ZOTAC US Store Hikes Up GeForce RTX 5090 Pricing Again - SOLID OC Now $2700, Flagship Hits $3000 Mark

[T0@st]

ASUS and MSI's price hiking of GeForce RTX 50-series graphics cards is already a well explored subject matter (news-wise), but GPU market watchdogs have spent time investigating circumstances further down from the perch of NVIDIA's most visible board partner players. Citing evidence presented on the official Team Green subreddit, VideoCardz has levelled criticism in ZOTAC's direction. Apparently, the brand's North American store has—quite recently—jacked up asking prices for its custom GeForce RTX 5090 designs. The Hong Kong-based manufacturer only offers a choice of two models via its US webstore: SOLID OC and AMP Extreme INFINITY. At the time of writing, ZOTAC's webshop is undergoing "construction work"—fortunately, screenshots and crucial points of info were preserved by Redditors and media outlets. The flagship AMP Extreme INFINITY SKU has hit an unprecedented $2999.99 price point, although not reaching the heights of ASUS Astral ($3359.99!). A mid-March Wayback Machine save state reveals a previous RTX 5090 AMP Extreme INFINITY listing at $2599.99, but its initial launch price was $2499.99. Naturally, a flagship design—comprised of a robust cooling solution, fancy features/accessories and ARGB lighting—demands a premium upcharge, but ZOTAC's top-tier SKU is priced $1001 above Team Green's $1999 MSRP baseline.

ZOTAC's GeForce RTX 5090 SOLID (non-OC) SKU was supposed to act as the "barebones" baseline MSRP-conformant model, but price watchers noted that ZOTAC USA had removed this entry from the official webstore. Tom's Hardware reckons that the last recorded cost of ownership was $2199.99. ZOTAC's next best option is the brand's factory-overclocked variant—GeForce RTX 5090 SOLID OC—now adjusted up to $2699.99. Launch pricing was somewhere just above $2200, but that figure has changed over time. It was $2369.99, prior to this week—according to a Wayback Machine archived state. As reported last month, ZOTAC rolled out a "Priority Access Campaign" via Discord—this anti-scalping strategy received praise upon initiation, but VideoCardz's watchful eye has kept track of very few successful transactions. According to their latest investigative piece, a "top secret" ZOTAC Discord group was formed—this separate elite member-focused channel offers even "easier access" to coveted cutting-edge gaming graphics card.



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[neatfeatguy]

Water cooled 5090 at Micro Center by me are priced at $3,719.99 (after taxes will be roughly $4015), maybe this is the price that Zotac is hoping to work its way up to.

 

[freeagent]

Charge as much as you want.. no one is gonna buy it.

If people do buy it.. I don't know what to say that is polite

 

[ZoneDymo]

Charge as much as you want.. no one is gonna buy it.

If people do buy it.. I don't know what to say that is polite

If they do buy, unless they really have a LOT of disposible income...which you know...is a problem probably in its own right, this is a choice with consequences.

They do this which means they cant do X, X being a nice dinner with the family at a restaurant, new shoes, some renovation of the house, you name it, that is not going to happen now, its a choice but somewhere, someone else will somewhat suffer for it and Nvidia/AMD is laughing all the way to the bank.

its just sad people rewards this behavior, its always my dream for once that just everyone would be like me, just not buy it.
Can you even imagine it, the hilarious situation if NOBODY bought a RTX5090/5080? that would be historical.

 

[alwayssts]

If they do buy, unless they really have a LOT of disposible income...which you know...is a problem probably in its own right, this is a choice with consequences.

They do this which means they cant do X, X being a nice dinner with the family at a restaurant, new shoes, some renovation of the house, you name it, that is not going to happen now, its a choice but somewhere, someone else will somewhat suffer for it and Nvidia/AMD is laughing all the way to the bank.

its just sad people rewards this behavior, its always my dream for once that just everyone would be like me, just not buy it.
Can you even imagine it, the hilarious situation if NOBODY bought a RTX5090/5080? that would be historical.

I agree with you, my friend. I truly wonder if many are buying them, though, especially since the release of 9070xt. I feel most rational people of non-infinite wealth are not.
There will always be the (generally not well-informed) others, but that's not my call to make, especially if that's their informed decision (although I understand your argument and agree with it in principle).

I feel, and I could be wrong, that most people are starting to wise up to the idea of what's good-enough (for a resolution) and what that's worth relatively-speaking.

For me personally, I've always looked at gfx cards as they should be at least one step up from a console, but should not cost over twice as much to make sense. Certainly not 4x or more.
Features may evolve, but this general rule of thumb needs to hold true since relative performance to a base console consistently becomes cheaper; for similar price per resolution over base features must evolve.
So, say if 1440p (instead of 1080p), around 30% more or so. For 4k not more than 2x or so. IOW, somewhere in the neighborhood of ~$500-800; I also think the market agrees with me (and probably you).

I also think when all is said and done that will be the full scope of N48; 1440p raster/up-scaled RT for ~$500 or so and 1440pRT (or 1080pRT->4k up-scaling) for $800 or less.
IOW, I think AMD got the memo (current prices due to demand and adjustments [especially after any further launches] not withstanding). Nvidia...not so much.

The thing that truly truly bugs me about 5080/5090 is that one can absolutely ascertain where next-gen consoles will perform. They will be built toward 1440pRT native or 1080pRT->4k up-scaling.
That's around 60TF+ or so for the GPU; around where a 5080 OCs but not limited by buffer size (which does/will matter).
Who knows what they will cost, but the fact remains 5080 is not that and the consoles will cost much less. 5090 not one step up from that. Both purposely below; 5080 same market as 9070 xt.
9070 xt is one step down from those consoles as well, but also makes sense, as for all intents and purposes even if game requirements increase for that spec 9070 XT should still stay in the VRR window for it's market.
Which is 1440p w/ quality up-scaling. Where it is currently ~60fps mins and may drop (come those consoles) down to the towards the bottom of the (48hz) VRR window, but not under it.
No true market above that exists (outside a 4090 that isn't really realistic to source; it's also absurdly out of any price/perf window), and certainly none (including the 5090) for native 4kRT.
Hence the 5000 series truly is overpriced trash that is (mostly) taking advantage of the uninformed. If people prefer nVIDIA for whatever reason, that's fine...but these are bad products (and prices).
Especially when we know next-gen those markets will be not only be filled, but for much lower price. As I've said before, I bet a 192-bit Rubin outperforms a 5080 in very real ways for less; bc they need a 1440p part.
And for less money and to be a relative value compared to a console. Currently they don't need to do that, especially as AMD don't have such a part (yet), and hence didn't make it...but still charge as if they did!