Capital & Compute

GPU prices in 2026: MSRP vs. street, and whether to buy

Tracker· Updated October 3, 2026

Graphics cards are the one consumer market where the memory shortage is fully visible. This page tracks what a card actually costs against its official MSRP, the kit-price hikes driving the gap, and what every situation-specific verdict says about buying now.

How much are GPU prices up right now, and should you buy or wait?

An RTX 5090 lists at $1999 MSRP but sold for about $4999 as of Sep 1, 2026, a +150% premium, while an RTX 5070 at $549 MSRP sold for about $900, +64% over. Nvidia has raised the GPU-and-memory kit price it charges board partners three times in 2026, compounding to roughly 32% to 49% versus January, because GDDR6 spot prices went from about $2.50 to about $11.84 per GB since autumn 2025. Buy now if you need a card, ideally from the bottom of the lineup where premiums are smallest; waiting only pays off if the purchase can be skipped entirely.

Recent updates
  • Oct 3, 2026Refreshed street prices across both lineups (RTX 5090 now $4,999 at the lowest US listing, RTX 5070 Ti $1,119, RX 9070 XT $799) and added a September GDDR6 spot reading of $11.84 per GB. No new Nvidia kit hike or US MSRP change since July.
  • Aug 2, 2026Added spoke pages for the full Nvidia RTX 50 lineup, the AMD Radeon RX lineup, and the GDDR memory cost model behind both.
  • Aug 2, 2026Initial GPU price tracker: the three 2026 Nvidia kit-price hikes, MSRP vs. street price by model, AMD's own MSRP increase, and the GDDR6 spot price move.
+32% to +49%
Compounded 2026 kit-price hike
Three Nvidia increases since January, versus January baseline
$11.84
GDDR6 spot, per GB
+374% since Sep 2025
+150%
RTX 5090 street vs. MSRP
$4999 against a $1999 list price
+64%
RTX 5070 street vs. MSRP
$900 against a $549 list price

The three 2026 kit-price hikes, and why they compound

Nvidia does not set retail prices. It sells board partners such as Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte a bundle of the GPU die plus the GDDR memory that ships with it, commonly called a kit, and that kit has been repriced three times this year. Each hike was reported as a range rather than a single number, so the chart below draws a band, not a line, and the bands compound.

Compounded effect of the three 2026 Nvidia GPU kit-price hikes on a 16GB RTX 5080A cascade chart starting from a $1199 street price for an Asus TUF RTX 5080 in winter 2025-26. The January hike lifts the band by 10 to 15 percent. The May hike applied only to the RTX 5090 line, so this card's band is unchanged. The July hike of 20 to 30 percent lifts the band further, for a compounded total of 32 to 49 percent above the January baseline. The reported July street price of $1595 sits inside the bottom of that band.$1,000$1,200$1,400$1,600$1,800Reported July street price: $1,595 (+33%)$1,199baselineWinter 2025-26Asus TUF RTX 5080, street price$1,319 to $1,379+10% to +15%January hike+10% to +15%May hikeRTX 5090 line only$1,583 to $1,793+32% to +50%July hike+20% to +30%street price, USD; band = compounded low and high of each reported hike rangepercentages are cumulative change versus the baseline stage
Compounded effect of the three 2026 Nvidia GPU kit-price hikes on a 16GB RTX 5080
StageReported hikeCompounded lowCompounded highChange vs baseline
Winter 2025-26baseline$1,199$1,199baseline
January hike+10% to +15%$1,319$1,379+10% to +15%
May hikeRTX 5090 line only$1,319$1,379+10% to +15%
July hike+20% to +30%$1,583$1,793+32% to +50%
Reported July street priceobserved street price$1,595$1,595+33%
Modelled street price of a 16GB RTX 5080 through the three 2026 kit-price hikes. Each stage is a band because every hike was reported as a range. The gold rule is the reported street price of an Asus TUF card, which lands inside the bottom of the compounded band. The price axis starts at $1000, not zero.Source: Kit-price hikes per TrendForce (January) and Economic Daily News via Notebookcheck (July); street price as reported

Read the chart the other way round and it becomes a forecast: the compounded floor for this card is above $1,580, it is selling at $1595, and the remaining band is pass-through that board partners and retailers have not charged yet. The full mechanism, including how much of a graphics card is now memory, is in why GPU prices keep rising in 2026.

GPU price forecast: will GPU prices go down in 2026 or 2027?

No. As of October 1 2026, every published signal points up for the rest of 2026, and none has graphics card prices falling before 2027. The cost driver is graphics memory, not the GPU die: TrendForce expects GDDR6 and GDDR7 prices to keep rising in 4Q26, board partners raised RTX 50 prices again in September, and the memory forecasts behind both see no relief before late 2027, with 2028 the more common call. If you need a card, waiting is a bet no published forecast supports.

