NVIDIA reportedly pulls the RTX 5090 and keeps GB202 chips for pricier workstation cards

Leakers say NVIDIA has stopped allocating GB202 silicon to the RTX 5090 and is steering it to RTX Pro cards, leaving an RTX 5080 24 GB as the top GeForce.

NVIDIA has reportedly stopped allocating GB202 silicon to the GeForce RTX 5090. According to a leaker posting on X, all future supply of that chip is now exclusive to the RTX Pro line, as TechPowerUp reports. NVIDIA has not confirmed any of it, so treat it as a strong rumour rather than a settled fact.

The logic is easy to follow. GB202 is the largest Blackwell graphics chip, and the RTX 5090 does not even use all of it. The same silicon powers the 96 GB RTX PRO 6000 and the newly unveiled RTX PRO 5500, which pairs the 5090's 21,760 CUDA cores with 84 GB of memory. If every chip can become a far pricier workstation card, a $1,999 gaming flagship is a poor use of wafer.

The RTX 5090 shares its GB202 chip with NVIDIA's far more expensive workstation cards.

A second leaker pointed to an apparent factory notice saying no RTX 5090 model will be sold any more, China-market D variants included, and that an RTX 5080 24 GB would become the top GeForce card while the 16 GB version is discontinued. That sounds like the rumoured RTX 5080 SUPER, though nobody has said the two are the same product. As Videocardz and Wccftech both note, gamers would be left with a 24 GB card on the smaller GB203 chip as the ceiling.

Prices were already ugly. The card launched in January 2025 at $1,999; last month European listings went past €5,000 and Walmart sold out at $4,299. Partners may keep trickling out cards from chips they already hold, but it is reasonable to expect prices to climb once that stock dries up. One commenter on the original article, who bought a 5090 for €3,000, is probably feeling smug right now.

There is also the demand side. AI firms were reportedly buying 5090s in bulk for server use before they reached gaming retail, so for many buyers this was never really a gaming card. With the RTX 60-series reportedly slipping to 2028, an RTX 5080 24 GB could remain the fastest GeForce in production for a long time.

Our take: this is less a product cancellation than a reminder of who NVIDIA's best silicon is for. If you have been waiting for 5090 prices to fall, the sensible reading of this rumour is that they won't. If you want a top-end card, buy on what is actually on sale and verified, and watch for an official word from NVIDIA before assuming anything.

Opinion · What the press release leaves out

Nothing here is official. NVIDIA has said nothing; the whole story rests on two leakers on X and a factory notice we have only seen described, never verified. The framing of an end-of-life announcement may be wrong, since the chips are simply going elsewhere.

What is also missing: any date for when remaining stock runs dry, any word on how many cards partners still hold, and any price guidance for gamers. The RTX 5080 24 GB is not confirmed as a product either, and the earlier SUPER cards were reportedly shelved over GDDR7 pricing.

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Original source: TechPowerUp

Article generated with AI.larebelion

Byline · Chief editor · English edition · London

“When the biggest chip is worth more in a workstation, the gaming flagship is the first thing to go.”