Nvidia's RTX 5090 launched at $1,999 in January 20251. Today, one of the only new units you can actually find lists for $9,084.994. Other retail listings run past $10,000.
The card still ships. Buyers just struggle to find it anywhere close to that old price. A graphics card built for games now trades like scarce real estate.
Players on Reddit spent this week asking why. Nvidia's own numbers, and a leaked video from China, point toward the same answer: artificial intelligence wants the chip too.
The Floor Keeps Rising
BuySellRam tracks the lowest price sellers ask for popular graphics cards. In August, the RTX 5090's floor sat at $3,0042. By Oct. 11, that floor had climbed to $4,920.99. The jump: 64 percent in 64 days.
RTX 5090's tracked price floor rises 64 percent in 64 days
Lowest new-condition asking price for the RTX 5090, tracked by BuySellRam, launch through Oct. 11, 2026
Each point is the lowest asking price BuySellRam found for a new RTX 5090; the card launched at $1,999, and the floor itself jumped sharply between August and October 2026.
These are tracked asking prices, separate from confirmed sales, and each point is the lowest listing BuySellRam found that period, apart from the typical one.
Source: BuySellRam [2]. Chart by Kelly Dennis.
The numbers behind this chart
| Period | Value |
|---|---|
| Jan. 2025 | $1,999.00 |
| Aug. 8, 2026 | $3,004.00 |
| Oct. 11, 2026 | $4,920.99 |
That new floor sits 146 percent above the card's original sticker2. BuySellRam tracks asking prices alone. The figure shows what a seller hopes for; what a buyer actually hands over stays a separate question entirely. Still, a floor climbing this fast tells its own story.
Where Nvidia's Chips Are Going
Nvidia used to report gaming revenue on its own line. Last spring it folded that number into a category called Edge Computing7. Edge Computing now covers PCs, game consoles, workstations, robots and cars.
The new math shows a gap. Nvidia's data center business earned $89.0 billion for the quarter ended July 26, 20266. Edge Computing, gaming cards included, earned $7.2 billion. One business outearned the other by more than 12 times.
Nvidia's data center unit earns 12 times what its gaming-inclusive unit brings in
Nvidia's quarterly revenue by market platform, quarter ended July 26, 2026
Each column is one of Nvidia's two reporting categories: the data center column counts AI chips, and the edge computing column now counts gaming GPUs too.
Source: NVIDIA [6]. Chart by Kelly Dennis.
The numbers behind this chart
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Data center | $89.0B |
| Edge computing | $7.2B |
Nvidia had already flagged the pressure months earlier. Slower consumer PC demand that quarter came from "elevated memory and systems prices," the company told investors7. Memory built for AI chips and memory built for gaming cards draw from the same factories.
A leaked video adds a stranger wrinkle to that math. Footage shared by the Hong Kong outlet HKEPC showed workers in China stripping brand-new RTX 5090 boards1. Each card lost its three-fan cooler. Workers fit the bare board with a slim blower, sized to pack tightly into an AI server chassis, Futurism reported.
Tom's Hardware@tomshardwareLeaked video exposes how industrial-scale Chinese factories are dismantling RTX 5090s by the thousands to fuel AI servers https://t.co/IaKwqDZ5VX
Futurism, which first reported the footage, called it unconfirmed by any named retailer or distributor1.
Nvidia's Answer
Jeff Fisher runs Nvidia's GeForce business. He addressed the shortage at an Oct. 16 launch event in Taipei4. "Supply chain (and production capacity) is indeed somewhat constrained, but NVIDIA is going all out to get products to market," Fisher said.
Fisher pushed back hard on talk of the card's death. "Although there are other variants of the RTX 5090 GPU, it has certainly not been discontinued, and NVIDIA will continue shipping them, which is very important," he said4. A Nvidia spokesperson gave CNBC a shorter version of the same message. "Demand for GeForce RTX GPUs is strong, and memory supply is constrained. We continue to ship all GeForce SKUs," the spokesperson said5.
Best Buy still lists the Founders Edition at its original $1,999.99. Stock rarely lasts a day4.
The Case Against Blaming AI Directly
BuySellRam, the same tracker behind the price data above, pushes back on the simplest version of this story. "AI data centers do not compete directly with consumers for GDDR7. Enterprise AI accelerators, like Nvidia's H100 and B200, use High Bandwidth Memory, a physically and architecturally distinct product," BuySellRam wrote3.
