Nvidia RTX 5080 rumored to hit shelves on January 21 — expected to debut at CES with sales embargo reportedly lifting two weeks later
T-minus 5 days.
Rumor has it that Nvidia's RTX 5080 will hit shelves on January 21, says Hong Kong media outlet HKEPC (h/t VideoCardz). The source has a history of accurate information, but as always, we suggest you approach the leak with the appropriate skepticism. Additionally, the tipster has only revealed the embargo for the RTX 5080, so other GPUs in the Blackwell stack may launch on different dates.
Leaks suggest that Nvidia's Blackwell family will debut with the RTX 5090, RTX 5080, and RTX 5070 series. Nvidia is kicking off social media campaigns to drum up interest and has decided to revive GeForce LAN after 13 years. It is scheduled for 48 hours before Jensen's long-anticipated reveal on January 6.
HKEPC, in a concise and cryptic tweet, suggests that the RTX 5080 will retail starting from January 21. There's a nearly two-week gap between this date and January 6, when Nvidia is expected to launch the RTX 5080, a typical interlude for Nvidia GPU launches. If this rumor holds, we should see the RTX 5080 available at vendors on January 21. However, the leaker does not assert that other GPUs, such as the RTX 5090 and RTX 5070 series, could be delayed. In the past, Nvidia has employed a range of embargos for different GPUs in a specific family, just as we saw with the RTX 40 Super refresh.
5080 -> 21 JanJanuary 1, 2025
The RTX 5080 allegedly features Nvidia's GB203-400-A1 at its core wielding 84 SMs or 10,752 CUDA cores. Akin to its predecessor, the RTX 5080 is outfitted with 16GB of memory though upgraded to much faster GDDR7 technology. Speaking of memory, it is rumored that apart from the RTX 5080 running 30 Gbps modules, the remaining RTX 50 series will stick with 28 Gbps memory. With a 10% CUDA core bump over the RTX 4080, expect most of the performance improvements to stem from architectural changes and the improved process node. Blackwell for servers (and likely desktop) is fabricated using a custom 4NP (5nm-class) node from TSMC, delivering 30% higher density than 4N used with Ada Lovelace.
Since AMD is not competing in the high-end space this generation, it appears the RTX 5080 will face minimal competition and remain largely uncontested. This allows Nvidia to dictate pricing without competition constraints. Still, we suggest you wait for the official keynote since pricing may be subject to last-minute adjustments.
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Hassam Nasir is a die-hard hardware enthusiast with years of experience as a tech editor and writer, focusing on detailed CPU comparisons and general hardware news. When he’s not working, you’ll find him bending tubes for his ever-evolving custom water-loop gaming rig or benchmarking the latest CPUs and GPUs just for fun.
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A Stoner As all recent halo product releases recently have shown, these will not hit shelves for months, but instead will be sold to or given to people who have the right connections initially until they have had their fill. Then it will finally get to actual shelves where you and I normal people can acquire one without going through scalper pricing.Reply -
Heat_Fan89 We'll probably be hearing about new prebuilts from Lenovo, HP, Corsair and Alienware. Those 4 will probably get first dibs on the new GPU's.Reply -
KyaraM Reply
This isn't the halo card, though. That's the 5090. This is a (pretty big) step down and more the high-end than anything. Will there be decent quantities of this card at launch? Who knows. We will see when it comes out. I'm more interested in the actual price of this thing, since that will hint on the prices of the lower-end cards, too (and the 5090 I guess...). Seller listings pre-release can be very deceiving. They are often way higher than they actually are.A Stoner said:As all recent halo product releases recently have shown, these will not hit shelves for months, but instead will be sold to or given to people who have the right connections initially until they have had their fill. Then it will finally get to actual shelves where you and I normal people can acquire one without going through scalper pricing. -
emike09 Reply
I picked up my 4090 the first week they were released. Just gotta be vigilant in finding one.A Stoner said:As all recent halo product releases recently have shown, these will not hit shelves for months, but instead will be sold to or given to people who have the right connections initially until they have had their fill. Then it will finally get to actual shelves where you and I normal people can acquire one without going through scalper pricing. -
Elusive Ruse Reply
I would say $900 is a fair asking price but if it performs equally to or even better than the 4090 in gaming I bet it will sell like hot cakes.Alvar Miles Udell said:Make it cost $750 and I'll be interested. -
JTWrenn Reply
Have seen anything from 1300 to 1800. The rumor mill is all over. I agree $1400 to $1500 is likely but if they kept it at 4080 pricing they would sell a whole lot better I think. edit: I am hoping for 4080 super pricing but it's just hard to tell on this. If this doesn't beat the 4080 super by a hell of a lot at $1400 it would be a very hard sell.papaspud said:Rumor mill says $1400, we shall see. -
A Stoner Reply
At the retail price or higher? Took me several months to find one trending in the $1599 retail price.emike09 said:I picked up my 4090 the first week they were released. Just gotta be vigilant in finding one. -
scottsoapbox If it's $1000, I'll probably pick one up, otherwise, a 4070 TI for $800 will probably win (assuming a reasonable generational improvement).Reply
Coming from a 3080, I need at least 16 GB of VRAM and I just can't bring myself to spend over a grand on a GPU.