The latest XpeaGPU rumor claims that NVIDIA will unveil both the GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 enthusiast gaming graphics cards at the same time. The company may hold a special event, which will be announced a few days before, as is the case with previous launches.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 and GeForce RTX 5080 go on sale within a few weeks of each other. The previous rumor said that the GeForce RTX 5080 would be released first, followed by the RTX 5090. This is slightly different from the last generation of Ada, where the RTX 4090 was released in the market first, and then the RTX 4080. The RTX 4090 was released on October 12th, and the RTX 4080 followed on November 16th. Both cards were released on the same day (September 20, 2022).
Judging by previous rumors, NVIDIA is expected to introduce two main crystals under the GB202 and GB203 banners. The former is likely to be used in the GeForce RTX 5090, while the latter is expected to be used in the RTX 5080. The GB203 is reportedly half of the GB202 GPU, and both GPUs are expected to use the latest GDDR7 memory interface. with up to a 512-bit bus interface.
Examples of memory configurations for different Blackwell GPUs:
- GB202 – 512 bit / 28 GB / s / 32 GB / 1792 GB / s
- GB202 – 384 bit / 28 GB / s / 24 GB / 1344 GB / s
- GB203 – 256 bit / 28 GB / s / 16 GB / 896.0 GB / s
- GB205 – 192 bit / 28 GB / s / 12 GB / 672.0 GB / s
- GB206 – 128 bit / 28 GB / s / 8 GB / 448.0 GB / s
- GB207 – 128 bit / 28 GB / s / 8 GB / 448.0 GB / s
The GB202 GPU is expected to have up to 192 SMs for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 graphics cards, which is 33% more SMs than the full AD102 die and 50% more SMs than the GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card likely to use a stripped down die with approx. on models 170-180 SM included.
On the other hand, the GB203 GPU is expected to have half the SM for GeForce RTX 5080 graphics cards as the GB202 dies, up to a total of 96 SM. This will be 20% more SM than the full AD103 die and 26% more SM compared to the RTX 4080. It is expected that the RTX 5080 will use the whole die from the beginning because the company tends to offer an updated composition called “SUPER”.
If the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 uses the GB203 GPU die, we can expect a significant difference in performance between the “90” and “80” flagship cards. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 itself was about 25-30% faster than the RTX 4080, and it looks like there is almost a 30-40% difference between the next-gen enthusiast cards. This could encourage gamers to upgrade to a higher-end RTX 5090.
In terms of price, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 should cost around $1,500, and the RTX 5080 should cost around $1,000, similar to the RTX 4080 SUPER. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50 “Blackwell” gaming release is expected later this year, where things will become clearer by the end of the third or beginning of the fourth quarter of 2024.
