It’s also becoming increasingly difficult to justify for gaming — and ironically, Nvidia’s own DLSS technology is a big reason why. When the RTX 5090 launched almost two years ago, Nvidia slapped a staggering $1,999 price tag on its new flagship.
What happened
It’s also becoming increasingly difficult to justify for gaming — and ironically, Nvidia’s own DLSS technology is a big reason why.
Where the sources line up
When the RTX 5090 launched almost two years ago, Nvidia slapped a staggering $1,999 price tag on its new flagship. I called it “ the most brutally fast graphics card ever ,” because it was (and still is). The RTX 5090 delivered a massive leap in raw performance, paired with a mammoth 32GB of cutting-edge GDDR7 memory and Nvidia’s new Blackwell architecture.
Practical impact for readers
Now? Actually buying an RTX 5090 can cost vastly more than its already-staggering sticker price. In September, a brand-new RTX 5090 had climbed to at least $5,000 in North America. Current U. S. price tracking puts the average even higher.
Who should pay attention now
And make no mistake: The RTX 5090 is vastly faster than cheaper graphics cards. This isn’t one of those situations where a $549 GeForce RTX 5070 suddenly matches Nvidia’s flagship if you flip on a magic setting, no matter what Nvidia’s marketing material might say.
What is still unclear
But DLSS is fundamentally changing what all that extra GPU horsepower actually gets you — and that makes the reported discontinuation of the RTX 5090 (Nvidia did not respond to a request for comment) much less catastrophic for gamers.
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