01-09-2025 07:21 PM - edited 01-09-2025 07:26 PM
Good day,
I was wondering if the ROG Astral LC GeForce RTX 5090 OC Edition (the Astral 5090 with the AIO liquid cooling solution) be available in the US market? I saw that it was shown off at CES 2025, and the card is shown on the main Asus website, but it is conspicuously not shown in the US side. Is this just because the product is so new and not officially announced? In other words, will be be able to order the LC version here in the US?
Asus had a very nice article on their webpage, discussing the pros and cons, and a nice comparison, between air cooled and AIO cooled versions.
And this is the card I am specifically referencing from the main Asus website.
https://rog.asus.com/graphics-cards/graphics-cards/rog-astral/rog-astral-lc-rtx5090-o32g-gaming/
I see no reason why this card will not be available here in the US, but any confirmation would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
01-14-2025 01:01 AM
I responded to a similar question on Reddit. Apologies if it's a repeat, but just over the last couple of days the retail websites have began to update with 5000 series cards. Best Buy has the FE's with prices, but that's it as of right now. Newegg has some. The ASUS US store had the 5080 OC and both RTX 5090's on the website yesterday, but I don't see them now. They are starting to appear though, and over the next week or so we will see a lot more of them, and hopefully prices as well. As for the 5090 LC's that you mentioned, I have not seen those on any store website yet, and when it does show up I expect it to only be offered directly from ASUS. I am looking as well because that's the card that I want. Second party GPU sellers like ASUS, MSI, etc. are contractually obligated to provide large retailers like Best Buy with a certain number of cards. In order to have access to that shelf space that's what they have to do. The contract says X number of 5090's, but it doesn't specify which ones. Some of the second party builders who offer hybrids like the ASUS LC's, or liquid cooled variants tend to hold onto those and sell them directly. Those cards are produced in smaller quantities and are coveted. That's what EVGA did when it was offering GPUs. Hybrid, hydro copper, kingpin.... you could only get those through EVGA, and you had to wait in a queue for months.
What did ASUS do with the previous generation hybrid and liquid cooled variant? Were they sold anywhere but the ASUS store? How hard were they to get? Does ASUS restrict purchases of these cards to one per person? Please tell me they do. I'm trying to decide if I want to hold out for a 5090 LC, or play it safe and take the first brick that I can get in my cart and run. I can always convert it later, and in that case it doesn't really matter which 5090 I end up with, but I really want the 5090 LC. I'm still burnt out from the experience of getting the 3080 hybrid that I am currently using, and after being offline for a little while I see that nothing has changed since the 2000 series launch in 2018. That's when things started to get weird. Hopefully the 5000 series launch will be easier on everyone.
4 weeks ago
The Astral LC appeared in the ASUS storefront today. All of the 5090 offerings are there now. Hopefully ASUS built more than a few of them for the launch and they will be available long enough for you to get one. I haven't seen the LC advertised anywhere else but the ASUS store, and yes, the link below is the US store. No word on prices yet.
https://www.asus.com/us/motherboards-components/graphics-cards/all-series/filter?Category=NVIDIA&Spe...
2 weeks ago
The Microcenter near me at 1 5090 OC LC yesterday for purchase but it went quickly.