The rising cost of TSMC wafers and the sharp increase in GDDR7 memory modules are pushing up the price of Nvidia’s RTX 50 series, with the GeForce RTX 5090 now selling for more than $5,100.
The PC hardware market is once again seeing higher prices after a major increase was confirmed for Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 50 graphics cards. In South Korea, one of the fastest-moving markets, local distributors and importers have confirmed price increases of up to 30% for desktop graphics cards starting this month. The trend could also spread to other parts of the world.
TSMC Costs Push Nvidia RTX 50 Prices Up by 30% in South Korea
The price increase is mainly linked to two supply chain factors. First, Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC has raised prices for its advanced manufacturing processes, with higher costs affecting not only 3nm production but also older 7nm technology. Second, reports from TrendForce say that 2GB GDDR7 memory modules now cost around $20 each. Because of these higher manufacturing and assembly costs, Nvidia has raised the price of the GPU packages it sells to board partners, forcing them to pass those costs on to buyers.
The impact is already visible in South Korean stores. According to data from the Danawa (thanks Tom’s Hardware), entry-level and mid-range models have seen noticeable price increases.
- The RTX 5060 Ti (8GB) now costs around 700,000 won ($490), an increase of about 100,000 won ($70).
- The RTX 5070 is now priced at 1.1 million won ($770) after rising by around 200,000 won ($140).
- The RTX 5090 has seen the biggest increase. Nvidia’s flagship graphics card is now selling for as much as 7.3 million won ($5,112) after climbing by 1.5 million won ($1,050) in just one month.
Several local distributors said that manufacturers temporarily stopped shipments before August so they could update their product prices. Because the global semiconductor supply chain is closely connected, the industry expects these price increases to spread beyond Asia, meaning buyers in Western markets may also see higher RTX 50 prices sooner rather than later.
