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).

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.

But then, neither is it a blood-boiler like the RTX 4080, nor a largely aspirational show-off piece like the RTX 5090. By maintaining the 4080 Super’s course correction on price while tooling up on compelling DLSS 4 improvements,

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 didn't make enough 50-series GPUs, so stock is limited. But you can still try your best to pick one up with these tips and helpful links.

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.