Thursday, February 6th 2025
ASUS & MSI US Official Stores Raise GeForce RTX 5090 & 5080 MSRPs
The buying landscape for GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 graphics cards is looking barren, just one week post-launch—global demand has far outstretched initial supply. Mid-week news points to two of NVIDIA's board partners increasing MSRPs for the top-end Blackwell GPU models, seemingly adding insult to already inflicted injuries. ASUS and MSI's North American online stores are completely devoid of stock—at the time of writing, almost all product entries are accompanied by "notify me" tags. The two hardware manufacturers have implemented comprehensive price hikes—as reported by VideoCardz. The publication pinpointed flagship models, as prime examples. The liquid-cooled ASUS ROG Astral LC RTX 5090 OC Edition 32 GB model was already a pricey prospect at launch ($3099), but the official store has tacked on another $311. A total charge of $3410 gets you one of the nicest and feature-rich card designs on the market, but you will be paying a premium of $1411—above Team Green's official GeForce RTX 5090 MSRP of $1999—for the privilege of ownership and/or bragging rights. Further down in the product stack—TechSpot noted that a Prime GeForce RTX 5080 (non-OC) 16 GB model has jumped from an original figure of $999, up to $1,264. At the time of writing, this price has been re-adjusted back down to just below $1000—thanks to a special "deal." The overclocked Prime variant is currently priced at $1320.
Looking at the MSI US store, VideoCardz reported on all GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 cards being priced north of original MSRPs—they highlighted a lowly not-overclocked RTX 5080 16G VENTUS 3X model having its price adjusted upwards—now $1140, instead of the original $1000 (at launch). MSI's "cheapest" RTX 5090 card is another VENTUS 3X design—this non-OC model is now $380 more expensive than last week's asking price ($2000). Overall, MSI's US webshop has raised prices in the ranges of $140 to $500 for GeForce RTX 5080 cards, and $380 to $790 for RTX 5090 offering—according to VideoCardz research. The company's RTX 5090 SUPRIM LIQUID SOC flagship design is not quite expensive as the equivalently appointed ASUS liquid-cooled model, but the newly adjusted MSRP of $2790 is difficult to digest. Press outlets have noted that listings on Newegg are up to $40 more expensive, when compared to the prices published on MSI's first-party store. As an added incentive, the MSI North American store is offering potential buyers a saving of: "$200 on MPG 322URX QD-OLED at checkout with RTX 5080/5090 series purchase."
Sources:
MSI US Store, ASUS USA, VideoCardz, Techspot
Looking at the MSI US store, VideoCardz reported on all GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 cards being priced north of original MSRPs—they highlighted a lowly not-overclocked RTX 5080 16G VENTUS 3X model having its price adjusted upwards—now $1140, instead of the original $1000 (at launch). MSI's "cheapest" RTX 5090 card is another VENTUS 3X design—this non-OC model is now $380 more expensive than last week's asking price ($2000). Overall, MSI's US webshop has raised prices in the ranges of $140 to $500 for GeForce RTX 5080 cards, and $380 to $790 for RTX 5090 offering—according to VideoCardz research. The company's RTX 5090 SUPRIM LIQUID SOC flagship design is not quite expensive as the equivalently appointed ASUS liquid-cooled model, but the newly adjusted MSRP of $2790 is difficult to digest. Press outlets have noted that listings on Newegg are up to $40 more expensive, when compared to the prices published on MSI's first-party store. As an added incentive, the MSI North American store is offering potential buyers a saving of: "$200 on MPG 322URX QD-OLED at checkout with RTX 5080/5090 series purchase."
53 Comments on ASUS & MSI US Official Stores Raise GeForce RTX 5090 & 5080 MSRPs
Jensen Huang presented the 5080 to the world at the "LOW LOW" price of $999 knowing well in advance that there would be a massive scarcity
He knew that the market would react with automatic price increases during a GPU scarcity because of the massive demand
This is a well planed marketing strategy to make nvidia look good with an acceptable MSRP at release to later manipulate prices with a massive scarcity.
Problem is that if the prices for 5080 and 5090 increases the lower tier cards 5070 and 5060 will also increase in price automatically, we have seen the exact same thing before during the mining crisis
Only the release of AMD 9070 can save the middle and low tier market from price increases, BUT ONLY IF AMD release the 9070 at a much lower price than the 5070
Corporate greed at it's best, nvidia DO NOT CARE about the gamers, you would think that with the massive profits they makes in AI sector they could have a little price sympathy and not milk games to the last drop.
nvidia already make so much money with AI that they do not know what to do with it, but it is never enuf is it.
'nuff said :D
The sad part is people are stilling getting fooled, even people who have been in the market for awhile. This started with the original founder's edition cards back with the 2000 series and like every other precendent Nvidia has set, it has only gotten worse.
While other UK retailers seem to want to become professional scalpers eBuyer have behaved honorably both this time and when they sold me a 6800XT for RRP on launch day in 2020.
Highly recommended indeed!
I don't think its feasible for TPU to constantly update price charts especially in situations like this, but if it were possible it would be nice. Because the 5080 is only kind of arguably okay at its MSRP for certain people, and anything above it is a instant pass.
