Nvidia's RTX 5090 launched at $1,999 and now lists for about $4,329, with some cards past $5,000. That is budget used-car money for a single component.
Why it happened, and what to do:
- The memory is now over 80 percent of a high-end card's cost, and AI data centers are buying it all up
- No new Nvidia gaming GPU is expected in 2026, the first such year in roughly three decades, so no cheaper generation is coming to reset prices
- Prices should not ease before 2028, and you cannot upgrade a graphics card's soldered-on memory later
If your current card still runs the games you play, keep it. If not, buy the cheapest last-generation card that clears your bar and skip the flagship.
