Graphics cards are an absolute mess right now. I know, I’ve talked a few times about how awesome the RX 9070 XT is, and it’s certainly the best of the bunch, but just look at the state of things. Even that “value” buy in 2025 is out of stock everywhere and the alternatives are even worse. And it shouldn’t be rewarded.

I probably shouldn’t be telling you this. DigitalTrends makes good money from affiliate links, and I love new hardware as much as the next person. But graphics cards are not affordable right now, and buying them when they’re at these inflated prices, paying for access to stock trackers and special groups just to give you the chance to pay more money to someone else, is a bad idea. It might work in the short term, but it’s not something we want to establish for the future.

Now is not the time to buy a new graphics card.

If you can, just wait it out

There’s an old adage with computer hardware that it’s never the right time to upgrade, because there’s always something new and shiny over the horizon. Even if you bought an RTX 5090 and a 9950X3D with all the other high-end components that make your PC as fast as it gets in 2025, it won’t be long before something else comes along to supplant it. New monitors will arrive that makes yours look dull and slow, or Intel will refresh its 200 Series CPUs and make a new workhorse monster chip, or Nvidia and AMD will refresh their GPU lineups, making yours feels decidedly less-super.

But this is one time where you really should wait it out. Although the march of progress will continue on, and any delay in upgrading does mean you’ll have less time before something better comes along, the prices and availability this time around are that ridiculous. You really should just wait it out, if you can.

If you have a new game you want to play and need a new GPU for it, I get it. But if you can delay it that bit longer to save yourself several hundred dollars and don’t reward bad business practices, that’s better for you and the industry as a whole.

Voting with your wallet

I love to get into the back and forth rivalries in the hardware industry. Intel vs. AMD, AMD vs. Nvidia, Microsoft and Apple, it’s all in good fun. It’s a silly team sport about numbers going up. But at the end of the day, even the “plucky” underdog AMD is a company worth almost $200 billion. The CEOs are all worth hundreds of millions or billions. They might play at being the good guy, but none of them have our interests at heart. They’re trying to make money, which is why the only real weight any of our concerns have, is with our money.

Buying GPUs at inflated prices rewards bad behaviour. It tells these companies that you don’t mind paying the crazy prices. But if cards sit on shelves for long enough, prices always come down. We’ve seen it generation after generation that the cards priced badly get price cuts. All GPUs are priced badly at the moment, even AMD’s new ones. Making them bring the prices down is a game of chicken that we can win if we work together.

Nvidia could even start to focus more on gaming again. Nah, probably not.

Don’t normalise the worst aspects

I completely understand the mindset of everyone for themselves, when prices and availability are this bad. If you want a new GPU and you sit outside a Micro Center for days before the launch to get it, I do understand — even if my ass would never survive sitting on concrete for more than 10 minutes. But the one thing you can do that is worse than paying over-inflated retail prices, is paying other people for the privilege of doing so.

That includes paying for stock tracking apps and services, playing in lotteries, or paying for VIP access to stores. Getting to spend money on something isn’t a privelege. It’s a transation that should be properly honored, not gatekept behind even more financial investment.

You’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do, but if you can avoid rewarding the scalpers and chancers taking advantage of this situation to sell shovels in this GPU gold rush, it’ll help normalise the scene once stock levels return, and make it less likely they’ll come back when this happens again.

If you absolutely have to, do it right

You don’t owe me anything and you certainly don’t owe the industry anything. Your individual purchase is not going to sway anything one way or another. I (and by extension, gamers in general) would appreciate the solidarity and the help in stopping these kind of practices, if you would be willing to hold off on buying.

But if you have to, I get it. Just make sure you do it the right way.

My colleague Monica put together a great guide on how to buy a graphics card right now, but I’ll summarise her suggestions:

• Try smaller retailers, as they often have stock left over because people don’t think to check there as often.
• Buy direct from the manufacturer, as that can help avoid scalper prices and added middle-man fees.
• Buy a pre-built PC: These are often more fairly priced because the retailer can make profit on the other components, too.

You can consider buying second-hand or older last-generation cards, but be careful. Prices are inflated there too, and the cards don’t come with all the latest features, and may not have a warranty. There’s also no guarantee a second-hand card wasn’t used for cryptocurrency mining, which can shorten its lifespan.