PC Desktop Vendor Laments 'Insane' RTX 5090 Prices: 'We're Getting Scalped'

Yahoo

15-03-2025

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Like consumers, PC desktop maker PowerGPU also faces exorbitant prices for Nvidia's GeForce RTX 5090, forcing it to raise fees on its custom builds.
'Even from distribution, we're getting scalped,' says PowerGPU CEO Jese Martinez.
On Thursday, he posted a video lamenting scarce supplies and sky-high pricing for the RTX 5090, the most powerful GPU in the 5000 series. The product is supposed to start at $1,999, but Martinez says his own company is seeing prices at $3,000+ despite being a systems integrator that presumably has access to wholesale distributors.
'We're literally getting offered GPUs, 5090s, at cost for us, anywhere from $3,050 to $3,100,' he says. 'And these are not even high-end models. They're like low to midrange models.'
Martinez posted the video to explain why PowerGPU custom builds with the RTX 5090 cost around $5,000. Indeed, including the GPU in a desktop PC on PowerGPU's website seems to add $3,100 to the final cost.
In response, clients have told the company, 'Oh, you're scalping me,' Martinez says. 'We explain it to them. This is literally what's happening right now with this market. It is insane.
"People are willing to pay for it, but I feel horrible,' Martinez adds. 'I just feel gross. Like, literally my whole team, we all feel just disgusted when we see these prices."
The other problem is that PowerGPU has received a limited quantity of RTX 5090 GPUs since launch. As a result, the company's site says consumers may need to wait three to four months before receiving their orders. 'I honestly don't understand how companies are sitting back and letting this crap happen,' Martinez says in the video.
Other custom PC desktop makers have been showing similar prices, with the RTX 5090 costing from $2,900 to over $3,300 on sites from iBUYPOWER, Maingear, and Digital Storm.
This all comes as President Trump has instituted a 20% tariff on goods from China, where many GPUs are assembled. In Martinez's video, PowerGPU claims that 'companies are taking advantage' of the tariffs to raise prices beyond the 20% amount.
In the meantime, Nvidia has acknowledged that many consumers are 'frustrated' with low RTX 5000 GPU supplies. 'Do know that Nvidia and our add-in card partners are working overtime to keep supply flowing and catch up with demand as quickly as we can,' a company executive told journalists on Wednesday.