The consumer graphics card market, for as long as I can remember, has been a two-horse race between Nvidia and AMD (or ATI, before AMD bought it). Intel is finally re-entering the competition, but remains very much in the early training stages as it ramps up its upcoming Arc cards. For now, it’s red versus green.
Any desktop enthusiast asked to pick which of those horses sells more components would be smart to place their bets on Nvidia, which has enjoyed greater popularity thanks to its raw performance advantage over AMD. Indeed, Nvidia does appear to be leading its rival as Tom’s Hardware notes, citing Newegg’s Best Sellers list, but what’s really shocking is the margin.
If Newegg’s list is anything to go by, Nvidia is running laps around the other team. Without providing specific sales numbers, the top 20 GPUS in Newegg’s Beset Sellers list contains primarily Nvidia cards consisting of RTX 30-series products except for a single RTX 2060 sitting in 17th place and one AMD card, an MSI RX 6600, in the 15 spot.
You might think supply shortages and wacky pricing are throwing off these rankings, but as Tom’s Hardware notes, AMD’s RX 6000 isn’t selling as well as the RTX 3060 despite costing around $US100 ($139) less. Moreover, the RX 6900 XT, AMD’s flagship, now costs “just” $US949 ($1,317), much less than its closest competitors in the RTX 3090 and RTX 3080 Ti, and it doesn’t even appear on the first page of the top-selling list.
Nvidia’s current dominance is an interesting note at this unprecedented moment, but it’s one I wouldn’t read too much into yet. We could see AMD surge up the rankings in the coming weeks once consumers reinvest their energy in purchasing GPUs. I’m not expecting a significant shift, though; Nvidia is clearly the more popular choice among mainstream buyers despite AMD having something of a cult-like following in enthusiast circles.
Digging deeper into the results, the top card is an Asus TUF Gaming RTX 3070 Ti graphics card, which costs a whopping $US911 ($1,265). It is followed by the same Nvidia GPU but from Gigabyte — this one is priced at $US700 ($972). The RTX 3070 Ti sweeps the podium spots with a $US760 ($1,055) EVGA. Other desktop graphics cards enjoying strong sales include the RTX 3050 ($US330 ($458)), RTX 3060 Ti ($US700 ($972)), and RTX 3080 Ti ($US1,100 ($1,527)).
Whichever side you’re on, the dark days of waiting on a GPU to finish your build due to absurd pricing markups and scalpers are nearing their end. In April, 3DCenter Germany released a report indicating that AMD GPU prices had declined in the past weeks by an average of 13% while Nvidia cards had dropped 6%. The price decrease for Nvidia cards was slowing, but components from both Team Red and Team Green are now nearing MSRP, down from peak markups of above 300%.
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