Brand new GPUs are largely at or below launch/MSRP prices at this point, and will fall further, due to there being a massive oversupply. This oversupply is also responsible for delaying the launch of next gen GPUs by a month or two. We were looking at a September-October launch for the RTX 4000 and RX 7000 series, but it's now looking like November-December to allow time for existing stocks to be sold.
Prices were elevated early on in this generation due to initial supply chain issues, elevated mining demand, and rampant GPU speculation/scalping. Supply chain issues were mostly ironed out months ago. Around the same time mining demand collapsed (due to a major price drop, summer weather, and the looming Ethereum merge) and this took scalper profits with it. On top of that, the anticipation of next-gen parts is also eroding demand for this gen. Everyone willing to pay elevated prices for a current gen GPU already has one (or three) and a lot of people who were only willing to pay elevated prices in hopes of being able to charge even more are now left scrambling to recoup losses. With AIB orders targeting a level of demand that no longer exists, stock levels have skyrocketed and prices have to fall to move it.
And that's one of my reasons to buy a card from the "old" generation. I was aiming for a 6800 XT, but the 6900 XT (together with an outgoing Ryzen 9) also just fits into the power budget of my PSU, at least according to the PSU's manufacturer's configurator.
Only if one is unwilling or unable to drag a power limit slider to the left (I'd personally do much more, but that's all that's required to keep power draw in check).
While we'll need to see some actual testing to get a good picture of the efficiency and power scaling of next gen parts, it's nearly inconceivable that they won't perform better than this current gen at any given power target. Even if it's the worst efficiency increase since Fermi, I'd bet almost anything that if you set it to the power limit of any previous gen part they will blow that part out of the water in performance.
The reasons to buy a card from the old/current generation are a pressing immediate need and/or the anticipation of limited initial supply with the next gen. The latter seems unlikely, unless supply is artificially restricted by either the GPU designers or board partners. And I don't think that is particularly likely either, as it's very risky since wafer allocations are essentially set in stone and passing up an opportunity to sell early (especially for that holiday season) could mean being forced to sell for even less later.
Like that's ever stopped people from breaking the law.
Point is: if it sounds too good to be true, it is. Right now, there are thousands upon thousands of cards re-entering the market because of the crypto crash. I wouldn't buy anything from any third party seller. The motivation to sell suspect equipment is off the charts high right now.
The odds of a reputable retailer being willing to sell used parts as new is low. The odds of them wanting to do so in this case, even in the absence of legal hurdles or risk to reputation, is also low. Most of these units haven't existed long enough for anyone to have wanted to mine anything on them because the ordeal wouldn't have been profitable. The labor required to set up and operate a mining operation, then break it down to return cards to credibly 'new' condition, would already have erased any potentially easy profit.
Even most GPUs bought second-hand on auction sites and labeled as new are likely to actually be new, because most of them are from scalpers who never opened them as they never intended to use them.
There is a fair chance that a
used GPU was mined on (assuming it was a model that was ever profitable to mine on), but, by and large, mining is not particularly damaging relative to other uses. Profitability concerns will typically keep mining hardware from being run at even stock voltage/power settings and low, continuous, loads are much
less stressful than frequent and deep thermal cycling typical of gaming. There are certainly exceptions and due to memory cooling issues with many GDDR6X cards, I'd be wary of buying used parts that were equipped with it. Older parts that could have been mined are also more likely to have bad fans, as that is main part that will be run long and hard on a dedicated miner (where lower temps improve efficiency and noise is irrelevant), but may still be compelling deals, because fans are usually not hard to replace.
GPUs selling for list price ~18 months after release doesn't sound too good to be true...nor do even further price cuts during periods of peak supply and reduced demand.
