Nvidia is widely expected to announce its new GeForce RTX 5000 series graphics cards such as the RTX 5080 and 5090 today at the CES event in Las Vegas with CEO Jensen Huang taking to the stage at 6:30pm PT. As well as the next generation of graphics cards for games, AI is also going to be a main talking point, but gamers will be hoping for news on the new RTX 5000 series including confirmation of pricing, specifications and release dates and internal performance testing.
You can see the Nvidia CES Keynote livestream using the link below from 6:30pm PT today.
What we want to know about the RTX 5000 series
There are some sizeable chunks missing from our knowledge of the RTX 5000 series with rumors and leaks so far only covering vague specifications for the whole series. The keynote will hopefully reveal most of the information we want to see, but it’s likely some will be held back as some models may not be released for several months.
Nvidia RTX 5000 pricing
This is the big one. There’s been very little if any concrete information about pricing for the new RTX 5000 series, but some figures in the rumor mill have pointed at significant markups compared to previous generations. For example, recent rumors put the RTX 5090 at between $2,000-2,500 – considerably more than the $1,600 launch price of the RTX 4090.
While higher pricing could see profits soar for what is currently the worlds second most valuable company, gamers won’t be happy as graphics card prices have soared in recent years thanks to the pandemic and cryptocurrency mining. Today should at least provide some clarity, but it’s also worth noting that AMD and Intel are also expected to have graphics card announcements this week.
Nvidia RTX 5000 specifications
What we know so far is that the RTX 5090 is going to get a sizeable memory upgrade from 24GB to 32GB – recently confirmed by a leak posted on tech website Videocardz that revealed an RTX 5090 model from Inno3D called the iChill X3. The box clearly stated 32GB and this is likely to be GDDR7 memory. The RTX 5080 and 5070 Ti will maintain the same 16GB as the RTX 4080 and RTX 4070 Ti Super, but this is a 4GB bump compared to the 4070 Ti and 4070.
The RTX 5070 will apparently come with 12GB – the same as the RTX 4070, while the RTX 5060 Ti has 16GB and 8GB flavors like the RTX 4060 Ti. Lower down the RTX 5060 maintains the same 8GB as the RTX 4060, at least according to rumors but specifications for at least the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 should be revealed today. Previous launch schedules suggest Nvidia may not offer complete details for other models and its likely only these two cards that we’ll see in detail today.
Nvidia RTX 5000 release schedule
According to a leak detailed in the link below, the RTX 5080 is due to be released first likely followed by the RTX 5090, with the former arriving on Jan 21. This would suggest, based on previous launch schedules, that the RTX 5090 would follow in February or March and the rest of the stack appearing some time before June.
Of course, much of what we know is based on rumor and supposed leaks from those in the industry so we may find things are quite as we expected. Nvidia has usually stuck to similar launch schedules with the release of new architectures, but we will likely know the availability of at least the RTX 5090 and 5080 today and most likely other models too, albeit lacking certain details.
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