NVIDIA RTX 5090 SE reportedly in the works with 384-bit bus, 32GB VRAM

NVIDIA is working on a GeForce RTX 5090 SE, according to GameGPU. The card would sit between the RTX 5080 and the flagship RTX 5090, using the same GB202 chip but with fewer streaming multiprocessors and a 384-bit memory interface instead of the full 512-bit bus on the 5090. It keeps the 32GB GDDR7 capacity.

This isn't a regional compliance SKU like the RTX 5090D variants sold in China. It's a mainline product, likely aimed at people who want more VRAM than the 5080's 16GB but don't need the full horsepower of a 5090. The narrower bus will cut bandwidth, which matters for 4K with ray tracing, but 32GB gives you headroom for high-res texture packs and heavily modded games that choke 16GB cards.

The 5090 SE makes sense if NVIDIA wants to own the $1,200–$1,400 bracket without cannibalizing the flagship. The 5080 already struggles to justify its price against the previous-gen 4090 in some benchmarks; a 5090 SE with double the VRAM could be the better pick for anyone planning to keep a card through 2028.

If you're weighing an upgrade, wait for the benchmarks. Check what your current rig scores at BetterFPS and see if your CPU can feed a card this powerful — a 5090 SE will expose bottlenecks fast.