- Amazon makes some models of nvidia or AMD GPUs exclusively for prime members
- A handful of RTX 5000 and RX 9070 models fall into this category
- The idea is to stop scalpers, or at least throw another obstacle in their way
Amazon seems to have made some changes that mean that those who are prime members have a better chance of buying one of AMD or NVIDIA’s new GPUs.
As you may not have failed to notice since they launched, it has been a painful encryption for stock when it comes to NVIDIA Blackwell and AMD RDNA 4 graphics cards where buyers would find it very difficult to secure a GPU.
Club386 was avid eyed enough to catch (via Toms Hardware) that Amazon in the US now has some RTX 5000 or RX 9070 models marked as ‘reserved’ for Prime members. If you are logged in to your Amazon account and are a prime subscriber, you will see these GPUs available to buy. But if you are not a prime member you can’t see them.
It is also worth noting that you may not be aware that these are the most important exclusives as it is not marked for those logged in – they just see the GPU being for sale.
To give you a quick example if you are searching for RTX 5080 models on Amazon (USA), you will see that Asus ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5080 and Edition is an exclusive for prime subscribers, like Gigabyte GeForce RTX 5080 Gaming OC.
On these pages, those who are not prime members will see a box to ‘join the prime’ instead of the usual ‘Add to the Shopping Cart’ or ‘Buy Now’ Settings (for the GPUs that are of course in stock).
There are still several of these (relatively) new NVIDIA or AMD GPUs available to anyone than reserved models for prime members assigned – but there are more than a handful of the latter.
Analysis: Prime Movers
What is the rationale behind this? It’s another way of tempting people to sign up for a prime membership, of course, but it’s also a defensive measure against Scalpers.
Price scalping types that want to buy MSRP level graphics cards – or more affordable prices – as soon as they get in stock, it is to resell to make a profit a wrap on the GPU world. They have made it particularly difficult to get more expensive GPUs (NVIDIA models in the head) as they can be linked to even more ridiculous prices, and we have seen exactly this happen at auction sites this year.
To require a Prime membership for certain graphics cards that least protect them from some scalpers that mainly have to subscribe to prime. (Although it is not to say that some the price clothes will not – or that they cannot sign up there and then).
Still, this should make it a little easier for prime members to grab a GPU. Right now, for example, there is an RTX 5070 Overclocked Edition from ASUS available to Prime members for $ 700. It’s still a quarter over MSRP, but there will always be a prize for over -blown models, and in that light it doesn’t look like a terrible purchase. (Or it wouldn’t if the RTX 5070 was a better GPU in general, but unfortunately it lacks well what Nvidia has managed with other Blackwell GPUs).
On the AMD side, just as unfortunately, more affordable RX 9070 GPUs just aren’t available on Amazon at the moment, though they have been recently, as Club386 highlighted. They can reappear soon, with good luck, and the situation with Nvidia’s Blackwell graphics card seems to be better (I dare say that) on Amazon.
As far as I can tell, this is only a US scheme for now, and certainly Amazon is running in the UK in the UK (at least not yet, at the time of writing).
