India Is The Worst Place in the World to Buy a GPU Right Now

Graphics card prices rose sharply worldwide between July and August 2026, but Indian buyers absorbed roughly double the global increase. Indian prices shot up 30% month over month, averaged across 12 GeForce, Radeon, and Arc models, as tracked by TechSpot across 10 countries. The global average, however, was 15%, with the United States figure up by 17%.

India recorded the largest month-over-month increase among the ten countries on seven of the twelve cards tracked. The steepest rise was in the RTX 5050, which went from around ₹28,800 in July to ₹44,000 in August, a 53% increase. That is the single largest jump in the entire dataset for any of the cards in any region.

Given that the RTX 5050 is considered the budget-tier model, a jump this high for an entry-level card will definitely make building gaming PCs much more difficult, especially with current market trends.

Why GPU Prices in India Rose More Than Anywhere Else

The pattern we observe in India leans towards the lower end of the stack. The RTX 5060 rose 43% month over month, roughly from ₹32,800 to ₹46,000. Following the trend, both RTX 5060 Ti variants rose by 37%, while the RTX 5070 rose by 35%.

However, higher-end cards weren’t affected to the same extent. In percentage terms, RTX 5080 rose 16% in India, while RTX 5090 rose 19%, both of which were below the Indian average. In absolute terms, the 5090 still moved from around ₹446,000 to ₹530,500.

As observed in the above graphs, it is clear that most of the brunt of the price hike is reflected on cards under ₹50,000, with numerous factors adding to this result, be it thinner margins, import duty stacking on top of rising component costs, or retailers with less room to absorb these increases.

One of the primary contributors behind these sky-high prices is memory. Manufacturers including Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron have been shifting wafer capacity toward high-bandwidth memory for AI data graphics cards. However, when memory costs rise, the price increase roughly tracks the amount of VRAM a card carries. This is why 16GB models have outsold 8GB models so far in 2026.

In the US market, dollar increases broadly follow VRAM capacity. The RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5060 Ti 16GB are both roughly $300 above their respective launch prices. In similar fashion, the 12 GB RTX 5070 is up about $250, whereas the 8GB RTX 5060 and 5060 Ti are up roughly $120 to $150.

You may be interested to read – The Ultimate Gaming Laptop Buying Guide for 2026: How to Choose Your Next Rig

GPU prices are climbing again, and the latest TechSpot numbers show how bad things have become.

Average GPU prices rose 15% in one month, with Nvidia cards up around 19% and AMD cards about 11%.

Some models are now far above official prices:

– RTX 5060: around $450, 51% above… pic.twitter.com/HXTcR60NkV

— Pirat_Nation 🔴 (@Pirat_Nation) September 1, 2026

Why Memory Costs Are Driving GPU Prices Up

GeForce cards rose 19% month over month globally, compared with 11% for Radeon. AMD uses GDDR6 rather than the GDDR7 in NVIDIA’s RTX 50 series, and the GDDR6 has not risen sharply.

The gap, however, has produced unusual matchups. The RTX 5060, which should compete with the RX 9060 XT GB, is now priced closer to the 16GB version. Across the ten regions tracked, the RTX 5070 Ti is around 50% more expensive than the RX 9070 XT.

In India, the RX 9070 rose 21% and the RX 9080 XT by 13%, which is frankly below average compared to other Indian card hikes. Between all this, Radeon does stand out to be a clear pick, however, it may only be a matter of time before we can see further hikes in these card prices.

NVIDIA is reportedly preparing a further package price increase of 20 to 30%, according to Taiwan’s Economic Daily News, which would be its third of 2026. Gigabyte has reportedly also raised prices in Japan by up to 40% on RTX 50 series cards. When and if the AI boom slows down is uncertain at the moment, and if pocket allows, gamers, especially in India, who are looking to secure their builds with these cards could definitely go for it.

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