Board Partners Are Worried About Launching the RTX 5080 24GB by January, as NVIDIA Has Yet to Make Its Design Kits Available

It’s looking increasingly unlikely that the long-rumored GeForce RTX 5080 24GB will launch in January, as some rumors have previously hinted at, due to NVIDIA not having yet provided kits to its partners. It’s been theorized and rumored since the launch of the RTX 5080 16GB that a beefier version of the card would follow with 24GB of VRAM. Early on, it was believed that NVIDIA was simply waiting for 3GB GDDR7 modules to drop in price, but that, of course, was as far in the opposite direction as things could be during this time, when many manufacturers are prioritizing parts for AI-related contracts. However, technically speaking, the RTX 5080 24GB has launched, but under the guise of the RTX 5090 mobile in an MXM format. While capped at up to 175W of power usage and with slightly fewer enabled cores, it uses the same GB203 die as the desktop RTX 5080 and RTX 5070 Ti, but with the aforementioned 24GB GDDR7.

Meanwhile, rumors have continued to circulate throughout the summer and now fall that a desktop counterpart would finally make its appearance, perhaps in the form of a SUPER refresh. Unfortunately, a report from Benchlife (via VideoCardz) indicates that board partners are unable to procure memory/GPU kits from NVIDIA. These design kits contain memory modules that NVIDIA provides through its deals with Samsung, TSMC, or whomever it contracts with for the best deals at a given moment, and then its AIB partners purchase them to use on their custom PCBs. Some have said that in the past, once kits were in hand, a product launch could happen in as soon as six weeks, going from design and testing to hitting the market, but those timelines are now a thing of the past. It’s now said the complete process takes around 8 weeks thanks to the industry’s focus on AI contracts, which would mean we’re now past the window a January launch could be achieved.

What if NVIDIA only launches an RTX 5080 24GB Founders Edition?

Rumors still persist that NVIDIA could unveil the GeForce RTX 5080 24GB at CES 27, and cards could launch sometime after, but a more ominous possibility also exists. What if NVIDIA were to choose to make the RTX 5080 24GB a Founders Edition-only product? There’s already been discussion within the industry about the ramifications the Founders Edition cards have had on partners since the line launched during the Turing generation. From a product being offered at a lower cost, frankly MSRP, to purported demands that manufacturers offer similar products at MSRP, which can lead to products sold at a loss given the added costs for custom PCBs, to seemingly absent products, there are more than a few flags to consider. This is pure speculation, but it is definitely a possibility that NVIDIA could be considering either total exclusivity or at least a time-limited release based on memory component supplies.

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