honestly if youre looking for reliability i would just stick with any of the cards from asus because they usually have better cooling and power delivery setups even if they cost a bit more up front. its definitely safer than gambling on a random brand u dont recognize. check out micro center if you have one nearby since they actually try to verify real people to stop the bots. i wouldnt ever buy from those third party sellers on big sites tho... way too risky and the prices are just insane right now. basically just be patient and wait for a restock from a legit place so you dont get burned.

Just catching up on the discussion. Like someone mentioned, the Founders Edition has some reported issues, but I have found that most of those are easily avoided with proper cable seating and a good PSU. Still, I am much more satisfied with the custom partner cards this year. I have been testing the MSI GeForce RTX 5090 SUPRIM X 32GB and it has been flawless. The noise profile is significantly better than the reference design, and it feels much more substantial. If you want something even cooler, the Gigabyte Aorus GeForce RTX 5090 Master is a great pick. It is massive, but the thermals are the best I have seen so far. I actually disagree that finding stock is impossible right now. If you move away from the ASUS and FE hype, these two models actually pop up fairly often on Newegg or B&H. They are a bit pricier than MSRP, but the peace of mind with the better cooling is worth it imo. Both have worked well for my workstation setup with no complaints and it honestly just takes a little persistence with the stock trackers.

So honestly finding the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 at MSRP is basically a full-time job right now since scalpers are hitting the major retailers so hard and the price-to-performance ratio is already pretty steep so u dont want to overpay. Before I give u more tips what is ur actual hard budget for this build because if ur not trying to pay a massive premium you really need to be camping the Best Buy drops or using the Newegg notification system instead of just checking randomly. Are u looking for a specific AIB card for overclocking or just the base FE model to save some cash??? Basically ur best bet is setting up a stock tracker like Distill.io or joining a dedicated stock alert Discord because that's how most of us are snagging them at base price without getting ripped off!!!

Unfortunately, finding any stock at MSRP is basically impossible right now. I've been looking for weeks and it's been a total letdown. I really wanted the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition because I usually trust the first-party build quality, but honestly, the reports of cable melting and high temps make it feel not as good as expected for the price. The ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 5090 is the other one I tracked. It has way better cooling and is probably more reliable long-term, but it's so huge you basically need a support bracket just to keep it from breaking your PCIe slot. It's also way overpriced compared to the base model. If you aren't checking B&H or Newegg every ten minutes, you're gonna miss out tho. Just feels like a mess for anyone who just wants a card that works without the drama.

At Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=RTX+5090&t=t=7649-20