Nvidia's Priority Access program reportedly kicks off, invitations sent out for RTX 5090 customers

News
By published

If you're a Priority Access member, Nvidia might have already sent you an email.

GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition
(Image credit: Nvidia)

Nvidia has allegedly begun sending out invitations to its Priority Access members for an opportunity to purchase an RTX 5090 Founders Edition graphics card. Jon_Cruz89 on the Nvidia subreddit shared an email he got from Nvidia confirming he had been selected to purchase an RTX 5090.

The GPU manufacturer re-launched its Priority Access program last week to combat availability issues plaguing all of its RTX 50-series GPUs. The program allows members to buy an RTX 5090 or RTX 5080 Founders Edition graphics card at MSRP. The only caveat is that members are required to have an Nvidia account created before January 30th to enroll.

5090 FE invitations! Check your emails! from r/nvidia

Jon's email is the first alleged confirmation that Nvidia is now sending out invitations to its Priority Access members. The invitation links to a website where only the member in question can purchase whichever GPU they requested. However, Priority Access does not guarantee all members will get access to an RTX 5090 or RTX 5080. The program is said to be run on a "first-come, first-served basis, while supplies last."

If you qualify, the Priority Access program is one method of dodging availability issues surrounding RTX 50 series GPUs. Supply bottlenecks have been a non-stop issue since the RTX 5090 landed earlier this year. This has led to the re-introducing of drawing programs that have not been seen since the pandemic era.

One example (besides Nvidia's Priority Access program) is the Newegg Shuffle, which is a similar program that prioritizes participating members and gives potential buyers a shot at acquiring a GPU or any other product that boasts limited availability. (Newegg even had a convection oven in its shuffling program at one point.)

For those who haven't been paying attention, the RTX 50-series has been at the mercy of availability issues since day one. The launch of the RTX 5090, RTX 5080, and RTX 5070 Ti have been widely regarded as paper launches, with all three GPUs being impossible to find in stock since their respective launches, let alone at MSRP.

In addition, some RTX 5090, RTX 5080, and RTX 5070 Ti cards have been found to feature missing ROPs, forcing customers to RMA their GPUs to get a fully working replacement.

See more GPUs News
Aaron Klotz
Aaron Klotz
Contributing Writer

Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

11 Comments Comment from the forums
  • aplomBomb
    and of course i didn't get one, I've always skipped the even releases, was never able to get a 30 series, and seems like snagging a 50 series is a pipe dream, strongly considering quitting the pc gaming hobby
    Reply
  • jonaswox
    Pls can we stop acting like the missing is not by design?

    I am getting actual vommit taste from all the outlets pretending that 50 series is something you want, and that low availability is something Jensen does very much on purpose to make it seem the cards are in demand. Its potentially gonna burn your house down, it's hardly an update from previous flagship, it's massively overpriced because we are mixing ai products with gfx (last time it was mining, now it is AI inflating prices). Not to mention it will set itself on fire before hinting to you that it might be hot.

    There is zero reason for the gamer to get this card unless you have just to much money to waste. And your 4090 is struggling so you need newest framegen (lol)

    Everything about this release is so adamantly anti consumer and hardly any outlets focus on this. Rather we get xcitement articles about a guy who managed to score a gfx.... Why are you running Nvidia errands? Stuff like this seriously jeopardizes your trustworthyness.

    Jensen is going down a route where we need dedicated RT cards , physx cards, rastercards , proprietary framegen to run at new game at reasonable speeds. and it has to all be Nvidia to function as expected.

    Dont come crying about this development in a few years time when you have been sitting on the cheering band wagon all the way to hell.
    Reply
  • aplomBomb
    jonaswox said:
    Pls can we stop acting like the missing is not by design?

    I am getting actual vommit taste from all the outlets pretending that 50 series is something you want, and that low availability is something Jensen does very much on purpose to make it seem the cards are in demand. Its potentially gonna burn your house down, it's hardly an update from previous flagship, it's massively overpriced because we are mixing ai products with gfx (last time it was mining, now it is AI inflating prices). Not to mention it will set itself on fire before hinting to you that it might be hot.

    There is zero reason for the gamer to get this card unless you have just to much money to waste. And your 4090 is struggling so you need newest framegen (lol)

    Everything about this release is so adamantly anti consumer and hardly any outlets focus on this. Rather we get xcitement articles about a guy who managed to score a gfx.... Why are you running Nvidia errands? Stuff like this seriously jeopardizes your trustworthyness.

    Jensen is going down a route where we need dedicated RT cards , physx cards, rastercards , proprietary framegen to run at new game at reasonable speeds. and it has to all be Nvidia to function as expected.

    Dont come crying about this development in a few years time when you have been sitting on the cheering band wagon all the way to hell.
    slow your roll there buddy, I play at 11520x2160.

    I do in fact need a 5090, and even with one I'd still be GPU bottlenecked in most scenarios.

    and how can you logically reason that an artificial shortage benefits Nvidia? it's a conspiracy that's been spun by frustrated redditors.

    even internal Nvidia employees have had trouble obtaining one.

    claiming Nvidia is creating an artificial shortage to make their cards appear more desirable is the dumbest take I've ever heard. it's seriously on the same level of delusional reasoning anti vaxxers use to defend their ignorant opinions.
    Reply
  • jonaswox
    aplomBomb said:
    slow your roll there buddy, I play at 11520x2160.
    Fair enough. A bit much to be expecting to play graphics heavy titles on that pixelcount... But I think thats a you problem to be honest, you are asking for what? 3x pixel count of 4k? That is not reasonable to be playing a modern title on that resolution imo, but you definitely do you - im not against that.

