nvidia's about to hike GPU prices again — here's the actual buy-or-wait math for local AI

A third price hike in one year is reportedly coming for the RTX 50 series — and if you're buying VRAM for local AI, not frame rates, the calculation… Aliteq Ravi Malhotra · Hardware Editor

Nvidia has already raised RTX 50-series prices twice in 2026: roughly 10-15% in January, then a narrower hike that hit only the RTX 5090 in May.

A reported third hike of 20-30% is now circulating for late 2026, tied to GDDR7 memory modules running about $20 each and rising TSMC wafer costs.

An RTX 5070 Ti with a $749 MSRP is already selling for roughly $960-1,050 at US retail (Notebookcheck) — before any new hike lands.

The RTX 5090 has already crossed $4,300 in the US and over $5,100 in South Korea, more than double its $1,999 launch price.

A used RTX 3090 (24GB) still beats every current RTX 50-series card on VRAM per dollar, and it's the purchase least exposed to a new-card price hike.

If a model you actually want to run needs more VRAM than your current card has, and a new RTX 50-series card is genuinely your best option for it, buying ahead of a credible (if unconfirmed) 20-30%…

Buy now if you need the VRAM today

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