### Nvidia 5900X Performance and Tariffs Impacting PC Purchases

Nvidia's 5900X promises significant performance boosts, making now an ideal time to buy a gaming PC before potential price hikes from tariffs.

### Timing Your PC Purchase: The Impact of Tariffs and Next-Gen Hardware
* 💻 Reports indicate that Nvidia's upcoming 5900X could be **up to 25% faster**, prompting discussions about whether to **buy now or wait for next-gen hardware**.
* 💵 With potential tariffs on electronics manufactured outside the U.S., prices are expected to **rise**, complicating the decision for consumers.
* 🤔 The typical advice is to set a budget and upgrade when necessary, but incoming tariffs might make it **more prudent to purchase now rather than later**.
* 📉 Historical context shows that previous tariffs have led to **price increases**, as seen when the RTX 3080 launched for **$700** and the subsequent RTX 4080 for **$900** despite lower die area.
* 🛠 The current season is favorable for buyers, as Q4 often sees **better pricing on gaming rigs** capable of handling **AAA games**.
* 🔄 Many consumers upgrade their GPUs rather than CPUs, with tech enthusiasts typically on a **2-3 year upgrade cycle**, allowing for current purchases to remain **relevant**.
* 📈 If tariffs are implemented, prices could **increase significantly**, making now a potentially **advantageous time to buy a gaming PC**.
* 🎮 With game developers likely targeting existing hardware for the foreseeable future, investing in **current technology** may provide a good balance of **performance and cost**.

reports suggest that Nvidia's 5900X will be up to 25% faster dude this is what I've been waiting for why are you waiting you could buy like a sick gaming rig right now for just a G yeah that's so last gen this is going to be worth

the wait in other news tariffs on electronics that are manufactured outside of the United States so almost all of them are expected to result in major price hikes oh no what now what am I going to do should I build a computer now or should I wait for next-gen that's

a great question viewer yes you and it's one we see all the time especially around big CPU or GPU launches and while the answer would normally be to plan a manageable budget for yourself and upgrade whenever your current system is no longer meeting your needs with those

potential tariffs inbound things could get a little more complicated especially for our American friends but there is some good news because believe it or not this isn't the first time that we run into this type of consumer taxation so we only need to look at the recent past

to understand how tariffs could impact our purchases be they on PC parts washing machines or even merch on LTT store I hope things don't go down this path I want a 50 series GPU but if this new tax comes into effect now could be a

really savvy time to buy a PC rather than waiting let's break it down and break down this segue to our sponsor War Thunder if you're into vehicle combat games War Thunder is super comprehensive easy to get into and available on PC consoles and mobile devices play for

free using the link in the video description. Reason number one to pull the trigger now is you know what you're getting. As cliche as it sounds, until there are third-party reviews, we don't really know what's coming down the pipe. Sometimes the pre-launch rumors end up

being pretty accurate, but other times they aren't, and it can be a pretty poopy feeling to wait sometimes months for a pot at the end of the rainbow that turns out to be Fool's Gold. Number two, it's Q4 baby, the season for inventory

management, and as we outlined in our holiday buyer guide, you can pick up a machine that will handle any AAA game out there for less than you'd probably think. And in our recent review of the AMD Ryzen 9 8000 X 3D, we found that even

an older AM4 and DDR4 system is still very capable of modern gaming and can save you a ton of money. Money that can be spent on a better GPU for enhanced visuals. And guys, I know what you're going to say: buying an older CPU

platform can limit your future upgrades. But look at this: we asked our staff here what parts they usually upgrade before they just give in and get a whole new platform. And while 40% said GPU, the cold hard truth is that most people don't want to upgrade their CPUs, which leads us

to reason number three: how often do you really need to upgrade your PC? Even our team of very techy gamery folks seems to be on about a 2 to 3 year cycle. Just enough time to buy now and hopefully wait out the future tariff storm. Ah yes,

the dreaded t-word to find out more about tariffs and how they might impact pricing I asked Elijah who wrote this video to ask Taran who has a friend who worked in the PC hardware supply chain last time a US Administration peeked at uh Brazil's homework and thought hm that

seems like a good idea he explained it to me by laying out two different scenarios imagine I'm Walmart I'm buying a 590 at a bulk price of $100 and I'm going to sell them for $125 I make a tidy profit and you get

