Nvidia’s latest RTX 50 series graphics cards and AMD’s Radeon RX 9070 series are great value releases and cater to various consumers at different price points and use cases, such as gaming, productivity, and AI. However, there is a great disconnect in pricing as US MSRPs don’t directly convert to local pricing, especially in Asian countries. Outside North America, pricing for these GPUs is way higher than the US SRP, which results in different conclusions that are mostly opposite of what you see from Western reviewers. The price discrepancy makes the consumers cry “scam,” as MSRP cards are almost non-existent, not to mention the scarce supply at launch.
Why are Graphics Card More Expensive than SRP?
AMD and Nvidia’s greed and conspiracy aside, there are legitimate factors that affect the prices of not only GPUs, but also goods and commodities in general that most users fail to take into account. The basic law of supply and demand is the tip of the iceberg, and there are more concerning factors that you should know. Here are the major factors that affect today’s GPU and general electronics pricing in no particular order.
- Supply and Demand
- Forex
- Tariffs / Taxes
- Logistics
- Forced Distributor Bundles
Supply and Demand
You’ve probably heard of this simple law since your early days in school. The law of supply and demand states that the price of an item is relative to its supply and demand. If you have a high demand but low supply, the item is priced higher, but if you have a lower demand, then the item’s price is lower. In the Philippines, demand for the new RTX 50 series and RX 9070 series cards are high, but when you zoom out to the bigger picture, the demand relative to our population is low compared to other countries like our neighbors Malaysia and Taiwan. When you zoom further out, most of the demand comes from first-world countries where the prices are at MSRP or closer to MSRP, like in the US, Canada, and UK.
The volume of demand to these countries is so high that most of the stock gets prioritized and allocated to these countries, leaving developing countries such as the Philippines with little to no stock on some SKUs. With the very little wave of stocks coming to the country, you have a lot of dealers scrambling to get their hands on these GPUs. That’s why you see stores sporting only one brand or two brands at most on a launch day. As to how these stocks are allocated to the dealers is something that we’ll touch on later.
Note that this applies to every component of the GPU, not just the GPU itself. Major brands, namely Apple, Nvidia, AMD, and Intel, are all getting their chips from TSMC. The same supply and demand principle also applies to the wafers produced by TSMC, which are then allocated to these brands. The same goes for the GDDR memory that these GPUs use and is supplied by either Samsung or Micron.
Forex or Foreign Exchange
Exchange rates can be a huge factor in price movement depending on the economy. To put it simply, Forex can be seen as a measure of a country’s economy against another. If you live in a developing or third-world country, then you’re used to getting the short end of the stick. That said, what people don’t realize is that businesses don’t follow the Forex rate that’s displayed on Google. Similar to buying and selling currencies you experience at airports, businesses also employ a similar rule to protect themselves from fluctuations.
For example, today’s PHP: USD rate is $1:Php58, and distributors and brands will transact or set their cost to Php 59 or as high as Php 61 depending on the market stability. The spread is usually determined by how stable or risky the overall economy is. So if the distributor’s cost of pre-ordering a GPU is at $1000 or Php 58,000, then it set a budget cost of Php 60,000 to ensure that the distributor still has the money to buy the GPU if the cost changes due to a change in the exchange rate or other relevant issues.
Tariffs / Taxes
Enthusiasts following the current GPU market have probably encountered tariffs as one of the major factors that drive GPU pricing. The recent US vs China tariff war and restrictions play a huge role in the recent price hikes of electronics. While some may argue that it doesn’t affect countries outside the two countries, distributors and retailers do use the US SRP as a reference for their respective regional pricing. Moreover, brands that try to circumvent or alleviate these tariffs incur additional costs in their operation, which would still reflect on the product pricing.
Geopolitics is very uncertain, as seen with the recent Trump administration, and some brands mitigate the risk of additional tariffs by increasing their margins to make sure they won’t incur more losses. Brands have tried moving their headquarters outside China or moving the last part of their assembly or manufacturing to another country so it wouldn’t technically be covered by law.
Logistics
Going back to our tariff situation, brands that move their production facilities and assembly line to another country incur additional costs not only in building the infrastructures but primarily in logistics, as you have an additional stop before the GPUs make their way to store shelves. To accommodate the demand, some products may be flown in to reach the retailers faster, which is more expensive than sea freight. Moreover, delays in any points of the production process, whether it’s TSMC’s wafer delivery or a certain capacitor, flash or IC adds costs so long as the projected schedule is not followed. These costs are usually compounded as they affect the whole supply chain.
Forced Distributor Bundles
This is where it gets tricky, as this is probably the most controversial factor affecting the current GPU market. The high demand for GPUs leaves the distributors confused about which retailer they should cater to first. Normally, big retailers with multiple branches are prioritized, while smaller shops are often queued for the succeeding batches. Even between big retailers, it’s still unclear for these distributors who to cater outside “the first come, first serve” principle.
Distributors use this chance to clear out their inventory so they can purchase more stocks of the latest GPUs. Screenshots above show a store owner complaining about a certain distributor requiring a minimum order quantity of PC components for some components. Retailers wanting to secure a GPU are forced to buy other PC components, often in absurd quantities.
