Computex excess feels tone-deaf as hardware prices climb

Computex has always indulged in excess: exotic GPU materials, lavish gaming rigs and enough RGB lighting to be a spectacle. This year the extravagance sits oddly beside the reality of rising prices in the gaming hardware market, making some of the show’s flash feel out of step with what many buyers are facing.

There are genuinely impressive pieces on display — take the Asus ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5090 Edition 20, for example — and I won’t pretend I’m immune to the appeal. Still, it’s hard to reconcile that lust with price tags. Our weekly price checks show the cheapest RTX 5090 from a retailer we trust at $4,300, and the special editions only widen the gap between desire and reality.

The causes are familiar: the RAMpocalypse, supply-chain troubles, geopolitical strain such as the war in Iran, and a slow-build effect that has pushed costs higher. Hunting for good deals feels bleaker than it used to; decent bargains are becoming rarer, and that undercuts some of the fun of ogling the ultra-premium hardware.

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