NVIDIA’s GPU sales strategy needs to change

For years, getting a new GPU for your PC has been an utterly abysmal experience all the way up until you actually have it in your hands, because NVIDIA’s GPU sales strategy has been just as utterly abysmal. Buying a new GPU is supposed to be an exciting experience. The feeling of getting a shiny new piece of tech to upgrade your gaming PC can be one of both sublimity and a sense of accomplishment. Knowing full well that once you boot it up for the first time after that installation, your games are going to look and run better than they did before.

It’s a thought that any PC gamer could empathize with and hope to experience firsthand. The problem is that there are so many hurdles to what should be a rather simple process. You want a new GPU, you put down some money for it, the retailer hands or ships you the product you paid for, and you’re (hopefully) happy with it. Except that isn’t what’s happening with NVIDIA’s most recent GPUs. Instead, consumers are met with sky-high prices due to several factors like tariffs, greed, and inflation.

Not to mention the scalpers using bots to gobble up any and all stock. Only to turn around and attempt to sell what little stock there was for hundreds or thousands of dollars more than the MSRP. Something needs to give, and NVIDIA’s GPU sales strategy needs to change. Because, as things are right now, trying to get a new GPU almost feels depressing.

Hunting down an NVIDIA GPU is beyond frustrating

It’s gotten to the point that it almost sucks the joy out of gaming, because trying to hunt down and secure one of NVIDIA’s RTX 50-series GPUs is about as frustrating as things have ever been. The last time I upgraded to a new GPU was with the RTX 30-series. At launch, I immediately tried to pre-order the RTX 3060, only to be met with out-of-stock notices mere seconds after everything launched.

I then went directly to the manufacturers, and this included EVGA, which sadly, no longer makes GPUs at all. I ended up on a waiting list for EVGA’s RTX 3060 OC Black, and it took 10 months (10 MONTHS!) before one was available for me to buy. That is, unless I wanted to spend close to $1,000 on a $379 GPU from a scalper.

Low stock, inflated prices, and the general tomfoolery of buying a GPU in 2025

The act of trying to buy one of NVIDIA’s RTX 50-series GPUs is no different from back then. You can barely find anything available. When you do, there’s a good chance it’s from a scalper charging a lot more than MSRP. If you’re not furiously keeping watch on every retailer’s website, then you’re either going to a local retailer several times a week to check on stock, or watching stock alerts on sites like X so you know the moment restocks happen.

Even if you do notice a restock right away, you still have to deal with potential bots buying everything, not to mention every other real consumer who’s just like you and wants an upgrade for their own rig. It doesn’t help matters that NVIDIA hasn’t produced enough stock to begin with. It’s so bad, it makes you wonder if this is just NVIDIA’s way of creating an artificial supply and demand scenario. Then, of course, there’s the inflation causing price hikes, and the tariffs causing even further increases. It’s enough to make your hair fall out

Even retailers and manufacturers are resorting to price gouging

Just a few years ago, it was really only scalpers you had to worry about when it came to high GPU prices, but now even retailers and manufacturers are resorting to price gouging consumers. Now you have to ask yourself if you can even trust the price points that NVIDIA announces, or wonder how long they’ll remain at those prices.

Not even a week after the RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 were announced, ASUS and MSI both increased the prices of their GPUs. Newegg also increased prices across the board on several models. Newegg’s response to inquiries about the price increases? Tariffs. That was more than a month ago. Before President Trump’s most recent tariff increase on China. So consumers can probably expect GPU prices to go up even further.

Of course, it should be considered that because of these tariffs, some prices might actually need to go up if manufacturers want to make a profit. This all depends on which manufacturer is increasing prices and where they get their components. As of right now, the tariff increases that were imposed on most of the world have been put on pause for 90 days. So within that window, maybe it’s possible that we could see prices reduce a little bit.

Back at square one

When and if they do ever come down, it seems pretty likely we’ll be back at square one dealing with the initial problem. Trying to beat scalpers to the punch to purchase one. As of right now, price gouging from retailers and manufacturers matters little because there’s no stock available anyway. Leaving third-party sellers as the only option. So you’re stuck with two options. Either waiting to make another attempt at purchasing close to MSRP (or MSRP if you’re lucky), or paying extreme amounts from third-party sellers.

For example, the RTX 5080 MSRP is $999. Yet, it’s going for upwards of $1,500 or more on sites like eBay. Mind you, some of these aren’t even brand-new GPUs. They’re open-box, or used. So you don’t even get the chance to buy a new product. Even if you wanted to pay the higher price. Something needs to change.

What can be done to improve the buying experience?

There’s not much you or I can do as consumers, short of starting petitions and trying to get enough signatures in hopes of making a meaningful impact. Really, though, that’s unlike to do anything at all. Any change that needs to happen has to happen at the manufacturer and retailer levels. If (and I say if because we’ll probably never know for sure) NVIDIA is holding back stock to create an artificial demand, then it needs to open the floodgates and put more stock on the market.

Beyond that, there needs to be a better system in place for consumers to buy what they want. Some manufacturers have taken measures to improve things. Zotac, for example, began selling directly to consumers. Cutting out the middleman in attempts to prevent scalpers from buying everything. Amazon is even making some cards Prime-exclusive. More needs to be done, however. Maybe retailers need to set up a system that limits people to one GPU per method of payment. Maybe they should set up a way to limit one per household by attaching the purchase to the IP address.

SOMETHING needs to change, and it’s up to NVIDIA, its GPU partners, and the retailers to make that happen. Because at the end of the day, they’re the ones who have the power to make things happen. Of course, this is all easier said than done. The issues with the current GPU buying market are complex, and there isn’t just one thing that needs to be fixed.

The entire system needs to be reformed

Heavy reform of the system in which these GPUs are sold needs to take place if things are going to get better. That might require NVIDIA to do certain things it doesn’t want to do. Such as better balancing the allocation of stock between gaming GPUs and what it uses for the data center segment. It could also strengthen its direct sales approach to partially cut out retailers. Retailers, meanwhile, could put several more measures in place to distinguish between scalpers with bots and real consumers.

Ultimately, things just need to be fairer. More transparency on how much stock is really available. As well as stronger methods for preventing scalpers from buying up the majority of the stock. Will this ever happen? Who knows. It’s safe to say that, in the current state of things, though, gamers are frustrated with the buying process. How long before more gamers decide to seek out the alternatives from AMD and Intel? Their GPUs might not be quite as powerful, but they’re usually easier to acquire. At some point, consumers will say, “Enough is enough.”