- Asus has introduced yet another price hike for Nvidia and AMD GPUs
- The ROG Astral RTX 5090 OC Edition is $1,360.99 more than MSRP
- The Radeon RX 9070 XT now costs $719.99, $120.99 more than its retail price
It's no secret that Nvidia's RTX 5000 series GPUs and AMD's Radeon RX 9070 series GPUs haven't had the best launch, with several issues ranging from scalping, low availability, missing ROPs (on Nvidia's GPUs), and obscene price hikes for board partner cards - and it appears as though the latter is getting worse.
As reported by VideoCardz, Asus has increased the prices of its RTX 5090 models, notably its ROG Astral OC Edition, which now retails for a staggering $3,359.99. This is $1,360.99 more than the RTX 5090's MSRP - and while this is a factory-overclocked GPU (which is typically expected to be more costly), it's yet another indication of severe GPU price inflation.
The same applies to the standard Asus TUF RTX 5090: it's being sold at $2,759.99, $760 more than the $1,999 MSRP. Considering that the TUF brand is supposed to be Asus’s more budget-friendly hardware, it’s a bit upsetting. Either way, consumers will have to dig deep to obtain these premium GPUs - and since Nvidia's Founders Edition cards are hard to come by, consumers are currently relying on third-party options.
It's not just Nvidia's RTX 5000 series either, as Asus has implemented similar price-hiking measures on AMD's Radeon RX 9070 series GPUs. If you're out to purchase the TUF Radeon RX 9070 XT OC Edition, you'll need to cough up $719.99 - that's a $120.99 price hike that arguably destroys the GPU’s main selling point of affordability. It's perhaps worse for those seeking the RDNA 4 experience over what Nvidia has to offer, as AMD does not offer a first-party reference card for either RX 9070 model.
So if it wasn't already clear, the GPU market is facing a significant inflation issue - Asus has just highlighted it all, yet again.
As I’ve said before, this is the worst GPU market I've ever seen…
This is just another example of why the GPU market is in dire need of a major shift. Thanks to a combination of high demand, scalpers, and generally low availability, consumers are left to succumb to ridiculous asking prices and pay more than what GPUs are worth - or wait a long, long time for prices to plummet.
Based on the current retail and aftermarket pricing of Nvidia's RTX 4000 series GPU lineup, I’d bet that there will be little to no major price shifts for RTX 5000 series GPUs (especially for the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080) over the next year. If you're attempting to buy an RTX 4000 GPU right now, you'll likely still be paying more than MSRP.
Thinking of an RTX 3000 series GPU or AMD's Radeon RX 7000 instead? While you may be lucky on the Radeon end, you probably won't find many options for either lineup - at least, not for new-in-box cards that haven’t potentially served time in the crypto mines. Whichever way you slice it, this sort of incredible price gouging isn't what PC users want nor is it acceptable in any way, regardless of whether there is low stock or not - and now I'm just hoping that it doesn't get worse.
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