NVIDIA 50 Series: The Worst Launch I’ve Seen (And I Trusted Them)

“I believed in NVIDIA… until the 50 series dropped.”

When Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, announced the new 50 series GPUs, I was hyped. He claimed the RTX 5070 would outperform the 4090, the previous-gen flagship. Big talk. And honestly, I bought into it — even though I wasn’t upgrading anytime soon.

But as real benchmarks rolled out, it became clear: something was off.

Performance Letdown: 5070 vs 4090

When the 5070 benchmarks came out, the reality hit hard:

• RTX 4090 is 57% faster than 5070
• Compare that to:
  • 3090 → 4070 = only 11% gap
  • 2080Ti → 3070 = 4% gap

This was unheard of — a new mid-tier GPU trailing its prior-gen flagship by that much?

The 5080 Money Trap

Then came the 5080 — with a $999 MSRP, and a spec sheet that felt intentionally underpowered. Almost like NVIDIA wanted to push people toward the $2000 RTX 5090 instead.

The catch? Hardly anyone could even find one at MSRP.
Retailers received only a few units, and scalpers pounced.

Prices surged across the 40 series as well. It was a mess.

Melting Power Connectors (Yes, Really)

On top of that, the 5090’s power connector was reportedly melting due to power draw issues.

How is this even real in 2025?

Follow the Money: It’s Not About Gaming Anymore

Let’s talk revenue.

• Gaming makes up only 12.96% of NVIDIA’s income
• Meanwhile, 83.26% comes from the AI market

So yeah, even if we gamers are mad, it barely matters to NVIDIA’s bottom line. And that’s the problem.

Final Thoughts

I used to trust NVIDIA to bring the best to gamers.
Now it feels like we’re an afterthought — just another market share.

The 50 series launch?
A shiny reminder that sometimes, hype is just hype.

“Still love GPUs. Still love games. But I don’t love this launch.”