Unaffordable GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3090 cards become the new norm as shopper gets brutally shut out by cashier

It’s been a rough year for gamers and PC builders who want a top GeForce RTX 30 series card at a reasonable price. Prices for cards such as the RTX 3070 and RTX 3080 have soared throughout 2021, and even the much newer RTX 3080 Ti (June 2021) has not been immune to the turbulent state of the market. Redditor u/NepomukYoutube enquired about the price tags for GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3090 cards (Asus and MSI variants) and was greeted with the contentious reply of “it’s not affordable”.

While this could be a one-off experience for the original poster with a somewhat surly staff member, sharing the comment and a photo of shelves packed with goodies from both Nvidia and AMD has led to quite a furor from fellow gamers or would-be GPU buyers. Although some have joked that the OP had simply been profiled as not having enough money to buy one of the cards, the fact is that this sort of judgmental comment by the cashier would almost be expected to be overheard in a store selling ludicrously expensive designer clothes or diamond-studded necklaces but not in an outlet stocking computer hardware.

Quite a few redditors and the OP have even shared some of the asking prices they have witnessed for various graphics cards. The poster claimed a GeForce RTX 3080 card was around €1,300 (about US$1,471; launch price was US$699) while another person added they had seen a price tag of AUD$4,200 (US$3,046) for a GeForce RTX 3090 board (launch price US$1,499). An RTX 3080 Ti was picked up by a redditor for AUD$2,800 (US$2,031; launch price US$1,199) while an RTX 3070 Ti cost another poster US$1,050 (launch price US$599). Clearly, double or triple the launch prices for these cards are becoming the new norm.

Obviously, there is plenty of context missing from the inflammatory exchange, and it is questionable whether the boxes in the accompanying photo (see below) even have anything inside them or not. However, the incident does show that premium graphics cards from either the Nvidia GeForce RTX 30 series or the AMD Radeon RX 6000 series have now apparently joined Rolex watches and Hermès bags as luxury goods that shop staff will look a customer over Pretty Woman-style before offering to assist with a purchase.

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