- A new report estimates that GPU prices have increased by 15% globally in the last three months
- High-end Nvidia graphics cards have been hit hardest by price increases
- The United States is suffering some of the most spectacular price increases
If you needed any confirmation that GPU prices are rising, a new report shows that graphics cards are definitely getting more expensive around the world, particularly for some Nvidia models.
As highlighted by VideoCardz, TechSpot compiled some statistics that involved tracking 14 GPUs (from AMD, Intel, and Nvidia) across 10 regions globally, using local price comparison websites to find the cheapest products from retailers in those countries. Only prices for models in stock and available to purchase were used, as you can imagine (cheap sold-out GPUs are no good for anyone).
TechSpot collected initial pricing data in November 2025, before graphics card prices began to skyrocket, a side effect of the RAM shortage, which of course also affected video memory. The second set of data was collected this month and provides a roughly three-month snapshot of rising GPU costs around the world.
Overall, there has been an average increase of 15% across all models and regions. To put it another way, a graphics card that cost $300 a few months ago now costs $345.
Nvidia graphics cards are clearly the most affected by price inflation here. It probably won’t surprise you that the RTX 5090 is the worst, as we’ve already seen the asking price of this flagship Blackwell GPU skyrocket since early 2026 (and it was already expensive).
TechSpot estimates the RTX 5090’s overall increase globally at 31%, though in the US it’s a particularly sizeable 40% (it’s actually 50%, or slightly more, in India and Poland).
The situation with Nvidia’s RTX 5080 is almost as bad, with a 25% increase, the same as the RTX 5070 Ti. Again, in the United States, inflation for those two GPUs is around 40%, much higher than in many other countries.
The lower-end Nvidia models aren’t faring too badly with inflation. The RTX 5060 models are only up 10-11%, which isn’t that terrible (especially when compared to the RAM price increases, of course). The RTX 5070 is up 14%, but there is one notable outlier: the 16GB RTX 5060 Ti is up 22% globally.
Away from Team Green, the increases with AMD GPUs aren’t too bad. The worst offender on the Radeon side is the 16GB RX 9060 XT, which is up 15% worldwide, certainly an unwelcome jump. However, the RX 9070 models only increased by 7 or 8%, which is relatively acceptable.
There are some more uncomfortable changes in the US retail market, with the 9070 XT up 21% in the last three months, and the 9060 XT 8GB up 20%. That’s pretty brutal in both cases.
As for Intel, the price of the Arc B580 has increased by 11% globally, but the B570 has only seen inflation of 4%.
Analysis: a worrying future?
Theories have been circulating about Nvidia prioritizing AI GPUs over gaming (GeForce) models since VRAM supply became more unstable, and this evidence seems to support those notions. Obviously, we can’t read much into this, but whichever way you slice these stats, Nvidia graphics cards are hit hard by the worst increases, particularly at the top end of the GPU scale.
Frankly, the RTX 5090 is still ridiculously priced in the US, with Newegg’s cheapest model currently maintaining a starting price of $3,600. (Which means that buying a pre-built Alienware PC with an RTX 5090 inside is only about 25% more expensive, and you get a lot of matching high-end kits for the added premium, including some very expensive RAM, naturally.)
The rumor that supply is decreasing with the RTX 5070 Ti, which has 16 GB of VRAM, and also the RTX 5060 Ti with the same video memory load, seems to be supported by what TechSpot observes here. Those GPUs have risen a lot in price (25% and 22% respectively), suggesting that stocks could be dwindling, causing prices to rise due to demand.
All of this fuels the theory that Nvidia’s graphics cards with higher VRAM loads are suffering as AI GPUs (with huge memory pools) should take priority as they generate much more profit for the Green Team.
The concern here is what the future holds and whether this type of increase will continue or, in fact, extend further to AMD’s RDNA 4 GPUs. With no signs of the RAM price crisis easing, the knock-on effects for graphics card manufacturers are likely to continue to be felt perhaps even more acutely as the first half of 2026 progresses.
Building a PC has certainly become a miserable business, with the huge increase in the cost of system RAM, along with storage, following a similar upward price trajectory, and now GPUs are causing a bit of additional chaos into the mix.
The best graphics cards for all budgets
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