China! Why Nvidia’s RTX 5080 may launch before the RTX 5090

Nvidia’s RTX 5080 may be launching first to appease Chinese gamers

Rumour has it that Nvidia’s planning to launch their RTX 5080 before their RTX 5090 later this year. Why? Because of the Chinese gaming market. Nvidia wants their RTX 50 series to be available in China on day-1, and that means that the RTX 5080 needs to launch first.

Nvidia knows that their RTX 5090 cannot be released in China due to US export restrictions. That said, Nvidia doesn’t want to annoy Chinese gamers by leaving them without a new RTX flagship product for too long. Remember, China is a huge country, and Nvidia doesn’t want to miss out on sales to Chinese gamers.

Moore’s Law is Dead has claimed that Nvidia has been warned about trying to release their RTX 5090 in China. A new RTX 4090D-style graphics card release for the RTX 5090 will not fly with US authorities. This means that the RTX 5080 will likely be the fastest RTX 50 series GPU that Nvidia will be able to sell in China.

Nvidia doesn’t want to annoy Chinese gamers by releasing their RTX 5080 long after their RTX 5090. As a compromise, it now looks like Nvidia has shifted strategy and are planning to release their RTX 5080 shortly before their RTX 5090. That allows Chinese gamers to access RTX 50 series GPUs from day-1, and prevent a potential Chinese boycott of Nvidia products.

Nvidia has not officially commented on their next-generation GPU release plans. The company has revealed their Blackwell based datacenter GPUs, but they have not revealed any new gaming products. There are rumours that Nvidia will reveal their RTX 5090 at Computex 2024. That said, we believe that Nvidia will reveal their Blackwell gaming products at a later event.

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