By that account, the two memory types rarely cross paths on a factory floor. BuySellRam points instead to Nvidia's own $300 wholesale price increase, dated May 13, 20263. Memory now makes up more than 80 percent of the RTX 5090's parts cost, the firm estimates.
Gadget Review reached a similar note of caution about the loudest version of the claim. A theory that Nvidia deliberately starved gamers to feed AI customers remains "an allegation, not a finding," the outlet wrote5. The theory rests on leaker chatter and a leaked video alone; contracts and inventory records stay private.
Both explanations still point one direction, even where they disagree on the mechanism. Memory built for AI chips crowds out memory built for consumer cards. Somebody pays the gap. Today, that somebody carries a credit card at checkout.
What to do
Skip the resale market unless you can measure a card's cost against what it earns. A $4,900 RTX 5090 bought for inference work pays for itself only under steady use. Price that against renting the same compute by the hour before you commit to a purchase.
Check Nvidia's own store and Best Buy before any reseller's markup. The $1,999.99 Founders Edition appears there in short bursts, then disappears. A buyer who checks each morning sometimes beats the line entirely.
Teams planning a purchase for a small AI project should treat the RTX 5090 as a specialty part for one job. Weigh a used RTX 4090 or a shared cloud instance first, then reserve the 5090 for the one workload that truly needs its memory.
By the numbers
- $1,999: Nvidia's launch price for the RTX 5090 in January 20251.
- $4,920.99: the lowest new-condition asking price BuySellRam tracked on Oct. 11, up 64 percent from August2.
- Zotac's Gaming Solid OC card sold, in stock, for $9,084.99 in October4.
- 146 percent: how far that October price floor sits above the card's original sticker2.
- Nvidia's data center unit earned $89.0 billion for the quarter ended July 26, 20266.
- Edge computing, gaming cards included, brought in $7.2 billion the same quarter6.
- 80 percent: the share of the RTX 5090's parts cost that memory now makes up, by BuySellRam's estimate3.
What to watch
Nvidia reports its next quarter in November. Watch whether Edge Computing revenue keeps climbing in dollars while unit shipments shrink, a sign of the squeeze BuySellRam describes. A falling unit count would back BuySellRam's memory-cost argument more than a flat one would.
Watch too for a named retailer or distributor to confirm the Chinese factory story on the record. One verified contract would turn a leaked video into documented fact.
Sources
- Victor Tangermann, "Video Shows Chinese Factory Taking Apart Thousands of RTX 5090s and Turning Them Into Zombie AI Servers," Futurism, Oct. 26, 2026, https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/video-china-rtx-5090-graphics-cards-ai
- BuySellRam, "NVIDIA Consumer GPU Market Update, October 2026: RTX 5090 Asking Prices Up 60% Since August," BuySellRam, Oct. 13, 2026, https://www.buysellram.com/blog/nvidia-consumer-gpu-market-update/
- BuySellRam, "Why RTX 5090 Prices Keep Climbing: Nvidia's Wholesale Hike and the GDDR7 Shortage Behind It," BuySellRam, May 17, 2026, https://www.buysellram.com/blog/why-rtx-5090-prices-keep-climbing-nvidias-wholesale-hike-and-the-gddr7-shortage-behind-it/
- Paul Lilly, "Is The GeForce RTX 5090 Really Discontinued? NVIDIA Speaks Out," HotHardware, Oct. 19, 2026, https://hothardware.com/news/is-geforce-rtx-5090-really-discontinued-nvidia-speaks-out
- C. da Costa, "Did Nvidia Manufacture the Gaming GPU Crisis? New Reports Raise Serious Questions," Gadget Review, via Yahoo Tech, Oct. 23, 2026, https://tech.yahoo.com/gaming/articles/did-nvidia-manufacture-gaming-gpu-185933472.html
- NVIDIA, "NVIDIA Announces Financial Results for Second Quarter Fiscal 2027," NVIDIA, Aug. 26, 2026, https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-announces-financial-results-for-second-quarter-fiscal-2027
- Hassan Mujtaba, "NVIDIA Moves Gaming Segment Under "Edge Computing," Posts 29% Revenue Growth From Blackwell Workstations But Gaming GPUs Slow Down Due To "Elevated" Memory Prices," Wccftech, May 21, 2026, https://wccftech.com/nvidia-moves-gaming-segment-under-edge-computing-gaming-slows-down-due-to-elevated-prices/