It’s disappointing to see Nvidia has stuck with 16GB of VRAM on the RTX 5080. AMD’s RX 7900 XTX offers 24GB, and while the RTX 5080 delivers better performance for now, it may well hit video memory limits in 4K gaming in the future.

The best argument for grabbing a 5080 right now, if you can find one at $999 in the first place, is that the only cards that come close to its performance are either way more expensive than they're supposed to be (the 4080 Super) or not cheap enough to justify the Nvidia-specific features you give up (AMD's Radeon 7900 XTX).

NVIDIA just warned consumers that it might be pretty difficult for gamers to get their hands on its upcoming high-end RTX 5090 and 5080 graphics cards. The company says it expects “significant demand” for the cards and that “stock-outs may happen.

Nvidia’s RTX 50-series GPUs are just around the corner, with the first releases — the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 — dropping on January 30th. The RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5070 will follow that with their own releases in February, but some are already getting a sneak peek at the software benefits of the GPUs through DLSS 4.

Nvidia warns of 'significant demand' for the graphics cards, which go on sale early Thursday morning. Still, Nvidia says it'll be shipping more supplies to retailers every day.

Word from Nvidia about the supply of its flagship graphics cards appeared on its GeForce Forums. A forum administrator and Nvidia staff member who goes by Tim@NVIDIA wrote today, “We expect significant demand for the GeForce RTX 5090 and 5080 and believe stock-outs may happen.