RTX 5090 playing cards promote out whereas scalpers make financial institution

Bear in mind throughout the pandemic and the crypto growth, when it was unattainable to discover a graphics card at retail value? Bear in mind the launch of the RTX 50 sequence final yr when that occurred once more? Yeah, it looks like the RAM crunch has us reliving painful reminiscences. After conflicting stories of lowered output and canceled card households, the RTX 5090 appears to have all however disappeared from retail cabinets.

A casual investigation discovered that buyers hoping to search out the GeForce RTX 5090—Nvidia’s top-of-the-line graphics card—have principally zero choices at US shops in the event that they’re hoping for retail costs. And that’s together with the ridiculous markups for AIB playing cards from firms like Asus and Gigabyte. In order for you something near the alleged MSRP of $2,000 USD, maintain dreaming. (The AIB pricing difficulty is a separate one, however one which appears moot in the intervening time.)

VideoCardz.com discovered zero graphics playing cards obtainable on the Nvidia base value from any main retailer, a standing that I can sadly affirm for Finest Purchase, Newegg, and Amazon. There are many RTX 5070 and 5080 playing cards—notably the least fascinating variants of the present sequence—obtainable at lots of of {dollars} above their MSRP. Poking round Newegg, and limiting the search outcomes to Newegg itself with out third-party sellers, I discovered a giant goose egg for the 5090.

Technically, RTX 5090 playing cards will be discovered from third-party sellers… beginning at round $4,360, greater than double the meant value. And that’s for a refurbished card, thoughts you. As VideoCardz.com notes, at that value you would possibly as nicely simply purchase a pre-assembled desktop, which is the one place to search out these playing cards with out an insane markup in the intervening time. With that, the remainder of the PC is virtually free.

Just some months in the past, we had been lastly seeing high-end graphics playing cards return to retail costs and precise availability, after shortages by means of most of 2025. What’s occurring? I’ll offer you three guesses, however you’ll solely want one: it’s the RAM crunch. “AI” knowledge facilities are gobbling up the worldwide reminiscence output, leaving virtually nothing for shoppers.

That’s most seen in packaged laptop computer and desktop RAM modules, which have tripled and quadrupled in value during the last three months. But it surely’s elevating the costs on nearly all shopper electronics, as a vital and beforehand reasonably priced element turns into one of the crucial costly. The identical factor is beginning to occur to SSDs and different elements, as reminiscence producers like Micron closely favor industrial manufacturing over shopper reminiscence.

And Nvidia is doing the identical factor. Apart from the truth that graphics playing cards want a whole lot of reminiscence—there’s 32GB of GDDR7 within the RTX 5090—Nvidia appears to be favoring manufacturing of commercial GPUs over shopper fashions, using the identical practice that’s made it into one of the crucial beneficial, highly effective firms on the planet. An Asus consultant mentioned that Nvidia is de-emphasizing manufacturing of shopper GPUs with 16GB of RAM or extra, most notably the RTX 5060 Ti and 5070 Ti… although that assertion was shortly walked again.

It’s a nasty time to be a PC gamer, at the very least in case you care about taking part in high-end video games—or not going into debt to play them.