GeForce RTX 4090 GPUs Surface Overseas Above Nvidia MSRP

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VAT makes Ada prices the same as Ampere during the GPU shortage.

Zotac RTX 40 Series GPUs
(Image credit: Zotac)

Spanish retailer Coolmod (via El Chapuzas Informatico) has released new retail listings of Nvidia's new GeForce RTX 4090 AIB partner cards to the public, including prices. Please take the listings with a grain of salt, as they could be placeholders. But unfortunately, it would appear that Spaniards will have to deal with a 21% VAT (Value Added Tax) added onto most consumer goods, spiking the GeForce RTX 4090's $1,599 MSRP close to $2,000 and some models and over $2,000 on others.

Coolmod showcased five models, featuring a selection of Zotac and Galax RTX 4090 graphics cards. Zotac takes three of the five listings with three new models, including the RTX 4090 Trinity valued at $1,930, the Trinity OC variant valued at $1,968, and the enthusiast-made RTX 4090 AMP Extreme Airo, valued at $2,017.

The remaining two cards come from Galax, featuring the KFA2 RTX 4090 ST valued at $1,919 - the cheapest RTX 4090 of the bunch, and the factory overclocked KFA2 RTX 4090 SG with a $2,067 price tag.

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Coolmod Zotac and Galax RTX 4090 Graphics Card Prices
RTX 4090 ModelsOriginal PricePrice Converted to USD
Galax KFA2 GeForce RTX 4090 SG€2,099.94$2,067
Zotac GeForce RTX 4090 AMP Extreme Airo€2,049.95$2,017
Zotac GeForce RTX 4090 Trinity OC€1,999.95$1,968
Zotac GeForce RTX 4090 Trinity€1,959.95$1,930
Galax KFA2 GeForce RTX 4090 ST€1,949.95$1,919

These incredibly high prices are a product of Spain's Valued Added Tax (VAT) of 21% for non-food and non-medical related consumer goods. This causes the RTX 4090's MSRP of $1,599, to jump to $1,934. In the case of Coolmod's listings, prices are 25% higher than MSRP due to other concerns.

Spain isn't the only nation dealing with these issues; we are also seeing this situation repeat itself in Germany, where the current VAT rate is 19%. Increasing German RTX 40-series prices by 22%.

For consumers in these highly taxed environments, Nvidia's MSRP of $1,599 takes on a whole new meaning and becomes a severe problem. Not only did Nvidia increase the RTX 4090 and RTX 4080's MSRP by several hundred dollars - depending on the model. Furthermore, Nvidia's price hikes get exponentially worse when taxes are added to the product, like VAT. For instance, instead of an RTX 3090 at USD 999.99 costing "just" $210 more in Spain, the price for the RTX 4090 goes up an additional $126 to $336 over MSRP.

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Aaron Klotz
Aaron Klotz
Contributing Writer

Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

10 Comments Comment from the forums
  • BX4096
    If I could wait it out through the years of COVID and cryptoparasite shortage, I have no problem waiting another eight months or so for Nvidia's insane prices to inevitably come down to saner levels. It's not an organ transplant after all. No rush is warranted.
    Reply
  • LolaGT
    It is only a severe problem for people who think they can't get by without these GPUs.

    There really isn't a thing one can do for those people. I might suggest psychiatric help.
    Reply
  • blacknemesist
    LolaGT said:
    It is only a severe problem for people who think they can't get by without these GPUs.

    There really isn't a thing one can do for those people. I might suggest psychiatric help.

    A 3080 ti costs 1700 euros.
    A 3090 costs over 2200 euros.

    Now please, replace my dead 3090, just take a pick at your poison, high price but new HW or 300 euros less for 2 yo HW.
    Reply
  • hotaru251
    BX4096 said:
    Nvidia's insane prices to inevitably come down to saner levels
    honestly I wish everyone would just not buy them.

    just to hit em where it hurts (profit)

    but that hurts AIB's also x_x (when its not on them)

    hoping that since RDNA 3 is focusing on efficiency instead of pure performance they have a middle ground on cost.
    Reply
  • Udyr
    Unfortunately there are still too many "I got it first" junkies that will move mountains to ship a unit back home for bragging rights.
    Reply
  • hannibal
    Yes, these will sell well!
    So waiting the next gen to cost even more than these...
    Reply
  • yhselp
    Come on, now… Describing countries within the European Union as “highly taxed environments” feels off at best. We just pay taxes in a different way. Besides, this is nothing new — ~20% VAT in the EU is common. Part of the increase for European customers comes from a strong USD, but it’s mostly because of NVIDIA’s pricing policy. That’s it.

