3 reasons I’m scared my RTX 5000 dream might go up in smoke

The day I got hold of an RTX 3080 at MSRP when the treacherous GPU pricing was still haunting us, I couldn’t stop pinching myself. It all happened as part of a PC building contest by Nvidia and WD that I won, but hey, it still counts. After planning for years for an upgrade from my GTX 1660 Ti, I suddenly had a new gaming PC with an RTX 3080. To say the next two years went by smoothly would be an understatement.

In early 2024, however, the itch to upgrade came back in full force. I wasn’t able to play the latest titles in all their glory, Frame Generation wasn’t available on my card, and a bit of FOMO was also in play. When I finally decided that I wanted to move to the RTX 4080 Super, we were already in rumor season as the RTX 5000 series was on the horizon. So, I decided to wait, but the latest reports have made me worried that my RTX 5000 upgrade dream might never see the light of day.

3 My existing power supply might not hold up

The next-gen cards will stress existing power supplies

When I was picking components for my RTX 3080 build, I looked at the recommended PSU wattage (750W), the CPU, and the cooler (the Ryzen 7 5700X and a 240mm AIO). I swiftly picked an 850W Gold PSU for the build, confident in my choice, as I’d accounted for some headroom and maybe a future upgrade. Now that the “future upgrade” is dangerously close, I’m rethinking my PSU choice.

The RTX 5000 series is still a few months away, but all rumors point to a significant increase in the TGP of the high-end SKUs. To compare, both the RTX 3080 and RTX 4080 Super have a 320W TGP, which is perfectly fine for the 850W EVGA power supply I’m running. However, if the RTX 5080 does bring a 400W TGP (as rumored), along with more stringent power excursion requirements and/or a new connector, I’m afraid I’ll need to replace my PSU (just to be safe).

Considering the power supply protects thousands of dollars worth of precious hardware inside the PC, I’ll err on the side of caution and upgrade to a high-quality 1000W unit. This added burden on my budget might delay my dream upgrade to the RTX 5080 for quite some time.

2 The RTX 5000 GPU I want might cost a ton

I have my eyes set on the RTX 5080

GPUs, especially at the high end, cost a lot — we all know that. By now, we’ve been conditioned to accept the insane prices that accompany the flagship SKUs every generation. No single manufacturer is at fault here — both Nvidia and AMD are equally guilty. The RTX 4080 Super launching with a price cut was a bit surprising. Although the card was what the RTX 4080 always should have been, it was a welcome change, nonetheless.

Now that we’re waiting for the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 to arrive later this year or early next year, I’m concerned about what Nvidia will charge for the next 80-series card. It’s a brand-new generation of cards that’s coming out, not a refresh to an existing card, or a “Ti” variant that costs $100 more than the base card. The RTX 5080 will probably cost north of $1,000, and by a lot, if Nvidia’s past shenanigans are anything to go by.

Some reports do believe that Nvidia will somehow price the RTX 5080 at $999, but I find that hard to stomach. If it happens to be faster than the RTX 4090 (which is looking increasingly plausible), Nvidia has no reason not to charge a pretty premium for it. Sure, this doesn’t mean they’ll necessarily charge over $1,500 for it (which was the launch MSRP of the RTX 4090), but there are still a lot of rungs between $999 and $1,500.

In this case, my tentative budget of $1,000 will fall short of the dream upgrade I now have in mind. Most probably, I’ll have to wait a few months for the RTX 5070 or RTX 5070 Ti, settling with one of them.

1 Nvidia has no incentive to offer value for money

Team Green is free to charge what it wants

It’s no secret that Nvidia has been jacking up the prices of their GPUs for a few generations now. What started with the RTX 2000 series looks set to continue with the upcoming RTX 5000 launch. If some of you are hoping Nvidia will price its new GPUs competitively out of the goodness of its heart, you’re sadly mistaken. Nvidia enjoys colossal mindshare and market share in the GPU space, and reasonably wants to benefit from it.

To make matters worse, there’s even less motivation for Team Green to reduce prices this generation. Its biggest rival, AMD, has formally exited the race to produce the greatest high-end GPU, and will only compete in the mid-range and budget segments. Intel, the distant third player, will look to solidify the little market share it has with its Battlemage GPUs. Nvidia, then, can charge arbitrary prices for its next-gen GPUs at all price points, but more so for the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080.

Moreover, Nvidia has shifted focus from the gaming GPU market to the AI data center market. There’s simply much more to be gained by satisfying the AI computing demand than innovating or competing in the consumer GPU space. This doesn’t bode well for my RTX 5080 upgrade at all.

Do I even want a high-end GPU at this point?

The desktop GPU market has established graphics cards as luxury items, and people are ready to pay whatever the latest GPU costs every generation. From $700 flagships to $1,500 ones, we’ve seen graphics cards outpace inflation by a mile. My dream of upgrading to a high-end RTX 5000 GPU is driven in part by my desire to drive my favorite games at maxed-out settings, but if I’m being honest, a mid-range GPU can get me most of the way there.

For instance, an RTX 4070 Ti Super is more than enough to experience the latest titles at high framerates and excellent settings. You don’t need an RTX 4080 Super, let alone an RTX 4090 or a next-gen GPU to have fun with the biggest AAA games. Well, the heart wants what the heart wants — let’s just leave it at that and hope for the best.