RTX 50-series gaming PCs are available for order

We’re going to wind down updates for a little while as PC gamers around the world wonder whether they can afford to order a new graphics card this week.

Lots of retailers have already confirmed they’ll be opening sales of the RTX 5090 and 5080 when they go on sale January 30 at 2PM GMT/9AM ET/6AM PT, including Newegg in the U.S. and Scan in the United Kingdom.  

Retailers are also taking pre-orders for gaming PCs with RTX 5090 or 5080 GPUs onboard, though stock seems to be limited and some retailers (including Newegg) appear to already be sold out of their current count of 50-series towers. 

Hower, good news! Right now I’m seeing that Adorama still has some in stock, including this Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 CyberPower gaming PC for $2,299, though it appears to not ship until early February.

This is big

Every hardcore PC gamer is checking their bank account to make sure they have enough space in their budget for a new Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 GPU, but make sure you have enough room in your case as well—these cards aren’t small!

@tomsguide
♬ original sound – Tom’s Guide

I know because Nvidia sent us one, and as you can see in our unboxing video, the 5090 is a mammoth piece of tech. It ought to be, too, as this beast is capable of running Cyberpunk 2077 at over 200 frames per second in 4K!

The card we tested is the card you’ll be able to buy on Thursday

Nvidia has shut down suspicions that it may have been sending out the best of the best RTX 5090 cards to reviewers in the press, telling our sister site Tom’s Hardware that cards used in the first published reviews are identical to those going on sale January 30.

“Some early GeForce RTX GPUs include a top mark related to intended use,” an Nvidia representative told Tom’s Hardware. “Their functionality and performance are identical to retail GPUs.”

So when you read about how we tested Nvidia’s RTX 5090 desktop GPU, rest assured, you should see the same results if you drop $2,000 on a similar card!

DLSS 4 and the promise of Multi-Frame Generation

DLSS 4 is going to have features that are unique to the new 50-series cards, and one of the most intriguing is Nvidia’s new Multi-Frame Generation tech.

The upshot is that your GPU is effectively using AI to generate more frames per second than the game is actually giving you, leading to a higher framerate. The way it works is pretty complicated, but basically, your 50-series GPU generates extra frames by intelligently looking at two frames and using AI to generate up to three extra frames that are then dynamically inserted while you play.

You can see it in action in Nvidia’s sizzle reel above, and if it works as advertised in supported games it could be a game-changer for performance.

Nvidia staffer warns of stock shortages

As you might expect, RTX 5090 units will be hard to get ahold of when they launch later this week.

Nvidia’s Tim Adams warned as much in a post to the official Nvidia forums today in which he wrote: “We expect significant demand for the GeForce RTX 5090 and 5080 and believe stock-outs may happen. NVIDIA & our partners are shipping more stock to retail every day to help get GPUs into the hands of gamers.”

So get ready!

RTX 50-series GPUs will be sold at EE UK

You’d never think the mobile phone network EE would be known for selling computing components. But the company just confirmed to Tom’s Guide that it will have stock of the RTX 5090, 5080, 5070 Ti and 5070 ready to sell on January 30th.

You can register your interest here to know when it goes live, which given Scan’s leak, I’d point to 2pm GMT.

What we used in our RTX 5090 build

So we’ve got some questions — namely around what we used in our RTX 5090 build to test the graphics card? To match the top tier of this GPU, we picked some top tier parts too.

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
• RAM: 64GB Corsair Vengeance 4800 MT/s
• Motherboard: Gigabyte Aorus Elite X870E
• SSD: Samsung 990 Pro 4TB
• Power supply: NZXT 1200-watt PSU

CONFIRMED: RTX 50-series will be available to buy in UK on January 30, 2pm GMT

We’ve been waiting for the confirmation and it’s (sort of) finally happened. UK retailers look set make their RTX 5090 and 5080 stock available to buy on January 30 at 2pm GMT. That is according to some very choice wording on Scan’s website, which states a “2pm launch.”

This falls in line with the 9am ET/6am PT timing in the US, and while this is just for one retailer, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the same for others too. That being said, I’ll keep my ear to the ground for any early buying opportunities!

