it’s probably the best time we’ve seen in the last three years or so.
Well, yes, that statement is technically true. But only because the last three years brought outrageous prices due to cryptocurrency mining, covid, scalping, and corporate greed.
Exactly one part of a new PC build is cheap now: Memory. That applies to RAM and SSDs. Great. Buy those, if you have a need.
But GPUs, the parts that make gaming PCs, are still priced stupidly high. From a JPR report, noted here: “On average a GPU cost $1,056 per unit in 2021, compared to it being a third of that price in 2019.”
CPUs aren’t in a great place, either. Some have seen “discounts” in recent weeks, which might be helpful to the desperate, but prices are still unreasonably high. Even accounting for inflation, it shouldn’t cost $300+ USD for a current-gen midrange gaming CPU.
The motherboard situation isn’t much better.
The (non-memory) core components that I see hinting at approaching sane prices are all old stock from previous generations. Even those are expensive. They might do in a pinch, but it’s not a situation to be excited about.
Overall, it seems like we’re getting roughly half the value for our money compared to pre-covid, pre-cryptocurrency times. Thankfully, there is a trend of prices coming down. They’re just moving very slowly.
If you put things in perspective of performance per $/€ the falling of price is the standard status for PC gaming.
Yeah, of course you may get some GPU more expensive than the older one, but there’s always that GPU that deliver more “fps per ¢” compare the previous generation. 2020~2022 were anomalies pushed by manufacturing issues, a new branch of customers (cryptos) that messed the market and (above anything else) greedy speculation by the bigger players (mostly Nvidia, but AMD did play along). The results was heavy manipulation by the market to push for actually decrease the value of “fps per ¢”. I think were heading back to normal, if you avoid Nvidia you can already find options that pair or deliver more " fps per ¢".
We will see more “fps per ¢”?
Yes, of course; as always has been before the pandemic speculation. During the pandemic speculation you couldn’t be sure about that; Nvidia specifically, strong with their presence in the market, tried multiple time with speculative tactics to mass with the customers.
Motherboard and GPU prices are still high, but it’s certainly better than a year or two ago overall.
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Anything memory related is fairly cheap. Ddr4 ram is dirt cheap because were still in the transition to ddr5. And ddr5 is less inflated now then it was with alder lakes and later am5s launch.
Gpu makers still have a surplus of last gen gpus, cases prices are start to normalize as covid shipping pricing has come back down (which hits large products margins more than small ones)
The only part in my opinion really went up over time is motherboards.
Damn. Motherboard is probably my most immediate need, my current one just barely fits my GPU, getting the RAM in around it was a struggle, and I had to scrap the wifi card I wanted. (Yeah, yeah, wired is better, but it’s not convenient for me RN. :P)
What’s driving the prices down? Will this trend continue?
Generally, surplus. Pc part buying isnt as high as it was during covid where everyone was stuck indoors, so all the companies are trying to get rid of excess stock that was ordered during covid. It generally continues till said stock of older stuff goes dry
2TB 980 Pro was $80 at Microcenter. I actually asked the cashier if they were sure they had it right. Even DDR5 was stupid cheap.
