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Today we’re taking a look at used vs. new GPU prices, and whether buying a used graphics card is worth your while.
But before we dive in, some context:
Regular readers of this blog will know that, arguably, PC parts are headed in the wrong direction.
To illustrate that point, let’s go back in time. With the help of the wonderful Internet Archive, we can see that as recently as 2017 there were very affordable GPUs on the Logical Increments charts, starting as low as $50, and appearing in the “Minimum” tier.
From about 2018 on to the present day, the cheapest standalone GPU has appeared on the charts at a relatively whopping $90-$100, in the “Entry” tier, an entire tier above “Minimum” for performance.
GPU prices are higher in every single tier if comparing 2018’s chart to today’s. (Excluding 2018’s “Extremist” and “Monstrous” tiers at the highest end of the chart, with their ludicrous, dual-wielded GTX 1080s and 1080 Tis. We have single cards strong enough for those rather absurd price tiers now.)
The most extreme comparison is in the “Superb” tier; when contrasting 2018’s chart to today’s, GPU prices for a balanced “Superb” gaming build have fully doubled.
It’s a compelling question. You can’t get far in discussing today’s new GPU releases (and their high launch prices!) without someone suggesting you skip today’s latest-generation GPUs entirely, and buy a previous generation or used graphics card instead.
Indeed, the previous generation of cards appear prominently on Logical Increments’ charts. They are generally a great value today.
But what about used cards? Unfortunately, Logical Increments’ official chart doesn’t consider any used PC parts. Understandable, but still a bummer for bargain-hunters.
Don’t tell the Logical Increments staff, but hypothetically, if I had made a ‘used GPU chart’ last month, again just hypothetically speaking…
It would look something like this:
| Tier Name | New GPU Options (Official Logical Increments) |
New GPU Alternatives (Unofficial) |
Used GPU Alternatives (Unofficial) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum | Integrated GPU ($0) | RX 570 4GB ($36) | |
| RX 570 8GB ($60) | |||
| Entry | RX 550 4GB ($80-90) | RX 570 8GB* ($90) |
RX 590 ($80-90) |
| GTX 1660 Super / GTX 1660 Ti ($90-100) | |||
| Modest | RX 6400 ($135-155) | RTX 2060 / RX 5700 ($115-140) | |
| RX 6500 XT ($155) | RX 6600 / RX 6600 XT ($150) | ||
| Fair / Good / Very Good (Part 1) | Arc A580 ($180) | RTX 2070 ($175) | |
| Arc A750 / RX 6600 / RX 6600 XT / RX 6650 XT ($220) | RTX 2080 / RTX 2080 Super ($205-225) | ||
| Very Good (Part 2) | RX 7600 ($250-270) | RTX 4060** ($290) | RX 6700 / RX 6700 XT / RTX 3060 Ti ($230-250) |
| Arc A770 ($290-320) | RTX 2080 Ti / RTX 3070 ($280-310) | ||
| Great / Superb (Part 1) | RTX 3060 Ti / RX 6700 XT ($320-350) | ||
| RX 6750 XT ($345-360) | RTX 3070 Ti ($350-375) | ||
| Superb (Part 2) | RTX 3070 ($360-380) | RX 6800 ($365-380) | |
| RX 7700 XT ($440-450) | RX 6800 XT / RTX 3080 ($400-430) | ||
| Excellent / Outstanding | RX 7800 XT / RX 6800 XT ($500-520) | RX 6900 XT ($500) | |
| RTX 4070 ($550-560) | RX 6950 XT ($500-580) | ||
| Exceptional | RX 6950 XT ($615-630) |
Caveat (important!): Used GPU prices change often. This “chart” will probably not be precisely accurate to what you see if you go shopping for used GPUs next week, or even today. If trying to use this as a direct buying guide, your mileage may vary quite a lot.
This is intended more as a “for science” general look at the relative prices of used vs new GPUs. We’re trying to answer the question: “how much value is there in buying a used GPU in late 2023?”
There are two main ways to look at the chart above, comparing used vs. new prices:
So, did we manage to beat the new cards for value? I’d say “mostly yes.” The difference is most pronounced at the lowest-performance end of the chart, but there’s a bit of extra value to be had at most price points when buying used.
