Bad news, PC gamers: this retailer’s worst-case prediction for the Nvidia RTX 5090 GPU is a long wait until almost June for the GPU to be back in stock

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• Nvidia RTX 5090 supply is looking very shaky according to a UK retailer
• Overclockers has a worst-case ETA of 16 weeks for RTX 5090 stock
• The RTX 5080 is better, but could still take up to six weeks before it’s available to buy again

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Nvidia’s RTX 5090 stock situation is rather dire, to say the least, and could stay that way for longer than you’d expect – and the RTX 5080 is looking unhealthy inventory-wise, too, going by the prediction of one UK retailer.

As you doubtless realize if you’ve been mulling a purchase of either of the new Blackwell graphics cards, the RTX 5090 and 5080 are out of stock everywhere (except on auction sites where scalpers are flogging their ill-gotten GPUs at massively inflated asking prices, of course).

According to a major components retailer in the UK, Overclockers (OCUK), RTX 5090 and 5080 stock is sold out and (unsurprisingly) pre-orders aren’t being offered any longer, and they won’t be until the company has “greater clarity on availability and have fulfilled the pre-orders we have taken.”

We are told by OCUK (in the above post on X) that the ETA for stock of the RTX 5090 is three to 16 weeks, and the ETA for the RTX 5080 is two to six weeks, a bit more palatable, but still a potentially long wait.

Note that pre-orders that have been successfully placed with OCUK (but not yet dispatched) are in a queue, and the retailer is “working with our supply chain to fulfill these within the ETAs above, or sooner if possible.”

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Analysis: Another GPU launch hit with stock misery

Surely a bit of stock of these RTX 5000 GPUs is going to be coming in over the course of February? That must be the case (I assume), but the way in which the above statement is worded makes it sound to me like the small amount of Blackwell graphics cards that will be arriving is going towards fulfilling existing pre-orders. So, there won’t be any available stock to actually buy on the OCUK site for quite some time – maybe towards the lengthier end of the ETAs provided.

The fact that the RTX 5090 is pushed out to a possible 16 weeks is going way past the most pessimistic thoughts I was having, though. That would put us at almost the end of May before the ‘Buy’ button lights up again on some of the flagship Blackwell models, an eyebrow-raising prospect.

Perhaps more disappointing is the news that this retailer isn’t going to have stock of the RTX 5080, a much less niche proposition than the RTX 5090, for maybe up to six weeks. That’d put us in the middle of March before the graphics card was available again (perhaps only briefly).

We shouldn’t get carried away with the timeframes from just one retailer, of course, and the worst-case scenarios presented by OCUK – but this does, of course, broadly reflect everything we’re seeing right now. And the general accusation of a ‘paper launch’ being leveled at Nvidia, meaning a launch with no real quantity of stock behind it (in the face of major demand).

Unless we do get a quick recovery for RTX 5080 stock that runs against OCUK’s expectations – we don’t expect the RTX 5090 to be back on shelves quickly by any means, especially given that its Blackwell chip (GB202) is more profitable in AI graphics cards, not gaming products – a lot of hope lies with the incoming RTX 5070.

Nvidia’s RTX 5070 vanilla version uses a different GB205 chip – the RTX 5070 Ti is built with GB203 (a rumor that’s now confirmed), also the engine of the RTX 5080 – and so we can hope that Nvidia has more of a depth to its GB205 production, especially as the RTX 5070 is coming a bit later. (If rumors are right, perhaps at the end of February – there’s even talk of a delay to March, which wouldn’t be a positive development, of course).

All in all, though, the situation looks distinctly rocky with Blackwell stock for now, and AMD has a chance to fully capitalize on this by building up good levels of RDNA 4 supply at retail for the launch of its RX 9070 models in March, to take on Nvidia’s RTX 5070 graphics cards. This is a clear opportunity for Team Red in the mid-range bracket of the GPU market, although AMD has had its own missteps with the RDNA 4 launch, it must be said.

Those looking for an Nvidia Blackwell graphics card should keep an eye on our guides on where to buy an RTX 5090 and an RTX 5080 respectively, where we’ll keep you up to date should we spot stock coming back in at big retailers. Best of luck out there, GPU hunters, but for now, the outlook remains seriously bleak.

Via Tom’s Hardware

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