddit
Yep, I don't like either one, so I don't use frame gen or upscaling. I tend to go with AMD for the larger vRAM size, but I'll go NVidia if they release a decent card, which I haven't since the 1080 though, they've gone off the rails in terms of price/hardware/performance/power use since.
Purple_Concentrate64@reddit
So they're both crap and you don't need to buy a more expensive GPU specifically for a feature that's slightly less crappy than the cheaper, crappier competition?
It's like paying double for a big Mac because it comes with Heinz instead of store brand?
F9-0021@reddit
FSR4 isn't really significantly inferior to DLSS. You probably wouldn't notice the difference.
iszoloscope@reddit
The 9070XT is a beast! It's more a competitor with 5070ti, but if you value frame gen, ray tracing and/or do video rendering or things like CAD I believe then Nvidia might be the better choice.
And it also depends on availability and (current) price of course, for me the 9070XT was 150 - 200 euro cheaper then the 5070ti. And I only game (BF6), so it was an easy choice for me.
If it's for gaming only, you should check YouTube videos that show the performance of AMD vs Nvidia for the games you play/like. If Nvidia would have better performance with BF6 then AMD, I would've gone with Nvidia. No brand loyalty here, because that's absolutely useless.
1rkella@reddit
FSR has been steadily improving, but it's still behind a bit in more aspects than not vs the newest DLSS models, it's true.
I think the better question is: is a 5070 with DLSS better than having the performance and VRAM of a 5070 ti?
I honestly lean towards the 9070 XTs performance level being more attractive, but I also don't really use upscaling very often at all.
Chetan_fun@reddit
It's honestly fucked up in India as well. I got a 9070xt just last month for 830$ which is just ridiculous. But it can and will get worse in the future imo.
NotTakenUsernamePls@reddit
It's the same as the Philippines 4060 is still around $500
flushfire@reddit
Because there's no longer any supply, why look at a $500 4060 when you can have a 5050 for 250-260? If you really want a 4060 for some reason get it used.
PH pricing is actually not that bad except for the hig end. You can get a 5070 for 600, significantly lower compared to OP's prices.
NotTakenUsernamePls@reddit
5050 is still $500 here.
flushfire@reddit
You can't buy from Shopee or Lazada? I helped a friend buy a 5060 for 18,500 last 4.4, 5050s were around 15-16K, Dynaquestpc's shopee has an inno3d 5050 right now for 16620 with vouchers.
NotTakenUsernamePls@reddit
Unfortunately, when I built my dad's PC we can only buy locally on 1 shop since it's a CC purchase from our friend. If tagpi tagpi lang yes, it is cheap online. It's just sad that local stores jack up the pricing like it's peak AI or mining craze.
Any_Deal_7332@reddit
Yeah wow that's kinda fucked
Positive-Road3903@reddit
RTX 3080 sits in that twilight zone of 4-5 years depreciation and 'limited 10GB VRAM' and also theres the crypto mining factor which further eats into its lifespan
its one of the greatest value out there tho unlike the 3060 12GB
Purple_Concentrate64@reddit
It would be neat if it was eventually possible to use combined vram and motherboard ram, to expand the amount available for a graphics card. Not sure if it's useful or possible, it would be useful if ram was the bottleneck on many gpus.
bblzd_2@reddit
Once a new generation of graphics comes out the old cards are no longer produced so their supply becomes zero.
However for various reasons the demand remains above zero indefinitely.
Also most people, even those who buy graphics cards, have very little knowledge about graphics cards or performance. Those people tend to assume newer = better. They will avoid a good deal on 3080 and pay more for 4070 based on that assumption.
9okm@reddit
Who knows. You definitely made the right choice with the 3080.
IrrelevantTale@reddit
Its longevity and relative driver support. The 4070 has access to DLSS 4 and improve architecture. The 4070 has a tdp of 200w and the 3080 is 320w. So it pumps out waaay less heat and uses much less power than the 3080.
LeftTip1090@reddit
Rtx 3080 has access to dlss 4 and undervolt brings it down to 250w with barely any performance loss
9okm@reddit
IMO those benefits are hardly worth over 2x the price. To each their own though.
alvarkresh@reddit
This is one reason I'm pretty happy with my 4070 Super. Its nominal TDP is ~250W while maintaining 3090 levels of performance in any situation where VRAM is not a concern.
Tai9ch@reddit
Don't get confused by the phrase "AI bubble".
There is now extra demand for high-VRAM GPUs due to a new use case. That increased demand is going to result in persistent increased prices until supply catches up. Some of that demand right now is hype, but as the hype decreases demand from the applications people discovered will increase.
ai_richie@reddit
Pricing has been pretty inconsistent lately depending on region, not just locally but across providers too. I’ve seen the same GPU vary a lot depending on availability and where you’re looking. This helped me get a rough sense of pricing ranges across different providers: https://www.mercatus-ai.com/gpu-index
WizardMoose@reddit
GPU pricing just doesn't make any sense. With the 5060ti 8GB being the "base" model. In comparison to performance, the 16gb version should be $100 more, not $150-$200. Then it just gets more out of hand as you go up from there, like the jump for a 5070ti vs the 5080, makes absolutely no sense at all.
