Nvidia’s RTX 50-series faced many problems upon launch. Now, six weeks later, those problems are still present, with the main issue being pricing and availability. Unfortunately, it’s not just scalpers that are racking up the prices: Asus just raised the prices of some of its best graphics cards by hundreds of dollars, leaving the MSRP in the rearview mirror.
No matter the GPU you search for in the Asus Store, you’ll be hard-pressed to find one actually selling at MSRP. That, in itself, isn’t strange. Asus, being Nvidia’s and AMD’s board partner, makes its own versions of GPUs, and those cards often come at a premium due to things like more overclocking headroom or superior cooling. So, a higher price is to be expected, although AIBs should still offer a couple of models at MSRP.
A higher price is to be expected. It’s the continuous price hikes that are worrying me.
As spotted by VideoCardz, Asus adjusted the pricing for its RTX 5090 graphics cards. The most premium model, the ROG Astral LC, stayed at its (already eye-watering) price of $3,410; that’s the price you’ll have to pay for a liquid-cooled card. However, the air-cooled model now costs $3,360, which is not much less than the one with the liquid cooler, and a whopping $280 more than it did before.
The TUF models went up in price, too. The overclocked model has now hit $3,000; meanwhile, the non-OC variant costs $2,760. Considering that the MSRP for the RTX 5090 was supposed to be $1,999, all of these are a far cry from what we started with in late January.
Even cheaper GPUs aren’t safe from the price hikes. AMD’s RX 9070 XT is completely unavailable at MSRP, all the while Nvidia’s (supposedly) $550 goes up to $700 and beyond.
It’s a tough time to be a PC gamer. Some RTX 5090 cards sell for up to $6,000, all thanks to scalpers — but those are few and far apart. However, the lack of availability compared to the big demand for the new GPUs is driving lasting price changes. We might see these GPUs drop down to MSRP one day, but I’m afraid it won’t be anytime soon.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.