MSI Confirms Tight Supply of GeForce RTX 5090/5080 GPUs at Launch, Situation to Improve in February

[AleksandarK]

MSI has officially confirmed that its upcoming GeForce RTX 50 series graphics cards will face limited availability when they launch on January 30, coinciding with the second day of the Lunar New Year. According to MSI's official account, the constrained supply originates from an insufficient allocation of GPU cores provided by NVIDIA, making it difficult for the manufacturer to meet the expected high demand. Some retailers even claimed they only receive single-digit quantities of these cards, leading to a dramatic price hike in certain regions. In extreme cases, prices have been observed at nearly twice the official MSRP, leaving many potential buyers concerned about availability and affordability. Taiwanese media outlet BenchLife.info previously indicated that "communication issues" between NVIDIA and its board partners contributed to the limited supply. These complications and holiday-related manufacturing and shipping disruptions have constrained how many units can be delivered to stores by launch day.

As a result, enthusiasts aiming to purchase a new GPU at MSRP—or even at slightly higher prices—might face an uphill battle. Despite the rocky start, supply levels will gradually improve in February. The precise rate of this improvement is unclear, but many anticipate that more stock will arrive as production normalizes and communication between NVIDIA and its partners recovers. For now, consumers should prepare for limited stock and potentially inflated prices, especially on day one of the launch. Those hoping to upgrade immediately may need to secure a pre-order or wait until supply becomes more stable in the coming weeks. Scalpers are already reserving "guaranteed" slots for RTX 5090 GPU at up to $7000 per GPU, indicating that supply is tight. However, we must wait for the official launch day to see if the situation improves.



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[Outback Bronze]

Despite the rocky start, supply levels will gradually improve in February.

Sounds like I'll have to wait until December...

 

[S73fan]

No problem, I can't buy either one anyway, Let them not worry, they might be available by the end of the year

 

[Lauri]

It's no like NVIDIA wants to sell RTX 5090 at lower price than it can get from using the chips for AI accelerators. They'll just sell some to keep the top gaming GPU spot and show what they can do.

 

[AusWolf]

"the constrained supply originates from an insufficient allocation of GPU cores provided by NVIDIA" - So they're not even blaming TSMC and the supply chain anymore. The audacity...

 

[Raiden85]

"the constrained supply originates from an insufficient allocation of GPU cores provided by NVIDIA" - So they're not even blaming TSMC and the supply chain anymore. The audacity...

They should all be blaming TSMC mostly, it all comes down to how fast they can produce working chips. Nvidia can't distribute them evenly if they haven't got enough.

 

[Bwaze]

They should all be blaming TSMC mostly, it all comes down to how fast they can produce working chips. Nvidia can't distribute them evenly if they haven't got enough.

They would eventually saturate the AI market, but we are very, very far off, since Nvidia told us they sold all the 2025 produced accelerators before the year even begun...

So I think chances of sudden inrush of "cheap sub $3000" products is unlikely this year. Or in the future, unless situation changes - Nvidia starts to produce them elsewhere, or they face the competition in server AI or downturn in interest.

This could end up way worse situation for gamers than cryptomining rush. We have already gotten seemingly crappiest generational performance uplift, with zero price / performance uplift (unless you count fake frames), and with scarcity we might be going backwards, and not by a small margin.

 

[kondamin]

They should all be blaming TSMC mostly, it all comes down to how fast they can produce working chips. Nvidia can't distribute them evenly if they haven't got enough.

It’s on 4nm, nvidia could have used Samsung to make the smaller consumer chips

 

[watzupken]

They should all be blaming TSMC mostly, it all comes down to how fast they can produce working chips. Nvidia can't distribute them evenly if they haven't got enough.

From what we observed from Nvidia's behavior during the last crypto hype, I don't believe the issue is with TSMC, at least not the root cause. I believe most of these GPUs may be sold at a premium to companies, leaving very little for retail customers. Back then, Nvidia kept saying that there is a shortage of Ampere GPUs, but in pictures and news, you saw pallets of GPU sold directly through other channels. Subsequently when the crypto craze died, again there was a surge in resale market for these used GPUs. So is there really a bad shortage because of supply chain disruption or simply, Nvidia and their AIB went for the more lucrative market and left the retail market with barely any cards.

 

[Bwaze]

During cryptomadness everybody blamed everybody else.

Nvidia said they don't even earn anything extra, since all the scalping was done by AIBs and end sellers, and they provided cards for the contract prices - we all know that was a lie, Nvidia suddenly got record revenues in all their segments, even completely unrelated ones, and after the crypto crashed, everything fell down to pre-crypto levels.

