Nvidia discontinues one of its most powerful graphics cards

According to a new report from China, Nvidia has discontinued its most powerful consumer graphics card: the RTX 4090. This means that Nvidia will no longer manufacture or supply RTX 4090 series graphics chips to its partners. While these graphics cards won't immediately disappear from store shelves, supply will gradually dwindle until businesses clear their inventory.

The RTX 4090 isn't the only one that's being phased out, at least according to recent reports. A similar rumor from Board Channel says the RTX 4080 SUPER is next in line to be discontinued, with production reportedly starting in November. So the RTX 4080 SUPER will also start to disappear from the market in the near future.

The news that Nvidia is killing off its most popular and powerful current-generation graphics cards comes amid growing rumors that the company will launch its next-generation RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 series based on the Blackwell architecture in the coming months. If so, the decision makes sense, and should give Nvidia's partners enough time to clear out inventory before the next big launch.

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But this is bad news for end users, as it means limited supply, higher prices on the used market, and no big discounts. Even those looking to upgrade their PCs to a high-end GPU are being forced into a difficult situation: Buy the RTX 4090 (which is still very expensive at the moment) or wait for the RTX 5090, which is still not officially available. As of now, the remaining RTX 4090s on Amazon and other retailers are still selling for a starting price of $1,700 for the 'cheapest' versions.

Last month, Nvidia also discontinued the RTX 3060, its most popular consumer graphics card. According to Valve, nearly 6% of Steam users play games on that graphics card.

David Pac

Update 06 October 2024