Nvidia is reportedly planning to stop manufacturing its flagship GeForce RTX 4090 GPUs by the end of October, 2024. Though nothing is official, Team Green is likely clearing the way for its upcoming monster chip.
Whispers of the flagship’s untimely demise initially cropped up in late September, but have once again reared their head. This time the rumour comes from an Asian forum member claiming that Nvidia is expecting the last RTX 4090 and RTX 4090D chips to leave the factory this month. The leaker has also indicated that the brand’s RTX 4080 Super will be the next, sometime in November.
Though nothing is official yet, the leaker indicates that this will leave some time for partners and retailers to free up inventory space. The reason likely to focus on the upcoming RTX 5090.
Two years might not seem enough for the life of a GPU these days, particularly given Nvidia only just discontinued GeForce RTX 3060 in August, but it’s not far from the average. RTX 2060 and GTX 1660 lasted three years, while Team Green reportedly put RTX 3080 out to pasture just two years after launch without as much ceremony.
Of course, this doesn’t mean availability will suddenly drop to zero. You can still get RTX 3080 cards two years after its supposed discontinuation and RTX 4090 graphics cards should remain on shelves for some time to come, especially since many users will hold off for the upcoming chip.
Lastly, the leaker indicates that Nvidia plans to launch the RTX 5080 alongside the RTX 5090 and RTX 5090D (once again likely a China exclusive). Early details suggest the flagship carries two times more CUDA cores than the RTX 5080, alongside 32GB of the new 28Gbps GDDR7 memory running on a wide 512-bit bus.
Nvidia is expected to release its RTX 5000 Series GPUs sometime next year. CES 2025 seems about right, as CEO Jensen Huang will speak at a keynote on January 6, though nothing is stopping an earlier announcement. That said, if you plan on getting one, you better get ready to upgrade your PSU too in case the 600W TDP rumour is true.