AIBs also tried to hide or shift the blame to Nvidia, but their behaviour after the crypto hype ended - leaving ultra high prices for months when nobody was buying anything, it was obvious they were still rolling in money.

 

[csendesmark]

"Tight Supply"
It is just corpo talk that they going to make it expensive

No problem, I can't buy either one anyway, Let them not worry, they might be available by the end of the year

Same here

 

[Vya Domus]

It's no like NVIDIA wants to sell RTX 5090 at lower price than it can get from using the chips for AI accelerators

It's not like they can make a lot of them either, it's an almost fully enabled ginormous die with what must be very poor yields.

 

[maxfly]

And so the paper launch excuses begin.

 

[Bwaze]

It would be hilarious if AIBs just delivered higher priced SKUs, and even those at inflated prices (scarcity!) and completely ignore Reference designs that should be close to MSRP - not enough profit in those!

And we know what the markups for the higher models is this round, for almost zero gain, just a bit of bling they want 30, 40% more...

 

[AusWolf]

They should all be blaming TSMC mostly, it all comes down to how fast they can produce working chips. Nvidia can't distribute them evenly if they haven't got enough.

So not only does Nvidia screw AIBs with their pricing, but now they don't even give them enough chips. I wonder why anybody would want to be an Nvidia AIB at this point.

It's not like they can make a lot of them either, it's an almost fully enabled ginormous die with what must be very poor yields.

But AMD can? Nah, bollocks. Nvidia must be reserving the fully enabled die for other, more profitable markets.

 

[Bwaze]

So not only does Nvidia screw AIBs with their pricing, but now they don't even give them enough chips. I wonder why anybody would want to be an Nvidia AIB at this point.

If (a big IF) there will be a rush to buy all the higher end RTX 50x0 from companies to use them for machine learning, AI and from home content creators that earn money with them, even a relatively small number of cards with perverse amount of scalping could bring them lots of profit?

 

[The Shield]

Here we go again with the fake marketing-BS demand larger than supply.

 

[TSiAhmat]

Despite the rocky start, supply levels will gradually improve in February

Well... they never mentioned February 2025

 

[Vayra86]

No way, a new GPU is scarce at launch!

 

[AtiAmd]

Yeah ,hidden advertising....(we got plenty but we are worry we wont sell enough...so sell your current crap and buy us)
Pathetic

 

[AusWolf]

Well... they never mentioned February 2025

Besides, how do they know that supply will improve and when?

It's like telling your boss that even though you're terribly ill and can't go to work right now, you will definitely get better by next Tuesday.

 

[kondamin]

So not only does Nvidia screw AIBs with their pricing, but now they don't even give them enough chips. I wonder why anybody would want to be an Nvidia AIB at this point.


But AMD can? Nah, bollocks. Nvidia must be reserving the fully enabled die for other, more profitable markets.

What current consumer level AMD product has a ginormous die?
9700xtx is smaller than the 4090 and much smaller than the 5090
9070 is just a bit bigger than half of the 5090

 

[Neo_Morpheus]

"the constrained supply originates from an insufficient allocation of GPU cores provided by NVIDIA" - So they're not even blaming TSMC and the supply chain anymore. The audacity...

Hmm, where have i seen that movie before ….oh yeah…

From what we observed from Nvidia's behavior during the last crypto hype, I don't believe the issue is with TSMC, at least not the root cause. I believe most of these GPUs may be sold at a premium to companies, leaving very little for retail customers. Back then, Nvidia kept saying that there is a shortage of Ampere GPUs, but in pictures and news, you saw pallets of GPU sold directly through other channels. Subsequently when the crypto craze died, again there was a surge in resale market for these used GPUs. So is there really a bad shortage because of supply chain disruption or simply, Nvidia and their AIB went for the more lucrative market and left the retail market with barely any cards.

Cmon man, we know very well that Ngreedia doesnt lie, especially to us their loyal victims.!

 

[AusWolf]

What current consumer level AMD product has a ginormous die?
9700xtx is smaller than the 4090 and much smaller than the 5090
9070 is just a bit bigger than half of the 5090

Are you telling me that x90 GPUs are made with terrible yields, and most of the chips end up in the garbage? I'm not saying it's entirely impossible, but somehow I'm not buying it.

I find it much more plausible that good chips are reserved for Ti / Super "refreshes" and/or datacentre SKUs.

Edit: Even worse than x90-grade chips are probably being reserved for a 5080 Super coming roughly this time next year.

 

[_roman_]

in February

• which year -> 2056?
• which day of february -> 28th?

Some people in my area say february but in reality they mean end of school year, 30th of june