RTX 50-series prices jump 30% in South Korea as GDDR7 costs bite
GDDR7 shortages push RTX 50-series well past MSRP in South Korea
NVIDIA's RTX 50-series cards are climbing up to 30% over MSRP in South Korea, according to TweakTown. The flagship RTX 5090 crossed $5,000, well above its $1,999 US launch price. The rest of the Blackwell lineup is seeing similar markups.
The driver is GDDR7 memory. Production yields are still ramping, and supply hasn't caught up to demand. That's hitting every card in the stack — the 5090's 32GB, the 5080's 16GB, even the mid-range models. South Korea's import duties compound the problem, but the memory shortage is global.
This matters if you're shopping now or waiting for prices to settle. RTX 50-series cards offer real gains over the 40-series (DLSS 4 multi-frame generation, better raster efficiency), but you're paying a premium for GDDR7. If you're on a 3080 or 4070 Ti and can wait, prices should normalize as GDDR7 fabs scale up through Q4. If you need the card today, the RTX 4090 is still in stock at more predictable pricing.
Run a fresh optimization playbook on your current card before committing $2,500+ to a new build.
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