GPU Prices Keep Rising: Buy Now or Wait It Out?

You priced out an RTX 5070 in the summer at about $630 and decided to wait for a deal. Now you check again and the cheapest one is $899. GPU prices did not drift down toward Black Friday. They climbed.

That leaves you with an uncomfortable choice before the holiday sales. Buy now at a price that feels wrong, or wait and risk paying even more in a month. This guide shows how far GPU prices have moved since August, why the cards with more memory jumped the most, and how to decide what to do with your own budget.

How Far GPU Prices Have Climbed Since Summer

The cleanest way to see the trend is to compare two snapshots from the same source. Tom's Hardware's GPU price index lists the lowest US price for every current card, updated through November 3. In early August, the same outlet published the same table. Here is what changed for the cards most people actually shop for:

• RTX 5070 (MSRP $549): $629 in August, $899 in November
• RTX 5070 Ti (MSRP $749): $949 in August, $1,399 in November
• RTX 5060 (MSRP $299): $339 in August, $449 in November
• RX 9070 XT (MSRP $599): $719 in August, $919 in November
• RX 9070 (MSRP $549): $639 in August, $749 in November
• RX 9060 XT 16GB (MSRP $349): $449 in August, $659 in November

The top end is worse. The cheapest RTX 5090 listed at $4,288 in August and $6,919 in November, more than three times its $1,999 launch price. The RTX 5080 doubled its $999 MSRP to $1,999.

No current card in that table is cheaper now than it was in August. The best-case result for a summer waiter is a 16% increase (the RTX 5060 Ti 8GB, from $429 to $499). The worst mid-range case is the RX 9060 XT 16GB at 47%.

Why Memory Is Driving Graphics Card Costs

A graphics card is a GPU chip surrounded by fast memory chips called VRAM. That memory comes from the same small group of suppliers that also build the high-bandwidth memory inside AI accelerators. When AI companies order memory by the data center, gaming cards are the lower-margin customer waiting in line.

Tom's Hardware describes the memory industry as "besieged by insanely large memory orders for AI data centers," and reports that Nvidia is purportedly allocating memory based on how much money it can make per gigabyte of VRAM. If you want the wider story of how this squeeze reaches phones and laptops too, our explainer on how the memory chip shortage is raising device prices covers the supply side.

For a gaming card, the chain works like this:

1. Memory makers raise contract prices because AI buyers will pay more.
2. Board partners pay more for the GPU and memory that go onto each card, so their cost per card rises.
3. Board partners (Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, Sapphire and others) pass the increase into their retail prices.
4. Retailers sell out of the cheapest models first, so the "lowest available price" climbs even when list prices move slowly.

That last step matters more than it looks. Tom's Hardware's tracker writer noted in August that he watched the cheapest models sell out while checking weekly, and the price "just keeps climbing a little higher every time." The MSRP is a launch number, not a shelf price.

The 16GB Tax: A Worked Example

The clearest sign that memory is the problem shows up when one GPU chip is sold in two memory sizes. The chip is the same. Only the amount of VRAM changes. So the gap between the two versions is roughly the market price of 8GB of extra memory, plus whatever margin rides on it.

Here are the numbers from the Tom's Hardware tables:

• RTX 5060 Ti: 8GB MSRP $379, 16GB MSRP $429. Gap at launch: $50. In August: $429 vs $569, a $140 gap. In November: $499 vs $769, a $270 gap.
• RX 9060 XT: 8GB MSRP $299, 16GB MSRP $349. Gap at launch: $50. In August: $359 vs $449, a $90 gap. In November: $459 vs $659, a $200 gap.

Run the math on the RTX 5060 Ti. At launch, the extra 8GB cost you $50. Now it costs $270, which is 5.4 times as much. The 8GB card rose $70 between August and November. The 16GB card rose $200 over the same three months.

What this means for your build: the memory you add is now the most expensive part of the upgrade. If you play at 1080p and mostly run esports titles, an 8GB card at $459 to $499 is the more defensible spend. If you play new releases at 1440p with high textures, 8GB will run short sooner, and you are paying the 16GB premium either now or at your next upgrade.

Will GPU Prices Drop for Black Friday?

