RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 are sold out in many places; inventory may take months to return

Nvidia’s new video cards, GeForce RTX 5080 and 5090, were sold in record time after the official release last week.

In less than an hour, there were no more units available in both physical stores and online retailers in the United States and also in Brazil. Scarcity generated suspicions that the company did not have a significant volume of products for sale, leading to criticism that this was a “paper launch”.

Prior to the arrival of the new GPUs in the market, Tim Adams, GEForce community head, had warned that demand would be high and that inventory depletion could occur quickly.

Resellers and pc automakers face difficulties

As expected, the plates instantly disappeared from retailers such as Amazon, Micro Center, Best Buy and Newegg. Newegg stated in a statement that its availability was consumed “in minutes.”

The situation was even more complicated for custom PC automakers. According to the Gamers Nexus channel, one of the largest US system integrators received only one unit from the RTX 5090 on the day of launch, getting a few more units throughout the day. Another company had only 20 plates, sold quickly on pre-assembled systems.

The scarcity of video signs is not new to gamers, but the speed with which RTX 5080 and 5090 disappeared from the market raises questions about Nvidia’s strategy and the actual volume produced

British retailer Overclockers UK estimates that it will take two to six weeks to replace RTX 5080 stocks and up to 16 weeks to RTX 5090. In the US, the situation seems similar, with buyers reporting delivery dates only to the end of February.

Technical difficulties and impact on the market

The high interest in the new GPUs is due to the evolution of the requirement of modern games, which begin to recommend Series 40 boards for optimized use of Ray Tacing. Nevertheless, many players still use 30 Series models, as pointed out for Steam’s hardware survey of January 2025.

At the same time, RTX 5090 has faced technical challenges. Reports indicate a drop of up to 5% in performance when connected with 3x 8 -pin power cables, a problem that can affect consumer experience.

Another critical point is that the RTX 5090 has been the subject of complaints by users facing unexpected failures, overheating and even system crashes. Some experts suggest that these problems may be related to Lovelace architecture or lack of optimization in the latest drivers.

This situation has generated frustration among consumers who expected impeccable performance of the new generation of GPUS.

Also read:

What to expect for the coming months

It is still unclear whether Nvidia has faced production problems or if the launch was purposely limited. Factors such as supply difficulties and challenges with the new Lovelace architecture may have impacted availability.

The history of lack of inventory and price increase in the pandemic still haunts consumers, who expected a more favorable time for hardware upgrade.

For those who want to secure a RTX 50, the best advice is to monitor retailers closely and be aware of new shipments. Meanwhile, the company still needs to clarify whether the lack of inventory is just a momentary problem or part of a broader commercial strategy.

It remains to be seen when the new GPUs will be widely available and if players will finally be able to update their machines without having to dispute each unit as if it were a rare item.

Fonte: Polygon