Walmart Cut the RTX 5090 to $4,299. It Sold Out
By Reiner A.·

Gaming Hardware News: Week of September 30, 2026

When a $4,299 RTX 5090 counts as a deal, and still sells out, that tells you where the market is. In the same two weeks, Acer’s CEO put a date on the end of rising PC prices, ASUS launched an Ally with an OLED screen, and Logitech refreshed almost its entire PRO lineup.

Walmart sold the RTX 5090 for $4,299 during GeForce Week, and it didn’t last

Walmart ran its GeForce Week from September 22 to 27, with discounts on RTX 50 graphics cards, laptops and prebuilt PCs. The deal that got everyone talking was the MSI RTX 5090 Gaming Trio OC at $4,299.99. It sold out after roughly 10,000 shoppers added it to their carts, per the retailer’s own counter. That doesn’t mean 10,000 cards were sold, only that this was the demand before stock ran out (Tom’s Hardware, TechPowerUp).

The math is simple: $4,299 is about $2,300 over the $1,999 list price, more than double. And it was still one of the cheapest options around, because third-party Newegg listings had RTX 5090s above $6,000, with some ASUS ROG Astral models past $9,000.

What it means for your next purchase: Nvidia’s high end isn’t going back to list price any time soon, and even big-retailer “deals” don’t drop below $4,000. If you’re thinking about spending that on a GPU, first read how much VRAM you need in 2026: for gaming, almost nobody needs 32 GB. Our picks by price range are still in best GPU for your budget.

Acer’s CEO says PC prices will start falling in late 2027

Acer CEO Jason Chen took aim at memory makers this fortnight. In his view, when SK hynix and others talk about a RAM shortage lasting until 2030, it’s more about protecting margins than a real supply problem, and he said flatly that it’s “impossible” for the shortage to last that long. His forecast: PC prices will keep rising 5% to 20% toward the end of 2026, level off in the first half of 2027 and start dropping in the second half. He points to new capacity from Chinese makers like CXMT, which confirmed on September 20 that a new memory chip platform had entered mass production. Acer, HP and ASUS already use CXMT memory in some products (Tom’s Hardware).

A caveat: Acer sells PCs and benefits if you don’t wait until 2030 to buy, just as memory makers benefit from scarcity. Nobody here is neutral. Even so, in his optimistic scenario, the rest of 2026 is still about price hikes.

What it means for your next purchase: if you need a PC now, waiting for RAM to get cheaper doesn’t make sense, since even this forecast puts relief at least 12 months out. Buy the memory you’ll actually use: 16 GB still handles almost every game, as we explain in how much RAM for gaming. If your current rig is holding up, though, pushing a big upgrade to mid-2027 is starting to look like a reasonable bet.

ASUS opens ROG Xbox Ally X20 preorders: OLED for $1,299, same chip

ASUS opened preorders for the ROG Xbox Ally X20, a 20th-anniversary ROG edition arriving October 15 for $1,299.99. There’s also a $2,499.99 bundle with ROG XREAL R1 Edition 20 AR glasses, a dbrand case and a Pelican case. The headline change is the screen: a 7.4-inch OLED panel, 1080p at 120 Hz, HDR with up to 1,400 nits peak and FreeSync Premium Pro. It also adds a D-pad that switches from 4-way to 8-way, TMR sticks and a translucent design (Tom’s Hardware, ASUS).

What doesn’t change is the inside: the same Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme, 24 GB of LPDDR5X, 1 TB SSD and 80 Wh battery as the current ROG Xbox Ally X. In other words, game performance is the same. You pay roughly $300 more for the screen, the controls and the looks.

What it means for your next purchase: our high-end pick in best handheld gaming PC is still the ROG Xbox Ally X at around $1,000. The X20 only makes sense if the OLED screen is what you care about most and that extra $300 isn’t a stretch. If you want more FPS, you won’t find them here. And if you already own an Ally X, there’s no reason to switch.

Logitech G refreshes its PRO line: the new haptic mouse costs $20 more and barely improves

At its Logitech G PLAY event on September 23, the company announced 15 products. Three matter most to PC gamers. The PRO X3 SUPERSTRIKE mouse ($199.99, shipping from October 6) keeps the inductive haptic clicks instead of microswitches and raises battery life from about 90 to more than 135 hours thanks to a new chipset that Logitech says uses half the power. The PRO X2 RAPID keyboard ($229.99) brings Hall-effect magnetic switches with actuation adjustable from 0.1 to 4 mm plus Rapid Trigger. And the PRO X3 LIGHTSPEED headset ($249.99) promises up to 70 hours of battery. On top of that, a free firmware update pushes the sensor on the G502 X PLUS and G502 X LIGHTSPEED up to 44,000 DPI (Logitech via Business Wire).

The PRO X2 SUPERSTRIKE launched in February at $179.99 and is still on sale. Seven months later comes a successor that’s $20 more with the same haptic clicks and, mostly, more battery.

What it means for your next purchase: if you play competitive shooters and were already going to spend $180 on the X2, waiting for the X3 is worth the extra $20 for the battery life. Otherwise, neither is needed to play well, and best gaming mice has options at half the price. The keyboard confirms magnetic switches are now standard at the high end: before paying $230, read what Rapid Trigger is and compare against best gaming keyboards. And if you own a G502 X, update the firmware: it’s free. Just remember that more DPI doesn’t mean better aim, as we explain in how to choose DPI and sensitivity.

The Witcher 3 Remastered is out for free, with Nvidia and AMD drivers ready

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered launched on September 29 as a free update for existing owners. On PC it adds path tracing with DLSS 4.5 and Ray Reconstruction, plus FSR 4 and XeSS 2, reworked global illumination and new combat animations (Nvidia). Nvidia had it covered with driver 617.14 on September 22, which also supports CONTROL Resonant and Gears of War: E-Day and fixes a bug where some DisplayPort monitors wouldn’t wake from sleep (TechPowerUp). AMD answered on the 29th with Adrenalin 26.9.2, optimizing six games including The Witcher 3 Remastered and CONTROL Resonant, and fixing driver timeouts in HITMAN on RX 9000 and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth on RX 7000 (TechPowerUp).

What it means for your next purchase: you don’t need to buy anything: update your driver and, with FSR 4 and XeSS 2, the remaster is built for Radeon and Arc too. Path tracing demands powerful cards and is exactly the kind of feature that tempts an upgrade. First, check how your system actually performs with how to monitor FPS and temperatures for free; if it stutters, drop to regular ray tracing before spending money.

What to do with all this

  • If you were eyeing an RTX 5090: even on sale it won’t go below $4,000. Unless you work with AI, it doesn’t make sense for gaming; look one tier down or at AMD.
  • If you’re buying a PC or RAM: don’t wait for prices to drop this year. Even the most optimistic forecast, Acer’s, doesn’t see declines until late 2027. Buy only what you need.
  • If you want a handheld: the ROG Xbox Ally X at around $1,000 is still the logical buy; the X20 is a screen splurge.
  • If you own a G502 X or plan to play The Witcher 3 Remastered: update firmware and drivers. That’s this fortnight’s free upgrade.

Sources

A note on the data: the Walmart RTX 5090 price and cart count are figures reported by specialist outlets; Acer’s price forecast is its CEO’s opinion, not market data; the ASUS and Logitech launches, The Witcher 3 update and the drivers are official manufacturer announcements.

Missed last edition? Here’s the September 19 recap, covering the RTX 5090 vanishing from US stores and Valve’s Steam Frame launch.