Graphics cards have gotten about 35% more expensive in just three months, according to a price tracker across ten countries published in late October 2026, and in Europe the average price of NVIDIA’s cards has risen more than 41% between late June and late September. A memory shortage, diverted toward AI chips, is behind much of the increase, which now touches almost the entire lineup, from the RTX 5090 down to entry-level models like the RTX 5060.
Graphics card price hikes in 20 seconds
- Graphics cards are up 35% on average in three months across ten countries.
- In Europe, NVIDIA is up 41% and AMD 28% between June and September.
- The RTX 5090 tops €6,000 in Europe.
- The main cause is a memory shortage driven by AI demand.
The Hardware Unboxed tracker, picked up by MIXED News, compares the cheapest available model of each GPU across ten markets. The increases have piled up month after month: 15% in August, 7% in September and 11% in October. These are entry-level prices, not averages across every model, but they point to a clear trend: buying a graphics card today costs quite a bit more than it did in summer.
The cards rising the most
The RTX 5090 is the most extreme case. In Europe, according to Shattered, no unit was going for under €6,000 by mid-October, and in France it hit €6,499.90 on October 17, about €2,000 more than nine weeks earlier. In Germany, data from 3DCenter points to a 132% increase over a year. Its launch price was $1,999. Part of the pressure stems from a Tom’s Hardware report, not confirmed by NVIDIA, claiming the company has stopped making the RTX 5090 to redirect its GB202 chip toward RTX Pro cards for data centers.
But it’s not the only one. In the United States, the cheapest RTX 5080 went from $1,580 to $2,200 between September and October, double its $999 launch price, and its price rose 22% on average across the countries surveyed. The 16 GB RTX 5060 Ti has gotten more than 70% more expensive in a year in Europe, and on the AMD side the 16 GB Radeon RX 9060 XT went from $500 to $620 in the US in a single month, versus its $349 launch price.
The secondhand market has also spiked. According to listing prices compiled by BuySellRam in the United States between August 8 and October 11, used RTX 5090 units are going for more than new ones, the used RTX 4090 is up 27%, the RTX 4080 Super 31%, and the 16 GB RTX 4060 Ti 30%. Even older cards like the 12 GB RTX 3060 are up 31% on the used market. At the lower end, the RTX 5060 is up 25% and the RTX 5070 another 25%.
Memory, the bottleneck
The explanation the sources keep repeating is memory. DRAM makers have diverted capacity toward the HBM memory used in AI accelerators, which has driven up the price of GDDR6 and GDDR7 graphics memory. According to Tech Times, cited by Shattered, the spot-market price of GDDR6 has gone from about $2.50 per gigabyte in late 2025 to around $7.50 in October 2026. Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra has acknowledged that his company can only meet between half and two-thirds of demand and does not expect much new capacity before 2028.
The increases aren’t just at NVIDIA. AMD has raised prices to its partners in several rounds, the latest on October 1, and the average price of the Radeon RX 9000 series is up around 46% over a year in Germany, while Intel Arc Battlemage cards are up 38%. Gartner expects DRAM and SSD prices combined to rise around 130% in 2026 versus 2025, which will also push up PC prices.
What it means for users and businesses
The sources don’t expect quick relief while AI keeps absorbing memory. Differences between countries and retailers are large, as shown by Brazil, where the RTX 5080 held its price while it rose elsewhere, and in some models the secondhand market is already asking more than for a new card. For businesses building local AI rigs, the price hikes hit the budget directly. Cloud News previously covered what to buy to run LLMs locally, and the strain on the supply chain also extends to other components, such as substrates for AI chips.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much have graphics card prices risen?
About 35% in three months, according to a tracker across ten countries. In Europe, the average price of NVIDIA’s cards rose 41% between June and September 2026.
Why are GPU prices rising?
Mainly because of a shortage of GDDR6 and GDDR7 memory, as DRAM makers prioritize HBM memory for AI chips.
How much does an RTX 5090 cost in Europe?
By mid-October 2026, no unit was going for under €6,000, and in France it sold for €6,499.90, versus a launch price of $1,999.
Will prices come down soon?
Sources don’t expect that in the short term. Micron doesn’t expect much new memory capacity before 2028.
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