RTX 5090 Prices Soar Past $5,000 as Nvidia's Flagship Loses Ground
Nvidia's RTX 5090 has entered a surreal pricing era. An Asus TUF Gaming RTX 5090 OC appeared at $5,099 on major US retailer Best Buy's website. This is nine dollars short of its own model number and well above the official MSRP of $1,999.
The Founders Edition, Nvidia's flagship product, has a suggested price that doesn't seem to exist in reality. Anyone browsing Best Buy's GPU page for it will come up empty-handed. The actual prices start around $2,699, which is $700 over the MSRP before you touch premium models.
Asus set the tone at launch with its ROG Astral LC debuting at $3,099.99, roughly 55% above MSRP. The TUF Gaming variant briefly touched $1,999.99 but vanished quickly. Since then, Asus has raised prices again, and the ROG Astral OC now sits around $3,359.99, $1,361 above MSRP.
The RTX 5090's price is a luxury branding exercise, driven by persistent demand from AI workload buyers treating these cards like budget data-center hardware. The audience for this high-end product is narrow and the craftsmanship is real. However, the TUF Gaming card, Asus's supposedly accessible option, is grazing $5,000.