There is new news on the expected arrival of a new generation of graphics cards, which should be released in the second half of the year (or early next). This time they refer to Nvidia’s upcoming graphics, GeForce RTX 5000 with Blackwell architecture GPU. A rumor first appeared on the Internet shortly after that Nvidia would release only the most expensive model this year, but it turned out almost immediately that this was probably not true and that a more affordable model would be available first.
The arrival of the GeForce RTX 5000 graphics came shortly after two reports. First, the YouTuber Moore’s Law is Dead brought the news that Nvidia will release only one new generation graphics card this year, namely the GeForce RTX 5090, the highest model. The company usually introduces graphics from the top model, so this would not be strange.
However, the detail that it would be the only model that will be released this year may be important and mean that the launch will be more likely towards the end of the year. In any case, according to Moore’s Law is Dead, cheaper models than the RTX 5090 were not supposed to arrive until the end of the year and would not be available for purchase until 2025.
However, this news was immediately contradicted by leaker Kopite7kimi, who has the best information about Nvidia’s plans and is the most reliable of these sources. According to this, it is not true that the GeForce RTX 5090 should be released first, because according to its sources, Nvidia is planning to release the GeForce RTX 5080 model first.
The specific names have probably not been given yet, and Nvidia may change them, but it probably means that Nvidia will not start with the most powerful model, but at first only with a lower level of graphics. Quite possibly, it could be connected to the fact that the second smaller GPU in the sequence would be released first, which is marked GB203 and should have 256-bit memory (and therefore about 16 GB capacity). So this graphics would be the successor of today’s GeForce RTX 4080 and GeForce RTX 4080 Super, but with GDDR7 memory and with a generational upgrade of the Blackwell architecture – the GB203 could possibly have 96 SM blocks and up to 12,288 shaders.
The more powerful GP202, which is supposed to have up to 24,576 shaders and 512-bit memory (that is, up to 32 GB of memory), in this scenario, could come out with some delay after this first cheaper version of Blackwell.
Nvidia B200, the server computing version of the Blackwell architecture
Author: Nvidia
There is also a chance that the GeForce RTX 5080 will be based not on the GB203, but on a cut-down version of the GB202 chip, but that would be more expensive for Nvidia. The fact that AMD allegedly canceled the most powerful version of the RDNA 4 generation GPU probably gives Nvidia the opportunity to go the cheaper route and offer gamers only the GeForce RTX 5080 with a smaller chip. And then possibly convince some to buy the next more powerful RTX 5090 model in a few months, if there is a significant jump in performance.
On the other hand, even the RTX 5080 is not guaranteed to have a lower price. In recent generations, Nvidia has had a somewhat vacillating policy, although overall it is still increasing in price. The GeForce RTX 3080 had a surprisingly low price, but the GeForce RTX 4080 was priced at a brutal $1,200 at the start. If there were to be a price hike again, the GeForce RTX 5080 might not be much cheaper against what the top model GeForce RTX 4090 is currently selling for.
Earlier launch?
Kopite7kimi should be the more reliable informant of the two sources discussed here, so for now we’d recommend assuming that the entire report from Moore’s Law Is Dead is unfounded or otherwise off. And that could probably also apply to the consideration that the release will be at the end of the year.
The Blackwell GPU cards could therefore be on the market sooner, but Kopite7kimi does not yet give an estimate of the release time. However, the denial of the Moore’s Law Is Dead report means that the possibility is open again that Nvidia will manage to release several models of this generation before the end of the year, not just the RTX 5080.
Resources: https://twitter.com/kopite7kimi/status/1787645742510993853VideoCardz, TechPowerUp
