// PC GAMER — GAMING
We've been tracking graphics card prices for exactly one year and it's never been worse than this
And I don't know where we go from here. Any positive thoughts welcome.
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We first started tracking the prices of individual graphics cards on August 14, 2025, and since then we've checked on an almost weekly cadence (we've got to have holidays, y'know). And it's not been a pretty year.
In the interests of full disclosure, the methodology behind this data capture has been to have one editor spend an inordinate amount of their work day tracking down the cheapest available version of each of the current generation of GPUs from Nvidia, AMD, and yes, even Intel. They must be new in-box, so no refurbs or open box sales, and they must be from reputable sellers—no vendors on Amazon called sdfgwegggggwawfdasfsreqwwqeccccawef, in other words.
This data captures the very cheapest prices these GPUs were available for throughout the year, but what it doesn't capture is the average price, which has often been much higher. Sometimes there might be a good deal on a particular graphics card, while the rest of the market is significantly more expensive. But our idea was to capture what a reader could spend in a particular week to bag the GPU chipset they wanted. And we're carrying that on, with our weekly updates page always housing links to the cheapest cards we can find.
Back in August of last year, things weren't particularly pretty at all. There was a mix of low stock and high demand, which meant that graphics cards from all the various manufacturers were well over their respective MSRPs… and had been since launch. Every GPU launched in 2025 had one thing in common: There was little initial supply and the promised launch prices generally evaporated in a puff of corporate greed.
And that was all before the RAMpocalypse took hold.
I am getting a lump in my throat as I write this—pretty much every GPU was available at or under its MSRP.
There was a beautifully innocent, AI ignorant moment in October, however, when—and I am getting a lump in my throat as I write this—pretty much every GPU except the RTX 5090 was available at or under its MSRP. We've never had it so good…
But then almost as soon as the Black Friday sales wrapped up at the end of November things went—and I hope you'll forgive the technical industry jargon here—utterly tits up.