Published GPU and graphics memory price forecasts by horizon, 2026 to 2028
HorizonForecastSource
Sep 2026Board partners raised RTX 50 prices again: about $119 on an RTX 5080, $30 to $44 on an RTX 5070; Gigabyte expects September high-end supply down 30% from AugustChannelGate, as reported by Wccftech (September 9 2026)
4Q26Graphics memory prices stay on an upward trajectory: GDDR6 is being exited and GDDR7 output stays limited as capacity moves to server DRAMTrendForce, September 30 2026 press release
2027Memory supply tighter, not looser; customers seeking long-term agreements out to 2030Adata and Winbond, as reported by TrendForce (August 7 2026)
2028No memory shortage relief until 2028, per Intel CEO Lip-Bu TanIntel CEO interview, as reported by Bloomberg (February 3 2026)

The September rows are board-partner and channel prices reported by trade press, a secondary source, so treat them as direction rather than a quote. The memory side of the same forecast, quarter by quarter, is on the DDR5 price forecast.

MSRP vs. street price, by model

Nvidia has not changed official MSRPs; every dollar of the gap is the pass-through of the three 2026 kit-price hikes plus ordinary scalping premium. By mid-September first-party RTX 5090 stock had largely vanished from US e-tail, with third-party sellers asking $6,395 to $9,500 (Tom's Hardware, September 14, 2026).

Nvidia GeForce RTX: official MSRP versus reported street priceRTX 5090: $1999 MSRP versus $4999 street; RTX 5080: $999 MSRP versus $1549 street; RTX 5070: $549 MSRP versus $899.99 streetReported street priceOfficial MSRP$0$1000$2000$3000$4000$5000RTX 5090$4999$1999RTX 5080$1549$999RTX 5070$900$549
Nvidia GeForce RTX: official MSRP versus reported street price
ItemReported street priceOfficial MSRP
RTX 5090$4999$1999
RTX 5080$1549$999
RTX 5070$900$549
Official MSRP versus reported street price for three Nvidia models, as of October 3, 2026. The gap narrows sharply toward the entry tier.Source: Nvidia (MSRP); TheFPSReview/VideoCardz and Notebookcheck (street prices), as attributed per row below
ModelMSRPStreetSource
RTX 5090Zotac Solid OC, Newegg$1999$4999Tom's Hardware (Zotac Solid OC, Newegg), lowest current US listing, September 1, 2026
RTX 5080Lowest US listing$999$1549Tom's Hardware, lowest current US listing, September 1, 2026
RTX 5070Newegg median$549$900Tom's Hardware, median of Newegg listings, August 10, 2026

Buy now or wait? The verdict by situation

Waiting only pays off in the one case where the spend itself is optional. Otherwise the asymmetry runs against you: the downside of waiting is priced (you pay more later), and the upside is speculative (relief depends on fab capacity that does not exist yet).

If youVerdictBecause
Your card died and you need one this monthBuy nowRetail has not finished passing through the July kit hike, and no forecaster expects memory contract prices to fall before 2027 at the earliest. A month of waiting is a month of paying more for the same card.TrendForce, Notebookcheck reporting Economic Daily News
You have a working card and want an upgradeWait, or buy usedThis is the one case where the spend is optional. Waiting avoids paying peak prices for a want rather than a need, and used or last-generation cards sidestep the current-generation kit hikes entirely.Capital & Compute analysis
You are buying at the entry tier on a budget buildBuy nowTechSpot's regional pricing survey finds the entry tier sitting closest to MSRP, with the steepest premiums concentrated at the flagship end. The cheap tier has the least room left to fall.TechSpot Q2 2026 pricing survey
You need 24GB or more of VRAM for local AIBuy used or last-generationDenser GDDR7 modules are priced to discourage exactly this: a 3GB module costs three times a 2GB module for 50% more capacity, so more VRAM on a current-generation card is the most punitively priced upgrade available.Supply-chain reporting cited alongside the July 2026 kit hike

AMD's own MSRP moved instead of just the kit price

AMD's move landed differently from Nvidia's: AMD raised its own official MSRPs rather than only the kit price it charges board partners, so the sticker price itself moved.

ModelOld MSRPNew MSRP
RX 9070 XT 16GB$599$619
RX 9070 16GB$549$569
RX 9060 XT 16GB$349$369
RX 9060 XT 8GB$299$309

Why the same memory shortage looks different here

This is the same mechanism covered on the memory price tracker: fabs shifted wafer capacity toward high-bandwidth memory for AI accelerators, and mainstream DRAM and GDDR both went short as a result. GDDR6 spot prices moved from about $2.50 to about $11.84 per GB since autumn 2025, a roughly +374% move, or about 4.7 times the autumn 2025 price.

