That's exactly how much it costs at MC here ($3225). Look at some of the other 5090s not covered in those charts and they may be a lot cheaper.
Zotac Solid
MSI Ventus
Gigabyte Master Ice
PNY Epic X OC
PNY OC
Gigabyte Aorus Master
MSI Gaming Trio
Well shucks. I'm going with MSI then
Indeed, generally speaking, I don't think one should be too much of a brand hound. Just proceed through the cheapest options, and make sure one didn't catch a glaringly bad review due to some design flaw, or has a poor reputation online with owners for something like coil whine or some weird known firmware issue. Because at their heart they're all really just the same product.
I'm pretty sure I already posted it, but published earlier this year, or maybe last year, as reported by a Swiss retailer. MSI is solid on both sides, here, too:
After that, eyeball the Boost Clock. Once you see a jump you're probably seeing an indication of the higher-binned cards that that board partner received from NVIDIA. So those are the choicest cuts. Unfortunately, usually they're not worth it because the higher clockspeed isn't proportional to the increased asking price. You tend to get very little (like +5% performance) for a lot.
Putting it altogether, with a glance at PCPP, I'd opine the introductory tier MSI Shadow 2X or MSI Ventus 2X RTX 5070 is the best value among the NVIDIA RTX 50 series atm on the American market ($600-$620).
Since Municipal is already spending so much on the 5090, though, and the most powerful cards tend to be louder, I think paying a bit higher premium is reasonable, so the Suprim might be a justifiable choice. However,
@Municipal Waste, I just checked the UK PCPP, and it appears the Ventus 3X is only £1889.99 from Overclockers UK:
Direct link:
I definitely don't think a 1K quid premium for the Suprim is justified over that.
