Tariffs lift, prices fall.
What you need to know
- RTX 30-series GPUs are in white-hot demand right now.
- Global shortages have made it hard to find a 30-series card unless you’re willing to pay absurd scalper prices on sites such as eBay.
- Even against this backdrop of remarkable circumstances, ASUS has announced that starting April 1, prices across its GPU lineup will fall by as much as 25%.
This April Fools’ Day, get ready for the ultimate prank: A price drop on the best graphics cards you can’t even buy anywhere because they’re not in stock. That’s right, ASUS is instituting a price drop on GPUs that are borderline impossible to buy even at scalper prices on eBay, and said drop goes into effect on April 1.
RTX 30-series cards including RTX 3050s, 3060s, 3070s, 3080s, and 3090s will all be subject to the change in policy. “Consumers should expect prices to decline up to 25% on different models throughout the springtime,” said ASUS. As a result of the U.S. lifting a Chinese import tariff, the vendors producing cards are saving a chunk of change and, in ASUS’ own words, the savings are now being passed on to consumers.
The question now is, will availability be passed on to consumers, and if so, when? We recently saw EVGA RTX 3080 GPUs sell at MSRP for an extended period of time, but that’s been a bit of an isolated incident thus far. If supply can restabilize and score a combo modifier from reduced prices like what ASUS is proposing, PC gaming may begin its proper return to the healthy state it hasn’t been in since early 2020.
Market realities aside, keep an eye out for up to 25% off ASUS graphics cards in the near future, in the event you can find them in stock.