Poll Results Show $700–$800 as the Ideal Price for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080

[LazyGamer]

It can't be as nobody expected AND as it was predicted. Maybe more than anyone in Nvidia expected and as everyone else predicted?

Yeah, the perspectives got lost in the simplification there - more, most industry followers were predicting that Nvidia would price the 4000-series to clear out 3000-series inventory, with the 4090 at US$1600 being priced too low to stay in stock - while most consumers expected the 4090's to disappear from retail as soon as they were listed.

I'll add that, from Nvidia's corporate perspective, with 4090s currently sold out, 4080s having been relatively available, and all selling well above MSRP, everything is going according to plan.

I mean, listen to us - the 4090 at US$1600 is a good deal!

 

[Zarathustra]

I'll add that, from Nvidia's corporate perspective, with 4090s currently sold out, 4080s having been relatively available, and all selling well above MSRP, everything is going according to plan.

I thought the story was that 4080's were sitting in inventory unsold because no one wanted them?

I mean, listen to us - the 4090 at US$1600 is a good deal!

Crazy what happens with insufficient competition, huh?

The market is fundamentally broken.

 

[LazyGamer]

It will give me time to rearrange my case and watercooling loop to accomidate the size of the card.
I too am very tired of the no stock, artificial shortage nonsense......

Hey, just bribe a Best Buy employee for an FE card, then you can downsize to an SFF!

[joking, but also not - plenty of examples where folks put 3090 FE cards in SFFs under water]

 

[LazyGamer]

I thought the story was that 4080's were sitting in inventory unsold because no one wanted them?

4080s didn't sell like the 4090s, but they're moving because they're still the second-best card you can get. Also, for those that aren't bothered by the size of the cards, since most OEMs just copied and pasted from the 4090s (as well as Nvidia!), the coolers are so overbuilt that they run quiet even when pushed.

Crazy what happens with insufficient competition, huh?

The market is fundamentally broken.

I think it's working just fine, but not necessarily in consumers' favor. If we take this slice of time between the initial 4000-series releases and AMDs 7000-series releases, yeah, it looks broken, and that should also change once AMD GPUs hit.

 

[Zarathustra]

I think it's working just fine, but not necessarily in consumers' favor.

That is the exact symptom of a broken market.

When everything is working normally and how they are supposed to, the economy is supposed to favor the consumer.

Competition leads to price wars and product advancement making products better and cheaper, and the consumer benefits.

When a market is broken it allows entities other than consumers to manipulate it in their favor.

A functioning market maximizes benefit to the consumer. A market that maximizes benefit to anyone else is a broken market.

 

[LazyGamer]

[joking, but also not - plenty of examples where folks put 3090 FE cards in SFFs under water]

@Paul_Johnson: see here

https://www.reddit.com/r/watercooling/comments/z8t0ip

Little box on the left has a 3090. Almost certainly FE. Also, I want that external rad...

 

[LazyGamer]

That is the exact symptom of a broken market.

When everything is working normally and how they are supposed to, the economy is supposed to favor the consumer.

Competition leads to price wars and product advancement making products better and cheaper, and the consumer benefits.

When a market is broken it allows entities other than consumers to manipulate it in their favor.

A functioning market maximizes benefit to the consumer. A market that maximizes benefit to anyone else is a broken market.

I agree on the theory - just have to point out that no entity is required to participate in the market. Presumably, it'd be in their (say Nvidia's) best interest to do so, and it is; they do however get a say in how they participate. Nvidia isn't obligated to say supply enough 4090s that there's surplus retail inventory. They're not obligated to sell the 4080 at US$800 either.

Keep in mind that while this leaves some consumers out, Nvidia is missing out on sales too - purposefully. Two entities, manufacturer and consumer, are dancing this tango. It only gets interesting when Team Red jumps in!

 

[Denpepe]

Yeah, the perspectives got lost in the simplification there - more, most industry followers were predicting that Nvidia would price the 4000-series to clear out 3000-series inventory, with the 4090 at US$1600 being priced too low to stay in stock - while most consumers expected the 4090's to disappear from retail as soon as they were listed.

I'll add that, from Nvidia's corporate perspective, with 4090s currently sold out, 4080s having been relatively available, and all selling well above MSRP, everything is going according to plan.

I mean, listen to us - the 4090 at US$1600 is a good deal!

Nvidia's plan seems to be working because some cards that were in stock of the 3000 series for over a year are starting to vanish here, they were/are still way overpriced compared to the MSRP but they did come down abit. Still the 4080 needs to come a lot closer to the 1000€ mark for me to even consider to get one.

I'm starting to think that the 3000 series prices stay so high in Europe is maybe a bit less due to the store's greed then I thought and a bit more due to inflation, just that the brands ommited to communicate that to put the "blame" on the miners and shops but who knows.

 

[Brian_B]

When everything is working normally and how they are supposed to, the economy is supposed to favor the consumer.

Is it?

Pretty sure capitalism, in it's pure form, is supposed to try to strike a balance. If you lean too far towards pro-consumer, the industry suffers and they start to go under. If you lean too far pro-industry, the consumer suffers and they stop consuming. Ideally, they will reach some equilibrium based on supply and demand.

It's when something puts it's hand on the scale to prevent that equilibrium from being achieved. A monopoly, or near monopoly, is one way that has been abused in the past.

I would say, LazyGamer has a point, we are looking at it in one slice of time here, and you can't really do that: you have to give time for the market to make adjustments.

