Getting a graphics card right now feels like a steal, and not in the sense of finding a good deal. GPU prices are now 28% above MSRP on average, with NVIDIA's RTX 5090 soaring past $10,000, five times its original launch price. A large part of the blame sits with AI, with RTX 5090 cards being absorbed into AI servers in far greater quantities than they are ending up in gaming PCs.
So a brand-new premium graphics card is off the table for most people, which naturally turns attention toward the used market. There are plenty of reasons to be cautious there too, and we've covered a few, including an RTX 4080 being shipped without a GPU die or VRAM inside. Still, if you tread carefully, inspect everything thoroughly, and find a genuine listing, the used market has at least been a viable fallback. That may be changing.
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Six weeks of daily price tracking on eBay US, covering 55 cards priced on both August 7 and September 19, shows used graphics cards rising 5.7% as a category over that period, the fastest increase across 88 tracked categories. To put that in perspective, the broader secondhand market across those same six weeks is essentially flat, down 0.2% overall. In other words, only GPUs are getting hit left and right.
The RTX 5080 climbed from $1,099 to $1,400, a 27% increase. The RX 7900 XTX rose from $706 to $900, also 27%. The RX 9070 went from $500 to $620, up 24%. Even mid-range cards are not immune, with the RTX 3070 up 20% from $200 to $240, the RX 6800 XT up 20% from $300 to $360, and the RTX 4060 Ti up 19% from $270 to $320. A few exceptions remain on Team Red, including the RX 6600 XT, down 16%, and the RX 6750 XT, down 9%. But those two are about the only exceptions.
This is not just a PC building problem either. Consoles have seen price increases, with the PS5 Digital Edition now costing more than 50% above its original price. CPUs and processors are following the same trajectory, with chipmaker AMD planning a 10% price hike for some chips. The options for building or upgrading a PC are thinning across the board.
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There aren't any concrete timelines for pricing to settle, with warnings and "get used to it" becoming the mantras from companies and analysts across the board. But it's clear that the knock-on effect of rising costs on new products is coming, and the used market, especially GPUs, is already showing signs that nowhere is safe.