RTX 5090 (UK)

RTX 5080 (UK)

Reminder: expect RTX 5090 and 5080 stock at 9am ET January 30

ICYMI, Newegg has revealed when you will be able to order your RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 graphics cards — January 30 at 9am ET / 6am PT.

Chances are other retailers will follow suit, so get those clicking fingers ready. As for my fellow Brits, I’m tracking down any informations I can get on an availability time in GMT, but if we’re following US timing, it could be at 2pm GMT on January 30.

RTX 5090 RETAILERS

RTX 5080 RETAILERS

RTX 5090 testing reveals big gains

I know many of you are eager to assess the improvements in rendering performance without leaning on AI-powered enhancements. Nvidia’s heavy focus on buzzwords like “DLSS” and “neural” has sparked plenty of questions among our readers about how much of the gains are purely the result of raw processing power.

To address this, we centered our initial benchmarks on this aspect. The results? You’re looking at an average 22-23% increase in game frames per second (FPS) compared to the 4090.

Spotted: Nvidia RTX 5070 GPU at Best Buy

While we’re waiting for RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 GPUs to be available, it’s looking like these graphics cards will sell fast, and custom models won’t come cheap. So, how does a Nvidia RTX 5070 GPU sound instead?

Best Buy has listed an RTX 5070 graphics card and its $549 price is looking mighty tempting. This is exactly Nvidia’s asking price, with the GPU coming with 12GB of GDDR7 VRAM. It’ll be an alternative option for those who can’t get their hands on a 5090 or 5080, and it’ll be a lot more affordable.

Otherwise, sit tight for further RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 updates.

What about RTX 5060? There’s news about the mid-range GPU too!

There is a whole line of dedicated GPUs coming from Nvidia after all. The first batch will include RTX 5090, RTX 5080 and RTX 5070, but what about 5060?

Well a new leak has found a listing on the Eurasian Economic Commission’s website, which gives away a couple of important specs. Looking at the names, the RTX 5060 will pack 8GB of GDDR7 video memory, and the 5060 Ti will double that to 16GB.

Now, given how video memory-hungry games are becoming nowadays, it’s becoming more important to look at this number, and 8GB (no matter how fast it is) may just not be enough and cause some frame rate issues.

I won’t say for definite until we’ve tested one, but at the moment, all signs point to being 5060 Ti being the one to buy if you’re looking for a solid mid-ranger.

Let’s talk pre-builds

Pre-built PCs are a great way to grab that latest RTX 50-series power if you’re not feeling too confident about the building process itself.

We will have a full breakdown of how we built our PC very soon with steps you can follow and advice to build one for yourself. But for those who don’t want to go through that process, you can pay a little more and get the whole thing done and ready to plug in and play.

Currently, two big places have pre-built PCs listed. You can get some pre-builts from CyberPower PC on Adorama. They say you can add them to cart and purchase, but chances are these are on backorder — with shipping estimated for February 11.

The other place is Newegg, which as the company confirmed earlier today, you’ll be able to buy these on January 30 at 9am ET/6am PT.

Nvidia RTX 5080 benchmarks leak

Mixed News has just revealed some early test results for the RTX 5080, and the numbers are a bit all over the place!

In Blender testing, it is only 9% faster than the RTX 4080. But you can see this card has been built for gaming performance, as in 3DMark TimeSpy, there’s an 18% jump over 4080.

BREAKING: Newegg confirms when you will be able to order your RTX 50-series GPU online

Good morning! We start with some good news. Newegg has revealed when you will be able to order your RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 graphics cards — January 30 at 9am ET / 6am PT.

Chances are other retailers will follow suit, so get those clicking fingers ready. As for my fellow Brits, I’m tracking down any informations I can get on an availability time in GMT, but if we’re following US timing, it could be at 2pm GMT on January 30.

