Retailer drops the card
Nvidia has reportedly stopped making the GeForce RTX 5090, and the first US retailer is acting like it. Micro Center now lists Nvidia’s own RTX 5090 as “Not Carried”, a status that means a product has left its catalogue rather than being briefly out of stock, according to Tom’s Hardware.
What the leak says
The claim comes from a notice attributed to an unnamed factory and shared by leaker @hongxing2020: “Nvidia will no longer manufacture any RTX 5090 models, including the D variants. Going forward, the highest-end GeForce graphics card will be the RTX 5080 24GB, while the RTX 5080 16GB version will be discontinued.” A second leaker, @Zed__Wang, said the GB202 chip will now only go into data centre and professional cards, as reported by GamesIndustry.biz.
Nvidia hasn’t announced anything and didn’t respond to Tom’s Hardware. Its RTX 5090 product page still describes the card as “starting at $1,999”.
What Micro Center shows
| Listing | Status reported |
|---|---|
| Nvidia RTX 5090 Founders Edition | Not Carried |
| Asus, MSI, Gigabyte RTX 5090 models | Listed, out of stock at all physical stores |
| Asus RTX 5090 ROG Astral Edition 20 | In stock, only in a bundle of almost $11,000 |
One Reddit user says Micro Center staff pulled RTX 5090s from the shelves on October 9, the day before the rumour spread, and was told a card “was pulled and being sent somewhere else”. That account is unverified, but it matches the listings.
Why GB202 would leave GeForce
The reason on offer is memory. An RTX 50 Super refresh, rumoured to include a 24GB RTX 5080 Super, has reportedly slipped because of memory supply, and the same shortage sits behind a reported PS6 delay, Valve saying it is limited by memory capacity, and Xbox warning about Project Helix pricing. A GB202 die with 32GB of GDDR7 is worth more in a professional card than in a $1,999 gaming one. Rumours put Nvidia’s Rubin-based RTX 60 series at late 2027 at the earliest.
Who should buy, and who should wait
- Buy if you need 32GB of VRAM for local AI or heavy creative work and find a 5090 near list price. If the leak is right, there won’t be another GeForce card with that much memory until the RTX 60 series.
- Wait if you game at 4K and were holding out for a deal. Supply is drying up rather than freeing, so discounts are unlikely, and a 24GB RTX 5080 would cover most games with headroom to spare.
- Skip the bundles. A 5090 tied to an $11,000 package is a collector’s purchase, not a graphics card upgrade.
The RTX 5090 launched in January 2025. If the notice is accurate, it will have been on sale for less than two years, and the next flagship GeForce card won’t be a 90-class one.