Some distributors are more clever with their GPU bundles, requiring reasonable components in the bundle compared to just offloading their non-moving items. If you’re buying a GPU, especially a higher-end one, you’re more likely to buy a high wattage PSU.
The supposed markup of the unwanted items is sometimes carried over to the selling price of the GPU, as the bundled items are normally slow-moving stocks or very old stocks. Let’s take the newly launched RX 9070 XT with an SRP of $599 or Php 34,426(straight conversion). Assuming a 10% retailer margin, the cost for a retailer’s purchase of a 9070 XT would be at Php 30,000. But if there’s a minimum 10x PSU bundle with the cheapest PSU at Php 3,000 cost. The overall cost of an RX 9070 XT would land at Php 60,000. The cheapest RX 9070 XT we found sells for Php 46,669, which is almost a 50% markup over the “30k cost.”
At the Php 46,669 price, a retailer still needs to sell at least 5 of the Php 3,000 PSUs just to break even on their acquisition price. That said, these PSUs move way slower than most components and take up storage space in the shop, which could also translate to more costs depending on inventory management.
These bundles regardless of the component mix, hurts the overall industry and creates a gap between retailers – large retailers with high capital can suck up the cost and order more GPUs which gives them more stock while the smaller retailers are forced to prioritize whole PC builders to sell these GPUs to instead of the people looking to buy a single GPU.
The GPU bundling practice has been a major issue since the RTX 30 series launch, mainly due to the cryptomining craze. The RTX 40 series launch didn’t have this issue despite the better performance uplift from the RTX 30 to RTX 40 compared to the RTX 40 to the latest RTX 50 series.
Retailers are left on the frontline and receive customer backlash for the absurd GPU prices. Some retailers that we talked to said that the bundled components are sold at cost or, in some cases, at a loss just to recoup their capital and keep the cash flow going for their business operations.
How YOU Could Make A Difference
Forced bundles are a practice that must be stopped as it create further artificial demand or shortages and is unhealthy to the industry. Retailers carry the brunt of the hate from consumers and are easily labeled as greedy businesses when most of them are trying to break even on the unnecessary bundled components. Small retailers don’t get a chance for growth and are often labeled as bad shops due to not having stocks of the latest components. So, here are some steps you could take to help stop this practice and be smart with your GPU purchase.
HODL – Hold Your Purchase
I strongly advise to hold your purchase for as long as you can if 1.) your GPU can still run your games at a decent framerate or 2.) your line of work requires and benefits a new GPU upgrade, which will help you generate income. Waiting also has its rewards, as brands often have purchase promos and give out freebies in the form of merch or games a few months post-launch.
Reservation
Some stores announce pre-orders or reservations of upcoming GPUs, and these usually have better pricing compared to when they arrive on shelves as the P.O. serves as some kind of price protection, and the retailer gets their money early, ensuring stable cash flow.
Avoid Scalpers
Needless to say, buying from scalpers doesn’t help anyone in the industry. Just don’t.
Visit the Store – Inquire in person
The fast-moving nature of newly launched products may sometimes leave retailers forgetting to update their website or post on their socials. Stores prioritize consumers who are more likely to buy aka the ones who visit the store rather than those making online inquiries. As new stocks come in, the prices of these GPUs may be lower due to the pricing factor’s impact easing up. Some retailers’ pricing posts may be out of date or are credit card/installment prices; inquiring in stores means you’re getting the most updated information.
Avoid Gray Market
Buying Gray Market or importing may be a cheaper and faster way for you to get your hands on a new GPU, but it doesn’t help the industry in the long run. Warranty logistics issue aside, the GPU sale isn’t credited to your country or even your region since you’re buying from outside the local supply channel. This won’t help the brand and distributor to properly allocate the appropriate stocks for the next wave or next launch as they don’t get accurate data on the country’s purchasing power.
Here are stores that we recommend buying your GPU or PC parts from. We have either worked with or bought from these stores previously.
Read our RTX 50 series and RX 9070 series reviews
- Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition
- Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 Founders Edition
- Inno3D RTX 5080 X3
- ASUS Prime RTX 5080 OC
- Gigabyte RTX 5080 Aorus MASTER
- ASUS ROG Astral RTX 5080 OC
- MSI RTX 5070 Ti Ventus 3X OC
- MSI RTX 5070 Ti Vanguard SOC Launch Edition
- ASUS Prime RTX 5070 Ti OC
- Gigabyte RTX 5070 Ti AERO OC
- Gigabyte RTX 5070 Ti Windforce OC SFF
- Inno3D RTX 5070 Ti X3
- Zotac RTX 5070 Ti AMP Extreme Infinity
- Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Founders Edition
- ASUS TUF Gaming RTX 5070 OC
- Inno3D RTX 5070 Twin X2
- Sapphire RX 9070 XT PURE OC
- Gigabyte RTX 9070 XT Windforce OC
- Sapphire RX 9070 PURE OC
Grant is a Financial Management graduate from UST. His passion for gadgets and tech crossed him over in the industry where he could apply his knowledge as an enthusiast and in-depth analytic skills as a Finance Major. His passion allows him to earn at the same time help Gadget Pilipinas' readers in making smart, value-based decisions and purchases with his reviews and guides.
