Last year, an adorable GeForce RTX 3080 keycap served as a prelude to persisting graphics card supply issues. While we tried our best, using the replica in a nerdy summoning ritual failed to spawn stock, and it looks like component shortages could continue throughout 2022. Perhaps we’ll have more luck with a dinky board partner tribute, as Asus’ ROG GPU is also now available as a shift key.
The Asus ROG Strix Touchstone keycap is precisely what it says on the tin, and it even comes in a tiny GPU style box. Better still, you can even spin the card’s fans with your finger, which is the closest many of us will get to playing with an Nvidia RTX card this year.
That said, while the keycap was previously listed on Zfrontier for 399 Chinese Yuan ($63 USD), it looks the Chinese retailer is currently awaiting more stock.
The endless search for affordable GPUs saps the fun out of PC gaming, but novelties like this Asus ROG keycap arguably lighten the situation. It’s easy to view the gaming keyboard accessory as a gag product, but there’s something to be said about the attention to detail crammed into this 51mm shift key.
In terms of actual graphics card stock, a recent leak suggests that the RTX 3090 Ti could cost near $4,000, and insider’s say it’s delayed indefinitely. Of course, Nvidia’s also reportedly planning to release its RTX 4000 series later this year, so perhaps real, full-sized GPU availability will become a thing again soon.