By Refresh
Fun fact: the RTX 5090 is going to be quite a bit smaller than its predecessor the RTX 4090, despite ostensibly being a more powerful card. Yes, I have to say ‘ostensibly’ because we’re not past the review embargo yet, but come on, we all know it’s going to perform better.
I’m personally over the moon that Nvidia has opted to slim things down for this new high-end GPU, because quite frankly the RTX 4090 was a comically oversized beast of a card regardless of which model you bought. All of the Founders Edition models of every upcoming RTX 5000 card will be certified for Nvidia’s own Small Form Factor Ready scheme, meaning lovers of compact PCs and living-room builds can rejoice.
Over in the UK, retailer Overclockers is currently listing all of its RTX 5090 cards with a healthy £25,000 price tag. Don’t panic – this is almost certainly just a nifty trick to let them put them on sale immediately at 2PM GMT with a simple scheduled price change.
One Overclockers store posted on its Facebook page earlier today with a rather fun image showing stacks of RTX 5090 boxes – although if that’s all the stock they have, perhaps we should be worried about those prices…
If previous RTX launch days are any indication, it’s possible that US stock will sell out near-instantly, but UK stock might stick around for at least a little longer. What can I say; we’re all broke on this side of the pond right now, we can’t all be rushing out to drop a cool two thousand on a new GPU.
However, this could create a potential opportunity for US shoppers – while some UK retailers are either limiting sales to UK buyers only or simply don’t ship overseas, if you know somebody in the UK, you might stand a better chance of getting your hands on a 5090 if you get them to buy it and then ship it across the Atlantic to you. Sure, it might cost you more, but better you give that cash to a friend or colleague than a scalper!
If you’re dead set on getting an RTX 5090 today, though, you’re in for an uphill battle: stock is expected to be extremely thin on the ground at both physical stores and digital retailers, with a legion of scalpers no doubt prepping their bots as I type this. Pricing is expected to sit above the $1,999 / £1,939 / AU$4,039 MSRP for most (if not all) third-party models, and you can bet that the first-party Founders Edition cards from Nvidia will sell out like hot cakes.
Still, there are measures you can take: make sure you’re signed up for stock alert notifications at every retailer that’s offering them, and be prepared to mash F5 when the expected 9AM ET / 6AM PST / 2PM GMT launch time rolls around.
I’m very excited now. The anticipation. We’re less than 90 minutes away from stock dropping at all major retailers in the US, UK, and beyond, so get ready to start hitting refresh on some online storefronts.
From early examinations of leaks and rumors (and our knowledge of how things went down during previous Nvidia GPU launches) I’ve concluded that it’s highly likely that RTX 5080 stock will be at least a bit more plentiful, so consider checking out our Where to Buy the RTX 5080 page to improve your odds of getting a new graphics card today.
After all, our RTX 5080 review concluded that it’s a stellar high-end GPU that should sit comfortably inside any PC gamer’s custom build for years to come, so it’s worthy of your consideration.
