nvidia's third GPU price hike of 2026 just landed — I ran the real $/GB math for local AI

GDDR7 modules and TSMC wafer costs just pushed every RTX 50 card higher this week — but the ugliest number isn't the one everyone's quoting. Aliteq Ravi Malhotra · Hardware Editor

RTX 50-series prices rose as much as 30% in South Korea in early August 2026; the RTX 5090 now sells for roughly $5,087, up about $1,045 from mid-July pricing.

Chinese retail projections reported by Notebookcheck put the RTX 5070 near $973 — a 77% jump over its $549 MSRP.

At current Chinese street prices, the RTX 5060 8GB costs about $62 per gigabyte of VRAM — more than the RTX 5090 cost per gigabyte at its own 2025 launch MSRP ($62.5/GB).

The RTX 5060 Ti 16GB remains the best dollar-per-gigabyte value in the lineup even after the hike, at roughly $49/GB.

The root cause is supply chain, not scalping: TSMC raised wafer prices and GDDR7 memory modules have climbed to roughly $20 each.

If you're buying new for local AI right now, the 12GB tier is the one to skip entirely. The RTX 5070 at roughly $973 gives you less VRAM than the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB for about 25% more money — that's…

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