RTX 5090 RETAILERS

RTX 5080 RETAILERS

Nvidia RTX 40-series cards are a viable alternative

As we previously posted, it’s not a bad idea to skip the RTX 50-series and instead grab an RTX 40-series GPU. Many of the links above currently direct you to the latest Nvidia GPUs, so if you have bad luck finding an RTX 50-series card you might be better off with a previous-generation card. Given their power, RTX 40 cards will be viable for many years to come.

Patience is a virtue

We still have to wait until January 30 for the official launch of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 50-series cards. If you’re a gaming enthusiast, the next couple of days might be excruciating. Worse still is the very real possibility you might not be able to get a card at launch given the low expected stock.

This is why we advise you to be patient when checking for deals. You might get lucky right away, or it might take a few hours. And even if you don’t get a GPU on day one, you’ll likely get a chance later on, especially when the hype dies down. Regardless, be sure to keep checking in on this page.

Folks are camping out for RTX 50 cards

IGN reports that folks are already camping outside retailers like Micro Center to get their hands on Nvidia’s RTX 50-series cards (as posted on Reddit).

As we said above, stock for the new Nvidia GPUs is very limited, so it’s possible campers will be outside stores for a long while. That could prove challenging given the bitter January cold. In fact, Micro Center posted a YouTube video against this. “We do discourage camping at our locations for the 5090 and 5080,” said the company.

While we understand the enthusiasm for these new graphics cards, they’re not worth getting frostbite over. That’s why we encourage you to keep your eyes locked on this page for a chance to snag an Nvidia RTX 50-series card when they become available.

Is the RTX 5070 really as powerful as an RTX 4090?

Nvidia turned heads when it claimed the RTX 5070 was as fast as the RTX 4090. This isn’t actually true in terms of raw computing power, but if you enable DLSS 4, you’re likely to enjoy games at high fps on this mid-grade card. So in that sense, the RTX 5070 seems like a decent upgrade for anyone with an older Nvidia GPU. However, if you want raw performance power, the RTX 5080 or beefier RTX 5090 are the best bets… even if they are far more expensive.

Which RTX 50 card to buy?

If you’re in the market for a new GPU for your gaming rig, then choosing between the new Nvidia GeForce RTX 50-series graphics card might be difficult. The RTX 5090 is a powerhouse, based on our testing, but it also costs an eye-watering $2,000. The $999 RTX 5080 is also pretty enticing, though it lacks the power of its beefier sibling.

For most folks, the RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5070 might be the best choice. Not only are they $749 and $549 (respectively), but they should provide significant upgrades for those with older Nvidia cards. But regardless of your choice, it’s going to cost a pretty penny to upgrade.

What is RTX mega geometry?

I spoke about this a little after my time at Nvidia’s Editor’s Day. But what is it exactly? Let me explain what this will bring to RTX 50-series users.

All graphics you see in a game are built using a number of triangles. In the past, these were definitely more noticeable in the likes of PS1 games, but the vastly increased detail since then means you’ll struggle to notice them.

RTX Mega Geometry uses AI to bring in the next generation of this — Nvidia is allowing developers to stream in these details in real-time without the need to rebuild anything else. This means that you could render characters and details at 1 triangle per pixel. This is simply unheard of in even the most graphically impressive games available right now.

• I means your games can look at otherworldly levels of impressiveness. I got to check out the dragon demo in person, and to see this monster rendered at 1 triangle per pixel is truly bonkers.
• Second, it actually eases pressure on the graphics card in some areas while ramping up the demands in other areas — AI is helping the RTX 50-series do more with less.

Don’t skip on RTX 40-series desktops — especially this cheap beast

As you’ve seen by the prices on Adorama, RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 pre-built PCs are expensive. But did you know that the vast majority of DLSS 4 features are coming to RTX 40-series PCs too?

As you can see by the table here, the only thing not coming is multi frame generation. If that’s a massive dealbreaker for you, then I suggest you hold out until the cards are available. If not (and I guarantee you’ll still be able to play all the AAA games at impressive fidelity and frame rates on 40-series), this Alienware Aurora R16 deal is not one to be ignored!

Stock check: Not available yet (but there’s a catch)

If you’re looking for the GPU specifically, product listings are live but you can’t order yet. Use the links above to find them and keep them saved for when they do go live!