To answer that question for yourself, though, you should consider the following key takeaways and additional pieces of information:
GPUs from within the same generation, especially with similar names, tend to clump together with a very similar used price, despite large performance differences in some cases. GPUs with better name recognition tend to keep higher prices in the used market compared to more obscure ones. And the most-recent generation of GPUs are rarely very discounted on used shopping sites, to the point where you’d probably just buy those models new if considering them. I attempted to include only the GPUs with good used value in the “Used GPU Alternative” column of my chart.
Looking at benchmarks that directly compare two or more GPUs you’re considering, across multiple games, remains the best way to confirm which of them perform well and which ones aren’t worth the cost.
Let’s take a look at the Modest tier. In ideal circumstances with a strong system (using a good CPU and fast RAM, and so on), an Nvidia RTX 2060 should be roughly twice as fast as an RX 6400. (And the pricing: an RTX 2060 can be bought used for about the same (or slightly less) money as a new RX 6400). That’s double the performance for the same money.
What about Entry tier? Well, if you look one tier up (that’s one tier cheaper) in the “Used Alternatives” column, that’s the same RX 570, but for half the price, albeit with half the VRAM (4 GB). (The 8 GB VRAM version of the RX 570 mostly allows increased texture quality, or dialing up other VRAM-heavy settings like lighting/shadows slightly at some cost to framerate, but without the bad stutters from totally running out of VRAM. The RX 570 isn’t the speediest, so increasing these settings too high won’t be worth the hit to framerate to many gamers. Given the prices, both versions are a good value in my opinion.)
“Okay, sure, the low end has good value used,” I hear you say, “but what about the higher end?”
Looking at the Fair / Good / Very Good (Part I) combined tier, you can save about $60-$70 buying an RX 6600 or RX 6600 XT used instead of new, a roughly 30% savings.
A used RTX 2070 offers comparable performance to an RX 6600 or Arc A580 at a slight discount. A used RTX 2080 would be somewhat faster than an RX 6600 or RX 6600 XT at a very similar price.
Looking at Superb tier, you can save about $80 on either a 3060 Ti or a 6700 XT by buying used instead of new, a 25% discount. Not too bad. Or one can upgrade to a used RTX 2080 Ti or RTX 3070 for a modest ~10% to ~14% increase in performance respectively, over the 3060 Ti, while still saving a bit of money. (The RTX 2080 Ti has 11 GB of VRAM compared to the RTX 3070’s 8GB VRAM, for shoppers concerned about that.)
In my “Superb Tier (Part II)”, the new RX 7700 XT isn’t an especially strong value — looking at used alternatives, once can upgrade to a used RX 6800 XT for at least a 10% improvement in performance while saving $20-30. Or to a used RTX 3080 at similar performance and slightly more savings ($40-$50), albeit with less VRAM. Or a “sidegrade” from a new RX 7700XT to a used RX 6800 with similar performance (and more VRAM), at a roughly 17% cost savings.
I wasn’t sure if half the listings I saw in this price range were real, as there were some suspiciously low prices from new eBay users with no feedback/ratings.
Also worth noting: used prices for many current-generation cards at this price point are the same or higher than new! You may have better luck than I did, but I wouldn’t personally spend much over $500 on a used GPU, given what I saw.
I’ve seen some sketchy things on eBay while researching this article. Listings for just the box the GPU came in, for hundreds of dollars. Listings for just the heatsink or just the cooler shroud, not the actual GPU itself. Listings for just replacement fans for a given GPU. Listings with broken fans or burn marks. Deals that look too good to be true (and some are – I personally tried to buy a GPU for a price so great it looked like it might have been a typo, but the seller canceled the sale. I was able to get a different GPU for a more realistic price a few days later.)
You should generally be protected if the item you receive doesn’t match the description. Check eBay’s policies about this for the full details. But, as you likely expect, I cannot personally offer any guarantees to you about how the process will go.
Lastly, there are of course some other factors around buying used PC parts. You get a warranty when buying new, which you usually don’t when buying used (though some refurbished units do come with limited warranty periods). You have to do a bit more research to know what you’re looking for and what’s a decent price. You have to filter out broken GPUs and irrelevant listings, and you have to read the listing thoroughly to be clear what you’re getting. You have to be comfortable with not actually knowing the history of the component, and therefore not being able to confidently assess the longevity or internal condition of the part. And you have to trust the seller somewhat.
But if you’re not deterred by any of that, then for sheer price-to-performance alone, used GPUs can help stretch your dollar a bit, for sure.
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