Taiwanese Retailers Force RTX 5090 Buyers Into Bizarre Motherboard Bundles
Some vendors on PChome24h are requiring the purchase of up to eight motherboards to secure a single flagship GPU.
Nvidia's latest flagship GPU is facing a chaotic launch in Taiwan, where some retailers are refusing to sell the hardware as a standalone product. Buyers seeking the RTX 5090 are instead being forced into expensive, illogical bundles that require the purchase of multiple unrelated components.
Retailers on the Taiwanese e-commerce platform PChome24h have implemented a strict bundling policy for the high-demand graphics card. In one extreme instance reported by Tom's Hardware and Wccftech, a bundle for the GIGABYTE AORUS RTX 5090 Master requires customers to purchase eight motherboards and a 1000W power supply unit just to acquire one GPU. These bundles carry massive price tags, with costs ranging from approximately US$7,481 to US$8,498.
A Return to Crypto-Era Tactics
This strategy mirrors the predatory retail environment seen during the cryptocurrency mining booms of 2020 and 2021. During that period, severe GPU shortages led many vendors to implement bundling to discourage scalpers from clearing out inventory. While intended to ensure legitimate users could access hardware, these practices often devolved into "hostage" tactics where the required bundled items were useless to the average consumer but served as a profit center for the retailer.
Market Implications
The current situation in Taiwan signals a severe supply-demand imbalance for the RTX 5090. By forcing consumers to pay thousands of dollars for redundant hardware, retailers are effectively creating a secondary price floor that exceeds the GPU's actual value. This suggests that the "scalper era" of hardware acquisition is returning, highlighting a persistent failure in supply chain management and a lack of retail regulation during the launch of high-end technology.
What to Watch
It remains to be seen if Nvidia will intervene to stabilize retail practices or if other global markets will adopt similar bundling strategies as supply remains tight. For now, the PChome24h listings serve as a stark indicator of how limited initial stock can empower retailers to dictate terms that leave the end consumer paying a massive premium for hardware they do not need.