THE NEWS
A Mixed Bag: RTX 50 Series Launch
A story of demand, limited supply, and technical challenges
NVIDIA'S LAUNCH of the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 graphics cards took place on January 30. As many predicted, both sets of ‘Blackwell’ GPUs sold out quickly. Some buyers even camped outside retailer Micro Center. However, based on user reports, some stores had fewer than a dozen units.
This was anticipated, as Nvidia representatives had warned the public that the number of these GPUs would be highly limited at launch. Unfortunately, this has led to unscrupulous buyers indulging in scalping.
Some listings for the RTX 5090 are as high as $6,000— three times the $1,999 MSRP. We also noted that there are multiple eBay listings that appear to sell the RTX 5090 at the recommended retail price. Upon checking the product listing, we found that the seller was in fact offering a picture of the card for $1,999.