Recently TechPowerUp conducted a poll asking its readers what price they thought NVIDIA’s latest Ada graphics card should be. The question comes as some have stated the GeForce RTX 4080 seems a bit overpriced in comparison to the GeForce RTX 4090 whose MSRP is $1,599 vs $1,199 for the GeForce RTX 4080. The poll results showed over 11,000 respondents with 22% of them saying that $800 is the best price but $700 was neck and neck with that. Those two prices represent nearly half of the respondents at 44%. Next up, at 14%, was $600, which although would be nice, it would be quite bizarre to see such a card with such gains drop in price vs its namesake predecessor. After that, there was another near-equal spectrum on either side of those who thought either $900 or $500 was fine but more than a few, 13%, had wishful thinking in responding that they’d like to see it priced at $400.
Naming strategy to blame?
The previous RTX 3080 had an MSRP of $699, and for the lucky few who were able to obtain one at its release, it was considered a great value. However, the 3080 Ti that succeeded it had an MSRP of $1,199 which matches the price of the RTX 4080. The RTX 4080 showed as much as a forty-two percent performance increase in some games at 4K over it, and then in another test, it showed nearly double that of the RTX 3080. These results almost suggest that it should’ve been named the RTX 4080 Ti instead. NVIDIA has already encountered naming issues with its latest x80 cards resulting in what many believe to be the RTX 4080 12 GB getting rebranded as the upcoming RTX 4070 Ti. Factors involving die specs, VRAM, and bus speeds also play factors in naming but it appears the technology for the current Ada generation of cards is making things more difficult for NVIDIA’s marketing team.
MSRP vs. “sellers”
All of this does create some interesting points for the pricing strategy of NVIDIA but regardless of the poll results, or MSRP, it also brings up the recurring issue of availability. NVIDIA has reportedly only shipped 30,000 of the Geforce RTX 4080 vs 100,000 of the GeForce RTX 4090. For those lucky enough to get an FE card the price may not be as much of a financial sticking point but looking online and “sellers” are still able to get upwards of $1500-$2000 for their offerings while the RTX 4090 is often upwards twice or more over its MSRP. Clearly, at the end of the day, MSRP may not matter much as long as “sellers” are able to move them at such prices and this has been an ongoing matter long since before the pandemic ever happened when the GTX 1080 Ti reached more than double its price just prior to the launch of the RTX 2080 Ti.
Discussion (19 replies)
Join Discussion →Imagine that.
If they had just named the the 4080 to 4090 and the 4090 to 4090Ti - everyone would have been overjoyed. Yeah, there still would have been a stink about the -whatever you call it- 4070Ti / 4080 being on a different die whereas x80 is as always a cut down whatever - but so long as the performance and price were in line it wouldn’t have mattered.
I think nVidia screwed this release up. They got the tech right and almost everything else wrong so far. Granted, it will probably still outsell AMD 4-1 and just prove that customers will take whatever you shovel their way.
We'll see - the 4090s went from release to unobtanium in true Nvidia fashion, but the 4080s lingered more than anyone really expected - and also as predicted.
I agree. The more I thought about it the more I started to believe the naming strategy is an issue. However, thanks to scalpers they sell out no matter what but the stink about the price is relative to what something is called. Imagine the uproar if a Ford Mustang was branded as some kind of fancy Taurus and then priced as a premium Mustang.
I'm not saying that any of these MSRPs are great, just that in looking back at the previous three gens there's more to consider than just the price. When one x80 has nearly double the perf of the previous, along with the price it is odd, that the two would share the same name. For some time the generational uptick was barely 25%-30% so seeing double is strange. Things have definitely gotten complicated for NVIDIA though. They got rid of the Titan, introduced Super and then skipped it, and brought back the x90 line since the first RTX cards arrived. It almost seems like the marketing team is being left out on release schedules and has to make it up as they go.
At this point I just wish anything was only MSRP here in europe.
Too true but online the 4080s have mostly evaporated in terms of MSRP. I checked BB this morning and all were sold out and Amazon only had it's marked-up sellers.
I kind of want a 4090 but I am too old to have the patience to stand in a line and deal with people over it.
Wake me when I can just walk in off the street and buy one sitting in retail inventory with no needed extraordinary measures.
I'm just not doing the fake scarcity bullshit anymore. If that means I'll never have a high end system again, so be it.
I'm done with this bullshit.
I'm feeling somewhat the same. People shouldn't have to wait years for something to become available and watching the insanity of inventory management for multiple past gens just to get things off the self is too much. I had no intention of getting a 4090 since I'm happy with my 3090 Ti and if it wasn't for the great folks at EVGA I wouldn't have even been able to get it, but I was looking forward to what came next. However, that could be a year or more down the road, and then, with the way things are it could be a year or two before I could snag one from someone who isn't scalping. It's just too much.
I kind of like the pace that watercooling necessitates. Have to have a card and a block available, and then have to be prepared to adjust the loop for the new component.
As such, either you're prepared to pay and play at release, or you're able to be more strategic, or just patient.
Yep, the Hybrid 3090 Ti got me there. Factory OC and I'm still able to take it further. It really is a beast.
Corvette about to be a “brand” with sedans and SUVs.
And let’s talk about Mach E
It always chaps my a$$ when we, the consumers, can't get something. And then we watch J2C or GN with stacks of said product. "oh, you can't get RTX-Whatever? Well, I'm going to try 4 of them in SLI!" ...... really want to reach through the monitor and choke someone.
I don't even want one of these cards, but I do have a confession to make: this holiday season, I hope to hear of many "unfortunate" accidents in which scalpers are liberated of their inventory by means of a bus or other large vehicle traveling at high speed, and that the spoils find their way to more deserving individuals. ? Nothing of value would be lost.
I have to laugh and be sad about this. I know that @David_Schroth has largely spent out-of-pocket for the cards reviewed here because he rarely gets any samples (but a couple of recent miracles did happen).
I would really like a 4080. I don't need all the extra horse power the 4090 has. That being said, for a few hundred bucks the 4090 is the way to go given the performance jump. So, I'm just going to wait. It will give me time to rearrange my case and watercooling loop to accomidate the size of the card.
I too am very tired of the no stock, artificial shortage nonsense......
I'm trying to picture this series of events in my head, and it isn't quite working. :p