No one expects you to upgrade pc Nvidia 5090 GPUs may be in for a rough ride as prices skyrocket. RTX 50-series graphics cards have never been cheap, but even their sky-high retail prices seem affordable compared to where they're headed now amid the global RAM shortage. These are tough times for PC gaming, and things don't look like they're letting up anytime soon.
Nvidia unveiled the 50-series lineup early last year, and as you'd expect the fastest consumer GPUs on the market, the most powerful of the bunch came with an eye-watering price tag. The RTX 5090 has an MSRP of $1,999, making this one component roughly the same price as two PlayStation 5 consoles. That's a lot of money, but it can afford those who can afford a whopping 32GB of DDR7 VRAM. Unfortunately, that memory is currently facing a global supply constraint, so things are quickly getting more expensive.
The RAM shortage is about to get worse as Micron pushes consumers for AI.
Micron is ending its popular Crucial brand of consumer PC products as the company focuses on AI amid continued RAM price hikes.
Retailers are listing RTX 5090 GPUs for over $3,000
As spotted by VideoCardz, the cheapest 5090 GPUs listed among Nvidia's exclusive retailers are sitting around $2,500, about 25% above MSRP. However, many of these options are out of stock or only available for pick up at a physical location. Most listings, especially those available for shipment, now start around the $3,000 mark, and some are nearing $4,000. The price hike comes amid rumors that Nvidia may cut 50-series GPU production to protect dwindling DDR7 supplies. Nvidia has yet to confirm whether it is actually implementing such a strategy, but fears of how the RAM shortage could affect availability have already caused retailers to raise prices in anticipation.
Nvidia isn't the only company showing big price hikes amid the ongoing RAM crisis. Prices for consumer-grade RAM kits began to rise in late 2025 after SK Hynix and Samsung agreed to shift much of their memory production toward AI data centers. Things got worse when Micron pulled out of consumer RAM altogether, and the law of supply and demand took hold, things inevitably got tougher for manufacturers. Now, companies like Nvidia, which typically don't operate their own semiconductor fabs but buy components like RAM from outside suppliers, face supply disruptions and higher production costs, ultimately leading to higher end-user prices.
While it didn't take long for prices to jump, it will likely be a while before the market cools. As more people rush to buy GPUs and other PC components, this will further restrict the available supply. On the manufacturing side, it will also take longer for manufacturers to meet current demand, as they need to build new specialized facilities to create more RAM. Those odds are why Micron predicts the RAM crisis will last beyond 2026, and if AI-driven demand grows further, it could spread things further. Of course, it's impossible to predict how things will play out in the future, but things aren't looking good for PC gamers right now.
Depending on how things progress from here, PC gamers may not be alone in feeling the effects of a lack of RAM. It is rumored that Sony and Xbox may delay the release of their next-gen consoles at a lower price point rather than ask them to do more to account for higher production costs. Those rumors are unconfirmed for now, as is any response from Nvidia, but as volatile as the market seems, nothing is necessarily off the table. For now, PC gaming is not very affordable, and may not be for some time.
Source: VideoCardz
