Nvidia in 2025: year in review
RTX 5000 controversies, a triumph for DLSS, and a ton of AI profits
· TechRadarFeatures By Darren Allan published 30 December 2025
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It was a big year for Nvidia with the release of an entirely new generation of gaming graphics cards, the much-anticipated Blackwell GeForce models.
Those RTX 5000 GPUs debuted with quite some teething troubles, though, and later models came unstuck around VRAM issues, too – but despite definite setbacks, Nvidia maintained its graphics card dominance. And, as you likely didn't fail to notice, the company's AI juggernaut continued on its merry way, amassing ever-more profit as its seemingly unstoppable wheels rolled onwards.
Let's break down 2025 for Nvidia looking at all the highs and the lows, before drawing a conclusion about how Team Green has fared this year – and what that might mean for the future.
Nvidia's Blackwell gaming GPUs arrived led by a mighty flagship
Nvidia began the year with the long-awaited reveal of its new generation of Blackwell desktop GPUs at CES 2025.
There were four initial models: the flagship GeForce RTX 5090, the RTX 5080, and then the RTX 5070 Ti and vanilla RTX 5070, plus Team Green also unveiled laptop versions of those graphics cards at the show, too.
The desktop gaming GPUs were first to muscle onto the scene, with the mobile variants following later in a staggered release schedule throughout the first quarter of the year. (Mostly – save for the laptop RTX 5070 which didn't pitch up until April, and the desktop version was slightly delayed, too – it was pushed back from late February to early March).
The RTX 5090 and 5080 were first out of the gate, and the new flagship GPU blew us away. We dubbed it the 'supercar of graphics cards' and noted that it was so powerful, this GPU was capable of 8K gaming (in native resolution, without DLSS, for that matter). The main point of contention was whether this Blackwell monster was too powerful for most gamers and just plain overkill, with an eye-wateringly weighty price tag attached.
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