RTX 5080 24GB release date: wait for it, or buy a 16GB card now?

According to the ChannelGate post, the 24GB RTX 5080 is expected in Chinese stores around January, with December the earliest possible date. Earlier reports had placed the card in the first quarter of 2027, so this would be a slight speed-up.

The same post says Nvidia will stop supplying two cards in China, the RTX 5080 16GB and the China-only RTX 5090 D V2, leaving the 24GB RTX 5080 as the only flagship there. It claims Nvidia has already cleared its GPU inventory for the 16GB model, and that remaining stock should last stores about two months, roughly until the new card shows up.

If the timing holds, a January debut would line up with CES 2027, the big tech show where Nvidia often announces new hardware. But no event announcement has been made, and the report doesn’t mention a global rollout.

Very little is confirmed. Here is what the reports suggest:

• Memory: 24GB of GDDR7, which is 50% more than today’s 16GB RTX 5080.
• How: the current card uses eight 2GB memory chips. Swapping to 3GB chips would get to 24GB without redesigning the board.
• Name: rumors have linked a 24GB card to an RTX 5080 Super, but the latest report doesn’t use that name.
• Performance: unknown. Nvidia hasn’t said whether clock speeds or power limits change.

That last point matters. Extra video memory helps when a job needs more than 16GB, such as very high-resolution textures or running AI models locally. It doesn’t, on its own, make games run much faster. If the 24GB card is just a memory bump, most gamers won’t see a big jump in frame rates.

The leak arrived just after the RTX 5080 dropped out of Nvidia’s GeForce Marketplace, following the RTX 5090, which disappeared earlier in the month. That fueled talk that the card was being discontinued.

Nvidia says it isn’t. A spokesperson said the card can still be bought, although certain countries may run dry, pointing to supply constraints that senior vice president Jeff Fisher had already described. Nvidia also confirmed earlier that RTX 5090 production continues, so a card missing from its store isn’t the same as a card being killed.

The supply crunch comes from memory. Graphics cards carry a lot of fast memory, and memory chip prices have soared as AI data centers buy up supply. Samsung, which makes most of Nvidia’s graphics memory, has warned that the shortage is expected to get worse in 2027.

The 24GB RTX 5080 isn’t a new idea. Leakers have talked about a Super refresh of Nvidia’s top RTX 50 cards for more than a year, with bigger memory on the RTX 5080, RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5070. Those plans reportedly stalled in February because of the RAM shortage, and nothing has launched.

What’s different now is that the new report names a single card and a specific market. Only the RTX 5080 is mentioned, and only for China. That could mean Nvidia is trimming its plans to the one card it most needs to replace, or simply that the leak only covers one product line.

Nvidia hasn’t announced a price, and you should treat any figure as a guess. Separate estimates have put the 24GB card around $2,000, but that is speculation. What we do know is what today’s cards cost:

• RTX 5080 16GB: launched at $999. The cheapest listing found recently was $1,899 at Newegg, while Micro Center’s cheapest was $1,979, for in-store pickup only.
• RTX 5070 Ti: launched at $749 in 2025 and now costs at least $1,299 on Nvidia’s store, more than the RTX 5080’s original price.
• RTX 5070: up from $549 at launch to at least $849.

With more memory on board and memory prices still climbing, it would be a surprise if a 24GB RTX 5080 came in cheaper than the current card’s street price.

It depends on what you need and when. Here is a simple way to decide:

• You need a card this year: don’t count on the 24GB model. It may launch only in China first, and prices could be higher still. Buy what fits your budget now.
• You run local AI or heavy creative work: 24GB could genuinely help, so waiting until CES 2027 for official news makes sense.
• You mostly play games: extra memory alone won’t add much speed, so the 24GB card may not be worth a premium. A step-down card like the RTX 5070 Ti may be the better value, even at today’s inflated prices.
• You’re tempted by $1,899 listings: that’s nearly twice the launch price. If you can wait a few months, prices or availability may shift once Nvidia confirms its plans.