The situation surrounding the RTX 5090 continues to get more confusing. Recent reports have suggested that Nvidia may be winding down its flagship gaming GPU, especially as stock becomes increasingly difficult to find and prices increase. Nvidia, however, has pushed back against those claims and maintains that the RTX 5090 has not been discontinued. But new information from one of Nvidia’s board partners suggests that something has changed behind the scenes, at the very least.

German overclocker and YouTuber der8auer recently investigated the RTX 5090 supply situation and contacted Nvidia about the discontinuation rumors. Nvidia reportedly told him that the card has “definitely” not been discontinued and blamed the limited availability on supply-chain constraints.

However, an unnamed Nvidia board partner provided a different perspective. According to the AIB, Nvidia hasn’t officially informed partners that the RTX 5090 has reached end-of-life. At the same time, the company is reportedly no longer able to order the GB202 GPU alongside the 32GB of GDDR7 memory needed to manufacture new RTX 5090 graphics cards.

GPU partners reportedly can’t place RTX 5090 orders

More importantly, the partner reportedly can’t even place a backorder. The AIB explained that shortages have happened before, but Nvidia previously allowed orders to remain in the system so they could eventually be fulfilled once components became available. That apparently isn’t happening with the RTX 5090 right now, and the partner doesn’t know whether ordering will reopen in the future.

There are also signs of declining activity elsewhere in the supply chain. An unnamed cooler manufacturer reportedly said two of its partners have significantly reduced their forecasts for RTX 5090 heatsinks for Q1 2027 compared with Q3 2026. So far, it hasn’t received any RTX 5090 heatsink orders for Q2 2027 either.

It’s important to keep in mind that none of this confirms that Nvidia has officially discontinued the RTX 5090. The company itself says otherwise, and temporary supply restrictions could still explain why board partners aren’t able to place new orders. Still, the inability to order new GPU and memory sets, combined with reduced orders for heatsinks and extremely limited retail availability, adds more weight to the rumors surrounding the card’s future.

About the Author

Abdul Haddi

Abdul is a tech writer and Editor for PC Guide, specializing in all things tech, gaming, and hardware.