If you were hoping that 2026 would be the year hardware prices would stabilize a bit and get closer to normal, I will have to disappoint you. The crisis of RAM prices, which is showing no signs of stopping, is gradually being joined by the prices of graphics cards, led by the RTX 5080 model, which has reached a record-breaking $2,000.
GeForce RTX 5080 graphics cards have practically disappeared from official offerings, including the Nvidia Store at MSRP, so they can now only be acquired through retail partners and reseller marketplaces like Amazon, where the price has climbed to an incredible $2,000. That is twice as expensive as the recommended price, which was $999.
There are many reasons for this situation, and one of the main ones is certainly that the RTX 5090 model has also practically disappeared from sale, so the best alternative started selling in mass quantities. It is also possible that Nvidia is preparing for a new RTX 5080 model that will feature 24GB of memory compared to the current 16GB. Rumors claim that this will happen as early as December, but considering everything that is happening right now, don't expect a low price.
AI is also tied into the whole problem since the RTX 50 series utilizes the latest GDDR7 memory. Memory module manufacturing capacities are heavily strained because a huge portion of industrial capacity (at manufacturers like SK Hynix, Micron, and Samsung) is being diverted toward the production of high-bandwidth memory for data centers.
Officially, the most powerful model currently available through Nvidia's marketplace is the RTX 5070 Ti, which is slightly weaker than the 5080 model. However, that does not mean the price of that model won't go higher as well. The model launched at a price of $749 in 2025, but the price has already climbed to $1,299 and shows no tendency to drop.
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