The U.S. Navy Exchange store seems to be a treasure trove of MSRP RTX 50 graphics cards. This bargain alert comes from a Redditor who recently picked up a keenly priced Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 FE model for a cool $1,900, after various store and credit card promotions were applied. However, the NEX isn’t open for everybody. As the site snappily says, "You Serve, You Save," meaning it is for active and retired military families, but many readers might have a close friend or relative who can shop there. Additionally, every branch of the US armed forces has its own equivalent shop, although it is unclear how widespread deals on GPUs would be (if at all).
If you don't have experience with the NEX store, Redditor Accomplished-Feed123 sums it up as “like a Target or Walmart mixed with a Best Buy and Marshall’s that also sells snacks and beer but no groceries.” That might not sound like an ideal hunting ground for the best graphics cards, but the Redditor had experience finding prior bargains like open-box electronics and/or computer gaming products at the store.
RTX 5090 YOLO edition
Drawn by spider-senses towards the locked Apple cage of goods, Accomplished-Feed123 spotted some “largeish brown boxes.” At this point, they didn’t know they would be stuffed with green GPU gold. But, it soon became apparent that this was a bounty of “several 5070s, 5080s, and one single 5090,” wrote the Redditor. "All were priced at MSRP (550, 999, and 1999, respectively)." It was obviously hard to resist, and they "said YOLO and picked up the 5090."
Googling the part number on the nondescript RTX 5090 package, it was discovered that inside was an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 FE model. These are sometimes sought after for their brand status, build quality, and relatively compact design. If your case is large enough, you might prefer a bigger, quieter, and better-cooled model, though.
Thanks to the canny use of various credit card and store rewards, Accomplished-Feed123 managed to walk away with Nvidia’s current flagship for $1,900. Not bad, in the current GPU retail climate.
To conclude their tale of bargains at NEX, it was interesting to hear that the Redditor previously owned a capable but now last-gen Radeon RX 7900 XTX. They haven’t been in the green team since owning an RTX 3060 Ti (launched Dec 2020).
The wider market: pricing is trending downwards in general
We are happy for Accomplished-Feed123, and hope others with access to NEX can grab similar MSRP-beating bargains. However, the wider public, and shoppers elsewhere around the globe, should probably be content with the way the latest and greatest graphics cards are trending downwards in price.
At the time of writing, we are starting to see more MSRP-and-under graphics cards become available. Sometimes they might not be obvious, requiring a special code or promo voucher, but a patient price sniper can do OK right now. For example, someone snagged an RTX 5090 from Walmart for a cool $1,679. We’ve also reported on sub-MSRP RTX 5090s in the UK. If you don’t need a top-end flagship GPU, we are also happy to report that recently launched cards like the AMD Radeon RX 9600 XT didn’t sell out, and thus they haven’t been subject to the inevitable pricing inflation from slim stock levels. I've also been able to snag an RX 9070 at below MSRP in the UK using various discount codes.
It is always hard to know whether prices will continue to slide as demand cools, or there will be some tech movement (crypto, AI, etc.) that will inflate prices, or even some kind of supply-side calamity (wars, earthquakes) to cause fresh price spikes.
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