By Reiner A.·Aug 13, 2026

Gaming hardware news: week of August 13, 2026

At last weekend’s QuakeCon (August 6-9, in Grapevine, Texas), Nvidia sold RTX 5090, 5080 and 5070 Founders Edition cards at launch prices while supplies lasted, and outlets covered it as one of the booth’s attractions (Tom’s Hardware). It was one. Outside that booth, median prices for the same cards climbed close to 40% in a month. And AMD — which I’ve spent two weeks calling the sensible option — just pushed the RX 9070 XT past $1,000 in its first market. The buying window I described last week has narrowed, so let’s update it.

RTX 50 street prices jump up to 40% — the 16GB 5060 Ti now asks $805

These aren’t notices to manufacturers anymore. Median RTX 50 prices in US retail rose by as much as roughly 40% between June and August, according to Newegg listing tracking published by Tom’s Hardware and TechPowerUp. The specifics:

Model	August median	Increase
RTX 5060	$469.99	+27%
RTX 5070	$899.99	+36%
RTX 5060 Ti 16GB	$804.99	~+40% (from around $570 in July)
RTX 5090	$4,200-$4,900 depending on retailer	more than double its $1,999 MSRP

The cause is this year’s usual one: memory. DRAM makers are giving their capacity to AI, and the GDDR6/GDDR7 that goes into consumer cards has multiplied in price since late 2025 (Tom’s Hardware, TechPowerUp).

What it means for your next purchase: the methodology note first, because it matters. These are medians of Newegg listings in the United States. It isn’t the price you’ll see in Europe or Latin America, and a median rises when the cheap models disappear even if the expensive one never moves. That said, the direction is not in doubt, and other regions are behind this curve, not on a different one.

The row that actually changes a decision is the 16GB 5060 Ti. A lower-mid-range card asking $805 breaks the whole tier logic. For that money you’re in the price bracket of substantially faster cards, and you’re there not for performance but because it carries 16GB and memory is what got expensive. It’s the same pattern I flagged last week, now measured at retail: the increase doesn’t scale with tier, it scales with gigabytes of VRAM.

That leaves mid-range buyers in an uncomfortable spot, and I don’t have a comfortable answer:

If your budget is fixed, this pushes you toward 8GB models. Before accepting that trade, read how much VRAM you need in 2026. I still think 8GB is buying a deferred problem.
If you can stretch, look at last-gen used before a new 8GB card. That’s the first time in years I’ve meant that seriously.
If you already own a decent GPU, this is not the month. Dropping a resolution tier or a settings notch is free; a card at a 40% premium isn’t.

The budget ranges I work with are in best value graphics cards and best GPU for your budget. I’ll be revising them again.

AMD crosses $1,000: the RX 9070 XT goes to $1,038 in China guidance

AMD issued its Q3 suggested e-tail price (SEP) guidance to Chinese distributors and board partners, sitting above each model’s standardised MSRP. The headline is that the RX 9070 XT lands at 6,999 CNY, roughly $1,038 — the first time it crosses $1,000 (VideoCardz). The full stack, Q3 SEP against MSRP:

Model	MSRP	Q3 SEP	Difference
RX 9070 XT	5,599 CNY	6,999 CNY	+25%
RX 9070	5,199 CNY	5,599 CNY	+7.7%
RX 9070 GRE	3,999 CNY	4,599 CNY	+15%
RX 9060 XT 16GB	3,599 CNY	4,299 CNY	+19.5%
RX 9060 XT 8GB	2,699 CNY	3,099 CNY	+14.8%

For scale: the 9070 XT launched in China in March 2025 at 4,999 CNY, so this 6,999 is 40% higher in yuan than its launch price. AMD’s channel documentation attributes the increase to GDDR6 procurement costs. It has not confirmed any change to its official US or European pricing.

What it means for your next purchase: this is the piece that was still missing. Two weeks ago the RX 9070 XT was the clear buy because AMD was raising less than Nvidia. Last week I warned that advantage had an expiry date. This week the date has a number next to it.

Two things worth reading carefully before drawing conclusions:

This is China, not your store. It’s official channel guidance for one specific market. AMD repeating these percentages in Europe or the Americas is likely, but it hasn’t happened yet — and that lag is exactly your room to manoeuvre.
Look at which models rise most. The 16GB RX 9060 XT goes up 19.5% and the 8GB version 14.8%: same chip, different memory, five points apart. The top of the stack is worse — the 16GB 9070 XT rises the most of any model at 25%. Again: more VRAM, bigger increase. That isn’t coincidence or AMD being AMD, it’s the price of memory working its way onto the sticker.

My position, unchanged for a third week: if the 9070 XT was your card, buy from the inventory already sitting in stores. Not out of manufactured urgency, but because that stock was bought at old prices and nothing suggests what comes next is cheaper. And when you compare it against the RTX 5070 Ti, do it on same-day price with the criteria in Nvidia vs AMD, not on which brand raises less. That argument is gone.

