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  • shabby - Tuesday, January 5, 2021 - link

    Where can i buy these "graphics cards" that they're talking aboot?
  • Flunk - Tuesday, January 5, 2021 - link

    eBay
  • lane42 - Tuesday, January 5, 2021 - link

    For twice the price.....
  • DanNeely - Tuesday, January 5, 2021 - link

    I sorta lucked out on bestbuy an hour ago. Only getting a 3070 instead of the 3080 I really wanted, but between tariffs going up and ponzi coins on the rise again I figure anything I can get is a worthwhile replacement for my 1080. If supply is sane, I may end up getting a 4080 next year; but will make that decision when the time comes. If the next generation focuses on efficiency instead of redlining power consumption again it might end up being a 20xx style meh single generation upgrade.
  • TEAMSWITCHER - Wednesday, January 6, 2021 - link

    They do exist. I have managed to get an RTX 3080 for myself, and an RTX 3060 TI for a friend in just the last week. There are You Tubers, posting information on when Best Buy drops new products. Tuesdays and Fridays, seem to be the days to watch. Between 10am and noon.
  • Mike738 - Tuesday, January 5, 2021 - link

    This is just corporate spin. Asus execs saw all these rich fools paying 2x MSRP for stuff and I thought "Wow, we could raise prices across the board and still get tons of sales!"
  • DigitalFreak - Tuesday, January 5, 2021 - link

    Bingo!
  • StevoLincolnite - Wednesday, January 6, 2021 - link

    This exactly.

    Because it's worth mentioning that the price increases are world-wide, when the Tariffs are US-only.
    Another reason to be annoyed at the USA...
  • lilkwarrior - Wednesday, January 6, 2021 - link

    Typical cynical comment as always. Tech enthusiast outlets have warned about this at least a year ago; mainstream outlets like Linus Tech Tips reported this *will* happen over a year ago *before* the pandemic.

    From a business standpoint, a good deal of GPU & Motherboard manufacturers–in the best interest of their stakeholders–should increase the prices of all their GPUs & motherboards because it's plain as day they can't ship enough products to not get scalped. Rather than allow scalpers make as much as they do of their product they don't get, they should absolutely raise prices.

    This is especially the case for prosumer cards like the 3090 & 6900xt.
  • BlakLanner - Tuesday, January 5, 2021 - link

    Because their Crosshair and Maximus motherboards weren't expensive enough... I mean, I understand that costs might be going up but the damn Formula versions are already $500-$600. They are going to price themselves right out of the market.
  • Peskarik - Tuesday, January 5, 2021 - link

    hardly
  • Peskarik - Tuesday, January 5, 2021 - link

    unobtanium just got more unobtaniumer
  • silencer12 - Tuesday, January 5, 2021 - link

    Wait for the new president to come into office and handle the tariffs. Then Asus will go back to normal.
  • Koenig168 - Tuesday, January 5, 2021 - link

    The Asus price hikes are already known. Around 10 to 20% for GPUs (didn't bother to look at MBs) e.g. RTX 3080 Dual bumped from USD499 to USD599.99. There is a list floating around the net or you can take a look at the Asus store which already shows the new prices.

    It may not just be Asus. Rumors are that the other manufacturers will be announcing their own price increases.
  • BenFish - Wednesday, January 6, 2021 - link

    Freaking trump tax...
  • BurntMyBacon - Wednesday, January 6, 2021 - link

    The last major change in tariffs for electronics was a little over a year ago IIRC. I can't imagine that the industry player haven't already normalized their price structures as few of them are in a position to just eat the cost and fewer still would choose to do so willingly. Also, a few random google searches (view with skepticism) suggests that the 25% tariff tax would result in a ~3% increase in the price of the end product. While this is lower than I expected, keep in mind that the tariff doesn't apply to the end product pricing, but rather what comes out of China. Regardless of how accurate this estimate is, it should already be a known quantity and not play into any new price increases. On the other hand, repealing the tariffs would be a viable method for pushing prices back down a bit, though don't expect 25% drops at retail.

    More likely, supply chain complications due to the global pandemic played a role here. That said, I expect the price increases to be higher than would be needed to cover these costs for several reasons (I'll list the 3 most obvious to me). 1) Companies don't like to raise prices frequently (bad press) so they will raise them by larger amounts less frequently to avoid this. 2) Companies tend to like to hit certain price points. For instance USD599.99 is more desirable from a marketing standpoint than USD586.72. Though, this is less of a concern with lower priced products. 3) There are large numbers of cards being resold on auction sites at more than double the MSRP. This suggests that the price the market is willing to bear is higher than Asus and other manufacturers predicted. Since they intend to increase the price anyways, this is an opportunity for Asus to correct their pricing structure. While I'm an definitely not a fan of the poorly justified and disproportionate price increases, I also have to admit that I'd rather see Asus get the money than an eBay scalper. Of course, I'd rather see a higher percentage of the end cost go to the chip manufacturers as well.
  • BenFish - Thursday, January 7, 2021 - link

    That's a lot of words! Thank you for analyzing and writing!
    I have a close friend who does the business of supplying cameras to security companies. The camera's CMOS chip, which made up the most of the cost, is from Korea or Japan, but the rest, for example, lens and assemble are from China.
    However, due to the tariffs, he has to pay the full 25% extra cash, right when he receives the cargo from customs. While in the past, he usually can sell the cameras and then pay the money to his suppliers after a month.
    In short, depending on where the porduct was last manufacted, the traiff can not only directly apply to final price that we have to pay, but also damage small businesses' cash flow.
  • damianrobertjones - Wednesday, January 6, 2021 - link

    I hope that this heavily backfires on them. Th U.K. is in a bit of a tight spot, as is the rest of the world with Covid, so RAISING prices isn't helping anyone (other than Asus).
  • ElectricalDingbat - Wednesday, January 6, 2021 - link

    Narrator : It doesn't.

    Also it is very clear global supply chains are affected by the pandemic with several countries going under lockdown again.
  • lilkwarrior - Wednesday, January 6, 2021 - link

    No; quite the opposite. It'll make it easier for those who really need the product to have it + them getting more ROI rather than scalpers. It's a win-win outside of budget-conscious consumers.

    Any stakeholder w/ common sense would have them increase their prices as a result of the tariff raises + the pandemic; the latter has been surprising lagging in impacting prices; maybe it's a legal reason but AMD/Nvidia should have long been raised their MSRP prices in the best interest of their stakeholders; Asus won't be the only manufacturer raising their prices because of the tariff increase.

    It's convenient it's in effect for them to also understandably increase their prices accounting for the pandemic.
  • Tom Sunday - Monday, February 8, 2021 - link

    A contact in Hamburg informed this morning that NVIDIA in a recent Germany communication noted that the RTX 3000 Series will for the entire 2021 first quarter to be even more difficult to obtain. And especially the availability of the GeForce RTX 3090, 3080, 3070 and 3060 Ti. The Chinese New Year which begins on February 12 is only partially to blame for its 15-day shutdown of the factories. The specific source of this communication came though "Alternate" (Shift IT) with major distribution centers in Germany, Belgium, Austria and the Netherlands. This most likely will keep at least for the time being the 'second hand used pricing ' and the purchases of new available GPU's at much higher price points. I would also suspect that this further delay of availabilities may impact itself on the MSRP pricing of the entire 3000 series once the market comes into full-swing. FYI: I just took delivery of a new LG refrigerator after having to wait for it's delivery 120-days. The big deal...a price increase over the 2020 model of 35%. This sounds like Z590 mobos which may have come on the same boat?

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