We’re just over a week away from the RTX 4080’s release. But those looking forward to November 16th may have to prepare for disappointment, as the card is rumored to have lower stock levels than the RTX 4090. As predicted, the high price of the $1600 (MSRP) RTX 4090 didn’t stop it from selling out on nearly every retail site.
The RTX 4080 16GB has an MSRP of $1199 (you’ll pay more in Europe), so expect it to be in higher demand, but YouTube channel Moore’s Law is Dead says the anonymous retailer has confirmed that stock levels on day one will be 20-40% lower than the RTX 4090.
MLID also claims that, according to sources, retailers will receive fewer restocks of the RTX 4080 in the fourth quarter of the year compared to the RTX 4090. Presumably, the main reason behind these lower inventory levels is that NVIDIA wants to push more people to its Ampere lineup this holiday season.
The previous generation of the RTX 3000 series has been on sale lately due to its price drop and good availability. The latest Steam survey shows that the RTX 3060 gained more new users last month than any other card, with the RTX 3060 Ti, RTX 3070, 3070 Ti and 3080 all performing in the top ten. Not to mention that NVIDIA still has a lot of amps in stock, so it probably doesn’t want to offer too many people the option of paying a little more for an RTX 4080.
Top-performing graphics card among participants in last month’s Steam survey
Another issue behind the lower stock levels has to do with the 12GB version of the card. NVIDIA was originally set to launch the RTX 4080 16GB and the $900 RTX 4080 12GB together on November 16. NVIDIA decided to “kill” the cheap graphics card because it was “misnamed”, although the cries of people paying $300 more than the RTX 3070’s launch price for a next-gen version of what is essentially the same graphics card may have more to do with it. The decision to scrap the 12GB version so close to launch means there will be fewer RTX 4080 cards available.