    The fact that you do not know about scarce economy is not a surprise to me. Most people don't. It is what every single "high value" brand does. Think for example, how was so many people able to earn a living in recent years, from buying shoes from stores and selling them to the end consumer? Its because of artificial scarcity - It can keep your irrelevant product relevant for years. The moment Nike decided to open the flood gates roughly 2 years ago, that market almost disappeared overnight.
    So fair enough if you dont believe in this, but the former CEO of Nike certainly did.

    Another obvious example is that you have to get vetted to buy a new ferrari, besides waiting probably for years to receive it. How is that beneficial to ferrari? Supreme? Think!


    And all that is besides the fact that of course jensen will rather spend the wafers on his AI cards which are selling like hotcakes and bringing in revenue the gaming department can only dream about. So even in normal land there is a pretty good reason for jensen to prolonge as much as possible, and keeping the product scarce is very helpful to controlling this conception.

    And I feel like we are just ignoring that this scarcity has been a thing for the past many gens. A 1080 was also impossible to get anywhere near launch. That is what, 10 years ago?
    Reply
  • aplomBomb
    jonaswox said:
    Fair enough. A bit much to be expecting to play graphics heavy titles on that pixelcount... But I think thats a you problem to be honest, you are asking for what? 3x pixel count of 4k? That is not reasonable to be playing a modern title on that resolution imo, but you definitely do you - im not against that.

    The fact that you do not know about scarce economy is not a surprise to me. Most people don't. It is what every single "high value" brand does. Think for example, how was so many people able to earn a living in recent years, from buying shoes from stores and selling them to the end consumer? Its because of artificial scarcity - It can keep your irrelevant product relevant for years. The moment Nike decided to open the flood gates roughly 2 years ago, that market almost disappeared overnight.
    So fair enough if you dont believe in this, but the former CEO of Nike certainly did.

    Another obvious example is that you have to get vetted to buy a new ferrari, besides waiting probably for years to receive it. How is that beneficial to ferrari? Supreme? Think!


    And all that is besides the fact that of course jensen will rather spend the wafers on his AI cards which are selling like hotcakes and bringing in revenue the gaming department can only dream about. So even in normal land there is a pretty good reason for jensen to prolonge as much as possible, and keeping the product scarce is very helpful to controlling this conception.

    And I feel like we are just ignoring that this scarcity has been a thing for the past many gens. A 1080 was also impossible to get anywhere near launch. That is what, 10 years ago?
    bro you are comparing sneakers to graphics cards, sneakers are not bound to Moore's law.

    again, this logic is fundamentally flawed and there is no artificial shortage going on here because it does not benefit Nvidia in any way
    Reply
  • jonaswox
    aplomBomb said:
    bro you are comparing sneakers to graphics cards, sneakers are not bound to Moore's law.

    again, this logic is fundamentally flawed and there is no artificial shortage going on here because it does not benefit Nvidia in any way
    The sentiment of the reasoning had nothing to do with sneakers. Lets agree to disagree :) you are saying that all the luxury brands of the world are clueless and that their strategy is fundamentally flawed, I think they have figured how to stay relevant and sought after when not bringing anything of value to the table.

    Go get yourself a firebomb, oh wait, you cant. Someone said recently in the american parlament (i think it was) that the conspiracy theorists are up 100-0 in the last couple of years - I hope you are not calling me a conspiracy theorist ;)?

    I wonder why jensen keeps pushing these cards before production is properly ready .... hmmmm ... It has been going on for what? + a decade my friend. It was also a thing before mining.
    Reply
  • aplomBomb
    jonaswox said:
    The sentiment of the reasoning had nothing to do with sneakers. Lets agree to disagree :) you are saying that all the luxury brands of the world are clueless and that their strategy is fundamentally flawed, I think they have figured how to stay relevant and sought after when not bringing anything of value to the table.
    Reply
  • aplomBomb
    jonaswox said:
    The sentiment of the reasoning had nothing to do with sneakers. Lets agree to disagree :) you are saying that all the luxury brands of the world are clueless and that their strategy is fundamentally flawed, I think they have figured how to stay relevant and sought after when not bringing anything of value to the table.

    Go get yourself a firebomb, oh wait, you cant.
    while I wish I could just wrap this up and call it a day and agree, I fundamentally disagree because sneakers can be valued as a timeless investment(our feet don't change). in comparison gpus quickly become ancient dinosaurs and lose all value in an extremely short of amount of time.

    creating an artificial shortage in order to put a computer component on a legendary pedestal if you will, is completely asinine.

    again, the logic behind Nvidia creating an artificial shortage just doesn't make any logical sense, any way you try to fold it.

    I also would like to say I appreciate your respectful take on our argument <3
    Reply
  • aberkae
    aplomBomb said:
    bro you are comparing sneakers to graphics cards, sneakers are not bound to Moore's law.

    again, this logic is fundamentally flawed and there is no artificial shortage going on here because it does not benefit Nvidia in any way
    Nvidia why make 1x margins when you can make 10x the margins with 1/10 the supply. Nvidia math 101. Questions?
    Reply
  • spongiemaster
    aberkae said:
    Nvidia why make 1x margins when you can make 10x the margins with 1/10 the supply. Nvidia math 101. Questions?
    That's not how it works. The only cards Nvidia sells are Founders Edition cards, and they all sell at MSRP. They do not sell cards to AIB's. They sell GPU and VRAM packages at contract prices that don't fluctuate on the whims of the market. Whether that AIB cards sells for $1000 or $2500 makes zero difference to Nvidia, they make the exact same amount of money from the GPU and VRAM that they sold to the AIB. Scalpers don't send a kicker back Nvidia's way after ripping someone off on Ebay.
    Reply