your GPU that's scenario one without any tariffs now for scenario 2 let's say a flat 50% tariff is applied to a country where I purchased the GPU from I reach out to order some more and there's a extra little line on my invoice 50% of

the value of what my order was now I couldn't sell it for 125 even if I wanted to I'd be losing money so to keep my profit I need to sell them for $175 but now my shareholders are upset because they see my gross margins shrink

from 25% to 177% okay let's go with 18.75% that looks terrible on a price tag $189.99 now last time around the electronics tariffs were mostly targeting goods manufactured in China which then resulted in manufacturers investing in factories outside of China

so that they could avoid them but there's a little hidden cost to the consumers there as well let's say I'm Foxconn now different hat I drop a quarter of a bill to build a new factory in Vietnam there's no Chinese tariffs there but someone still has to foot the

Bill, I know I'll just charge $125 for that GPU now, it's less than $150, so I'm still competitive in the market. And in no time at all, consumers will get used to paying more for the same product. More gravy for me, baby. Obviously, that's an

oversimplification, but there also are examples of times when it's played out just like this. The pre-tariff RTX 3080, for instance, launched for $700 and had a die area, so the size of the actual silicon chip, of 628 mm². The

post-tariff RTX 4080 launched for $200 and has a die area of just 379 mm². Now, some of this price increase can be traced back to external factors like higher wafer costs for more advanced manufacturing process nodes. Not to mention the global inflation that is

taken place over the last half a decade, but a big part of it is just plain charging more for less. Now that they've figured out consumers are willing to pay, and this time around it could be worse because so many companies diversified their manufacturing out of China last

time around. There's a lot of talk amongst American policymakers about implementing import tariffs rather than just limiting the tariffs to the exports of a particular country. That will result in manufacturers billing out for both their investments that they've made to diversify their manufacturing and the

tariffs that are being surrendered to the US government. And it's not like the retailer is going to get caught holding the bag, they're just going to mark up accordingly. And if sales volumes decline, they'll simply order less. So now the GPU from our example that used to cost $125

at the till is $235 and guess who paid for it? You. On Monday, November 25th, President-elect Trump announced a 25% tariff on all goods coming from Canada, as well. We'll have to see if they actually follow through with that, but based on that

announcement, our red, white, and blue friends are going to want to order your LMG merch right now. Need a new screwdriver? Want to level up your cable management? Well, now is the perfect time to grab great deals during Cyber Weekend on the LMG store. Shop all of our Black Friday

and Cyber Monday specials at LMG. Black Friday now. Look, I'm not even going to bother reading comments on this video because I'm sure that some folks are going to accuse me of getting political, but math is not political. Math is math. And as heartless as it sounds, the math

says that our standard of living in the Western world is enabled by unfettered access to cheap overseas labor. And if you think that moving manufacturing back is going to solve inflation or even happen at all, I have some hard truths for you. One is that Americans don't want

a lot of these jobs. TSMC, for example, has had a heck of a time hiring for their Arizona semiconductor fab. And for some pretty good reasons. One of the most obvious ones is the misaligned expectations of work-life balance. Now, American workers' rights are far from

perfect, but what they are is worlds better than what you might find elsewhere around the globe. Americans rightly expect things like limited shift times, mandated vacations, the right to collective bargaining, etc., etc. Another less obvious reason is the eroded pipeline of qualified applicants. It takes

decades to resolve the chicken-and-egg dilemma and develop the steady stream of both new talent and new jobs that makes an entire industry tick. It's one of the reasons that our Labs team has struggled so much to hire subject matter experts. Like if we were in South Korea, for

instance, and we wanted to hire a display expert, we would be tripping over applicants. Here, not so much. And it isn't just us. Ratings, for instance, has had a job posting up for a display person for ages. Hard truth number two: Americans don't generally want to pay for

