Buying a graphics card in 2025 can be a challenge to say the least. Between fleeting stock of your preferred card, exorbitant prices, and straight-up disappointing releases, it can feel like a minefield. Unfortunately for you prospective GPU buyers out there, it’s not getting any better, at least for the next few weeks. Right now is probably the worst time you could upgrade your new GPU, and here are 3 reasons why.

3 Current prices don’t provide good value if you buy new

Tough to find anything worth buying at the moment

As it currently stands, GPU prices have mostly stabilized across the board, save for the RTX 4090s of the world. Even still, at MSRP, the current GPU landscape doesn’t provide any compelling value options when buying brand new. At listed prices, whether they’re in stock or not, it’s tough to make an argument to buy anything new. A new RTX 4060 8GB will set you back around $300, and it’s one of the few GPUs currently available that’s in stock and ready to ship. However, with recent AAA gaming titles pushing it to its limit at 1080p, I just don’t see a compelling reason to buy it, or any GPU for that matter.

If you legitimately cannot wait and need a GPU, I recommend buying pre-owned. The used market is much richer with options for all price points, if you’re willing to take on a little bit of risk. In my, admittedly, very metropolitan area, I regularly see 3080s and 3090s going up for sale at very reasonable prices. Now you might not have access to things like the latest DLSS version in the future, and your ray tracing performance might suffer a bit, but these cards still pack a mighty punch, especially if you don’t care for all those extra bells and whistles.

2 Finding anything at MSRP is impossible

Forget about finding cards at their launch prices

Through basically all price ranges, finding current-generation GPUs at MSRP is just not realistic. They’re either out of stock, or they’re something like the 4060 8GB, which is just not worth buying. It’s likely that NVIDIA and its board partners are not putting out any more stock of cards like the 4070 and 4070 Ti, and even if they did, they’d still be sold at a premium. After tax, you’re looking at paying much more for a card than it’s worth. If you’re looking at the entry level, the Intel B580 is great, but at the time of writing, you can’t even find it at MSRP. It’s a great card that’s been received well, but until stock improves, it’s best to just bide your time.

1 New cards around the corner

In just a few short weeks, we’ll have new GPUs

AMD and NVIDIA are due to announce part of their new GPU generations at this year’s CES, and that should be a giant stop sign for those of you looking for a new card. When we’re mere weeks away from the announcement of cards that will undoubtedly be several orders of magnitude better than current offerings, buying new GPUs is a fool’s errand. If you’re looking for something new, waiting to see the price and performance of these new cards is a good strategy. A knock-on effect of new GPUs is the proliferation of cards onto the used marketplace as well. Users will be upgrading to RX 8000 and RTX 5000 series cards, and they’ll want to offset some of that cost by selling their old hardware.

Good GPUs come to those who wait

There’s virtually no point in upgrading your GPU at the moment. Waiting just a few short weeks to see how things shake out with the new cards from AMD and NVIDIA is the way to go currently. Still, if you have hundreds of dollars burning a hole in your pocket, buying used is pretty much the only way to ensure your GPU holds any kind of long-term value. As always, be sure to do your due diligence and research before buying used.