Abstract created by Sensible Solutions AI
In abstract:
- PCWorld stories that Nvidia RTX 5090 graphics playing cards have reached excessive pricing, with an Asus ROG Matrix Platinum mannequin listed at $7,499 on Newegg.
- Common RTX 5090 costs have doubled from $2,000 in January 2025 to round $4,000, making high-end gaming PCs more and more unaffordable for shoppers.
- These unprecedented value will increase are pushing consumers towards prebuilt programs or lower-tier options like RTX 5070 playing cards beginning at $650.
Only a 12 months in the past, we complained that MSI was bumping up costs for RTX 50-series playing cards to ranges that have been outrageous on the time, starting from $819 to a whopping $2,400 on the excessive finish. In the present day, I noticed Newegg promoting an Asus ROG Matrix Platinum GeForce RTX 5090 for $7,499.
The craziest factor is that, sure, it is a one-off from an unbiased vendor—however solely when you think about that a lot of the Nvidia RTX 5090 playing cards offered by Newegg hover round $4,000. Amazon isn’t significantly better, with the common value listed at about $3,800 by my estimates.
Significantly, how did we get up to now? We have been complaining about MSI RTX 5090 playing cards at $2,400 a 12 months in the past ($400 over MSRP), solely to observe costs shoot up even additional like a pump-and-dump memecoin.
I do know, PCPartPicker’s pattern line reveals that the RTX 5090 was about $2,000 in January 2025—concerning the value of what we’d contemplate a reasonably dear pocket book—and has elevated to $4,000 since then. In some way, we’ve merely come to simply accept that.
Foundry
Fortunately, RTX 5080 playing cards are “solely” about $1,500 or so, and RTX 5070 playing cards are about $650—however these $650 playing cards solely embody 12GB of RAM. In the meantime, a 5070 card with 16GB of RAM prices $1,100 or so, relying on the place you look. You may quibble over the worth, however the differential appears constant. (By the way in which, AMD’s Radeon playing cards could be quite a bit cheaper, however nobody desires these.)
Not solely do these costs put an insane quantity of stress on atypical shoppers, they fully overturn the apple cart of comparative pricing. If a graphics card inflates the worth of a desktop or laptop computer, it may well drastically change our suggestion on whether or not to purchase that system or not. Shortages and value hikes which can be ripping via the business, and the chaos has nonetheless but to hit sure segments.
That’s why analysts have been recommending bundles final Black Friday as a solution to offset the worth hikes. Retailers usually tend to settle for losses throughout a bundle of parts, particularly if a part of that bundle features a software program license or bundle that doesn’t have manufacturing prices.
The opposite choice is a prebuilt PC, which is admittedly only a bundle of elements in case you’re being cynical. Shopping for down—accepting a slower GPU like an RTX 5060—could make a PC extra moderately inexpensive, like this Core i7 14700F/32GB DDR5/RTX 5060 desktop for $1,219 at Newegg.
Finally, the costs of these prebuilts will in all probability skyrocket, too. Keep in mind, the present AI-driven RAM shortages may final for years. That doesn’t appear like hyperbole now, does it?
It’s nonetheless onerous to imagine, nonetheless, which you can actually purchase a used automobile for concerning the value of the ROG RTX 5090 card listed above. It’s March 2026, and it’s solely going to worsen.