HOWEVER, you can get some pre-builts from CyberPower PC on Adorama. So far, this seems to be the only way to grab one right now. If you’re keen to get into the RTX 50-series systems but don’t want to build it yourself, this is a good (if expensive) way to go.

• CyberPowerPC Gamer Supreme liquid cooled desktop (AMD Ryzen 9 9900X, RTX 5080, 32GB RAM, 2TB SSD): $2,299 @ Adorama
• CyberPowerPC Gamer Supreme liquid cooled desktop (Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, RTX 5090, 64GB RAM, 4TB SSD): $4,499 @ Adorama

There are six of them, but these are the lowest-priced models you can get.

DLSS 4 is a real upgrade

Since we posted our testing, CD Projekt Red issued its update to Cyberpunk 2077 that brings DLSS 4 into the mix. At the time of testing, multi frame generation was not available.

But even with that in mind, the numbers are mightily impressive over the older DLSS 3.5.

So as you can see, moving from that convolutional neural network to the transformer model is making it smarter and more efficient in boosting frame rates!

RTX 5090 benchmarks: Here’s what to expect

We put the RTX 5090 through its paces to show its performance gains over its older RTX 4090 sibling, and it’s clear we’re seeing improvements in rendering and ray tracing.

In 3DMark’s benchmark tests, we saw a considerable jump in performance by up to 28%. While these differences aren’t exactly worth it for those who already own an RTX 4090, those with a 30-series GPU will see a worthwhile bump.

Check out the benchmarks below:

More outrageous RTX 5090 pricing

Talk about a bump in price! Over on Overclockers UK, you’ll find plenty of RTX 5090 GPUs for quite a hefty price. The MSI GeForce RTX 5090 Gaming Trio is set at a bonkers £25,000, which is, uhm, a little much.

Of course, this is just a placeholder price before pre-orders for the products go live, which is set to begin on January 30. Overclockers specifically states that “pricing is not final and TBC.” Here’s hoping this isn’t what’s to come from scalpers down the line.

While we wait for these products to go live, you can always click “Notify Me” at different retailers so you can be one of the first to grab Nvidia’s RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 GPUs.

Beware of scalper prices

Speaking of astronomical prices for RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 GPUs, do everything you can to not give in to scalpers. A report from Wccftech shows that listings on eBay for pre-sale units are going for absurd prices, including this Asus ROG Astral RTX 5090 GPU for a whopping $7,000. Yikes!

A quick glance on eBay shows prices range from $3,000 to $7,000 for an RTX 5090, and these are clearly bumped up from Nvidia’s asking price ($1,999/£1,939). Of course, it’s great and all to be the first to get hands on an RTX 5090, but not at these prices.

We’re still looking for pre-orders to go live at retailers, and we’ll get a better sense at what prices actually look like once they’re available.

An RTX 5080 for £9,999?

Over in the U.K., we’re seeing prices for RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 GPUs at Currys. While these are still not available, we’re seeing some crazy prices for custom GPUs from MSI. As an example, this MSI GeForce RTX 5080 Suprim Liquid GPU is going for £9,999. Not quite the £979 asking price, is it?

We’ve also seen an Asus GeForce RTX 5080 Prime for £3,000, which is still considerably steep. As for the next level up, there’s also an MSI GeForce RTX 5090 Vanguard Launch Edition for £9,999. Once these GPUs are listed for pre-order or made available, I’m hoping we’ll see these prices become a lot more affordable.

RTX 5090 vs RTX 4090: How do they compare?

If you’re wondering how an RTX 4090 measures up to an RTX 5090, we’ve got some interesting benchmarks to give you a taste of how well Nvidia’s latest premium graphics card performs.

Our Nvidia RTX 5090 desktop GPU benchmarks show off the real horsepower behind the next-gen GPU, with up to a 32% increase in frame rate in Far Cry 6 with 4K Ultra settings, 28% in Cyberpunk 2077 with 4K Ray Tracing at Ultra, and 25% in Borderlands 3 at 4K Ultra. That’s a decent bump in frame rates, but that’s also without DLSS 4.

