NovaPodI checked the retail tape on November 3 because a reader asked whether waiting until the holidays would get them a normal graphics card. It will not. The October numbers, published November 2, are worse than September, and September was already worse than August.
The figures below are the cheapest in-stock card TechSpot could verify in each country, not an average of every RGB model. Our own comparison table, snapshotted November 1, is a second ruler. The two will not match to the dollar. Use both, then look at the shelf.
What moved in October
TechSpot averaged the month-to-month change across ten countries and called it about 11% for October. August had been about 15%, September about 7%. Stack those and the same basket is about 35% more expensive than it was three months earlier. They also said average street prices now sit about 44% above launch MSRP, and about 58% above in the United States and Canada.
That is a market, not a coupon code. Cards with 16 GB moved by hundreds of dollars. The high end moved by thousands.
The RTX 5090 is a different product now
The US floor in that October check was $9,400, up from $6,890 in September and $3,500 in February. Launch MSRP was $1,999, so the US card is about 370% above the sticker. The ten-country normalized price was about $7,240, roughly 262% above MSRP. Reports that the 5090 has been discontinued keep circulating. NVIDIA has denied that. The shelf does not care about the denial: at $9,400 this is not a gaming upgrade.
The 5080 was pulled up behind it. The US October floor was $2,200 against a $999 MSRP, about 39% higher than September in the US and about 120% above sticker. Sixteen gigabytes of GDDR7 did not become $700 more expensive by themselves. Demand, thin supply, and the missing 5090 did.
| Card | MSRP | US October | Versus MSRP |
|---|---|---|---|
| RTX 5090 | $1,999 | $9,400 | +370% |
| RTX 5080 | $999 | $2,200 | +120% |
| RTX 5070 Ti | $749 | $1,250 | +67% |
| RTX 5070 | $549 | $900 | +64% |
| RX 9070 XT | $599 | $870 | +45% |
| RX 9070 | $549 | $700 | +28% |
| Arc B580 | $249 | $350 | +41% |
Where the money still makes sense
The RX 9070 was the calmest expensive card in the set: about $700 in the US, 28% over a $549 MSRP, and about 28% over MSRP once the ten countries are normalized. The 9070 XT was about $870 in the US, 45% over $599, and about 36% globally. TechSpot's own read was that the XT costs about 17% more for about 12% more performance, so the non-XT still wins on money. They also had the 9070 XT landing near the RTX 5070 on average price while beating it in a 52-game raster set and carrying 16 GB instead of 12 GB.
Our November 1 table, which is not the same sample, had the 9070 at $749 and the XT at $919, with 3DMark at 26,856 and 29,992. The 5070 Ti on that snapshot was $1,299 for 27,871. I would buy the 9070 if I needed a card this month. I would not pay 5090 money to render a game.
Intel is not a secret. The Arc B580 US floor was about $350, 41% over a $249 MSRP, and the global gap was worse, about 47%. The B570 was about $290 in the US. Still the value row if the games you play are fine on Arc. Not a substitute for a CUDA toolchain.
Entry cards got worse too
The RTX 5050 US floor went from $310 in September to $420 in October, about 68% over its $249 MSRP. The RTX 5060 stayed at $450 in the US and is about 51% over a $299 sticker. The 5060 Ti 16 GB was $790 in the US against a $429 MSRP. Memory capacity is what the market is charging for, and 16 GB GeForce boards are where that shows up.
Our November 1 snapshot was in the same neighborhood: 5050 at $419, 5060 at $459, 5060 Ti 16 GB at $799, 5070 at $899. Close enough that I trust the direction. Not close enough that I would quote one site's dollar as the other site's dollar.
Buy, wait, or rent
I would buy an RX 9070, or a B580 if the budget is nearer $350 and the software stack allows it. I would not buy a 5090, a 5080, or a 5070 Ti at these October floors unless a specific NVIDIA-only tool is the job.
Waiting for a holiday reversal is a bet against the last three monthly prints. TechSpot's retailers were not describing a peak. If the job is a model that does not fit in 16 GB, the street card is the wrong object anyway. On November 3 the live marketplace here had an RTX 5090 from about $0.26 an hour with hundreds of offers, an H100 SXM from about $1.21, and an H200 from about $2.76. Those are rental asks, billed per second, not a promise that $9,400 comes down.