Next week will see the arrival of the RTX 3060. Nvidia promises that the RTX 3060 will provide solid performance for 1080p resolutions along with a foot in the door for ray tracing. And it’ll be the most affordable of the next-gen cards at just $329.99.
Sadly, it looks like some retailers are already breaking with MSRP and some are charging as much as double for the price of a brand new RTX 3060.
VideoCardz.com reports that European retailer ProShop is listing the RTX 3060 at 499 EUR, or roughly $600 USD. PCDiga, another European PC parts retailer, has some 3060s listed as high as 699 EUR, or roughly $840.
It’s just as bad in Asia, according to xda-developers.com, where a store in Pakistan is selling cards for $750. This also comes with reports that retailers are canceling pre-orders and forcing people to purchase at the newly inflated price rather than their locked-in MSRP.
Nvidia can’t force a retailer to charge MSRP for their cards, but it’s generally agreed that they should be charging MSRP for their initial run of cards. However, that initial run doesn’t appear to last long, as prices for new RTX cards have already skyrocketed for the 3080, 3070, and 3060Ti. According to PCPartPicker.com, the best price for an RTX 3070 in the US is currently $1099.00, more than double its initial MSRP of $499.
Unscrupulous retailers, scalpers, crypto miners, and ongoing logistical issues are all to blame for the ongoing shortage of video cards. AMD has reported that it's even having trouble sourcing the very basics for its new line of video cards, such as capacitors and silicon chips.
It's gotten so bad that Nvidia has even revived the GTX 1050Ti to help alleviate some of the demand on lower-end machines. Nvidia retired the 1050Ti years ago but has since explained the demand for products is so high that they're just meeting the requirements of the market.