Check out our testing below, and you can get a better look at how the GPUs compare in our RTX 5090 vs RTX 4090 test.

Report: Nvidia RTX 50-series GPUs at asking price are slim

According to a new report from Wccftech, Nvidia RTX 50-series GPUs, particularly RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 graphics cards, will be even harder to get at Nvidia’s proposed pricing. Apparently, not even after launch, as inventory levels are extremely low.

As the report points out, Nvidia’s profit margin for AIB partners is low, meaning custom RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 models will be sold at a much higher price, all so manufacturers can make a profit. I just posted about how pricey RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 custom GPU prices will look, and this looks to be the case once GPUs start becoming available.

This leak comes from Chiphell, which talks about the RTX 5080 specifically. However, it’s likely RTX 5090 will also be affected if the leak is accurate. We’ve still yet to see prices for both 5090 and 5080 custom GPUs at retailers, but if prices are raised by a lot, it’s best to keep your eye on Nvidia’s Blackwell GPUs from its official site to get them at their lowest cost possible.

Hands-on with an RTX 5090

Just how good is an RTX 5090? Well, we got a chance to go hands-on with an RTX 5090, and we were blown away by how truly gorgeous two demanding PC games looked.

In Black Myth: Wukong, the RTX 5090 was able to achieve well over 200 FPS with DLSS on and everything turned up to max settings in 4K. This alone is a massive step up for PC gaming, and DLSS 4 played a huge part in casting away any ghosting or artifacting.

We also saw Black State, an upcoming third-person shooter, in action. Here’s where we saw Nvidia Reflex drastically reduce latency. Plus, with the RTX 5090 powering the game’s photorealistic style, it was easily the best-looking game out there.

That’s only a small taste of what an RTX 5090 boasts, and sure enough, it’ll be a game changer for those after a gaming PC upgrade.

RTX 5090 custom GPUs will be pricey

We caught a glimpse of what RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 custom GPU prices will look like from Asus, MSI and Gigabyte, and they’re quite a bit higher than Nvidia’s asking price.

According to the leak, we may see an Asus RTX 5090 for as much as $2,799 and an Asus RTX 5080 for $1,899. That’s a considerable jump from Nvidia’s official pricing — with an RTX 5090 going for $1,999 (£1,939) and an RTX 5080 for $999 (£979).

Still, some aren’t as expensive, with an MSI RTX 5090 going for $2,199 and an MSI RTX 5080 for $1,139, if the listings prove to be accurate. Once pre-orders kick off, we’ll get a better idea of what prices are looking like.

More RTX 5080 gaming desktops available

We’re still seeing “Notify When Available” for RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 GPUs at all retailers, but Adorama’s gaming desktops with RTX 5080 are still going strong. In fact, the CyberPowerPC Gamer Supreme for $2,769 we mentioned earlier is now temporarily on backorder.

If you’re looking to grab a whole desktop setup, there are still options available. That includes other CyberPowerPC models, such as this CyberPowerPC Gamer Supreme for $2,419 with an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU, 32GB of RAM and 2TB SSD.

Seeing as the RTX 5080 is set to be $999 (£979), we’re sure many with a gaming desktop already set up will wait for stocks to be available. We’ll keep you updated.

Latency should not be a problem

Latency is one of those things that always comes up when talking about Nvidia’s DLSS tech. While the frame generation feature makes games look smoother, it doesn’t actually change latency since it’s more of an AI trick than a brute-force upgrade powered by the GPU.

When we saw DLSS 4 generating two extra frames on top of what DLSS 3 could do, it did raise a few eyebrows at the event. Would cramming in extra frames lead to noticeable latency? Thankfully, we were able to put those concerns to rest pretty quickly. Running around Night City, it was clear that those additional frames from Multi Frame Gen didn’t add any extra latency compared to what we experienced with DLSS 3.

Now, this potential issue depends a bit on your setup. If you’re playing at lower frame rates, latency between frames can be more noticeable. But let’s be real—if you’re targeting 100+ FPS (and with DLSS, that’s pretty much the norm), most people won’t notice a thing. It’s smooth sailing all the way.