RAM has flattened, but flat isn’t falling

Framework published its monthly component pricing update and the message has two sides. The good one: memory prices have flattened over recent months. The bad one: the company explicitly warns of further increases and more volatility through the rest of 2026, and it has adjusted storage pricing again as its cheaply-bought inventory runs out (Tom’s Hardware). In its DIY laptops, DDR5 runs $13 to $18 per GB. A 32GB desktop DDR5 kit sits around $350-$400 today (Tom’s Hardware RAM price tracking).

What it means for your next purchase: I’ve seen a fair number of people this week reading the plateau as “the worst is over”. It isn’t. A price that stops climbing is still a price four times higher than last year’s, and the source here is a manufacturer that buys memory every month and gains nothing by scaring its own customers.

What does change from what I wrote last week is the focus: right now the component most at risk of getting expensive isn’t RAM, it’s the SSD. NAND has been climbing for months and manufacturers are burning through cheap stock exactly now. If your build includes a 2TB-or-larger SSD, that’s the part I’d buy first this month — ahead of the GPU, even. Specific drives are in best gaming SSD, and the interface question in NVMe vs SATA.

For RAM I’ll repeat the same advice: a well-chosen 16GB, free slots, and don’t pay for RGB. The criteria are in how much RAM you need for gaming.

Intel Gamer Days: two free games through September 13

Intel kicked off its annual Gamer Days campaign on August 10, running through September 13. Buying eligible hardware gets you two games: STAR WARS: Galactic Racer and Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, a combined $119.98 of value. Almost the whole current catalogue qualifies: 14th Gen Core processors, Core Ultra Series 2 and Series 3 (desktop and laptop), Arc A-series and B-series graphics cards, and Arc G-series handhelds. Codes must be redeemed by October 31 (Intel press release, VideoCardz).

What it means for your next purchase: it’s the only thing that got cheaper this week, so it earns a paragraph — and a warning.

The fine print: neither game exists yet. Galactic Racer launches October 6, 2026, and Legacy of Atlantis on February 12, 2027. You redeem now and unlock when they ship. If you wanted both anyway, that’s a real $120 indirect discount. If you’d play neither, the bundle is worth zero to you, however large the number looks in the ad.

Translated into decisions: the bundle is a tiebreaker, not a reason. If you were already torn between a Core Ultra and an equivalent Ryzen and both worked for you, this tips it. If the Ryzen was the better fit for your workload, it still is with two games attached. The use-case comparison is in Intel vs AMD and the budget picks in best CPU for your budget.

That said — in a month where everything is going up, a giveaway campaign with Arc graphics cards inside it is the clearest signal of which brand needs to move inventory.

ASUS previews Gamescom: if you were eyeing a ROG, wait two weeks

On August 12 ASUS published its preview of what it’s bringing to Gamescom 2026, August 26-30 in Cologne (Opening Night Live is the 25th). It’s ROG’s 20th anniversary, so the Edition 20 commemorative line is going, along with oversized display models of the ROG Xbox Ally X20 and the ROG Zephyrus Duo, plus what the release itself calls “sneak peeks of new gaming hardware” (ASUS press release). Of the rest of the announced Edition 20 line, a good chunk is merchandise: the SLASH luggage and backpack, the SAGA OMNI figure, and the black-and-gold G1000 chassis.

What it means for your next purchase: on its own, nothing — there’s no new product on sale and no prices. But the calendar matters if you’re about to spend.

If you were looking at a ROG laptop or an ASUS handheld, wait until the last week of August. Not because prices will drop (that doesn’t happen in 2026), but because a successor announcement two weeks out is precisely the worst moment to pay full price for the outgoing model. And on the ROG Xbox Ally X20, shown at Computex with a 7.4-inch OLED panel, ASUS still hasn’t given an official price — which, with memory where it is, is not a small detail on a device carrying 24GB of soldered LPDDR5X.

Meanwhile, the things I’ve actually tested with real prices are in best handheld gaming PC and best gaming laptops 2026.

What I’d do this week

Your situation	What I’d do
You were eyeing an RX 9070 XT	Buy from stock already on shelves; the official increase has started in China
You were eyeing an RTX 5060 Ti 16GB	Reconsider. At $805 it’s out of its own tier — compare against used last-gen
Fixed budget pushing you to 8GB	Don’t accept that trade without reading the VRAM guide. It’s a deferred problem
You already own a decent GPU	Not this month. Drop settings and wait
Your build includes a 2TB+ SSD	Buy the SSD first. NAND is next in line
You thought RAM was coming down	It flattened, it didn’t fall. Good 16GB and free slots
Torn between Core Ultra and Ryzen	Intel’s bundle breaks the tie — but only if you’d play those two games
About to buy a ROG laptop	Wait for August 26-30. There are announcements two weeks out

Sources

On sourcing: the RTX 50 percentages are medians of Newegg listings in the United States, not Nvidia official pricing and not European prices. AMD’s price guidance is channel documentation for China reported by VideoCardz, not a public statement and not a confirmed change for other markets. Intel Gamer Days and the ASUS Gamescom preview are official press releases.

Missed last week? Here’s the August 6 recap, with the motherboard increase and the RX 9050 launch in Latin America.