Asus revealed a gold-plated GPU worth $500,000, and it's pretty hefty

When the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090's $2,000 price tag was announced, gamers everywhere winced at the idea of buying one. Then there were storage issues, and the GPU ended up selling for far more than that in the hands of scalpers. And now, Asus has revealed its own 5090, which I'm pretty sure is the most expensive GPU ever to exist. It's a gold-plated 5090 that's covered in 5KG of the precious metal, and if you go off of gold prices alone, the GPU is worth at least $500,000 in base parts.

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Asus shows off the RTX 5090 ROG Astral Real Gold Edition at Bilibili World 2025

As spotted by Tom's Hardware, Asus revealed the RTX 5090 ROG Astral Real Gold Edition during the Bilibili World 2025 event. There was no news on whether people would eventually be able to buy this GPU, or if it was just a cool showcase. Either way, this GPU would theoretically cost around $500,000 if it entered the market.

If you want a more exact figure, you can do the math yourself. X user @realVictor_M posted images of the GPU and said that it used 5KG of gold as part of the construction. If you head over to the current gold price per kilogram, you can see how much 1/5th of the gold on this GPU will set you back. At the time of writing, the price per kilogram is $107,983.10, meaning the 5KG of gold on this GPU is worth $539,915.50. Suddenly, a $2,000 GPU doesn't sound so bad.

If a gold-plated 5090 seems familiar to you, it's probably because you saw the ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5090 Dhahab Edition. That GPU used 6.5 grams of gold and had a $7,000 price tag, so if you want real gold on your GPU and you don't want to pay six figures for it, that's likely your best bet.

This isn't the first time we've seen people get creative with GPUs. There was that one time someone sold a $1,024 purse made out of a GeForce GT 730 and then came back a few months later to sell a purse made out of an Nvidia H100 AI GPU for $65,536. And while the GPUs used in those projects were no longer functional, they were still a nice little fashion piece. And if you're still on the fence about purchasing a 5090 or not, check out these reasons why the RTX 5090 is actually worth the money, alongside some reasons why it might be better to stick with the RTX 4090 instead.