- Japanese retailers are restricting the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 NVIDIA GPUs to Japanese residents only
- It is an attempt to prevent tourists from buying Blackwell GPUs
- It occurs after an earlier attempt to block tax -free purchases.
In addition to the superior third -party models, the NVIDIA RTX 5080 GPUs are difficult to obtain (especially founding cards). And it turns out that an ‘easy’ potential alternative for consumers has closed quickly.
As reported by Videocardz, Japanese retailers have restricted the purchases of RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 only to Japanese citizens. This occurs after previous attempts to prevent tourists from buying the prestigious graphics cards; In particular, stores had blocked tax -free purchases, but are now adopting a much more aggressive approach.
The signals in the stores affirm that both Nvidia high -end GPUs will not be sold to anyone who intends to use the GPU outside the country, effectively excluding all tourists to buy. According to reports, customers will be put through a ‘Japanese resident’ test before buying.
It is the highlight of the shortage of the supply and the situation of high demand that surrounds the graphics cards at this time, and perhaps it is a quite fun tactic of the consumers who consider the lack of availability at the launch price, in other places. On paper, catching a plane to another country to buy a GPU sounds like an extreme measure, but I suppose that a flight to Japan could cost less than the inflation differential in other regions.
It may sound like an extreme measure, but in reality it is quite familiar. NVIDIA currently has its verified priority access scheme, which allows US customers to book an opportunity to buy an RTX 5090 or RTX 5080 Founders Edition; The problem is that you must have made a NVIDIA account on January 30 or before to be eligible.
This prevents the coatings from spoiling the party for genuine buyers, while ensuring that there is enough for consumers in the United States (although it would be good to see that this is available for more regions), particularly at a time of high demand.
Jumping through these obstacles to obtaining an RTX 5000 is not worth it if you ask me …
While I write this article on an RTX 5080 laptop, I can testify how good the Blackwell GPU is good. However, going to another region to buy a graphics card is not worth it.
As I am hooked on high -end game experiences with high resolutions, I would never reject the opportunity for a power GPU. However, for other players, it is not a necessity, and the latest results of the Steam hardware survey show that 1080p remains the most used resolution.
Now we are at a stage where APUS of AMD E Intel (System-on-Chip) socs perform very well in games with 1080p and 1440p resolutions; For example, Ryzen Ai Max 395+ of AMD exceeds some discreet GPUs in games like Cyberpunk 2077.
The only problem is that these chips are only gradually starting to reach the desktop PCs, and most PC hardware components face price inflation anyway (particularly GPU). Now it is about weighing your options and if the high resolutions are a priority for you, just please do not spend too much, agree?
