Once again, it is genuinely cheaper for me to fly to PAX West and track down Nvidia’s ‘GeForce Evangelist’ rather than buy the RTX 5090 anywhere else
The RTX 5090 graphics card continues to face severe availability issues at retail, with prices significantly above Nvidia’s recommended MSRP. The situation has become so dire that a UK consumer calculated it would be cheaper to fly to Seattle for PAX West and purchase directly from Nvidia’s “GeForce Evangelist” than to buy the card through normal retail channels.
Nvidia’s Jacob Freeman announced at PAX West that he would sell RTX 5090, 5080, and 5070 cards at MSRP to attendees who located him at the event. This represents an unusual workaround for customers frustrated by inflated reseller pricing dominating the current market.
The availability challenges appear worse than previous Nvidia launches. Unlike QuakeCon earlier this year, PAX West featured no official Nvidia booth or boxed Founder’s Edition cards available for purchase through traditional retail. This ongoing situation highlights the persistent gap between Nvidia’s suggested pricing and actual market availability for their flagship graphics cards, forcing enthusiasts to seek alternative purchasing methods just to obtain products at intended prices.