American-made products. There are exceptions, many, many exceptions. All-American Clothing even has this handy-dandy list of companies who make their products in America, many of which are crushing it. I'm personally partial to my onshore manufactured Darn Tough socks from Vermont, but that doesn't

change that the overwhelming trend is toward bargain-basement overseas marketplaces, with Temu surpassing shopping apps from giants like Amazon and Walmart earlier this year. And more and more, I see an attitude of, "If it costs a few dollars more, it's a complete

scam." A sentiment that actually makes a ton of sense given the ongoing economic challenges that have ballooned our cost of living since realistically the 1980s. Hard truth number three, maybe the hardest one of all, is that even if Americans wanted these jobs and were

willing to pay a premium for goods that were manufactured by their friends and neighbors, they don't have enough neighbors. US unemployment is sitting at about 4%. It's not exactly a historic low, and has been creeping up, but it is well below the last sustained high that we

saw during the 2008 financial crisis and it's not that far above the deepest historic lows of about 2.5%, so I don't know, maybe there's a scenario where folks want to make career moves into manufacturing roles, but what I suspect is that most don't ask

yourself, 'Would I rather do this all day?' Don't forget it's for minimum wage or less, so that's the math. There is a political conversation to be had here, something around the deep societal change that would need to take place in order to significantly alter the math.

But that that's not something I'm going to touch on, so let's come back to, 'Should you buy a PC right now?' Well, based on the rhetoric we're seeing so far, it might not be a bad idea. The RTX 590 was already

rumored to hit the market at around 2,000 freedom bucks. If the proposed tariffs go through, that could jump to more like 2,500 for parts that are manufactured outside of China, and maybe even more for anything that's manufactured within China. Now, Nvidia may

absorb some of this in their margins, you know, as a favor to gamers, but they also might not, and you could build a pretty nice, I don't know, entire gaming machine for that much money right now. Another X Factor is, do you guys remember the last

time I made a video called 'Buy a PC Right Now'? That was right on the eve of a crypto boom that drove GPU prices into the stratosphere for years. Well, guess what's booming again right now? Look, if you don't have the money at the moment

or you want to hold out for Next Gen, don't worry too much. This all might end up being a nothing burger, but if you were waiting for the right moment to strike, electronics are pretty affordable out there right now. And I expect that game developers are going to be

targeting current hardware for quite a few years while we wait for a new generation of consoles, so that 5090 probably won't be needed for a while. You know what we will need though, is this segue to our sponsor War Thunder. Take to the skies, strike from the sea, and

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holiday guide and more of just a buyer's guide we cover four different price points and give you a really good starting point for how to configure a great gaming PC

Is It a Good Time to Buy a Gaming PC?

Linus Tech Tips is a passionate team of "professionally curious" experts in consumer technology and video production who aim to educate and entertain.


Linus Tech Tips

Upcoming Nvidia GPU and potential price increases due to tariffs

Nvidia's 5900X is rumored to be 25% faster.

Tariffs on electronics manufactured outside the US are expected to cause price hikes.

The question of whether to build a PC now or wait for next-gen is discussed.

This isn't the first time tariffs have impacted consumer electronics.

The current time might be a good time to buy a PC before potential price increases.

Reason 1: Current specs are known; future releases are uncertain.

Reason 2: Q4 offers good deals on gaming PCs.

Older systems (AM4 and DDR4) are still capable of modern gaming and save money.

Most people don't upgrade CPUs frequently.

The typical PC upgrade cycle is 2-3 years.

Scenario 1 (no tariffs):  Retailer buys GPUs at $100, sells at $125.

Scenario 2 (50% tariff): Retailer's costs increase, forcing higher selling prices.

Previous tariffs led to manufacturing shifts, impacting consumer costs.

Manufacturers pass on costs to consumers.

Comparison of RTX 3080 and RTX 4080 shows price increases despite smaller die area in the newer generation.

Further analysis of tariff impact and potential consequences

Proposed tariffs may lead to higher prices for consumers.

Potential 25% tariff on goods from Canada is mentioned.

Recommendation to buy LMG merch during Cyber Weekend.

Discussion on societal and economic factors related to manufacturing and tariffs

The presenter acknowledges potential political interpretations but focuses on the mathematical aspects.

Americans may not want manufacturing jobs due to work-life balance expectations and other factors.

Americans generally prefer cheaper, overseas-manufactured products.

Even if Americans wanted American-made goods, there's a labor shortage.

Conclusion and final thoughts on buying a PC now

The RTX 590's price could increase significantly due to tariffs.

The presenter references a previous video about buying a PC.

Current GPU prices are relatively affordable.

Current hardware will likely be sufficient for several years.