Can't afford the $7,000 gold-plated Asus RTX 5090? How about the downright reasonable $2,589 RTX 5080 Core version?

Look, I wouldn't blame you if you looked at the Asus ROG Astral RTX 5090 Dhabab Edition and thought, hmm, I'm not sure it's worth remortgaging the house for. The Middle East-only card was briefly available for around $7,000, although prices have fluctuated since then and I've seen the odd second-hand model float around for way more than that.

The good news is, the Asus ROG Astral RTX 5080 Dhabab Core is much more affordable. Videocardz has spotted one at a Dubai-based retailer for $2,589, and given it's covered in 24-carat gold plating, I'd say that was something of a bargain.

Still, let's look at the specs together and wonder, shall we? Dhabab means gold in Arabic, and so as a result this quad-fan card is covered in 6.5 grams of the shiny stuff, which is worth around $700 at today's prices alone. It's also got premium MOSFETs, Asus' patented vapor chamber cooler design, and a protective PCB coating underneath all that shiny metal. All of which is, as far as I'm aware, the same as Asus' other ROG Astral cards.

The Asus ROG Astral RTX 5080 Dhabab Core graphics card on a blue gradient background — (Image credit: Asus)

You could also argue it's more than a little tasteless.

Still, I'd be lying if I said I didn't want either of these gold-dripping beasties in my machine, just for the pure excess factor of owning one, and that's the point. It's PC hardware bling, and in all honesty, I can kinda stand behind that. Those of us that can't afford a card like this have a tendency to deck out our rigs in glowing RGB lights, and really, what's the difference?

Well, thousand's of dollars, naturally. Anyway, it's shiny, its expensive, and I'll probably never see one in the wild. Unless someone out there is a particular fan of my writing and wants to get me a wonderful holiday gift, in which case my address is... ah, y'know what, forget it. No golden GPU is quite worth that.

Best graphics card 2025

👉Check out our full guide👈

1. Best overall: AMD Radeon RX 9070

2. Best value: AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16 GB

3. Best budget: Intel Arc B570

4. Best mid-range: Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti

5. Best high-end: Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090

TOPICS

PRODUCTS

Andy built his first gaming PC at the tender age of 12, when IDE cables were a thing and high resolution wasn't—and he hasn't stopped since. Now working as a hardware writer for PC Gamer, Andy spends his time jumping around the world attending product launches and trade shows, all the while reviewing every bit of PC gaming hardware he can get his hands on. You name it, if it's interesting hardware he'll write words about it, with opinions and everything.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.