The best argument for grabbing a 5080 right now, if you can find one at $999 in the first place, is that the only cards that come close to its performance are either way more expensive than they're supposed to be (the 4080 Super) or not cheap enough to justify the Nvidia-specific features you give up (AMD's Radeon 7900 XTX).

Is Nvidia's RTX 5080 really faster than the RTX 4090? See how this new card performs and whether it's worth upgrading from older models

Nvidia is already saying that it expects supplies of its highest-end GeForce 5090 and 5080 cards to be out of stock.

NVIDIA just warned consumers that it might be pretty difficult for gamers to get their hands on its upcoming high-end RTX 5090 and 5080 graphics cards. The company says it expects “significant demand” for the cards and that “stock-outs may happen.

Nvidia warns of 'significant demand' for the graphics cards, which go on sale early Thursday morning. Still, Nvidia says it'll be shipping more supplies to retailers every day.

Word from Nvidia about the supply of its flagship graphics cards appeared on its GeForce Forums. A forum administrator and Nvidia staff member who goes by Tim@NVIDIA wrote today, “We expect significant demand for the GeForce RTX 5090 and 5080 and believe stock-outs may happen.