History says probably not by much. In an August analysis, Tom's Hardware pointed out that this generation has seen a lack of notable below-MSRP discounts during big sale events like Black Friday and Prime Day. The lowest-ever prices for most cards sit barely under launch MSRP, if at all. The RTX 5090 never dropped below $1,999.

November has already given one preview. On November 9, PC Gamer flagged a Newegg doorbuster that cut a Gigabyte RX 9070 GRE to $499, below its $549 MSRP. PC Gamer called it the only current-generation card you could find below MSRP. In an update the same day, it reported the price "went north" to $899.99 once the deal ended.

So expect Black Friday to look like that: short, stock-limited drops on a few models, not a broad reset. If you do catch one, check that the seller is the retailer itself. Tom's Hardware warns that listings sometimes switch to third-party sellers, which is where inflated and less trustworthy offers tend to sit. And if a retailer drops the price after you buy, some stores will refund the difference; our guide to which stores pay you back on Black Friday price drops lists the policies.

Buy Now or Wait: How to Decide

Waiting has a cost too. Between August and November the cheapest RTX 5070 rose $270, an average of $90 a month. You cannot assume that pace continues. You also cannot assume it reverses. Tom's Hardware reported that the next generation of cards is not expected for at least a year, so no new launch is coming to push current models down.

Buy now if

• Your current card cannot run what you play. A card that fails to launch a game you own is worth replacing even at a premium.
• You find a card at or near its MSRP from a first-party seller. Given the trend, that is a good price, not a fair one.
• Your budget fits a lower tier. An RX 9070 GRE listed at $569 on the November 3 tracker, only $20 over MSRP, while the RX 9070 above it sat $200 over.

Wait if

• Your current card still runs your games at settings you accept. Lowering texture quality or turning on upscaling (DLSS or FSR) can buy you months.
• You are shopping above $1,000. The RTX 5070 Ti, 5080 and 5090 carry the biggest markups, from 87% to 246% over MSRP. Paying that for a card that will hold the same value as a cheaper one is the worst trade on the table.
• You are tempted by an older card at a "deal" price. Tom's Hardware lists an RTX 4070 at $879, well above its $549 launch price, and most older stock now comes from third parties.

To see how fast your budget is shrinking, plug the August and November prices into our inflation calculator. A 43% rise in three months is the kind of number most people only associate with currency crises.

Cheaper Ways to Keep Gaming

If the numbers above rule out a new card, you still have options that cost less than a GPU markup.

• Target the anomaly cards. Models that launched late or sold mainly in other regions (like the RX 9070 GRE, which went worldwide in June) sometimes price closer to MSRP than the popular SKUs.
• Set a price alert at MSRP plus 10%. Doorbuster drops last minutes, not days. An alert beats checking manually.
• Buy the 8GB version deliberately if you play competitive shooters at 1080p, and keep the $200 to $270 difference for a better monitor later.
• Stream the games you cannot run. A cloud subscription costs a fraction of the markup, and our look at cloud gaming without a console covers where it works and where latency still hurts.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are GPU prices going up right now?

Memory is the main reason. AI data centers are buying memory in record volumes, and the same suppliers make the VRAM on gaming cards. Higher memory costs raise what board partners pay to build each card, and they pass that into retail prices.

Will graphics card prices go down after Black Friday?

There is little sign of it. This generation has seen few below-MSRP sales during big events, and the cheapest listings for most cards rose between August and November. Expect brief, limited deals rather than a broad price drop.

Is it worth buying an 8GB GPU right now?

For 1080p and lighter games, yes, it is the better value today. The 16GB versions of the RTX 5060 Ti and RX 9060 XT cost $200 to $270 more than their 8GB versions. Choose 16GB if you play new releases at 1440p with high texture settings.

When will the next generation of graphics cards come out?

Not soon. Tom's Hardware reported that new Nvidia and AMD lineups are not expected for at least a year, and that new cards are likely to cost more than the current generation because of memory prices.

The Bottom Line

GPU prices in November are a memory story, not a gaming story. Cards rose 16% to 47% in the mid-range over three months, and the versions with more VRAM rose the most. Black Friday may bring a few short drops, but nothing in the data points to a reset.

Decide based on what your current card can still do. If it runs your games, lower a setting and wait. If it does not, buy the cheapest tier that does the job, from a first-party seller, and stop checking the price once it ships.