You should be worried about NVIDIA’s launch strategy for its most popular GPUs. Here's why.

Last week, I wrote about rumors regarding the delayed launch of NVIDIA's RTX 5060 and RTX 5060 Ti. These have now been confirmed by HKEPC, a hardware outlet based in Hong Kong (via Videocardz).

NVIDIA is expected to officially announce its RTX 5060 and RTX 5060 Ti on April 15, 2025.

There are expected to be three cards in total announced in April. The RTX 5060 Ti is apparently being split into 8GB and 16GB VRAM models, while the non-Ti RTX 5060 looks to only have an 8GB VRAM option.

Whereas NVIDIA left a larger gap of time between its other RTX 50-series announcements, review embargo, and launch, the 5060 Ti is expected to hit shelves one day later on April 16.

What's concerning is that the RTX 5060 Ti review embargo also lifts on April 16, assumedly while PC builders, gamers, and enthusiasts are lined up waiting to nab one of the GPUs. I expect demand to be high.

The RTX XX60-series is extremely popular no matter the generation. It only takes a quick look at Steam's hardware survey to see the RTX 4060 in first place, followed closely by the RTX 3060.

While RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 reviews were mainly positive, some of the shine wore off on the less-powerful Blackwell hardware.

For example, the RTX 5070 was largely skewered by reviewers, with PC Gamer notably questioning how it could possibly recommend the GPU without major caveats.

It seems to me that NVIDIA is carefully lining things up for its RTX 5060 Ti launch, hoping that would-be buyers are already on the way home before any potentially negative reviews receive attention.

NVIDIA is planning to keep its RTX 5060 (non-Ti) back for a May release; review embargo details are not clear.

NVIDIA wants all partners to have one RTX 5060 Ti available at MSRP

Another interesting bit out of the launch scheduling leak is that NVIDIA wants its hardware partners — aka the companies that build third-party cards using NVIDIA's chips — to have at least one RTX 5060 Ti available at MSRP for launch.

This is, in theory, a great idea, but I don't know how it will pan out.

The cheaper NVIDIA GPUs are the hardest to find, as they're understandably the most popular. Once the MSRP cards are gone, we'll be left with the usual overpriced listings.

👉 Don't buy an NVIDIA RTX 50-series GPU until you read this

NVIDIA also only appears to want MSRP cards available at launch, so partners will be able to do whatever they want with the following shipments.

It will be interesting to see the overall reaction from gamers and builders in April, as this could go two ways.

NVIDIA could wow us with its RTX 5060 Ti, and the scheduling won't matter in the end. On the other hand, the RTX 5060 Ti might not measure up to expectations, and NVIDIA's scheduling will start to look a lot less reasonable.