Need to Purchase Nvidia’s Graphics Playing cards at MSRP? Head On All the way down to Grapevine, Texas

The costs of Nvidia’s RTX 50-series graphics playing cards have gotten so out of hand that you could be must spend near $5,000 if you wish to purchase a top-end RTX 5090 GPU. The solely technique to ignore this horrible pricing irony is to journey to QuakeCon, the place Nvidia is granting some fortunate attendees the prospect to purchase one in all these high-end graphics playing cards for a measly $2,000.

Nvidia is attending the annual gaming convention with its typical swag bus parked out entrance. QuakeCon is hosted by ZeniMax, usually to advertise latest video games from id Software—on this case, the enlargement pack to Doom: The Dark Ages, known as Revelations—in addition to different latest titles from Bethesda and ZeniMax Media. For Nvidia, it’s an opportunity to permit some fortunate individuals to swing by the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas, to buy the Founders Edition RTX 5070, RTX 5080, and RTX 5090.

I’ll reiterate: these playing cards are being offered at MSRP. That means an RTX 5070 prices $550, an RTX 5080 $1,000, and an RTX 5090 $2,000. These usually are not low-cost playing cards, however they’re a lot cheaper than what they value now. An Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 card can simply value effectively over $4,000. A Reddit user just lately posted that their $4,492 order of Nvidia’s top-end card had been denied on account of impending value will increase. The person just lately deleted their put up, although it comes on the heels of quite a few studies that GPUs are seeing value hikes throughout the board.

Nvidia has hosted these “Verified Priority Access IRL” GPU gross sales at varied conventions and showcases up to now 12 months. Even at launch, it was one of many few methods customers may rating these GPUs for across the advised checklist value. The RTX 50-series launch was notoriously restricted again in 2025, which is what kicked off the value inflation.

If you don’t find yourself with a GPU, you will discover Nvidia workers on the present flooring handing out the subsequent smartest thing: buying and selling playing cards detailing Nvidia’s previous gaming GPUs, earlier than it turned the AI monolith it’s right now. Just don’t point out the irony of how its marketing campaign for AI information facilities has inflated the price of these chips.

It’s QuakeCon’s twentieth anniversary this 12 months, however Nvidia’s GPU stall might change into one of many occasion’s largest points of interest (hopefully, not simply by graphics card scalpers). The beloved studio id Software was one of many builders caught up within the devastating Xbox “reset.” Staff on the time reported that close to half the studio had been laid off. Id Software later claimed in a statement it had “the crew we need to make great games” regardless of the staffing cuts.

This is a nasty time for the individuals making each video games and gaming {hardware}. Memory costs have skyrocketed, pushed by the push to create AI hyperscalers and information facilities. PC element costs, particularly RAM and GPUs, have change into untenable for many DIY builders. Now, the one method to purchase any element at something near an inexpensive value is a matter of luck—or quite, attending the fitting conference on the proper time.