- Retailers have increased prices for Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 GPUs
- Prices are almost double the original retail price.
- It appears to be a direct impact of the RAM crisis due to the demand for AI
It’s officially 2026, and last year’s rumors about Nvidia and AMD GPU price increases (due to the current RAM crisis) appear to be accurate, which may prove very unfortunate for PC gamers.
As reported by VideoCardz, prices for the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 have increased significantly above the original retail price, with models reaching up to $4,000 at multiple retailers. The GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition is still priced at $1,999 / £1,799 / AU$4,039, so the price increases appear to come directly from retailers and private sellers.
RAM kits have become much more expensive in recent months, due to the current AI boom, and seem to be the reason behind these GPU price increases (since GPUs also use VRAM).
It has likely resulted in retailers looking for ways to get customers to pay more for PC hardware across the board due to increased demand and the looming threat of potential price increases directly from Team Green and AMD on RTX and Radeon GPUs, respectively.
A good example is at Best Buy, with the Asus ROG Astral RTX 5090 now available for a staggering $3,610.78, nearly double the MSRP of the Founders Edition and a significant chunk above the standard third-party GPU price (around $2,799.99).
The same price jumps above MSRP occurred with AMD Radeon RX 9070
None of these price increases come directly from Nvidia or AMD (yet…), and despite recent rumors suggesting that Team Green is planning to increase the RTX 5090’s MSRP to $5,000, there’s no confirmation of that and, frankly, it’s unlikely we’ll see such a ridiculously aggressive price increase.
However, if there is anything to blame, it is clearly the meteoric rise of artificial intelligence technology. AI training and operational data centers have increased demand for RAM (and some other components) to unprecedented levels, which has ultimately impacted consumers, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to slow down anytime soon.
Analysis: Nvidia isn’t completely blameless, but you should be angrier at AI
While Nvidia has an indirect role to play in these price increases due to its heavy involvement in the AI boom, it is not solely responsible; There has been a concerted push to develop and use AI by numerous companies around the world, and they are all to blame.
Desktop DDR4 and DDR5 RAM play an important role in PC builds, more so than GPUs; Basically you can build a PC without a discrete GPU, but without RAM, good luck getting your PC to boot.
With the rise of AI making RAM much more expensive than it should be for consumers, it’s enough to leave concerns that this could become the new normal in 2026 and beyond, effectively ending the dream of custom PC gaming for all but the wealthiest gamers.
The heavy reliance on AI is becoming more noticeable as time goes on, and as it continues, I can certainly see the prices of all PC hardware increasing at retailers and private sellers. It’s an incredibly problematic situation, not only for high-end PC gaming, but also for those looking to dip their toe into the PC gaming ecosystem for the first time. If you’ve been thinking about building your first gaming PC, I’d do it quick; These prices are likely to continue rising, at least for now.
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