More power, at what cost?
After all, Nvidia is expected to announce its next-generation desktop graphics cards for PCs during its keynote at CES 2025 on Monday night. The much-talked-about RTX 5000 series will undoubtedly offer state-of-the-art gaming power and AI-powered features. However, PC gamers can also prepare for potential price increases and even higher power requirements.
Let’s define what to expect from tonight’s event, where Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will lay out the company’s vision for gaming graphics.
Nvidia will hold its event at the Mandalay Bay Sports Arena. Those in Las Vegas can watch the live stream on YouTube or on Nvidia’s website. The keye starts at 9:30 p. m. Eastern/6:30 p. m. PT.
The company will likely announce the first crop of RTX 5000 graphics cards, the successor to 2022’s RTX 4000 line. Gamers will be paying close attention to increases in the product’s GPU cores and video memory, which has become crucial to processing high-resolution textures for today’s PC games.
For now, leaks show the company is preparing a flagship GPU in the RTX 5090, which has been tipped to feature a whopping 32GB of GDDR7 memory — a sizable increase from the 24GB of GDDR6X on the older RTX 4090. But in some bad news, RTX 5080 might only come with 16GB of video memory, which is no change from the RTX 4080 and 4080 Super.
Rumors also recommend that Nvidia will release a new generation of DLSS, the company’s AI-powered feature that boosts frame rates while sacrificing graphics quality.
It’s no secret that Nvidia’s GPUs have become more expensive over the years. So don’t be surprised if the RTX 5000 series arrives with surprising loads. A leak from a Chinese supplier suggests that the RTX 5090 will cost $2,600 and the RTX 5080 $1,350. Others say the RTX 5090 will cost closer to $1,899 and $1,999; The RTX 4090 2022 launched for $1,599.
Another potential challenge is that the RTX 5000 series will likely require higher strength requirements. If true, this could also force PC developers to purchase higher-capacity materials to upgrade to GPUs, which would increase costs.
In the past, Nvidia has launched its latest PC graphics cards in the fall. But for the RTX 5000 series, the company decided to push things back to an apparent January event. As a result, expect Nvidia’s event for this year’s CES to be longer than usual. In a tweet, Nvidia says the presentation will also talk about AI, virtual worlds, and autonomous vehicles, three areas that have become major business markets for the GPU vendor.
The latest rumors imply that Nvidia’s RTX 5080 will go on sale on Tuesday, January 21, while the RTX 50nine0 and 5070 Ti will arrive later. If you make the decision to purchase, expect graphics cards to sell out quickly. Die-hard enthusiasts and resellers rush to purchase all materials on launch day, with sales regularly starting around nine a. m. m. ET/6 a. m. m. PT at online retailers.
I have worked as a journalist for more than 15 years. As a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City, I joined PCMag in 2017.
I have worked as a journalist for more than 15 years. As a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City, I joined PCMag in 2017.
I’ve been following SpaceX’s Starlink network for several years, writing more than 500 articles on feature availability and launches, but also on regulatory battles over expanding satellite constellations, fights between competing providers, and efforts to expand satellite cellular service. I also cover emerging online cyber threats, the rise of generative AI, today’s ever-changing social media landscape, and the PC graphics card market (which led me to camp out in front of Best Buy to purchase an RTX 3000 ). ). I am open to more information, so please share your comments and send me suggestions.