- Nvidia’s Blackwell Stock Levels Rumored Again Unstable
- RTX 5090 launch stock may be very thin on the ground
- The RTX 5080 should be better, but it may still be difficult to find in the early days.
Nvidia’s RTX 5000 graphics cards could be in short supply when these next-gen GPUs first arrive, if a new rumor is true, and this isn’t the first time we’ve heard rumors along these lines.
This time it comes from a regular source of YouTube rumors, Moore’s Law is Dead (MLID), who addressed the topic of Blackwell’s actions in their latest video.
The high-level summary is that the RTX 5090 looks very shaky for its amount of launch stock, and the news doesn’t sound much better for the RTX 5080.
MLID’s first source (season all this appropriately) works at a US distributor and said his organization will only have about 20 boards for the RTX 5080 and nothing at all for the flagship. Yes, zero stock for the RTX 5090, which sounds really worrying.
The theoretical allocation of about 20 RTX 5080 graphics cards is for the first month of sales (i.e. February) and compared to the last generation, this distributor had a couple hundred RTX 4080s at launch in 2022. So you could potentially be looking at a tenth of that stock for the RTX 5080.
The second source is a graphics card manufacturer (presumably in the US) who said their company has the same number of RTX 5090 boards as RTX 3090, and if you remember, RTX 3090 stocks were becoming increasingly scarce. As for the RTX 5080, apparently the supply is a “fraction” of that seen with the RTX 4080, although this source does not estimate that it will be as bad as a tenth, rather between a third and a half of that seen with the RTX 4080 .
Another source, also a graphics card maker (in the EU), said that it looks like the RTX 5090 will be “very rare”, but that the RTX 5080 apparently has “good” stock levels, for the initial release of the card anyway. graphic card. .
Keep in mind that these are all rumors about third-party Blackwell graphics cards, so they don’t apply to Nvidia’s Founders Edition RTX 5090 and 5080 cards.
MLID did hear from a contact at Nvidia, though that person made it clear they were not involved in any supply-related discussions, but noted that Team Green has warned staff that there won’t be many RTX 5090 Founders Editions available. the employee store at the launch. They noted that with the RTX 4090, it was very easy to get one of those GPUs (at deep discounts) at that in-house store.
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Analysis: caveats and more optimistic glimpses
Obviously, all of this comes with important caveats. It’s still only a few sources, even if several experts have weighed in here, and it’s only one US distributor (others might do better, perhaps, especially for the RTX 5080).
In fact, there are some mixed comments about the RTX 5080 and some hints of stronger stock levels, such as the mention that inventory is between a third and half of what was seen with the RTX 4080. That doesn’t sound as bleak as some of The There are other estimates here, but as MLID points out, the supply of the RTX 4080 was not great, and part of the reason it remained was because this GPU was not very popular. The RTX 5080 could be much more in demand and could therefore still be sold out in an instant.
Of course, we don’t know how much confidence to put in this speculation, and the Founders Edition could be different too – there’s no solid evidence on those models. But it certainly makes sense that Nvidia wouldn’t want to prioritize the stock RTX 5090 in particular, for its own boards or third-party graphics cards. Firstly, because AMD RDNA 4 does not even remotely compete with the new Nvidia flagship and, secondly, because Team Green will undoubtedly want to use the best Blackwell chips for AI instead of the 5090, since that is where the advantages lie. big profits.
All of this doesn’t fill me with confidence about the overall outlook for RTX 5000 stock, I have to say, particularly since a report from last week is pretty much in line with the claims here, hinting that it could be a battle to get one of Nvidia’s hands on. Next generation GPU at launch.
