Those hoping to beat the bots have another chance as NVIDIA launches its “Verified Priority Access” program. It was yet another disappointing graphics card launch when many PC owners worldwide saw NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 graphics cards disappear from their carts before being able to complete their purchase. This phenomenon has been repeating since the release of the GeForce RTX 30 series. Despite supply quantities, it is largely due to scalpers and their bots, which manage to assimilate inventory faster than a Borg cube descending upon a defenseless space colony.
Even as NVIDIA launches its “Verified Priority Access” program it is not the first to do so. EVGA famously launched its Step Up queue system, Newegg has had its Newegg Shuffle program, Zotac has its lottery-style program via its Discord channel, and other online retailers who have implemented their own strategies, all in an attempt to curb scalpers from obtaining often scarce inventory. NVIDIA’s program enrollment requirements and process are fairly simple. Users must have an account created prior to the launch of the RTX 50 series on January 30th, be a U.S. resident (for now), and pick either an RTX 5090 or RTX 5080 Founders Edition.
Per NVIDIA Forums:
We know it’s challenging to purchase a GeForce RTX 50 Series graphics card. Today we’re introducing Verified Priority Access for the GeForce RTX 50 Series. It will give a limited number of verified GeForce gamers & creators in the United States the opportunity to purchase one GeForce RTX 5090 or RTX 5080 Founders Edition graphics card from the NVIDIA Marketplace.
Users who have an NVIDIA Account created on or before January 30th, 2025 at 6AM Pacific Time can submit their interest for Verified Priority Access through this form.
If selected, users will be notified at the email address of the NVIDIA account they enrolled with. Invites will begin rolling out next week.
At this time, Verified Priority Access is limited to GeForce users in the United States, and to GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 Founders Edition graphics cards.”