AI-rewritten: This is a summary of an article from Tom’s Hardware, rewritten by AI (Qwen, running locally) to make it easier to read. The facts come from the original article – read it for the full story.

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A Redditor named u/Chaise91 shared a photograph showing that retail prices for Nvidia RTX 50-series GPUs in Japan are significantly higher than those listed on Amazon U.S. sites. The reported price differences range from 5.66% to 41.10% higher in Japan compared to the United States. This trend affects various models, with the average price hike for the RTX 5080 being 12.71%, while the RTX 5060 Ti 8GB sees a jump of up to 41.10%. These figures represent pre-tax prices calculated using an exchange rate of 153.38 JPY per USD.

The article attributes these shortages and price hikes to memory chip deficits and high demand for AI computing, which has led Nvidia to reportedly halt production of the RTX 5090 in favor of data center models. Consequently, supply for high-end cards has vanished online, causing third-party sellers to demand nearly $10,000 for available units. Although the shared image does not display the RTX 5090, the author suggests this indicates a lack of stock for high-end graphics cards, creating pressure on lower-tier models. A table in the text compares specific Japanese retailer prices against Amazon listings for models including the RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5070, showing similar percentage increases when taxes are factored in.

The author notes that while Japan is typically more expensive than the U.S., these price hikes could serve as a warning sign for American consumers. The text references past shortages late last year where Japanese shops limited purchases of SSDs, HDDs, and RAM due to failed resupply shipments. While the current situation may be a local fluke rather than a global preview, the author advises that if you are looking to buy a new graphics card, you should not delay your purchase in case these price increases eventually reach American markets.