Nvidia’s RTX 5090 and 5080 GPUs are in the process of a shaking start, not only because of the fact that these new Blackwell graphics cards are not available to buy-they sold out right away, more or less-but also due of pricing at third -party boards.
WCCFTECH has scanned prices across the ASUS and MSI Blackwell series, and the results are likely to scare, if not scary, players out there mulling an advanced GPU purchase.
When stock comes back-is smashing with live pre-orders here and there right now, but not much else, even if you are sure to keep an eye on our guides on where to buy RTX 5090 and also RTX 5080 GPU price tags look Seriously steep.
The crown of the most eye -wandering award of everyone is awarded the ASUS ROG Astral LC RTX 5090, a Behemoth Behemoth of a flagship that admits all the proverbial stops (‘LC’ refers to the incorporated fluid cooling system), but it sets you back $ 3,409 in the US Currently at Graphics Card Maker’s own store.
Even the cheapest RTX 5090 GPU that Asus currently sells, the TUF Gaming model, is a heavy -weight $ 2,749, which is over a third more expensive than MSRP as set by Nvidia (and the requested award for its founding edition). Remember, this is the base model from ASUS, you cannot go lower.
At least with the RTX 5080 there is an ASUS model of $ 999 MSRP at its web shop, the primary model – so that’s something. However, if you want the TUF gaming model for the RTX 5080, this will put you back $ 1,484, a very large hike for a variant that is not a top-end card. (ROG Astral, air -cooled, RTX 5080 touches $ 1,649, all prices are correct at the time of writing).
MSI is doing something better at keeping a lid on pricing, but there are nonetheless difficult to swallow price tags. There is no RTX 5080 models at MSRP in MSI’s US store and the cheapest is Ventus 3x to $ 1,139, though not a big leap. However, the top-end RTX 5080 Suprim Liquid Soc is turned down than Asus ROG Astral, to $ 1,499.
The MSIS RTX 5090 graphics card starts with Ventus 3x, which is $ 2,379 in its store, more reasonable price than the Baseline flagship from ASUS, but still a 20% hike (almost) over MSRP. However, if you look at the RTX 5090 Suprim Liquid Soc, this graphics card, however, is an eye-watering $ 2,789 in the MSI store.
(Image Credit: Shutterstock)
Analysis: Okay, so a fluid -cooled flagship would never be cheap but …
Before the new Blackwell graphics cards appeared, the prediction was that they could be priced significantly higher than the MSRPs. And that has actually been largely fulfilled, although part of the problem here is that third -party producers appear to have inflated prices even further after all clums and stock shortages around the RTX 5090 and 5080 GPUs.
As an example of the highest end, the said Asus ROG Astral LC RTX 5090 is the most expensive of all Blackwell GPUs for $ 3,409. However, it was announced at $ 3,100 (on Reddit and caused quite a tuning at that price), so somehow there has been an additional $ 300 harvested on top of the already exorbitant price price.
I am not impressed with this kind of shenanigans as it is bad enough that the stock is stupidly difficult to get hold of, and Scalpers causes huge price inflation by resolding RTX 5080 and 5090 graphics cards without the actual board manufacturers deciding to try to try to try Push even harder for the profits.
Is this just market dynamics – a reflection of thin supply and great demand? Well, yes, it is to some extent, and no doubt prices will settle down in the end anyway if you can be patient. (In fact, there are still some big questions about how long we might be waiting for prices to level out to a more acceptable level in general).
Meanwhile, it is clearly true that asking prices remain something of a rising point as there is hardly any RTX 5090 or 5080 graphics cards for sale at all, whether at recommended prices or third -party prices.
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