NVIDIA Claims RTX 50 Sales Are Double the RTX 40 at Launch, But the Comparison Sparks Doubts

NVIDIA has recently shared a graph showing that it has shipped twice as many RTX 50 series GPUs compared to the RTX 40 series during their launch periods. The company presented this data amidst criticism regarding the availability of its products, which are often being sold at much higher prices than the official retail price due to limited stock.

NVIDIA seems to suggest that its new RTX 50 series cards are highly successful and that their limited availability could be due to high demand. However, the comparison with the RTX 40 series shipments raises some doubts.

Comparing the Launch Periods of RTX 50 and RTX 40

The image NVIDIA shared compares the first five weeks of the RTX 50 series with the first five weeks of the RTX 40 series. However, this comparison is quite misleading since, during the first five weeks of the RTX 40 launch, only the RTX 4090 was available for purchase. In contrast, the RTX 50 series launched with two models – the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 – both available on January 30.

The RTX 40 series launched on October 12, 2022, with just the RTX 4090, which remained the only available model until November 16 – thus only the RTX 4090 was available for the first five weeks.

Another important factor to consider is that by the time the RTX 4090 was released, there were already more models from the previous RTX 30 series available in stores. This wasn’t the case when the RTX 50 series launched, as only a few models from the RTX 40 series were on offer. This makes the comparison between the two series even more questionable.

DLSS: A Key Selling Point for RTX 50 Cards

NVIDIA has increasingly promoted its exclusive technologies, focusing not just on hardware power but on features such as DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling). The company claims that 92% of RTX 50 users have DLSS enabled, and 96% are using its Reflex technology. Furthermore, 90% of users have ray tracing activated on their systems.

NVIDIA also highlighted that more than 100 games now support DLSS 4 specifically, and more titles are expected to support this technology in the future.