Asus drives it to the extreme with a special edition of the RTX 5090: At a fair, the manufacturer presented a version of the graphics card made of solid gold. The GPU is not only the hardest, but also the most expensive ‘consumer’ card ever.
Golden times for hardware enthusiasts
The prices for high-end graphics cards achieve new dimensions with the RTX 50 series from NVIDIA. The ROG-Astral variants of the RTX 5090 from Asus are also expensive. They currently cost interested parties around 3000 euros. With the so-called Dhahab edition of such a card, which is covered with gold and was offered on Ebay for a mere 20,000 euros, the manufacturer has proven that there is probably no limit upwards. This is now also shown by the very latest GPU of the Taiwaner.
The ROG Astral RTX 5090 Real Gold Edition now presented is probably the most expensive graphics card in the world. This is a variant of the current Nvidia flagship card, which is not only covered with gold, but also consists of it. The graphics card shown at the Chinese Mass Bilibili World 2025 costs more than some family home by the precious metal used alone.
Solid gold instead of aluminum
How @Realvictor_m reports on X, ASUS uses a total of five kilograms of gold for this edition. Both the cooling frame and the backplate consist of the precious metal. Cooling ribs and heat pipes also appear in a golden shine, whereby gold leaf may be used here. With current gold prices of around $ 100,000 per kilogram, there is a value of $ 500,000 (around $ 428,000) for the material of the card alone – without the actual components of the graphics card. The total weight of the card is 7.24 kilograms, which makes it not only the most expensive, but also the most difficult graphics card ever.
Marketing gag or waste?
The golden RTX 5090 is clearly designed as an exhibit and not intended for practical use. Experts speculate that the card may be auctioned for charitable purposes or that the gold is melted down again after the fair. The extravagant presentation is part of a series of increasingly absurd special models.
While manufacturers such as MSI, Gigabyte and Asus present regularly limited editions of their top graphics cards, the gold edition reaches new dimensions of exclusivity. Some consumers could see a mockery of ordinary consumers who are already fighting with increasing hardware prices. Historically, gold in electronics is not unusual – but only in tiny quantities for contacts and conductor tracks. However, we know that the use of several kilograms of gold for a graphics card is unprecedented.
