Nvidia Tests RTX 4090 Priority Access Program and ‘Runs’ 12GB RTX 4080

What happened now? As much as the RTX 4090 costs, it’s already sold out and is selling at a hefty markup on eBay. So, Nvidia is testing a new redundancy system to help customers who are interested in its latest flagship GPU and have the money. The company is also rethinking the launch of its current low-end 40-series model.

Nvidia employee confirmed The company is testing a program this week to directly connect a select number of gamers and content creators to RTX 4090 purchase options. Nvidia could use the idea to make it easier to launch future products if it works well.

The trial, called “Verified Priority Access”, will notify certain users through the Nvidia GeForce Experience app. Notifications contain unique URLs leading to reserved versions of the 4090 Founders Edition from third party retailers, depending on the region. The program currently operates through Best Buy in the US, Scan in the UK, NBB in Germany and the Netherlands, and LDLC in France, Italy and Spain.

Confirmed Priority Access sounds similar to the EVGA Elite Priority Access program, which allows EVGA Members to order new hardware one day earlier than other customers. However, while EVGA’s warranty covers customers who purchase certain hardware from its store or interact with its community, Nvidia doesn’t appear to have any conditions on its program other than downloading GeForce Experience.

The Early Access Guarantee may be a new ploy to convince Nvidia GPU users to download GeForce Experience, something some have been opposing. The app is useful for easily downloading the latest graphics drivers, but requires a login, which many users find unnecessary for this simple feature.

For now, users who don’t want to wait in the booking engine may have to contend with eBay’s inflation, which is already adding more than $1,000 to the 4090’s MSRP of $1,600. Most of the listings on the site range from $2,200 to $2,800, but some are over $4,000. According to PC Mag, even in today’s post-crypto mining market, at least dozens of customers are already paid those prices.

Meanwhile, this week Nvidia also announced it’s a “launch” of the 12GB RTX 4080 due to a name the company has called confusing. Nvidia introduced the 4000 series with the 4090, as well as 16GB and 12GB variants of the 4080, but VRAM isn’t the only difference between the two. The varying number of CUDA cores has led many to accuse the 12GB 4080 of being a $900 4070 in disguise, suggesting an 80 percent price increase over the 3070 that launched at $500 in 2020.

MSRPs of $900 and $1200 for the 4080 models – a significant increase from the 3080’s $700 starting price – are perhaps the most controversial aspect of the 40 Series launch. Nvidia boss Jensen Huang justified the raise by declaring Moore’s law dead, as he had done several times before. It’s hard to say how long we can expect price cuts to accompany die cuts, but one sign this year could be AMD’s pricing of competing RDNA 3 GPUs when they launch in November and how Nvidia reacts.