Graphics cards from NVIDIA and AMD might get pricier as the US Trade Representative (USTR) has delayed the tariffs on Chinese imports to June. The department aims to gather more feedback from the home industry before making the final decision. The tax is levied on Chinese-manufactured products, including graphics cards, SSDs, and motherboards, hiking their end price by 25%. The Biden administration had (temporarily) lifted the tariffs in 2022 but plans to reconsider ahead of the election season.
The 25% tariff on Chinese imports was supposed to come into effect (again) on December 31st, but the USTR extended the deadline to May 31st. Gaming graphics cards, especially NVIDIA’s RTX 40 series GPUs, are already overpriced, with higher-end SKUs such as the RTX 4090 priced over its $1,599 MSRP.
A 25% tariff on GPUs over $1,000 will hurt the consumer market. NVIDIA plans on launching the RTX 40 Super Refresh in the coming weeks. These are mildly upgraded versions of existing models with price cuts to sweeten the pot. The tariff will undo these upgrades while also making the next-gen RTX 5090 and its siblings pricier than ever.
Source: PCMag
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