RTX 5090 Prices Soar Past $5,000 as AI Firms Hog Retail GPU Supply

As AI companies build multi-GPU servers using pallets of retail RTX 5090s, prices for the graphics cards have skyrocketed to over $5,000. This is devastating news for gamers who were initially intended to be the target market for these high-end GPUs.

The AI boom has led to a surge in demand for powerful computing resources, driving up costs for both Nvidia and AMD GPU offerings. The RTX 5090, once considered a top-of-the-line gaming card, is now out of reach for most gamers due to its unaffordable price tag.

A recent image shared by HKECP on Twitter shows pallets of brand-new RTX 5090s being removed from their boxes and installed in multi-GPU servers for AI workloads. This trend is reminiscent of the crypto boom a few years ago, when many retail GPUs were used for crypto mining instead.

Unlike Nvidia's response to the crypto boom, which saw the launch of Lite Hash Rate versions of several RTX 30 cards, the company has not taken similar action against AI firms. This lack of intervention has left gamers struggling to afford these high-end GPUs as prices continue to soar.