Nvidia RTX 4080 price cut could be coming, but does it even matter?
Nvidia's latest GPU price might be out of its control
➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: Cheaper graphics cards?
🤑 RTX 4080 may see price drop to compete with AMD GPUs
💰 Tariff exemptions for graphics cards set to expire in January 2023
🤔 RTX 4080 price cut might be pointless
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 launched on November 16, and while I criticized it for being overpriced, the graphics card may be getting a price cut soon. But, it’s complicated.
Team Green is rumored to be cutting the price on the RTX 4080 to make it a bit more competitive with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, launching at $999 next week, according Chinese tech site MyDrivers. But even with these price cuts, getting a more affordable RTX 4080 may be a bit complicated.
That’s mainly because the exceptions given to printed circuit boards under the Trump-administrated Tariffs mean graphics cards may become more expensive anyway. And it won’t be just by a little bit, either. A report on Techspot claims that the best GPUs could see 25% import tariffs in January. That would likely reverse any RTX 4080 price cut.
It remains to be seen whether or not this exception will be renewed by the FTC, but if not, already-expensive graphics cards could see a higher price tag, rather than a smaller one.
So you may want to build that gaming PC sooner than later
With graphics card prices likely to rise at the beginning of 2023, it might just be the time to build the best gaming PC you can muster.
Because while the cost of the brand-new flagships is ridiculous right now, graphics cards like the Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti and AMD Radeon RX 6700 have never been better. And, sure, they’re not the new hotness, but they’ll have no problem running all the best PC games at max settings – especially if you play at 1080p or 1440p.
Building a PC is more affordable right now than it’s been since 2019, so my advice would be to put something together now, rather than waiting to see if prices go up or not in January.