Lousy RTX 4080 sales allegedly prompting Nvidia to constrict RTX 4090 stock to push people towards the US$1,200 offering
We reported previously that the RTX 4090 sales were allegedly slowing down. The report came to us via Moore’s Law Is Dead. The leaker now suggests that Nvidia might be strangling the RTX 4090 supply to stimulate the RTX 4080 GPU sales which, per the leaker, are not well.
Calling the RTX 4080 “the last card in the Lovelace lineup that anybody wants”, the leaker maintains that Nvidia is tightening the RTX 4090 supply according to his sources. One AIB source mentioned to Tom that Nvidia won’t be supplying a healthy number of RTX 4090s “until the existing RTX 4080 stock dries up”. The decision of limiting the RTX 4090 stock has been made to make people choose the RTX 4080 instead of the RTX 4090.
Another source informed Tom that the RTX 4090 supply has been limited after the launch week. Interestingly, the US$6,999 RTX 6000 workstation GPU appears to be in ample supply. Finally, another of Tom’s sources claimed that they can get the RTX 6000 Ada cards for less than US$3,800 a piece if they order two or more GPUs.
So, are the sales of the RTX 4080 as bad as MLID suggests? It appears to be the case as one quick search on Newegg reveals a lot of RTX 4080 GPUs that are in stock for slightly above MSRP. For instance, there are at least seven different brand-new RTX 4080 models below or at US$1,300 available for purchase on the site at the time of writing.
The same is the case on Amazon where the cheapest RTX 4080 on offer, the ZOTAC Gaming Trinity OC model, costs US$1,219 at the time of writing.
Put simply, if MLID’s latest leak is true, the RTX 4090 may be harder to find at reasonable prices in the coming days, while there could be plenty of RTX 4080 GPUs sitting on store shelves. As always, these are unconfirmed reports, so take these with a dose of skepticism.