Summary
- Nvidia’s latest GPUs, the 5090 and 5080, sold out almost immediately after launch on January 30, 2025.
- Fans expected shortages, but stockouts happened much faster than most anticipated, leaving many empty-handed.
- Many largely blame scalpers and bots for the shortage, though stock was also impacted by manufacturing delays.
Gamers hoping to get one of Nvidia‘s latest GPUs on launch day may be in for some disappointment, as both the RTX 5090 and 5080 sold out hours after going on sale. Shortages are nothing new for the company, and many expected the graphics cards to be in short supply at first, but the almost immediate stockout still left many would-be buyers stunned. Nvidia will put out more 5090s and 5080s later, but the GPUs will likely remain hard to find for a while.
Back in 2022, Nvidia sold out of 4090s two weeks after release. Given such a history, fans expected the 50-series, which have replaced the 40-series as the most powerful GPU on the market, to face a similar situation, but this latest launch went even quicker than anticipated. Massive demand and a constrained supply made it nearly impossible for many to get their hands on a 5090 or 5080.
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Before the launch, Nvidia warned that 5090 and 5080 stockouts were likely but assured fans that it was shipping more stock to retailers every day. Dedicated gamers took the warnings to heart and got ready to wait in line and refresh their open store pages early in the morning on January 30 for the chance to grab a new GPU while they were still available. However, most people’s efforts were in vain. Users on Reddit in multiple countries reported 5090 stocks selling out in mere minutes if not seconds.
Many hopeful buyers blame scalpers and bots for the instantaneous stockout. Considering how scalpers had already listed some 5090s ahead of launch day, there may be something to that accusation. The extreme discrepancy between supply and demand didn’t help. Nvidia’s GPUs are great for powering AI models, not just for gamers, so the latest graphics cards faced a much wider audience than some previous releases, but manufacturing levels likely fell behind schedule when Nvidia had to fix a flaw in its Blackwell chips in 2024.
Given such high demand, the next few restocks could end in a similar story. Nvidia’s 4090 chips eventually became accessible after some time, so the same will happen at some point with the 5080 and 5090, but it’s not clear how long it’ll take for production to catch up and demand to die down. Meanwhile, the less powerful RTX 5070 and 5070 Ti are expected to come out in February, so PC gamers could try to get their hands on one of those instead. Of course, nothing is stopping the 5070 from meeting the same fate.
Nvidia
- Date Founded
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April 1, 1993
- Headquarters
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Santa Clara, California, United States
- CEO
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Jensen Huang
- Subsidiaries
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Mellanox Technologies, Cumulus Networks, NVIDIA Advanced Rendering Center