Nvidia RTX 4080 set to sell out on day one, with even less stock than RTX 4090
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The Nvidia RTX 4080 16GB will go on sale on November 16, and it has every chance of getting one of the best graphics cards money can buy. Good luck getting one: according to YouTuber and hardware leaker Moore’s law is dead (opens in new tab)the stock situation for the new GPU looks pretty dire.
The flagship RTX 4090 sold out almost immediately when it hit retailers in October, and a new video (opens in new tab) from MLID has claimed that anonymous retailers have confirmed that the first day RTX 4080 stock will be between 20-40% less than that of the RTX 4090.
It’s rumored there’ll still be quite a few cards for a non-flagship GPU launch, but there’s another kicker in the video: MLID adds retailers expect fewer restocks than usual in Q4 2022 , less than for the 4090.
The obvious reason for the lower RTX 4080 stock is that Nvidia wants to encourage consumers to buy older Ampere-series RTX 3000 GPUs. These still seem readily available (after the months of scalping and scams that followed Ampere’s launch), and Nvidia no doubt wants to clear out its old stash before committing fully to the new Lovelace series of cards.
Analysis: Nvidia is cunning with its GPU offering
This isn’t an entirely surprising twist, and some gamers might even benefit from it: with black friday fast approaching, many will be looking to upgrade their GPU, and we could see some great deals on graphics cards in the coming weeks.
The Ampere cards (especially the excellent mids) RTX 3060 Ti) are still solid choices if you’re running an older GTX GPU and want a little more graphical look to your PC – so if you’re looking for a cheap graphics cardBlack Friday could be the time to grab one.
Of course, another reason the RTX 4080 is reportedly languishing with lower launch stocks is likely Nvidia’s sudden cancellation of the 4080 12GB, which it admitted was “misnamed”. We were actually relieved to see Team Green have changed their mind about the less powerful 12GB model, but it probably resulted in fewer 4080 cards available for the initial release.
Nvidia is still confused over claims that the high-end RTX 4090 is actually a fire hazard due to power adapter issues, and the GPU giant hasn’t released a statement about the issue yet. According to an special Reddit mega thread (opens in new tab), 20 cases have been reported in the past two weeks. We sincerely hope that the RTX 4080 does not share these thermal issues.