NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5080 24 GB might arrive sooner than expected. A new post from Board Channels' ChannelGate account claims NVIDIA is speeding up the launch, with availability now expected around January 2027 and December 2026 as the earliest option. Earlier this month, various sources relayed that the card was reportedly planned for Q1 2027. The same post says NVIDIA will stop supplying the RTX 5080 16 GB and the RTX 5090 D V2 to China, leaving the 24 GB RTX 5080 as the only flagship model in that market. The report only covers China, so there's no word yet on whether the 16 GB card is going away globally. If the January window pans out, a CES 2027 reveal seems likely, though NVIDIA hasn't confirmed anything.

Apparently, NVIDIA has already cleared out its RTX 5080 16 GB GPU inventory, and the remaining stock should last around two months. That roughly matches a leaker's claim that NVIDIA has January discontinuation dates set for the 16 GB card. The post is machine-translated, so some wording may be off. Specs are still unknown, though 24 GB on the same 256-bit bus would most likely mean 3 GB GDDR7 modules instead of 2 GB ones. Board Channels previously suggested the card could cost around 19,999 yuan (nearly $3,000) in China, while the 16 GB model already sells for close to $2,000 at U.S. retailers, double its $999 MSRP. With the memory shortage expected to get worse in 2027, it's reasonable to expect the 24 GB card to be both expensive and hard to find.