In an interview with the popular German gaming publication GameStar, Nvidia publicly commented for the first time on the current situation surrounding the GeForce RTX 50-series graphics cards. According to well-known overclocker, enthusiast and part-time head of Thermal Grizzly Roman “Der8auer” Hartung, who watched the interview, Nvidia made a number of “shameful statements” in it.
Image source: YouTube / der8auer
Nvidia’s interview was led by Lars Weinand, Senior Product Manager at the company’s German office. When asked how Nvidia viewed the launch of the GeForce RTX 50-series graphics cards overall, Weinand said that “the launch went very well.”
«”If I look back at the last 10 or 20 years of GPU launches, the RTX 50 series launch was probably the worst I’ve ever witnessed. Shortages, inappropriate pricing, PCIe issues, black screens, defective GPUs with missing ROPs, disabled PhysX, melting connectors, and non-existent MSRPs. Am I missing something?” Hartung commented in his video, where he broke down all the statements made by the Nvidia representative.
Lars Wijnand, speaking to the gaming publication, once again repeated Nvidia’s claim that the company has sold more GeForce RTX 5000 graphics cards so far than it did GeForce RTX 4000 cards in the first five weeks since their launch. However, he again ignored the fact that Nvidia released four graphics cards in five weeks – the GeForce RTX 5090, RTX 5080, RTX 5070 Ti, and RTX 5070 – whereas at the launch of the GeForce RTX 4000 series, only one graphics card was available for sale in the first five weeks – the GeForce RTX 4090. It was released on October 22, 2022. The second card in the series, the RTX 4080, did not go on sale until November 16 of the same year, making Nvidia’s comparison invalid.
Image source: NVIDIA
An Nvidia representative also responded to a question about the shortage of cards and their absence from sale: “Many [GeForce RTX 5000] graphics cards do not even reach store shelves because they are sold on pre-order. This means that as soon as new supplies come in, they are sold out.”
This statement also raised questions from Roman Hartung: “What? So all the cards are pre-ordered and therefore not available in stores? Who pre-ordered these video cards and how can I pre-order them?” Hartung asked.
When pressed on whether the pre-order system for graphics cards is only available in the US or if the cards can be purchased in Germany as well, Weinand said: “It can also be done in Germany. I don’t know how exactly. I have not ordered graphics cards for myself for a long time, because I have some advantages [as an Nvidia employee]. It’s a question of product distribution, a question of supply chains. I don’t have any precise data on that.”
Interestingly, Weinand then contradicted himself by saying, “If I want to buy a graphics card myself, I’ll have to buy it from a brick-and-mortar retailer.” Hartung pointed this out, adding that an earlier Reddit post appeared from an alleged Nvidia employee who anonymously reported that the company does not actually offer its employees the option to buy GeForce RTX 5000 graphics cards outside of brick-and-mortar stores due to a shortage.
Citing the German price aggregator Geizhals, PCGH writes that the cost of GeForce RTX 5000 cards in stores is now significantly higher than the recommended ones. Thus, the flagship model GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition is offered at a price of 4988 euros. Custom versions of the RTX 5090 are asked from 2999 euros, and the reference and custom RTX 5080 – from 2119 and 1399 euros, respectively. The cost of the RTX 5070 Ti in custom versions starts at 969 euros, the reference RTX 5070 FE has not yet gone on sale due to a delay in production, and custom versions of this card are offered from 649 euros.
Prices for video cards in Germany. Image source: Geizhals.de
Weinand also said in an interview that Nvidia has no influence over the prices of graphics cards in stores. The exception is the reference Founders Edition, which, however, is almost never available due to their limited production. “We live in a free market economy and cannot dictate to retailers at what price they sell graphics cards,” an Nvidia representative said.
No less strange was the answer to the question about how the company would comment on criticism about the low increase in pure performance of the GeForce RTX 50-series video cards compared to their predecessors, since all the performance gains of the new cards come mainly due to new AI features such as the multi-frame generator in DLSS 4.
«“What is pure productivity and what do I do with it?” Weinand said.
This response angered Hartung so much that he decided to skip the segment of the interview where the Nvidia representative talks about DLSS technology and its benefits, noting that he did not want to waste time on “more DLSS propaganda.” Weinand added in his response that Nvidia officially believes that “Moore’s Law is dead,” and that they have reached the limits of what they can do in terms of manufacturing technology, so graphics chips are unlikely to get any bigger or faster in the traditional sense.
«”The GeForce RTX 4090 offered one of the biggest raw performance gains in the last 10-20 years. How is it that the RTX 4090 was able to deliver 60-70% more performance than the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti in just one generation, while the GeForce RTX 5090 only offers a 20-25% gain over the RTX 4090? Of course, Nvidia has no explanation here. The company itself knows that the performance jump between Ada and Blackwell was one of the smallest in GeForce history,” Hartung countered.
The interview also touched on the issue of melting 12V-2×6 power connectors on GeForce RTX 50-series graphics cards. “By and large, all the cards that have been returned to us so far have actually been faulty due to cable or power supply issues,” Weinand said. So the company is still blaming melting power connectors on others, rather than taking responsibility.
«At this point, this is just stupid. I really have to say this, but first I need to collect my thoughts. It turns out that Nvidia is only blaming the power supply and cable manufacturers for melting connectors, trying to distance itself from the whole thing. But we know that the real cause is poor electrical design of the graphics cards. Even within the 40-series, let alone the 50-series, the graphics cards do not have any mechanisms for balancing the power load. All the power contacts on the graphics card are directly connected, and this is what causes or allows the problem to occur,” says Hartung.
Image source: Der8auer
Weinand also stated that the sample size of cases of connectors melting and heating up to 150 degrees is not enough to draw any conclusions about the 12V-2×6 power connector used in the GeForce RTX 50-series graphics cards. However, this statement is contradicted by Hartung, who notes that as an engineer, he does not see any sense in Weinand’s words. According to Roman, the problem lies in the graphics cards themselves and their poor electrical design.
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Over the course of the approximately 20-minute video, Roman Hartung comments on other statements made by the Nvidia representative in the GameStar interview, giving a clear explanation to one question or another.