RTX 4000 graphics cards are anything but cheap, but whispers suggest Nvidia RTX 5000 GPUs could come with an even loftier price tag. The situation is seemingly linked to a hike on TSMC 3nm wafers, which are set to cost 25% more than the nodes used by the gaming PC scene today.
Nvidia’s best graphics card contenders use 5nm TSMC nodes, but there’s reason to believe the green team has already reserved a place at the 3nm table. Earlier this year, CEO Jensen Huang reportedly visited Taiwan to cut a deal on the wafers (via MyDrivers), while AMD has already confirmed that Zen 5 CPUs will use the tech.
Spotted by Chiakokhua, Digitimes claims the new 3nm process nodes will add extra expense onto the best gaming PC parts, from future GPUs like the GeForce RTX 5000 to Intel and AMD CPUs. According to the report, the refreshed foundry price has reached $20,000 USD – something that’ll naturally have a knock-on effect in terms of manufacturing costs.
Image source: Digitimes
For context, Digitime’s chart ties a $16,000 USD figure to 5nm nodes, with 7nm apparently coming in at $10,000. We’ve already witnessed a resulting hike in the RTX 4090 and RTX 4080, as the latter costs over 50% more than the RTX 3080. In other words, Nvidia isn’t currently buffering consumers from manufacturing price increases, so the same may apply to future gen GPUs like the RTX 5090.
The above forecast is undeniably beak, especially if PC gaming is your passion. Yet, if Samsung can iron out issues with its 3nm tech, the added competition could change the situation. AMD’s aggressive Radeon RX 7900 XTX price tactics might also help convince Nvidia to get more competitive next time around, as its current MSRP structure isn’t a good look.
Speaking of outrageous pricing, our Nvidia RTX 4080 review puts the latest Lovelace card to the test, and it’s a killer 4K that costs more than it should. We’ll be pitting it against AMD’s RDNA 3 cards next month, so watch this space for benchmarks and more.