It's been three months since Nvidia first unveiled its RTX 50 series GPUs, and buying one has remained a challenge, with retailers still struggling to keep them in stock. Due to these ongoing supply issues, prices for the GPUs have skyrocketed, as customers blame import tariffs that continue to push prices past the $3,000 mark for the flagship 5090.

One workaround that consumers and resellers discovered was to fly to Japan, visit major electronics hubs like Osaka, pick up a 5090, and still turn a profit. In response, Japanese stores blocked tax-free purchases to slow down this GPU buying tourism, but it turned out that even without the tax discount, buying in Japan was still a viable option. Now, the situation has gotten so bad that some Japanese retailers are outright refusing to sell RTX 5090 and 5080 graphics cards to tourists altogether.

Tourist demand for 50 series GPUs likely comes from China

Spotted by VideoCardz on the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo, Japanese retailers have started posting signs stating, “RTX 5090/5080 is only sold to customers for use in Japan. If the purchased product is to be taken out of Japan, it will not be sold.” While it’s unclear how exactly these retailers plan to enforce these restrictions or verify whether a customer is a Japanese resident, it's clear that they will closely monitor anyone attempting to buy these GPUs.

Interestingly, since this news has been circulating widely on Chinese social media, many speculate that the majority of these GPU tourists are from China. That said, this ongoing situation highlights that Nvidia is yet to come up with a viable solution for the RTX 50 series stock shortage. For now, the company seems to be dealing with the lukewarm response to its recently launched RTX 5060 Ti GPUs, with the 8GB model seeing little to no demand.

About the Author

Hassam Nasir

Hassam boasts over seven years of professional experience as a dedicated PC hardware reviewer and writer.