Image: Asus
Summary created by Smart Answers AI
In summary:
- PCWorld reports that Nvidia RTX 5090 graphics cards have reached extreme pricing, with an Asus ROG Matrix Platinum model listed at $7,499 on Newegg.
- Average RTX 5090 prices have doubled from $2,000 in January 2025 to around $4,000, making high-end gaming PCs increasingly unaffordable for consumers.
- These unprecedented price increases are pushing buyers toward prebuilt systems or lower-tier alternatives like RTX 5070 cards starting at $650.
Just a year ago, we complained that MSI was bumping up prices for RTX 50-series cards to levels that were outrageous at the time, ranging from $819 to a whopping $2,400 at the high end. Today, I spotted Newegg selling an Asus ROG Matrix Platinum GeForce RTX 5090 for $7,499.
The craziest thing is that, yes, this is a one-off from an independent vendor—but only when you consider that most of the Nvidia RTX 5090 cards sold by Newegg hover around $4,000. Amazon isn’t much better, with the average price listed at about $3,800 by my estimates.
Seriously, how did we get to this point? We were complaining about MSI RTX 5090 cards at $2,400 a year ago ($400 over MSRP), only to watch prices shoot up even further like a pump-and-dump memecoin.
I know, PCPartPicker’s trend line shows that the RTX 5090 was about $2,000 in January 2025—about the price of what we’d consider a moderately pricey notebook—and has increased to $4,000 since then. Somehow, we’ve simply come to accept that.
Foundry
Thankfully, RTX 5080 cards are “only” about $1,500 or so, and RTX 5070 cards are about $650—but those $650 cards only include 12GB of RAM. Meanwhile, a 5070 card with 16GB of RAM costs $1,100 or so, depending on where you look. You can quibble over the price, but the differential seems consistent. (By the way, AMD’s Radeon cards might be a lot cheaper, but no one wants those.)
Not only do these prices put an insane amount of pressure on ordinary consumers, they completely overturn the apple cart of comparative pricing. If a graphics card inflates the price of a desktop or laptop, it can drastically change our recommendation on whether to buy that system or not. Shortages and price hikes that are ripping through the industry, and the chaos has still yet to hit certain segments.
That’s why analysts were recommending bundles last Black Friday as a way to offset the price hikes. Retailers are more likely to accept losses across a bundle of components, especially if part of that bundle includes a software license or package that doesn’t have manufacturing costs.
The other option is a prebuilt PC, which is really just a bundle of parts if you’re being cynical. Buying down—accepting a slower GPU like an RTX 5060—can make a PC more reasonably affordable, like this Core i7 14700F/32GB DDR5/RTX 5060 desktop for $1,219 at Newegg.
Eventually, the prices of those prebuilts will probably skyrocket, too. Remember, the current AI-driven RAM shortages could last for years. That doesn’t look like hyperbole now, does it?
It’s still hard to believe, however, that you can literally buy a used car for about the price of the ROG RTX 5090 card listed above. It’s March 2026, and it’s only going to get worse.
Author: Mark Hachman, Senior Editor, PCWorld
Mark has written for PCWorld for the last decade, with 30 years of experience covering technology. He has authored over 3,500 articles for PCWorld alone, covering PC microprocessors, peripherals, and Microsoft Windows, among other topics. Mark has written for publications including PC Magazine, Byte, eWEEK, Popular Science and Electronic Buyers’ News, where he shared a Jesse H. Neal Award for breaking news. He recently handed over a collection of several dozen Thunderbolt docks and USB-C hubs because his office simply has no more room.