- Retailers have increased pricing of Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 GPUs
- Prices are almost double the original retail pricing
- It appears to be a direct impact from the RAM crisis due to AI demand
We’re officially in 2026, and last year’s rumors regarding GPU price hikes on Nvidia and AMD GPUs (due to the ongoing RAM crisis) appear to be accurate, which may prove very unfortunate for PC gamers.
As reported by VideoCardz, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 prices have increased significantly above the original retail pricing, with models reaching up to $4,000 across multiple retailers. The GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition is still priced at $1,999 / £1,799 / AU$4,039, so the price hikes appear to be coming directly from retailers and private sellers.
RAM kits have become much pricier over the last few months, due to the current AI boom, and appear to be the reason behind these GPU price increases (since GPUs also use VRAM).
It’s likely resulted in retailers seeking ways to get customers to pay more for PC hardware across the board due to higher demand, and the looming threat of potential price hikes directly from Team Green and AMD on RTX and Radeon GPUs, respectively.
A prime example is on Best Buy, with the Asus ROG Astral RTX 5090 now available for a staggering $3,610.78, almost double the Founders Edition’s MSRP, and a significant chunk above the third-party GPU’s standard pricing (around $2,799.99).
The same price jumps above MSRP have occurred with AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT GPUs long before the RAM crisis, and have continued – the XFX Mercury Radeon RX 9070 XT OC Edition on Best Buy is now at $849.99, up from its $599 retail price.
None of these price hikes come straight from Nvidia or AMD (yet…), and despite recent rumors suggesting that Team Green plans to raise the RTX 5090’s MSRP to $5,000, there’s no confirmation of that – and frankly, it’s unlikely that we’ll see such a ludicrously aggressive price increase.
If there is anything to blame, though, it’s clearly the meteoric rise of AI technology. AI training and operation datacenters have increased the demand for RAM (and some other components) to unprecedented levels, which has ultimately trickled down to impact consumers, and it doesn’t seem like it’s slowing down any time soon.
Analysis: Nvidia isn’t fully absolved from blame, but you should be more mad at AI
While Nvidia does have an indirect part to play in these price hikes due to its heavy involvement in the AI boom, it’s not solely responsible; there’s been a concerted push to develop and use AI from numerous companies around the globe, and they’re all jointly at fault.
Desktop DDR4 and DDR5 RAM play a significant part in PC building, more so than GPUs; basically, you can build a PC without a discrete GPU, but with no RAM, good luck getting your PC to boot.
With the AI boom making RAM far more expensive than it should be for consumers, it’s enough to leave worries that this could become the new normal in 2026 and beyond – effectively killing the custom PC gaming dream 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 prices for all PC hardware increasing from retailers and private sellers. It’s an incredibly problematic situation, not only for high-end PC gaming, but also for those looking to dive into the PC gaming ecosystem for the first time. If you’ve been contemplating building your first gaming PC, I’d do it fast; these prices are likely to keep climbing, at least for now.
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