The two vendors passed that cost down differently. Nvidia repriced the GPU-and-memory kit it charges board partners, three times in 2026, while leaving official MSRPs untouched: the RTX 5090 still lists at $1999 even as street prices run past $4999. AMD instead moved its own official MSRPs directly, by $10 to $20 per card. Both routes land on the buyer the same way; only the sticker price tells a different story depending on which vendor made it.

For the deeper mechanism, including how a 2GB versus 3GB GDDR7 module prices out and what that means for VRAM capacity on a local-AI build, see why GPU prices keep rising in 2026. For the memory shortage underneath both markets, see the 2026 memory shortage explained and the HBM price tracker, which covers the product that started the reallocation. The third component the same squeeze reached is storage: see the SSD and NAND price tracker for what a terabyte of flash costs now.

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How this tracker stays honest

  • MSRP is official; street price is a dated snapshot. Every street-price figure names its source and date in the table above. Retail prices move between readings, so treat each figure as a reading, not a live price.
  • Kit price and MSRP are different numbers. Nvidia's reported hikes are to the price it charges board partners for a GPU-and-memory kit, not to official list prices, which is why MSRP looks stable while street prices do not. AMD's reported hikes, by contrast, are to its own official MSRP.
  • Ranges stay ranges. Every kit-price hike was reported as a percentage range rather than a point estimate, so the cascade chart draws a band and states both ends rather than picking a midpoint that invents precision the sources do not support.

Frequently asked questions

How much are GPU prices up in 2026?
Nvidia has raised the GPU-and-memory kit price it charges board partners three times in 2026: roughly 10% to 15% in January (15% to 20% on 16GB-plus cards), a narrower increase in May limited to the RTX 5090 line, and 20% to 30% in July across the whole GeForce RTX lineup. Compounded, that is about +32% to +49% versus January on a card the May increase did not touch. An Asus TUF RTX 5080 went from $1,199 to $1,595 at retail over the same period, which sits at the bottom of that compounded band.
Did Nvidia raise official MSRP?
No. The RTX 5090 still carries its $1999 MSRP from its January 2025 launch, and the RTX 5070 its $549 MSRP, unchanged. What moved is the price Nvidia charges board partners such as Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte for the GPU-plus-memory kit, which they then pass to retail at their own discretion. AMD's move looked different: it raised its own official MSRPs directly, by $10 to $20 depending on the card, rather than only repricing the kit.
Why are GPU prices rising in 2026?
Because GDDR memory got repriced by the AI buildout, not because graphics silicon is scarce. GDDR6 spot prices went from about $2.50 to about $11.84 per GB since autumn 2025, a roughly +374% move, as memory makers shifted wafer capacity toward high-bandwidth memory and server DRAM. The fixed-price contracts that had shielded card makers through 2025 expired, and Nvidia and AMD both passed the new memory cost down the chain.
Which GPU tier has the smallest markup over MSRP right now?
The bottom of the lineup. The RTX 5060 Ti 8GB was selling for about $500, +32% over its $379 MSRP, as of Sep 1, 2026, while the flagship RTX 5090 was running about +150% over its $1999 MSRP. The mid-range is no longer a safe harbour: the RTX 5070 now sits +64% over list. Premiums are steepest at the top and on cards with more VRAM, where scarcity and AI demand both bite hardest.
Should I buy a GPU now or wait for prices to drop?
Buy now if you need a card, particularly at the entry tier where prices sit closest to MSRP. No forecaster on record expects graphics memory relief before 2027 at the earliest, since new fab capacity takes 18 to 24 months to build and AI demand shows no sign of cooling. Waiting only pays off if the purchase itself can be skipped, such as an upgrade from a working card, not merely deferred.
Is AMD raising GPU prices too?
Yes, and its 2025-26 increases have moved the actual MSRP rather than only a board-partner kit price. The RX 9070 XT rose from $599 to $619, the RX 9070 from $549 to $569, and the RX 9060 XT from $349 to $369 (16GB) or $299 to $309 (8GB), all attributed to rising GDDR6 costs. AMD's Radeon lineup uses GDDR6 exclusively, which is the same memory that got squeezed for Nvidia's previous-generation cards.
When will GPU prices come down?
Not before 2027, and 2028 is the more commonly cited industry estimate. Relief depends on new memory fab capacity (an 18-to-24-month build cycle) or AI memory demand cooling enough to free existing capacity for consumer parts. The same forecast timeline applies to the memory shortage behind it; see the memory price tracker for the current chip and retail readings.

Sources

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