But review conclusions don't even mention any of that - and I'm sure TechPowerUP had a very good picture of what we're going to see in the coming weeks, or rather months. But it's all "La la land" about how even small performance uplift is enough to beat anything else on the market, and is therefore A Blessing From A Lord...
Adjusting for inflation, that value would sit between the 5070 and the 5070 Ti (around 620USD), which is now nVidia's mid-market offering. You don't need this news to understand that the price gouging since the cyrpto-craze continues.
I doubt reviewers are going to reevaluate their conclusions based on MSRP, though the "highly recommend" award seems even more silly as you can't even buy a 5080 or 5090 and the price was a lie just to hype up consumers into thinking they're not getting screwed by artificial scarcity.
TPU already includes price/perf graphs at various price points, I think they're doing the best they can already.
I mean I'll say this. There's no guarantee that TPU isn't under some sort of agreement when they get these samples to review, and that might be where some of that is starting. (of course, if they were, I don't think they could actually comment on that or not until long after the fact), but some transparency would be appreciated where possible.I could be missing something too, who knows.
I think another issue is that TPU reviews seem to stray as far away as being too critical as possible; they'll certainly mention problems if they exist, no doubt, but they almost kind of gloss over them instead of really going into detail to inform you. I took a gander through the RX 6600XT, RX 6700XT, RTX 4060, RTX 5080, reviews (FE / reference reviews where possible) and I've seen a consistent pattern of just them kinda.. pulling their punches with the cons / negatives of these cards. Not asking for some AVGN / Nostalgia Critic level of cartoonishly negative reviews to the point of absurdist humor but the reviews don't feel entirely honest as a result. The 4060 reviews (at least one of the few I took the time to really read) do mention the performance expected being lackluster; but the biggest problem with the 4060 for many people (the fact its not really a huge performance jump compared to the 3060) is seemingly glossed over. 5080 review doesn't even mention the fact that the 5080 is hardly an improvement over the 4080 / 4080S, despite being listed as a negative.
I think if there's a negative listed, it should be elaborated upon imo. It seems many of the newer reviews conclusions focus entirely on just the positives and forget to mention the cons. Perhaps I just haven't read enough reviews though (and to be fair it seems this has only started happening recently)
I don't think the ''bias'' (not the word or term I'd use but its one I see thrown around a lot) in TPU reviews is really as bad as people make it out to be but I do agree that something needs changed; or addressed. Especially in regards to their GPU reviews in recent times (I honestly took a gander through their other non gpu reviews and they seem fine to me mostly)I think in good faith when it comes to this because it'd be unfair for me to assume that TPU is being 'biased' on purpose, or that they're being misleading. But there's no denying that TPU could amend reviews later to address future (and confirmed, with sources) problems that either didn't exist at the time or writing or weren't confirmed. Many reviewers already do this, even the ones many people do not like around here.
That was of course the result of these cards being released right in the middle of cryptomadness, and it was of course in a way true - but at the RTX 4080 release that was quite a bit in past, RTX 3080 could be had for around MSRP and Nvidia and AIB partners actually officially lowered MSRP of RTX 3090 Ti several times before that, and at the end it sold for about $1000!
It clearly read like a Nvidia apologist PR release. After several objections it was a bit modified, parts of praise how it's cheaper than previous gen scalper prices were removed, and high price was a bit more clearly noted.
I refuse to pay that kind of money for a GPU, the max I'll go to is £800 GB pounds, I may be temped to stretch a little for something that is really good but no way am I paying above £800 for a 16 Gig GPU in 2025.
For the record, I am in a fortunate enough position to quite easily be able to afford to purchase 2 or 3 5090's a year and replace them every year without it having any impact on my finances but I never will on principle!
I feel Nvidia are adding gimmicks to their cards to justify their ridiculous price tags.
Of course not everyone wants a 5090 for gaming but for gaming I am personally of the opinion that you can play any game on a £600/800 GPU and even less for that matter.
You may need to lower graphics quality settings in some case to generate a decent level of FPS but I'm OK with that, in fact I'd argue that in a lot of cases lowering some of the graphics settings to up the FPS delivers a better result than using some of the gimmicks the GPU manufacturers are implementing.
I am not against these "gimmicks" I believe in time they will offer real performance, but we are not there yet and won't be for the foreseeable future. My issue is that the likes of Nvidia and even AMD though granted to a much lesser extent are passing these gimmicks off as real performance and pricing them into their GPU's.
everything is approximately ~10% more expensive because of the actual tariffs that went into effect on Tuesday.
shifting of production to outside of China will take time. this wasn't done with price gouging in mind but it is just unfortunate timing with the product launch overlapping with geopolitical issues.
but yes, scalping is to blame. scalping by the current US administration.
I see it regularly in the supermarket. Kids are not taught the word No when waiting for payment and they see the big candy bar. So why should adults understand the word No.
Prices going up. What else. Next.
That would in fact be a massive improvement as it would allow people to see price / perf over time and in their local currency.
Cheapest RTX 4080 Super available in EU, as shown on Geizhals.eu is now 1330 EUR.
Cheapest RTX 4090 is now 2880 EUR.
:eek: