As a huge GPU enthusiast, a new launch is basically a party for me — and it’s a party that often lasts for months. With both Nvidia and AMD staggering their product releases, there’s plenty to get excited for as new models keep getting added to our ranking of the best graphics cards every few weeks.
This time, the excitement is only true on paper. In fact, I’m beginning to feel disappointed. After waiting for Blackwell for a long time, it’s starting to feel like it would’ve been better if we waited a little bit longer.
The GPU shortage is back
Not everyone remembers the GPU shortage that plagued Nvidia’s RTX 30-series and AMD’s RX 6000-series, but those who do remember surely know how dreadful it was. I won’t bore you with a full recap, but as someone who wanted to upgrade my PC during that time and couldn’t because of the shortage, I’ll be the first one to tell you that it was a crazy time. Some GPUs sold at 300% of their recommended list price (MSRP) and scalpers were running rampant.
This situation came about as a result of a global chip shortage, the pandemic, and cryptocurrency mining being at its peak. Now, with all three factors no longer crippling the supply chain, you’d think that the RTX 50-series launch would be as smooth as butter.
Long story short: It’s certainly not been smooth.
Weeks before the GPUs even hit the market, leakers have been spreading rumors about the low supply of the RTX 5090. The stock levels of the rest of the lineup remained unclear, but the general public was ready. Days before launch, people were already camping outside of retail stores. Some retailers turned to a lottery system to allow people to buy a GPU, and in some cases, those events quickly devolved into total chaos.
It’s like we’re all the way back in 2021 again, and although it’s not quite as bleak as that, it’s not looking good.
History of GPU launches 2023-2025, with launch day sales volume (at Mindfactory) and availability after the launch dayhttps://t.co/VxRxKbBWxn pic.twitter.com/LoWbQFM6bf
— 3DCenter.org (@3DCenter_org) February 21, 2025
3DCenter analyzed the availability of the RTX 50-series and compared it to previous launches. This data only comes from one German retailer, Mindfactory, but many other retailers reported similar findings. In short: Both the RTX 5090 and the RTX 5080 were only released in very small numbers, and there are no signs of imminent restocks.
Some retailers claim that the RTX 5090 may not be back until June. If you want to buy one of the new cards, you’re forced to either wait or pay scalper premiums, which can add several hundreds or thousands of dollars on top of an already hefty price.
Another issue stems from the fact that even when the cards are in stock, they’re impossible to find at MSRP. Models that sell at the minimum price are few and far apart; you’re far likelier to find an overclocked card that costs up to $1,200 more than Nvidia’s MSRP.
My one hope was that things would get better with the RTX 5070 Ti, but that also didn’t pan out.
The RTX 5070 Ti is largely unavailable, just two days after launch. There are a couple of overclocked models on Amazon, but they cost a whopping $1,887 and $1,739, which is an insane price for this GPU. Meanwhile, at Newegg, the GPU is only available as part of a prebuilt PC, and at Best Buy, all of them are sold out.
When will they be back? No one knows. The worst part? This curse doesn’t end with the RTX 5070 Ti.
Mainstream GPUs may share the same fate
The RTX 5070, now said to launch at the beginning of March, was reportedly initially meant to arrive at the same time as the RTX 5070 Ti. However, Nvidia is said to have pushed the release date of the GPU for undisclosed reasons.
As reported by CTEE, Nvidia ran into issues with the chip design that forced it to implement changes. This delayed production at scale, and as a result, the RTX 5070 will be scarcely available once it does appear on the shelves.
I’m not going to take this report at face value, as it seems quite late in the production cycle for Nvidia to run into some unexpected hardware-related issues. However, I won’t be surprised if the RTX 5070 is, indeed, difficult to spot for the first few weeks of its retail availability. It is what we’ve seen with the other three GPUs, and this one launches a mere two weeks later; I’m doubtful that Nvidia can magically come up with huge numbers of graphics cards in that time.
Worse yet, the RTX xx70 GPU is typically one of Nvidia’s most popular models. While most gamers won’t be buying an RTX 5090 (although it certainly feels as if they are right now), many people would be happy to upgrade to an RTX 5070, which Nvidia claims will be able to outperform the RTX 4090 thanks to Multi-Frame Generation (MFG) in DLSS 4. This is a mainstream GPU with demand to match.
Simply put, we need more of those RTX 5070s on the shelves than we need RTX 5090s, and it doesn’t seem likely that we’ll have either of them in the coming weeks.
If there’s one card that even more people are waiting for, it’s the RTX 5060. This GPU will probably follow in the footsteps of its predecessor and go on to become a popular choice, even if it only sports 8GB VRAM (which seems likely). However, even though Nvidia has yet to announce it, the RTX 5060 is already said to be facing delays.
As per the same report from CTEE, the RTX 5060 is yet to enter mass production, and it won’t enter that phase until mid-April. This means that even if it does launch in April — which is the current expectation — it’ll remain unavailable until May or later.
Ming-Chi Kuo, a well-known market analyst, believes the same thing: it’ll be a long time before we can buy the RTX 5070 and the RTX 5060 with ease.
Nvidia had to step in
Nvidia may have chosen to release the GPUs before being ready to supply the market with an adequate number of graphics cards, but it’s not ignoring the situation. Team Green brought back the Verified Priority Access program, which is a solution that it also used for the RTX 4090 and the RTX 4080 (even though those two GPUs didn’t have such a tumultuous launch).
As part of the program, select registered users will be able to buy one of Nvidia’s Founders Edition graphics cards. Right now, only the RTX 5090 and the RTX 5080 are included.
In order to qualify, you’ll need to have an Nvidia account that was made before January 30, 2025, so signing up now won’t help. Next, you’ll have to fill in the form on Nvidia’s website to express your interest in buying a GPU. If you’re one of the lucky ones and get picked, you’ll be given the option to buy an Nvidia Founders Edition graphics card at MSRP.
The VPA program is only available to users in the United States. Nvidia also didn’t specify how many GPUs are up for grabs, so it’s unclear just how much this will help. Still, this remains one of the very few ways to score an RTX 50-series card at MSRP, so you might as well try it if you’re in the market for one.
We have to be patient
As soon as one GPU release cycle ends, the wait for the next one begins. And in the case of the RTX 50-series, it’s been pretty long; many leakers initially expected the graphics cards to be unveiled in September 2024, but that obviously never happened.
Unfortunately, now that they’re finally here, we’re still forced to remain patient. Compared to the RTX 40-series, this has been a rocky launch, with limited availability, sky-high prices, missing ROPs, and even the return of issues such as melting connectors.
With that said, all three GPUs so far seem great in their own right. The RTX 5090 takes the crown as the best GPU of this generation; meanwhile, the RTX 5070 Ti has the makings of a great GPU if it ever becomes available at MSRP.
Although this should be an exciting time, for many, it’s been nothing but frustrating. We have no choice but to be patient here, though.
Stock issues, while annoying, will eventually settle down. It might take months, but we’ll start seeing these cards in stock sooner or later. Meanwhile, the arrival of AMD’s next generation of graphics cards might still shake things up.
The RX 9070 XT is coming soon, and it’ll be a direct competitor to the RTX 5070, or perhaps even the RTX 5070 Ti. AMD is said to be planning to make it cheap, which is promising. On the other hand, I do wonder whether that will be the case, as it really doesn’t need to right now — it just needs to be cheaper than Nvidia, which is easy, what with those $1,800 RTX 5070 Ti models I talked about above. At this point, I’m too jaded to be full-on optimistic here.
Given the plethora of problems people are encountering when trying to get an RTX 50-series GPU, I can’t help but wonder if the timing wouldn’t have been better if the cards officially launched a couple of months later. Alas, they did not, and now, all we can do is wait patiently and hope that they’ll be back in stock sometime soon, turning this so-called paper launch into something real.
