Nvidia sells RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 from a 'food truck' at GTC

Demand for Nvidia's latest GeForce RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 — some of the best graphics cards money can buy these days — is so high that it is nearly impossible to get them at their recommended prices in the U.S. However, Nvidia seems to have a solution for attendees at its GPU Technology Conference: buy them on site.

Nvidia has limited quantities of its enthusiast-grade GeForce RTX 5080 and flagship GeForce RTX 5090 add-in-boards (AIBs) available for purchase at their $999 and $1,999 recommended prices from its Nvidia gear van at GTC park. The graphics cards must be purchased from the van from 7AM to 12PM on Thursday or Friday and then picked up at South Hall main entrance the same day.

There are several catches. The graphics boards are available to conference pass ($1,145 for one day, or $2,295 for five days) and exhibit pass holders only, with a limit of one card per person. Also, Nvidia will only make 2,000 boards available in total: 1,000 GeForce RTX 5080 cards, and 1,000 of the GeForce RTX 5090 models. Finally, even Nvidia itself says that the boards are available spontaneously, in a kind of flash sale manner. For example, "90 GeForce RTX 5090 units are available for the next 30 minutes."

As it turns out, Nvidia's prioritization of datacenter GPU production over client GPU production has both positive and negative sides for the company. On the one hand, Nvidia can sell more ultra-expensive B100/B200 GPUs for AI at circa $50,000 a piece. On the other hand, there are not enough graphics cards for enthusiasts (who generate positive buzz around the brand) and software developers (who work on next-generation software that will drive demand for Nvidia's products in the future). Selling 2,000 advanced GeForce RTX 50-series boards at GTC to some degree solves this problem and lays the cards in the hands to software developers. However, this is certainly not enough.

Of course, software makers with deep pockets are certainly looking forward to get Nvidia's DGX Station with GB300 Blackwell Ultra inside or the miniature GB10-based DGX Spark. The majority of developers will still use something more down-to-earth, which are GeForce RTX 50-series graphics cards for desktops.