History may soon repeat itself with Nvidia’s upcoming GeForce 50 series. The RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 are set to launch on January 30, while the RTX 5070 and RTX 5070 Ti are expected to arrive on February 20, according to leaks. Given the current state of affairs, it seems likely that we will witness stock shortages, price hikes, and scalping, leading many unhappy PC users to vent their frustrations on forums about Nvidia and its AIB partners. A recent post on the Chiphell forum, shared by @harukaze5719, suggests that this scenario is very much on the horizon.
Pricing Strategies Under Scrutiny
The post highlights that Nvidia is to blame for forcing custom board partners to resort to aggressive pricing measures to maintain profits. If you’ve ever wondered why Asus charges $800 above MSRP for its Astral RTX 5090 or even $900 more for the Astral RTX 5080, the reason could be that Nvidia has “left the manufacturers with a very, very low gross profit.” It’s suggested that creating a basic version according to MSRP is like doing charity work. Although it’s tough to feel bad for these companies since profit is profit, it seems Nvidia’s business approach is causing this predicament.
Anticipated Stock Shortages
Additionally, there are worries about stock shortages similar to those seen during the GeForce 30 series launch, which was significantly impacted by the cryptomining boom. Thus, even if Nvidia advertises the GeForce RTX 5080 FE at $999, the likelihood of purchasing one at that price appears very low. Gamers and PC builders will likely have to deal with the tricky landscape of third-party sellers exploiting the current market conditions, where demand surpasses supply. Unfortunately, some may end up buying from scalpers. In contrast, the previous generation cards have a much better availability, like the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4060 OC, which starts at $299.99 on Amazon.
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