Nvidia may be pulling the plug on the RTX 5090: AI claims gaming's most powerful chip

The most ambitious graphics card Nvidia has ever put in gamers' hands may be living on borrowed time. According to Vida Extra, citing a report from Tom's Hardware, a notice leaked from an unnamed factory indicates that the company has stopped producing the GeForce RTX 5090. And not just the standard model: the D variants designed for the Chinese market are affected too.

The reason won't surprise anyone who has tried to build or upgrade a PC lately. The artificial intelligence boom has turned graphics cards and RAM into a contested resource, and manufacturers are looking to data centers before the everyday user. If confirmed, it would be the clearest sign yet that high-end gaming has become a second-class customer for Nvidia.

What you need to know

• The report stems from a factory notice leaked by @hongxing2020 and picked up by Tom's Hardware; Vida Extra is relaying it.
• The halt would affect every RTX 5090 model, including the D variants intended for China.
• A second leaker, @Zed__Wang, claims that the GB202 chip, the foundation of the 5090, will now be reserved for professional and data center cards.
• The backdrop: component prices soaring due to demand for GPUs and RAM for AI.
• For now, this is a leak: the source cites no official confirmation from Nvidia.

What's behind it: the GB202 and the AI priority

The key is the silicon. The RTX 5090 doesn't have a chip exclusive to gamers: it shares its foundation, the GB202, with products designed for professional environments. When a manufacturer has to decide where each chip goes, the math is simple. A card for an AI data center delivers far more margin than a consumer graphics card, however expensive the latter may be. If the GB202 stops going to the gaming channel, the 5090 simply has nowhere to come from.

Who does this affect? First, anyone who was planning to buy one: extreme-performance enthusiasts, streamers who game and encode on the same machine, video editors and creators working on heavy projects. Second, the market as a whole. When the flagship disappears from production, the remaining stock in stores tends to become scarcer and pricier, and that pressure can spill over to the rest of the lineup.

Rumor or fact?

It's worth putting this in perspective: we're talking about a notice from an unidentified factory and two leakers, not an official statement. That said, the two pieces fit together and fit with what we're seeing across the industry. Vida Extra presents it as the latest chapter in a trend where component makers are turning their backs on consumers to cash in on the AI business, and it's hard to argue otherwise.

Our take

Let's be honest with our competitive community: you don't need a 5090 to play most esports titles. Tactical shooters, MOBAs and fighting games can be played at a high level on far more modest rigs, and what makes the difference in a close match is still stability, latency and hours of practice. If your plan was to buy this card to climb the ranks, you haven't missed out on anything.

But that doesn't make the news any less bad, and it's very bad. For content creators it really is a blow: the top tier is what lets you play, record, stream and edit without breaking a sweat. And above all, the underlying message is worrying. Nvidia built its brand on gamers, and now, if the leak is true, it has decided its best chip is worth more in a server rack than on your desk. It's an understandable business decision, but we're not going to applaud it.

Our practical advice: don't panic or pay scalper prices out of fear of being left with nothing. Wait for official confirmation, assess what you really need for your game or your channel and, if you're going to invest, prioritize a balanced build over a single star component.

What do you think?

Is this the end of the enthusiast tier as we knew it, or just a bump in the road while the AI boom lasts? Our newsroom has its position, but we want to hear yours. Drop by the team chat or our Discord and tell us: does the RTX 5090's retirement change your plans to build or upgrade your PC?