Another from-bad-to-worse scenario is unfolding as NVIDIA’s current GPU lineup is seeing price hikes from top to bottom. NVIDIA remains largely silent regarding specifics of what is happening with its current and future inventory for the RTX 50 series, thus fueling rumors and speculation while the ongoing memory chip supply shortage continues to affect many facets of the PC industry. Meanwhile, even without any significant official word from Team Green, consumers can easily spot price increases, and it seems like there may be no end in sight for its flagship models.
RTX 5090 – To infinity and beyond!
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition debuted with an MSRP of $1,999 and has had many AIB offerings since its launch, with an assortment of prices going upwards of $3,000 or above, but now there are more being offered at above the $5K mark. Best Buy, which has had an exclusive partnership to sell NVIDIA’s Founders Editions, is now offering the liquid-cooled MSI NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 32G LIGHTNING Z for $5090. Obviously, more than a few in the sales department have enjoyed that price tag, but as reported by PC Gamer, its cost is significantly surpassed by another consumer graphics card. For the low, choke, low, price of $5498.75, one can pick up a GIGABYTE NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 WINDFORCE 32G. Ironically enough, the MSI card is sold out, but at least for now, the GIGABYTE model is in stock, so, choking again, act fast!
Hey buddy, have I got a deal for you, not!
One of the many rumors circulating on what NVIDIA may be planning for its consumer GPUs is that there could be a reduced amount of production for certain low-to-mid tier models featuring 16 GB of VRAM, so it can focus the use of the difficult-to-source memory on its 8 GB models. Well, of course, this means a new market trend has been spotted whereby any of the RTX 50 series with 16 GB of memory are going up in price, but in particular, the budget-targeted RTX 5060 Ti is seeing the largest spike. As reported by ComputerBase (via VideoCardz), the RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB price has risen to nearly the same as the increased price of an RTX 5070. Technically speaking, the RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB now costs more than what the RTX 5070 has been going for since last spring.
It’s anybody’s guess as to what the future may hold for NVIDIA’s RTX 50 series linuep but the writing is on the wall when it comes to current pricing trends. Folks hoping for the bubble to burst, leading to massive price drops, could be in for a hard reality check as inventory becomes more scarce and costs increase. Meanwhile, it’s probably a good idea to whisper some sweet nothings to a beloved graphics card in use because it could be a long haul before it gets retired.