Then when you compare to the 9000 series from AMD, it makes even less sense.
CapitalLeader@reddit
I read that it's due to sales to data centers. The manufacturers have to reduce the production lines for PC cards, to make space for product lines for the products sold to data centers. Supply and demand
Fluffysquishia@reddit
Local demand. This is just how free markets work. Not sure why it's baffling to so many people.
ross571@reddit
Computer parts are in high demand since Christmas because of AI. That's all.
markovianmind@reddit
vram. cards with higher vram and Nvidia are more expensive . you can thank open source llms
alvarkresh@reddit
It's honestly absurd. The 9060XT in Canada is between $450 and $600 Canadian, while the 9070 is $850 to $1200.
:|
xl129@reddit
Wait till this guy find out about 9070xt which should be around the price of his 5060 ti 15gb
esuil@reddit
You are talking about raw rasterization. Most people outside of benchmark youtubers and optimization masturbators don't actually give a shit about that.
But people do give a shit about VRAM. GPU with 16-24GB VRAM will be more expensive that GPU with 8GB, even if it is half the performance.
I can still play my games on 80 fps instead of 160 and enjoy myself.
I can't run my AI things that fit in 16GB on 8GB GPU.
So priority is perfectly clear here.
And don't listen to people who talk about how customers actually don't really care about local AI, and all that jazz. They are cloud service/corpo shills. Most IRL hardware enthusiasts care about being able to run things on their machine quite a lot.
Also, "AI" is not a bubble. AI is a technology that is here to stay. Maybe some AI companies or projects are a bubbl, but AI is real, and thinking about it as a bubble will bite you in the ass later.
TyranWolf@reddit
where are you getting these prices from? i live in jakarta too and right now from a couple of computer stores, the cheapest 5060 ti 16gb cards are close to $480 when converted and the cheapest 5070 that i can see is around $650 when converted.
1rkella@reddit
It's currently a strange combination of supply and demand, paired with increased manufacturing costs being more apparently with the more popular products.
Many people are also avoiding lower VRAM cards these days for multiple reasons, so you can sometimes find them selling for lower than you'd expect, while newer cards are more in demand because of feature support and perceived value.
It does mean that some of AMDs newer products are much better value than the Nvidia counterparts on the current market, even though their MSRPs are similar.
I can't speak too much about Indonesia specifically, but it doesn't look to be a lot different from other places currently.
rucekooker@reddit (OP)
Lmao, the 9070 is about $788 here, and the 9070 XT is around $830
Indonesia is so fucked up
Quigonaut@reddit
It’s not even just Indonesia, it’s just as bad here in Canada where you can’t get a 5060 TI 16gb for under $750
1rkella@reddit
Oh yeah, it's pretty wild right now. I luckily managed to do some price matching at MemoryExpress on a couple parts just before everything skyrocketed.
1rkella@reddit
An 9070 XT is a more powerful card with higher VRAM than a 5070, much more similar to a 5070 ti in performance.
So 5070 ti performance at the price of a 5070 is in line, or the 9070 is slightly faster than a 5070 with more VRAM for less money. (The 9070 is definitely worse value than a 9070 XT at those prices, however)
Whole-Scene-689@reddit
The gaps are the huge demand for AI. Local AI models are becoming more viable on 16/24gb recently so there's extra demand from that.
The AI people have more money than the gamer people, they usually need multiple cards, and drive the prices way up.
Sea_Perspective6891@reddit
4070 new was around $500 to $650 so $700 isn't too insane in this economy/market. Scalpers used to try to sell them for as much as $1,000 during the crypto mining boom. The 3080 seems like a better bang for your buck deal though.
iryaaa@reddit
Might as well look up deals in the FB marketplace. I got my 4070 super back on December 25 for 8 mill (~480 USD).
Of course it's a used card, but still..
Given the current condition of basically anything here, I wouldn't be surprised.
TopExplanation138@reddit
Guess your paying for the better RT, upscaling and thats it for the newer used cards.
lawrencekhoo@reddit
And lower electricity bills 😄
Dwarf-Eater@reddit
That 3089 was a great purchase!
MarxistMan13@reddit
All of your prices are quite inflated except that 3080. Seems like you just found a really good deal on the 3080 and expect all GPUs to be priced like that.
AzureBat@reddit
It's more to two factors:
You got a good deal on the 3080. Like seriously amazing deal. The used price for that should actually be closer to $400-450.
Prices now have increased quite a bit in the past few months. I literally got a 5060 Ti 16GB right around Christmas for around $450 (I also live in SEA). Checking prices now, it's closer to $600.
SatisfactionKlutzy18@reddit
It’s just a really skewed market right now to be honest. There are many used gpu’s (like the 3080) that are an amazing bargain right now and new cards that don’t make any price sense.
So I would just say to enjoy the 3080 and ignore this insane hardware cycle friend. Literally a good 32gb set of memory now can cost more than a really good cpu and some mid range gpu’s. A good 64gb set cost more than a good midrange build almost a year ago.
Makes no sense if you ask me