NVIDIA’s RTX 5090 launch could be the worst ever — can AMD capitalize?

NVIDIA's RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 GPUs are launching on January 30, but rumored stock shortages could leave a lot of enthusiasts hoping to upgrade with no avenue to do so. A bunch of new information has come out in the last couple of days regarding NVIDIA's perceived launch challenges.

These are rumors barring any official NVIDIA acknowledgment, but the information comes from industry insiders. As reported by Videocardz, PowerGPU — a system integrator looking to get NVIDIA's new Blackwell cards into its custom PCs — posted on X (formerly Twitter), stating that "the launch of the RTX 5090 will be the worst when it comes to availability."

Worse, the info comes with a warning that the limited stock will likely continue for at least three months.

But how bad, exactly, is the shortage? Videocardz was also quick to pick up on a forum post from Overclockers UK staff member Andrew "Gibbo" Gibson. In the post, Gibson claims that OC UK has single digits of the RTX 5090 and just a few hundred RTX 5080 units a week ahead of the January 30 launch. Gibson also states:

"We are expecting greater demand than 40 series, but with the launch just prior to CNY and lots of other rumours circulating initial waves of supply are poor and will probably take some time to build up. So the stock we have will be made available from the launch via the webshop but I know what we have is likely to last only seconds, minutes at most."

Overclockers UK is a huge hardware retailer, so this doesn't bode well for smaller shops. It also doesn't bode well for PC enthusiasts hoping to jump on a new RTX 5090 or RTX 5080 on launch day. Gibson offers a savvy piece of advice:

"My advice is if your building a new rig, do not sell your current GPU until you have the replacement in your hands and if you don't have a GPU yet, then maybe consider buying something like an RTX 3050/3060/4060 to get you up and running at least."

In the same post, Gibson mentions Chinese New Year and NVIDIA's launch schedule clashing, which could be a big reason why RTX 5000 stock is not yet plentiful. This statement is mirrored in a report from Benchlife (a generally trustworthy hardware info source), in which it's stated that the Chinese New Year/Spring Festival in Taiwan and China is hampering production.

NVIDIA's first major embargo lifted today, January 23, and Windows Central Senior Editor Ben Wilson wrote an in-depth RTX 5090 review in which he states:

"While NVIDIA's admirable efforts to redesign and slim down its flagship GeForce RTX graphics card have paid off with a performance bump comparable to its MSRP, it's still practically impossible to recommend the RTX 5090 FE to any levelheaded PC gamer. Sure, it's technically the best in its category; this stands as the world's best consumer GPU, but the RTX 5080 remains a more sensible high-end pick for anyone who isn't in a professional field working with AI."

AMD's delayed Radeon 9000 launch could pay off

AMD's RDNA 4 GPUs were no more than teased at CES 2025, with the company pulling its GPU presentation segment at the last second. Press outlets did indeed receive PR packs with RDNA 4 inside, but we didn't get much more than a few hardware promises, an FSR 4 preview outlining a new reliance on machine learning, and a look at some of the custom GPUs coming from AMD's hardware partners.

Since then, information has trickled out from leakers, insiders, and AMD executives, including GM and VP of Ryzen and Radeon David McAfee. It's now known that RDNA 4 GPUs are expected to launch in March, weeks later than the RTX 5070 and RTX 5070 Ti.

In a recent X post in response to Hardware Unboxed, McAfee states that AMD is "taking a little extra time to optimize the software stack for maximum performance and enable more FSR 4 titles."

Considering retailers already have Radeon 9000 GPUs inventoried and awaiting launch, the extra time to build up stock — and for AMD to polish its RNDA support systems — should only benefit AMD in the face of extended stock shortages from NVIDIA.