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Nvidia is warning potential PC gaming upgraders to anticipate a potential slump in available graphics cards. Team Green’s GPU offering is getting ready for its refresh to the RTX 50 series, and it is pulling the plug on making new RTX 40 cards as a result.
The RTX 4070 Super is currently rated as our best graphics card of 2024, but the next generation of GPUs is just around the corner. It’s expected that Nvidia will begin announcing them at CES 2025, this coming January. However, in the meantime, it’s readying customers for a bit of a drought when it comes to the availability of its graphics cards.
Consumer-grade graphics cards have gotten quite powerful, even outside of gaming. As such, with the company ready up the RTX 50-series, it is also facing struggles to meet ongoing demand for its GPUs as both gaming and AI cards.
It’s also reasonable to assume that Nvidia will prioritize the massive money it makes from producing data center-capable cards. However, gaming fans shouldn’t worry all that much, as despite the ongoing struggles with stock right now, we’re not in the situation we were just two years ago.
After the electronics shortage in 2020, and the worldwide pandemic kept production at a minimum, GPUs were also then being swallowed up by the ongoing cryptocurrency bubble. With these factors not currently affecting supply – despite Bitcoin hitting new highs recently – Nvidia and us buyers have a bit of breathing space.
Still, while it likely won’t get that bad again, there’s an indication that the shortage could be exasperated by supply constraints. This could lead not only to a shortage in stores but also potentially lead to more price hikes by retailers as demand grows.
CES 2025 is rumored to bring the RTX 5090, 5080, and both the 5070 and its Ti variant. However, some rumors have also suggested it could be just the first three, excluding the Ti model for now. The 5070 Ti has recently had its power and CUDA cores leaked, which gives us some indication of where Nvidia thinks the mid-tier should be.
We’re still in the dark as to when the RTX 5060 will land, as the lower-end card usually launches much later than its higher-power counterparts.
The GeForce RTX 5090 is looking to be an absolute beast of a GPU, with the 5090’s pricing in a state of rumor flux at the moment. While it should be another overkill piece of hardware for gaming, those after it will be fighting the AI crowd over the GPU.