News Real-world graphics card prices cost up to twice the MSRP

[thestryker]

If I can get an RTX 5090 for €2999 from EU retailers today, why would I ever look at eBay? What's going on there is simply irrelevant in terms of MSRP.

It's nice that EU is less toxic, but that's not the reality for the biggest market in the world. Here's an example of what it's like in the US still: https://www.nowinstock.net/computers/videocards/nvidia/rtx5090/full_history/

 

[valthuer]

It’s fine that you can get the card in Europe. We’re not primarily a European site. I agree the US market is messed up in various ways — I don’t think scalping is as rampant in Europe. But if you were to try to buy a 5090 in the US right now, good luck getting one for under $3000 at retail. I’m sure a few have sold at such a price, but the point is there are tens of thousands of people willing to pay more than that right now.

Don't know anything about the rest of Europe, but, as far as Greece is concerned, it's more rampant than ever.

During the first weeks of 5090's release, you could find the MSI Ventus version for 2,800 euros (you'd have to wait for more than a month, though, before getting your hands on one).

Now, everything is WAY above 3,000.

 

[Elusive Ruse]

It’s fine that you can get the card in Europe. We’re not primarily a European site. I agree the US market is messed up in various ways — I don’t think scalping is as rampant in Europe. But if you were to try to buy a 5090 in the US right now, good luck getting one for under $3000 at retail. I’m sure a few have sold at such a price, but the point is there are tens of thousands of people willing to pay more than that right now.

It’s not even the case for the whole of Europe, I live in Poland and the cheapest 5090 I can buy is a Gaming OC for ~€3350

 

[abufrejoval]

It’s not even the case for the whole of Europe, I live in Poland and the cheapest 5090 I can buy is a Gaming OC for ~€3350

With 23% VAT in Poland vs 19% VAT in Germany, that seems a bit high, but you could always order from a reseller somewhere else in the EU who just charges the tax difference. Especially since the Polish variant of Geizhals, cenowarka.pl doesn't seem to list many local offers.

One of my favorite e-tailers is actually in Denmark (everything computers), another in Hungary (SSDs and tablets), a third in Holland (mobile phones): most of the time I just don't care or notice which EU country things are coming from, ...except when I ship returns.

I'm quite surprised that the EU market seems better these days, because that's usually not been the case: we were always served later, with a reduced selection, and at a higher price. And we've certainly seen rampant eBay scalping here, too, especially with th RTX30* and RTX40* and Zen3 launches.

Even with the RTX50* and RX 9070 cards, there was an early spike, but for those new cards that stopped very quickly when retail availability killed scalper margins, within a day for the RX 9070*. There is still funny pricing around RTX40* on eBay here, too, but there are simply quite crazy offers on eBay for everything. But also for GPUs at retail prices (many retailers simply offer on eBay as well), some probably from would-be scalpers, who I'd rather leave sit on their wares forever.

I didn't actually track the RTX50* series, because I didn't initially plan to buy one (my RTX 4090 being good enough for now). It was only when I was looking into an RTX 3070 upgrade for my kid, that I considered the RX 9070XT.

And when that RX 9070XT disappointed with hefty power spikes and terrible software, I started to look around the mid-range RTX 50* and saw that availability was good all around and geizhals was highlighting ~30% price drops across the range.

My guess: it's Trumputin tariffs, either already in effect or just redirecting supplies to a less hostile market (or US panic buying to an unexpected extent?).

Should those tariffs last, we might have a bit of an unusual reprieve as computer buyers in the EU, but of course when we can't make money selling cars, cheese and wine to the US, that won't last very long.

And so sorry, but no eggs, nor Grönland!

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

Don't know anything about the rest of Europe, but, as far as Greece is concerned, it's more rampant than ever.

During the first weeks of 5090's release, you could find the MSI Ventus version for 2,800 euros (you'd have to wait for more than a month, though, before getting your hands on one).

Now, everything is WAY above 3,000.

Greece seems maybe worse than some other locations, though? I think a big part of each country's pricing is going to be disposable income. The US definitely has a lot of super rich folks who could pay $4000 and not really care that much if it's the fastest part available — like buying an extreme sports car. Greece might have a lot of such people as well (seems like a nice place to retire?) Poland maybe just has more realistic expectations and fewer people willing to dump over 3K on a GPU.

