Cryptocurrency miners have caused massive GPU price spikes, again.
I've run through the list of current generation GPUs, and I've even looked at previous generation GPUs. The price changes in the past two weeks are staggering. Here's the full rundown, starting with Nvidia and then moving to AMD, from highest performing to lowest performing parts.
Note that many of the cards are only showing prices from third-party resellers, as Amazon and Newegg rapidly sell out of their inventory (often at lower prices). If you're interested in buying a GPU, I'd recommend putting a "notify" alert on it and be ready to order ASAP if it comes back in stock at a reasonable price.
All the current Nvidia graphics cards
GTX 1080 Ti 11GB: Launched with a suggested price of $699, the best deals we saw last year brought prices as low as $650. Right now, however, virtually all vendors are completely sold out, and that includes direct purchases from Nvidia. But you can find GTX 1080 Ti cards if you're willing to shell out $1,300 or more, which is the lowest price we could find right now on Newegg and Amazon. That's stupidly overpriced, so if you're even thinking about going that route, just go buy a Titan Xp from Nvidia for $1,200—and it's slightly faster as a bonus!
GTX 1080 8GB: While the Founders Edition launched at the same $699 price as the 1080 Ti that would later follow, the official MSRP for the card is now $549 for the Founders Edition and starts at $499 for custom designs. We saw GTX 1080 cards as low as $470 during Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale, whereas current pricing now starts at $880 at Newegg and $800 at Amazon (though many of the Amazon cards aren't actually in stock at that price, so more likely you're looking at $900 or more). The 1080 is a great card for gaming, but you simply don't want to buy at these prices.
A quick look at the used card market
What's truly mind boggling to me is that many older generation cards are actually priced close to their original MSRP, even when used. The GTX 970 starts at about $260 on eBay (once you get past the non-working cards), and the R9 390 goes for $415 or more—which is about $100 more than the card cost during most of its retail life. The R9 380 4GB also sells for over $200 in most cases, more than it's retail price two years ago, and the GTX 980 Ti still sits at $500 and more.
If you've been hanging onto an old GPU that you're not actually using (for mining or gaming), you might consider selling it while the prices are so high—though of course eBay and PayPal will take their pound of flesh (around 14 percent) of the proceeds. And if you're not looking to sell, used cards really aren't something I would recommend buying, especially at the currently inflated prices.
Additional food for thought and hope for the future
So what's a gamer in need of a graphics card to do? I can only come up with a few good options. One is to beg for old (working) hardware from a friend or family member to get by until prices come down. The slightly less humiliating approach would be to grab an ultra-budget card like a GT 1030 or similar and wait a few months. About the only good news I can share is that most cryptocurrency prices have dropped around 20 percent in the past two days, thanks to rumblings that China and South Korea are looking to ban and/or regulate cryptocurrencies. That's not the first time that has happened, however, though the long-term outlook is still difficult to gauge.
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