If you've been waiting to upgrade your gaming PC, I suggest you hold off a little longer as a new rumor suggests Nvidia could launch its next-gen RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 graphics cards in a matter of weeks.
The rumor comes from Chinese website Benchlife, and was reported by PC Gamer, which says (translated) “If all goes well, the GeForce RTX 5090/D and GeForce RTX 5080/D with the Blackwell GPU architecture are scheduled to officially launch in September.”
This is both exciting and surprising. Nvidia’s current flagship GPU, the RTX 4090, launched in October 2022, and while it’s still one of the best graphics cards ever made and very few games come close to taking full advantage of its power, there are plenty of enthusiasts (myself included) who are eager to see how Nvidia improves it.
While Nvidia's RTX 5000 series of graphics cards, built on its new Blackwell architecture, has been expected for a while now, previous rumors had us planning for a late 2024 or early 2025 launch. So if this rumor is correct – and that's a big “if” at this point – then we'll be getting both of the high-end Blackwell GPUs sooner than expected.
Keep your workhorses to build your PC
While I'm not entirely convinced that this rumor is true, as we haven't had any other leaks suggesting a launch is imminent, it's not out of the question either. As I mentioned above, the RTX 4090 launched in October 2022, so it's possible that its successor will be announced in September 2024.
Either way, we're likely to see new Blackwell graphics cards from Nvidia sooner rather than later, which is why I think now is not the right time to build or upgrade your gaming PC. We're so close to a likely launch that it's worth waiting a little longer to see what these new GPUs have in store.
If we're wowed, you'll be able to build your PC around the new GPUs and have a cutting-edge gaming rig that will play the best PC games with ease for years to come.
On the other hand, if they are a disappointing upgrade over the RTX 4000 series, you might end up saving money, as the prices of the RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 will likely drop once the newer models come out.
We won't know for sure until the new GPUs are officially announced, though recent rumors suggest the RTX 5090 in particular could be quite power hungry. Hopefully, we won't have to wait too much longer, then we can open up our gaming PCs and upgrade.
