It’s the ASUS ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5090 and it’s one of the most expensive 5090 models, with an MSRP now at $3,719. Interestingly, the ASUS website lists this same model at $3,409.99, but it’s sold out. Be that as it may, a Reddit user recently shared that a Micro Center location in Dallas received stock of a few Astral LC GeForce RTX 5090 GPUs, and they’re sitting on the shelf for longer than is typical for a 5090. I personally also was aware that the New Jersey Micro Center received the same Astral LC GeForce RTX 5090 model, and it was indeed the last to sell. It still sold out, but only after all of the air cooled models flew the coup.
The RTX 5090 is in high demand and typically worth even more on the second hand market. There are two main reasons why the ASUS ROG Astral LC GeForce RTX 5090 is evidently not selling as fast. First, the $3,719 price is hard to stomach for most gamers, and even resellers seem to think twice about the risk. Secondly, it is the LC model, meaning liquid cooled. While it is paired to an enclosed all-in-one liquid cooler, it’s still bulky for many builds.
While it is still an RTX 5090, the extra space needed to accommodate the 360mm radiator may be too much for many PC cases to handle. Thus, it becomes a less desirable model for many gamers, only made worse by its exorbitantly high price tag.
The RTX 5070 is the cheapest RTX 50 series offering (so far), with an MSRP of $549. Some RTX 5070 models have also sat on store shelves that are priced above $700, however. Various shortages and tariffs have made GPUs a tough bargain this generation, from both NVIDIA and AMD.
While seeing some stock of any RTX 5090 is interesting, the high pricing of some models certainly shows that there is a limit what buyers will consider reasonable.
