4 hours ago
3
Every so often, Central Computers — one of the last remaining dedicated Silicon Valley computer stores — lets subscribers know it’s managed to obtain a small shipment of AMD graphics cards. Today, it informed me that I could now purchase a $600 Radeon RX 9070 XT for $850 — a $250 markup.
It’s not alone. I just checked every major US retailer and street prices on eBay, and I regret to inform you: the great GPU shortage has returned. Many AMD cards are being marked up $100, $200, $250, even $280. The street price of an Nvidia RTX 5080 is now over $1,500, a full $500 higher than MSRP. And an RTX 5090, the most powerful consumer GPU? You can’t even get the $2,000 card for $3,000 today.
Here, I’ve built tables to show you:
GPU street prices: April 2025
| AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT | $599 | $957 | $880 |
| AMD Radeon RX 9070 | $549 | $761 | $835 |
| Nvidia RTX 5090 | $1,999 | $3,871 | $3,140 |
| Nvidia RTX 5080 | $999 | $1,533 | $1,390 |
| Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti | $749 | $1,052 | $825 |
| Nvidia RTX 5070 | $549 | $715 | $610 |
“Best retail price” is the actual price I saw a card for on April 25th — roughly the minimum you’d pay.
You shouldn’t just blame tariffs for these price hikes. In early March, we found retailers were already scalping their supposedly entry-level MSRP models of the new AMD graphics cards. Nor is this likely to just be high demand, given how few cards are changing hands on eBay: only around 1,100 new Nvidia GPUs, and around 266 new AMD GPUs were listed there over the past 30 days.
But tariffs may have an greater impact soon: on May 2nd, the de minimis exemption will no longer apply, meaning shipments valued at $800 or less can be taxed, and many more shipments will likely get hit as a result. Stores like Shein and Temu have already raised prices in anticipation.
Here’s a deeper dive on the “MSRP” models of the AMD cards, which were all originally listed at $549 or $599:
AMD “MSRP” GPU prices, April 2025
| PowerColor Reaper 9070 XT | $599 | $699 | $799 | $755 | 6 |
| Sapphire Pulse 9070 XT | $599 | $879 | $849 | $879 | 39 |
| XFX Swift 9070 XT | $599 | $839 | $829 | $949 | 2 |
| ASRock Steel Legend 9070 XT | $599 | $699 | $699 | $892 | 32 |
| Gigabyte Gaming 9070 XT | $599 | $659 | N/A | $913 | 32 |
| PowerColor Reaper 9070 | $549 | $699 | $679 | $765 | 4 |
| Sapphire Pulse 9070 | $549 | $669 | $789 | $771 | 7 |
| XFX Swift OC 9070 | $549 | $639 | $749 | $746 | 25 |
| ASRock Challenger 9070 | $549 | $549 | $609 | $880 | 1 |
| Gigabyte Gaming OC 9070 | $549 | $669 | $669 | $893 | 36 |
eBay street prices are an average.
I’ve focused this table on Newegg and Micro Center since they carry more models than any other retailer, though I also spotted “MSRP” 9070 XT cards at $800 and $850 at Amazon today, and an $830 card at Best Buy. Otherwise, these are the new sticker prices, not necessarily attainable prices, as most were out of stock.
From December 2020 to July 2022, I periodically tracked the prices of game consoles and GPUs during the covid-19 pandemic, when they were incredibly expensive to obtain. At one point, some GPUs were worth triple their MSRP. I’d love to hear from Verge subscribers in particular: is this a valuable service we should continue in the tariff era? Or do you just want to know when it’s safe to enter the water again?
English (US) ·