What you need to know
- The global chip shortage has created a nightmarish feedback loop for graphics card production and distribution.
- Gamers haven't had consistent shots at scoring cards at MSRP for the better part of two years.
- In a rare twist, EVGA currently has a budget-friendly $330 offering on an RTX 2060 GPU.
Recently, EVGA RTX 3080 GPUs returned to MSRP, signaling a turning point in the graphics card shortage that had otherwise seen marketplaces all but devoid of standard pricing models since 2020. Still, even at MSRP, the $1,000+ 3080 cards weren't in a lot of gamers' budgets. Now, EVGA has an MSRP deal on its $330 RTX 2060 cards.
Sure, the RTX 20 series is last-gen and is about to become last-last-gen when the 40-series GPUs arrive in the near future, but what matters is that for the time being, it's one of the most affordable RTX options on the market and will give you the juice you need to play modern games at respectable settings. Gamers have been paying a lot more for lesser cards over on sites like eBay ever since scalpers, cryptocurrency miners, and the pandemic all but destroyed the PC gaming economy in 2020 and 2021.
The point is: It's a $330 RTX GPU. While that may still sound like an egregious amount of money in and of itself for a lower-end graphics card, it's a good sign that the graphics card market isn't in quite as much pain as it has been. Not to mention, EVGA is allowing two RTX 2060 GPUs per household, even though it's only allowed one for most of the other cards it's had in limited quantities. All good signs.
