A special edition Asus graphics card, the ROG Astral RTX 5090 Real Gold Edition, has dramatically increased in estimated value from its $500,000 auction price to approximately $834,000. This surge is attributed to two key factors: a sharp rise in the market price of gold and significant inflation in the retail cost of high-end RTX 5090 GPUs.
The card contains an estimated 5kg of actual gold, whose scrap value alone has risen from $540,000 to $830,000 due to commodity price increases. Concurrently, the premium RTX 5090 graphics card inside has seen its market price double since launch.
The article contrasts this one-off luxury item with a more widely available gold-themed model, noting the standard version contains only a minimal amount of gold and derives its value primarily as a collectible tech product rather than from its raw materials.
Main topics: Commodity price inflation (gold), luxury/collectible technology, GPU market pricing.
$500,000 gold RTX 5090 is now worth $830,000 thanks to rocketing commodity prices — Asus ROG Astral RTX 5090 Real Gold Edition was actually a savvy investment, worth over 50% more than at inception
The ladder rises for those already at the top.
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Asus’ special one-off ROG Astral RTX 5090 Real Gold Edition has been a great investment, and is currently worth an estimated $834,000 based on its GPU components and scrap gold value. VideoCardz noticed this outrageous inflation in both the price of gold and premium graphics cards, highlighting the unusual phenomenon of a ‘used’ PC part skyrocketing in value.
Let’s look at how we got to the $834,000 valuation for the Real Gold Edition which was auctioned off in August, after being pride-of-show at BiliBili World 2025 in China.
Starting with the relative small potatoes of the RTX 5090 GPU (review link) price. Nvidia and partners launched these halo graphics accelerator products at $1,999 and now, if they can be found in stock in the U.S., they are often listed at double that. There’s two models in stock at Best Buy, for example, and these MSI RTX 5090 and Gigabyte RTX 5090 samples are both being flogged at $3,999.
Article continues belowMoving on to the serious business of gold valuations, the chart embedded above shows that the price of Gold (Au) went up from about $108 per gram in August 2025 to $166 per gram today.
It was claimed that Asus’ 7.2kg Real Gold Edition graphics card included 5kg of actual gold. That means the scrap gold value of the card has risen from $540,000 to $830,000. In other words, the gold scrap value increased by $290,000, or approximately 54%.
The uplifts to both GPU and gold valuations indicate that the Asus ROG Astral RTX 5090 Real Gold Edition would raise a sum of around $834,000 today.
What about the ‘normal’ ROG Astral RTX 5090 Dhahab Edition?
The Asus ROG Astral RTX 5090 Real Gold Edition was an opulence taken to extremes re-spin of the Asus ROG Astral RTX 5090 Dhabab Edition. This Middle East-marketed card looks pretty similar to the one-off, but its gold quota is style over substance, purportedly weighing in at around just 6.5g.
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If you could successfully scrape the 6.5g of gold off a Dhabab Edition, you could sell it for ~$1,080 today. However, it must be noted that these cards were known to sell for around $10,000 in the UAE. So, if you had one and removed the $1,080 of gold, you would definitely be devaluing it.
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Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.
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