AI is the key to everything

Nvidia is introducing a host of new RTX features, many of which prominently feature the term “neural.” These include Neural Rendering for full ray and path tracing, Neural Shaders that use AI to enhance in-game textures, and Neural Faces, which leverage generative AI trained on real human expressions to push past the uncanny valley.

One feature that immediately stood out to me during the demos was RTX Neural Materials. Traditionally, game developers need to manually embed textures and define how objects interact with lighting and ambiance within the game world. RTX Neural Materials streamlines this process by using AI to compress the underlying data, resulting in up to a fivefold boost in processing speed.

The end result is textures that look dramatically realistic — rather than just looking like shiny pieces of foil on the ground. Alongside this, RTX Mega Geometry is able to vastly increase the amount of detail on any character to really give this a shot of shooting past uncanny valley.

RTX 5080 gaming PCs from $2,299

While we’re still waiting for RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 GPUs to become available, we’re seeing RTX 5080-equipped gaming desktops trickle in at Adorama — and prices are starting at $2,299!

Right now, this CyberPowerPC Gamer Supreme desktop PC with an RTX 5080 is available for $2,299, and it also includes an AMD Ryzen 9 9900X CPU, 32GB of RAM and 2TB SSD. This is currently the lowest on offer, but more gaming desktops are available with an RTX 5080, including another CyberPowerPC Gamer Supreme for $2,769 with an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X, 64GB of RAM and a 4TB SSD.

Now that we’re seeing gaming desktops on offer, we’re sure to see RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 GPUs pre-orders be made available soon enough. Stay tuned as we keep an eye out for more to be made available.

Cyberpunk 2077 at 4K 240 FPS

Nvidia has made it abundantly clear that 4K 240 fps is the new target for its GPUs — something that companies are reacting to with monitors that reach these eyewatering levels of smoothness. I got to try Asus’ impressive option out and I was blown away!

And through some AI trickery, the GPU maker has done it. Multi-frame generation is the big thing coming to RTX 50-series GPUs — rather than just being able to generate one additional frame, it can now create three without any overt impact being made to the latency.

That means rather than seeing frame rates of around 80 fps in Cyberpunk 2077 with everything turned up to 4K Ultra with path tracing, you can see that spike at a bonkers 265 FPS in my own testing.

DLSS 4 explained

Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) 4 is the next generation of Nvidias AI game enhancement tech, and it’s very different from past generations.

The key difference under the hood is moving away from the convolutional neural network (CNN). This older method works to find patterns in any in-game image to sharpen them up and make them smoother by increasing the number of frames. However, it’s a bit of a flawed system that tries to analyze literally every little bit of the screen — leading to ghosting (seeing the outline of a fast-moving item on screen follow behind it).

Instead, Nvidia has moved to a transformer model — the kind of thing you see the likes of ChatGPT running on. This adds the additional intelligence of DLSS being able to evaluate the importance of each pixel across an entire frame. That means if can think a few more steps ahead with greater efficiency. And in practice, it means vastly smoother edges with little to no ghosting on them, and a huge increase in frame rates (more on that later).

RTX 5090 by the numbers

I understand the first thing on everyone’s mind is evaluating the improvements in rendering performance without relying on AI enhancements. Nvidia has heavily emphasized terms like “DLSS” and “neural,” which has led many of our readers to question just how much of the progress comes down to raw processing power alone.

To answer this question, our first benchmarks focused on this, and you’re looking at a roughly 22-23% average increase in game frames per second (FPS) over the 4090.

What’s the current state of play?

Morning everyone, and welcome to the RTX 50-series stock checker live blog! I’ll be taking you through any and all stock we find of the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 — set to go on sale January 30.

My anticipation is that preorders will be available in the next couple of days! So keep this live blog bookmarked and we’ll let you know once they do. This will give you the best chance to avoid the scalpers.

If you’re on the fence about whether to buy one of these new cards (priced at up to $2,000 for the Founders Edition or even more from other companies), Senior Computing Editor Alex Wawro has broken down the three reasons to buy and two to skip.