Poking around, online listings show:

Finland has 5090 for €2455.90 (with VAT? dunno...)
Germany has it for €2859.00 apparently
Spain for €2903.89
UK for £2599.99
US for $3999.99 LOL

 

[Heat_Fan89]

Asus and MSI listing MSRPs that are 40% higher than Nvidia's base MSRP isn't exactly the same. That's helping with profit margins and keeping those companies in the green — not a bad thing, but I think 20% above MSRP is about the limit people should need to pay (assuming the market isn't fubar, which it is right now).

Some encouraging signs on Amazon. Although you have to be a Prime member, I am seeing frequently RTX 5080 being sold and restocked from Amazon directly for prices $1485, $1399 and today I saw and was going to snag but missed out on an RTX 5080 for $1199 (Amazon was the seller).

They apparently are getting restocks because several of the RTX 5080 shows 500+ sold in a single month.

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

Some encouraging signs on Amazon. Although you have to be a Prime member, I am seeing frequently RTX 5080 being sold and restocked from Amazon directly for prices $1485, $1399 and today I saw and was going to snag but missed out on an RTX 5080 for $1199 (Amazon was the seller).

They apparently are getting restocks because several of the RTX 5080 shows 500+ sold in a single month.

I just updated our best graphics cards article, and noticed that a lot of Nvidia’s cards seem to be having better supply now. MSI is selling an RTX 5070 shadow OC for MSRP right now, and it was available for several hours at least. There’s been an RX 9070 for $669 all day as well at Amazon. That’s a lot more than MSRP, but it’s better than the $800 plus sign that I was seeing earlier this week.

Curiously RTX 5070 TI and RTX 5090 supply and pricing still seem really poor. Actually, I’m not surprised at all that the 5090 is out of stock, and I suppose any GPUs that are capable of being an RTX 5080 will get sold that way, so it’s only the partially defective ones that have to be downgraded to an RTX 5070 TI.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

More encouraging signs that prices and supply are easing ever so slightly. Amazon as the direct seller has been offering to its Prime members an MSI Gaming RTX 5080 for $1399.99 and it has been available for well over 12 hours.

In the past 2-3 weeks, those listings by Amazon would disappear within minutes or seconds. I've cancelled several times and i'm waiting for actual MSRP of $999 for an RTX 5080. Hopefully that will happen within 6 months so I can finish my build.

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

More encouraging signs that prices and supply are easing ever so slightly. Amazon as the direct seller has been offering to its Prime members an MSI Gaming RTX 5080 for $1399.99 and it has been available for well over 12 hours.

In the past 2-3 weeks, those listings by Amazon would disappear within minutes or seconds. I've cancelled several times and i'm waiting for actual MSRP of $999 for an RTX 5080. Hopefully that will happen within 6 months so I can finish my build.

I do wonder if Nvidia is specifically targeting the 5070 for increased production. It would make sense as that's the potentially most popular option and, even if it's slower than AMD's 9070 / 9070 XT, selling it (street pricing) at a lower cost will likely be enough to keep people from going to AMD. The 5080 shouldn't be *that* much more expensive to manufacture, but I'll be surprised if $999 models are regularly in stock with the way things are looking right now. (I mean, I'm surprised to see 5070 at MSRP as well...)

 

[Heat_Fan89]

I do wonder if Nvidia is specifically targeting the 5070 for increased production. It would make sense as that's the potentially most popular option and, even if it's slower than AMD's 9070 / 9070 XT, selling it (street pricing) at a lower cost will likely be enough to keep people from going to AMD. The 5080 shouldn't be *that* much more expensive to manufacture, but I'll be surprised if $999 models are regularly in stock with the way things are looking right now. (I mean, I'm surprised to see 5070 at MSRP as well...)

I have yet to see on Amazon a 5070 selling at $549. Typically they have a $699 price tag and on a rare occasion $649.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

Well it finally happened! I found a 5070 OC edition for $549, Amazon the seller. I even got to the point where I could place the order but backed out. It's still there, not too many takers with a 192bit memory bus gimped GPU.

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

I have yet to see on Amazon a 5070 selling at $549. Typically they have a $699 price tag and on a rare occasion $649.

Amazon is often the worst place (as far as prices go) to buy a graphics card. It's so heavily trafficked that prices there tend to be much higher than Newegg, B&H, Best Buy, etc. MSI has had the 5070 Shadow OC (admittedly, a fully base model 5070 with a minor OC) listed for sale for several days now. Which basically means there's not enough demand to push the price significantly higher on the 5070.

As you say, the 12GB VRAM is clearly a concern. I think if Nvidia had done 18GB, people would be all over the 5070. Sticking with 2GB GDDR7 chips really hurts its long-term prospects.