Nvidia’s next-gen Loveless GPUs, which go on sale next month, could be priced higher than their MSRPs, if new chatter from the rumor mill turns out to be correct (with all the usual caveats applied).
YouTube Liker Moore’s Law is dead (opens in new tab) (MLID) makes several points about the pricing of the new RTX 4090 and two RTX 4080 graphics cards, noting that, to begin with, the cheapest Loveless GPU – the RTX 4080 12GB – will not have a Founders Edition (one made by Nvidia). .
as Kitguru (opens in new tab) As highlighted, on the Nvidia site the dimensions are not given in the specs of the next generation GPUs and it only says “varies by manufacturer”, which means that only third-party manufacturers will make these cards and Nvidia will not have its own version (clarified elsewhere on the specific page has been).
So, Team Green won’t be able to keep the MSRP at $899 stated in the US, and those partner card manufacturers will set the price level – which MLID estimates could start as low as a thousand bucks. The YouTube leaker also theorizes that the price tags of Loveless graphics cards above that model will also drift upwards to match – although this may also depend on initial stock availability.
As always, if inventory is thin on the ground when Loveless GPUs come out – at least in the initial month or so – we’ll fall into the usual trap of buying stock and raising prices. It’s too early to call, of course, but it’s always something to consider with new GPU (and indeed CPU) launches.
Another discovery that has popped up on the Loveless pricing radar is the news that German price tags will be 20% dearer than in the US, because Tom’s Hardware (opens in new tab) Report
Andreas Schilling, editor of German site Hardwareluxx, highlighted the official price in Germany Twitter (opens in new tab), the RTX 4090 is being pitched at €1,949 compared to $1,599 in the US. This looks pretty steep, but we have to consider the VAT added to the German price (and of course import costs).
Put it all together and there are some slightly worrying early signs on the cost front for Nvidia’s next-gen graphics cards.
Analysis: AMD leaving the door open for RDNA 3?
In his latest video, MLID highlighted another interesting point – add your own seasoning, as always with Rumor Mill – as the design of Loveless graphics cards goes way back (before Ampere), and the final tuning was done in early 2021. In other words, when the GPU shortage was rampant and the mining boom was in full swing.
This shaped the nature of Lovelace, MLID argues, as Nvidia pushed for the most powerful GPUs possible, with power use and cost taking a backseat to that primary goal. In short, due to a climate of high demand and price increases for graphics cards – and witnessing what people were paying for top-end GPUs – Nvidia came up with more expensive designs to drive as much performance as possible. And according to MLID’s sources, the Lovelace card costs 50% more than the Ampere (across each layer of the GPU).
So, the logic goes, the reason we have an RTX 4080 12GB instead of an RTX 4070 is because this 12GB graphics card costs 50% more to manufacture than the RTX 3070 (at least, apparently it does). RTX 3080. And so in terms of GPU pricing, that card would have to be an RTX 4080, rather than a 4070 in terms of cost. (This strategy on the cost front with Lovelace was all part of EVGA’s rationale for breaking away from Nvidia, according to MLID).
This is kind of backed up by what we heard through the grapevine during the Loveless launch, where there were a series of leaks around the RTX 4070 – also a seriously promising performer – and then suddenly it was theorized that the 4070 running there would be a lower-spec 4080 instead.
All of the above must be taken with caution, but some of it at least makes up for it something Meaning – though that doesn’t mean we should get away with theorizing. As interesting as MLID believes AMD’s pricing may be, the RDNA 3 boards aren’t that big of a leap in cost compared to current-gen vs. Nvidia’s generational jump in bill of materials. That might mean AMD’s RX 7000 family could be pitched at a more affordable price than Lovelace, but we’re really getting ahead of ourselves here.
Also, while the high-end cards are also supposed to come from AMD first (7900 XT and 7800 XT, hears MLID), they obviously won’t be affordable – only relatively – and a lot about where the price tags will be pitched will depend on profit levels. Pare wants to make Team Red.
