With factors such as the pandemic, the crypto boom and scalpers causing a rise in demand and a shortage of GPU stock over the last few years, graphics cards have been more expensive than ever before. However, the market has begun to return to normal as certain cards drop under their MSRP for the first time in years.

Prices had been predicted to normalize around may, according to a price analysis by 3DCenter.

“I do expect GPU pricing to realign with where the market used to be, given the boom in the market is now coming to an end,” the head of PC components at a leading computing retailer said. “By the end of April, beginning of May, we should start to see things return to a more attractive price.”

Turns out, the predictions are true, as particular GPU’s drop to their lowest price in years. As noted by Tom’s Hardware, US online retailer Newegg is selling the Gigabyte RX 6900XT Gaming OC for $949 USD ($1331.76 AUD), down from AMD’s MSRP of $999 USD ($1401.93).

As a result, there is a significant group of people who have been unable to afford or access hardware that allows them to play the latest graphically intensive games at max settings. RTX is a feature that became widely consumer accessible in 2018 with the 20 series of Nvidia Geforce Graphics Cards and were already inflated thanks to crypto.

Credit: CD Projekt Red

As performance gains other than RTX were not particularly significant over the top of the 10 series, many decided to wait for the 30 series. The 20 series therefore, had disappointing sales figures, down 45% year-over year. The 30 series however became hard to purchase thanks to the pandemic, as prices rose significantly.

As a result, many people haven’t had access to RTX graphics, meaning the drop in prices may result in a boom in sales.