The situation with the launch of the GeForce RTX 5000 video cards looks tragic or comical, how to see. It seems that only a small number of people around the world were able to get these video cards on the day of the start of sales, and there are hardly gamers among them. It is very likely that a considerable part of the accelerators went to resellers with fast bots to automatically buy goods.
Image source: VideoCardz
Earlier it was reported that in Japan some retailers decided to organize the sale of video cards GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 through the lottery, the winners of which will be given the right to buy an accelerator. Local shops often resort to such practice in order to isolate themselves from the dealers and provide everyone with the same chance to purchase scarce products. The lottery rules are simple: participants whose lottery tickets will be selected during random selection will be able to purchase a new video card. One in hand. Although this approach can hardly be called a solution to the problem with the deficit, at least some participants in the draw will not leave empty -handed.
According to Japanese media, one of these draws was held by the local PC KUBOUs store. The event ended with a real chaos. Near the store a huge queue and a crush quickly formed. There were so many people that the fence was damaged near the kindergarten store (photo from above). The lottery itself ended as quickly as it began. Many visitors did not even have time to come to its beginning, which led to disappointment among those who wanted to take part and riots at the place of the event.
«The PC Koubou Parts Hall store began accepting applications for participating in the purchase of RTX 5090, but at the moment the situation is more like chaos. Angry screams are heard from the crowd. Some people even climbed over the fence of the kindergarten in the neighborhood, ”writes the user @sarasteam0151.
The queue of the Japanese store PC KUBOU. Image source: x / @sarasteam0151
Some retailers are not at all sure that they will receive video cards on the day of the start of sales. For example, the Swedish Inet said in advance that at the time of the official start of sales of RTX 5090 sales, he might not have it. The company was waiting for the news from the supplier and stated that if there were any deliveries, then these are “some units that would be sold immediately.” The store received the RTX 5080 models of several manufacturers, but expected that they would also be sold very quickly.
Message inet. Image source: Reddit
One of the Reddit forum users compiled a list of stores in the American retail chain of Micro Center electronics, which should have been deliveries of the GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 video cards.
Image source: Reddit
If you believe this information, only 233 GEFORCE RTX 5090 and 2393 units RTX 5080 were delivered to all outlets in the United States of this network. This is even difficult to call a “paper” launch. Next to one such store in the city of Tastin, the state of California, a queue of more than 300 people gathered. Many of them came here a few days before the start of sales and set up a tent camp.
The line of tents at Micro Center in Tastin, California, USA. Image source: Reddit
It is not clear why NVIDIA was not prepared to launch new video cards better if the huge demand for them was obvious even in conditions of price inflation. The announcement of nothing adjusted and NVIDIA could well wait with the launch so that its partners could accumulate the reserves of these video cards. But the launch took place, so customers will now have to stock up on and wait for new parties.