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).

The release date of the GeForce RTX 5070 remains unknown. Nvidia only roughly mentioned February for both 70-series graphics cards, without a specific date. The two top models GeForce RTX 5090 and GeForce RTX 5080 can be sold by retailers from January 30th. However, availability is expected to be poor at the beginning.

GPU maker NVIDIA has warned consumers that the stock of its forthcoming RTX 5090 and 5080 cards will be limited. Some gamers are even camping out to get one.

W hile Nvidia’s RTX 50-series graphics cards weren’t the zaniest devices at CES 2025, they stole the show with their promised groundbreaking performance breakthroughs. The RTX

Nvidia followed up the most powerful GPU it’s ever made, the RTX 5090, with this — the RTX 5080. It’s half the price, and it offers around 70% of the performance. That should be a good thing, but the RTX 5080 falls short when compared to Nvidia’s last-gen offerings that still rank among the best graphics cards.

Following a two-year wait, NVIDIA’s highly-anticipated GeForce 50 series of GPUs are nearly here. Here's how to buy one.