    Furthermore, this feels like a measure to prevent second-hand cards being sold at previously-standard prices, and establish a new norm.
    Reply
  • pocketdrummer
    The original GTX Titan released in 2013 for $1,000. That was the best consumer card they had at the time. Adjusted for inflation, that car would be $1,270.08 today. Nvidia's top tier card today now costs $1,600 for Nvidia and probably $1,800 for board partners.

    That means Nvidia has jacked the price up for their top-tier cards by over $300. And if you look at the xx80 series, the GTX 1080 released in 2016 for $600. Adjusted for inflation, that's $740.41. Now their xx80 series costs $900.

    We are getting shafted.
    Reply
  • sizzling
    pocketdrummer said:
    The original GTX Titan released in 2013 for $1,000. That was the best consumer card they had at the time. Adjusted for inflation, that car would be $1,270.08 today. Nvidia's top tier card today now costs $1,600 for Nvidia and probably $1,800 for board partners.

    That means Nvidia has jacked the price up for their top-tier cards by over $300. And if you look at the xx80 series, the GTX 1080 released in 2016 for $600. Adjusted for inflation, that's $740.41. Now their xx80 series costs $900.

    We are getting shafted.
    All companies I have worked for have increased prices year on year higher than inflation. Fairly common if the market will tolerate it.
    Reply
  • yhselp
    pocketdrummer said:
    The original GTX Titan released in 2013 for $1,000. That was the best consumer card they had at the time. Adjusted for inflation, that car would be $1,270.08 today. Nvidia's top tier card today now costs $1,600 for Nvidia and probably $1,800 for board partners.

    That means Nvidia has jacked the price up for their top-tier cards by over $300. And if you look at the xx80 series, the GTX 1080 released in 2016 for $600. Adjusted for inflation, that's $740.41. Now their xx80 series costs $900.

    We are getting shafted.
    Furthermore, if you allow me to expand on your point, we were already getting very "shafted" by the time the original TITAN came out. Why? Well, NVIDIA's 600-series (Kepler) was when it managed to effectively double prices over a single generation. It was a frankly astonishing thing to witness and was brought about largely due to AMD's then-lack-of-competitiveness. Surprising little was written by either the press, or consumers, at the time. How it happened? Prior to that, a card based on NVIDIA's largest GPU, i.e. GF110, used to cost 350-500 USD, see GTX 570 and GTX 580; and a card based on its mid-sized GPU, i.e. GF114, used to cost 200-250 USD, see GTX 560 and GTX 560 Ti.

    So far so good. Then came time for the new generation (600-series), but AMD wasn't competitive (yet), and so NVIDIA pulled a "magic" trick -- it released the GTX 670 and GTX 680 at 400-500 USD, but these were not based on its largest GPU, but rather on its mid-sized GPU, making them actual successors to the GTX 560 and GTX 560 Ti at double the price. Consumers seemed unfazed because the new cards were fast, which, in my opinion, is a non-argument -- new GPUs have always been faster than previous generations; that's the point. NVIDIA deliberately held out on releasing a true successor to the GTX 570/580, a card based on its large GPU. Why wouldn't it? There was little to no competition. When the time finally came, 9 long months later, an incredible PR stunt was pulled -- the GTX TITAN (what a name!) was released at 1000 USD and marketed as some otherworldly achievement in parallel processing whereas, in fact, it was simply a GTX 580 successor. Consumers seemed in awe because the new card was fast, which, again, is a non-argument for the same reasons mentioned above. AMD briefly fought back with the R9 290, a 400-USD-card based on its large GPU, but subsequently mostly adopted similar pricing policies. It has been that way ever since.

    And so, we used to be able to buy a card based on NVIDIA's largest GPU for 350 USD (450 USD, adjusted for inflation) whose equivalent now costs 1600 USD; make no mistake, while the RTX 4090 may be marketed as a xx90 card, it really is like the 350-USD GTX 570 -- a card based on a cut-down version of NVIDIA's large GPU. Sure, complexity has increased, memory and process may be more expensive, but a 3.55-fold/1150 USD increase can only account for what a consumer might call corporate greed, and a board member -- a successfully executed business strategy.

    We've been getting shafted for years and kinda loving it. The way to fight back is to refuse to upgrade. The problem is we've been doing precisely the opposite for over a decade now.
    Reply