- A European seller has reported supply issues for Nvidia RTX 5000 series GPUs
- The RTX 5070 Ti, RTX 5080, and RTX 5090 are all unavailable via one supplier
- Prices for the RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 are now well above MSRP with multiple retailers
The RAM crisis has proved hugely damaging for the PC hardware market, with the price of memory skyrocketing due to the ongoing AI boom, and the worst may be yet to come regarding the impact on GPUs.
As reported by Notebookcheck, a German seller (Gb2753 on Reddit) is stating (add your own seasoning) that they are facing supply issues for Nvidia RTX 5000 series GPUs, specifically the RTX 5070 Ti, RTX 5080, and the flagship RTX 5090.
In an email shared by the seller, their supplier stated that none of those Nvidia GPUs are available to be ordered. However, the RTX 5070 is the exception and can be shipped out, albeit with a limit of five units per model.
This is likely due to the shortage of GDDR7 VRAM used in Nvidia’s RTX 5000 GPUs, as supply of video memory is skewed towards AI products for use in data centers.
It’s worth noting that this is just one source, and there’s still a decent amount of stock available for most RTX 5000 series GPUs, at least for now.
However, this report may serve as a warning sign of incoming stock issues for consumers. Furthermore, GPU prices are now getting out of hand, notably with Nvidia’s RTX 5080 and RTX 5090.
At Best Buy in the US, the Asus Prime GeForce RTX 5080 is currently $1,599, while the retail price for most RTX 5080 GPUs starts at $999. That’s $600 more that consumers will have to pay for the GPU, while no Founders Edition cards (which are at the $999 MSRP) are available direct from Nvidia.
The same applies to the Asus ROG Astral RTX 5090 that I recently highlighted as part of the rising RTX 5090 prices. Since then, it has been further hiked from $3,610 to $4,209, pushing the price closer to the $5,000 mark which rumors have previously suggested that Nvidia’s flagship GPU will end up costing.
Frankly, there won’t be many PC gamers willing to pay obscene prices for these GPUs, but it doesn’t look like the hikes will stop anytime soon.
Analysis: high pricing and supply woes
The situation just seems to be getting worse and worse around the RAM crisis, and these apparent knock-on effects for GPUs could be very painful. Major graphics card shortages could see the return of scalping, and we may have a repeat of what we witnessed during the global pandemic.
People looking to buy a gaming PC, or those wanting a hardware upgrade, could be hard-pressed to find an Nvidia GPU without overpaying. While the RTX 4000 series isn’t completely discontinued, these last-gen Nvidia GPUs were wound down last year, and it’s tough to find any at retailers now.
So essentially, the only options for consumers are RTX 5000 GPUs or rival Intel Arc or AMD Radeon GPUs, with the latter rumored to also be seeing major price hikes (while also potentially slowing production of budget cards due to RAM costs).
The RAM crisis looks like it’s going to have a lasting effect on PC gaming, and unfortunately, as long as the AI bubble doesn’t burst, price hikes and supply shortages will reign supreme.
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