The RTX 4090 launched four years ago today, and now the RTX 5090 is rumoured for the chop, I can't help but look upon it with a warm glow

Join me in saying "Happy birthday" to the RTX 4090, Nvidia's enthusiast-level graphics card of the previous generation. It launched four years ago today, October 12, with an eye-watering MSRP of $1,499.

Well, eye-watering for the time. The cheapest RTX 5080 I can find right now is this Asus Prime variant for $1,640, which is a sure sign of how things have changed in the past four years. When the second-from-top Nvidia card is now significantly more expensive than the launch MSRP of the previous generation big boi model, it's pretty easy to see how far we've fallen.

And the RTX 4090's direct replacement, the RTX 5090, has reached near-unobtanium status. We've stopped tracking it on our graphics card price watch page, as the only listings around are priced at ludicrous levels from third-party sellers we're not comfortable recommending. …