That said, Zath also has a point -- we are following covid and a mining boom, and we don't have a very healthy market when one company has nearly 80% market share - so there is a decent slice of time that has existed where things have been out of whack. And you can easily point to the most recent generations past where nVidia has a history of ratcheting prices up, and with no effective competition to check on that, consumers either swallow it, or do without.

I'm hoping it does correct and we see ... if not a lowering of prices, at least the return of affordable SKUs and the lower-mid tier marketplace. The entire market niche below about $300 is just being largely ignored right now. We have a few cards that are now selling at those price points due to discounts and such, but no one is catering to that market, and it's the largest market for aftermarket cards that exists.

My totally anecdotal proof: The 1060 is still the #1 card on Steam Hardware Survey: a GPU coming up on 7 years old.

 

[Zarathustra]

I agree on the theory - just have to point out that no entity is required to participate in the market. Presumably, it'd be in their (say Nvidia's) best interest to do so, and it is; they do however get a say in how they participate. Nvidia isn't obligated to say supply enough 4090s that there's surplus retail inventory. They're not obligated to sell the 4080 at US$800 either.

Keep in mind that while this leaves some consumers out, Nvidia is missing out on sales too - purposefully. Two entities, manufacturer and consumer, are dancing this tango. It only gets interesting when Team Red jumps in!

Yeah I'm not pointing a finger at Nvidia (for this) but I am suggesting that if we had a market with sufficient competition (3-5 viable competitors) any slack in the market by one player would be made up by the rest as they seek to increase sales.

The only reason this works the way it does is because Nvidia is a partial monopolist as part of a duopoly.

They are doing what any rational market actor would do in their place.

 

[MadMummy76]

It always chaps my a$$ when we, the consumers, can't get something. And then we watch J2C or GN with stacks of said product. "oh, you can't get RTX-Whatever? Well, I'm going to try 4 of them in SLI!" ...... really want to reach through the monitor and choke someone.

To be fair they usually have to give back the review samples.

 

[Riccochet]

To be fair they usually have to give back the review samples.

I think most AIB partners don't want their card back after GN has torn it apart multiple times.

 

[Denpepe]

I think most AIB partners don't want their card back after GN has torn it apart multiple times.

Seems to be a more common practice in Europe where one card has to go to multiple reviewers/influencers and eventually get's returned to the manufacturer, US based ones seem to be more likely to keep their hardware sent for review.

The advantages of a bigger audience me thinks.

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

I think most AIB partners don't want their card back after GN has torn it apart multiple times.

I always wonder about the budget for GN as well. I watch enough videos to know they have multiple streams going on but wow, they've got some cool toys!

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

US based ones seem to be more likely to keep their hardware sent for review.

It depends and David would know more about that but I do know that they (GPUs) often do have to be sent back and within a timeframe.

 

[MadMummy76]

I think most AIB partners don't want their card back after GN has torn it apart multiple times.

I don't remember who said it exactly, but I heard multiple youtubers complainin that they couldn't do this or that test because they had to give back the card already.

 

[Denpepe]

I don't remember who said it exactly, but I heard multiple youtubers complainin that they couldn't do this or that test because they had to give back the card already.

I remember jay2cents doing a garage sale not that long ago to get rid of excess hardware he had lying around.

From the youtubers I follow somewhat most seem to be able to hang on to a lot if not most of their hardware (ie Jay, Paul, Linus, Kyle/bitwit) I would like to mention that it is not always clear to me what they "get" and what they buy themselves since a lot of the time they mention they"ask" for something and it gets "sent" to them, there is no mention of a purchase.

I have seen one of them mention that most of that hardware is still owned by the manufacturer and that they would return it if so asked but that does not seem to happen that often.

 

[Tempest]

So, the bus drives up, and accidentally drives off with their GPU inventory?

The bus hits the scalper (who's in possession of a large quantity of high-end GPUs). SPLAT!? Bye bye evil scalper.? All of the graphics cards he had been carrying land gently in a patch of snow, where they're subsequently divided among a nearby group of good little children who had been singing Christmas carols and assisting Santa Claus with the feeding of his reindeer: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, and Rudolph. ? The children, having no real use of their own for the GPUs, hand them over to Santa, knowing that he'll ensure they find their way into the hands of worthy recipients. ?

There are many versions of the story, including ones that apply to cultures and religions that don't observe Christmas.

Because that's how I read it

The details were mostly left to the imagination, but if there's enough demand, perhaps an illustrated children's e-book is in order. Jensen could assume the role of the Grinch. ?

 

[Brian_B]

The bus hits the scalper (who's in possession of a large quantity of high-end GPUs). SPLAT!? Bye bye evil scalper.? All of the graphics cards he had been carrying land gently in a patch of snow, where they're subsequently divided among a nearby group of good little children who had been singing Christmas carols and assisting Santa Claus with the feeding of his reindeer: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, and Rudolph. ? The children, having no real use of their own for the GPUs, hand them over to Santa, knowing that he'll ensure they find their way into the hands of worthy recipients. ?

Pretty sure I saw this on Hallmark Network!


The twist -- the scalper dies but they salvage his heart for a transplant into a woman. Then, after that, the guy isn't dead because ITS A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE! and she ends up falling in love with him, not knowing he was the mysterious donor. Then all the boys and girls get graphics cards for christmas, and she finds out her guardian angle was an ex-scalper, which nearly blows up the relationship. But after seeing all the advanced ray tracing and DLSS effects, she gets over it and they bone. Happily Ever After.

 

[Tempest]

Pretty sure I saw this on Hallmark Network!


The twist -- the scalper dies but they salvage his heart for a transplant into a woman. Then, after that, the guy isn't dead because ITS A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE! and she ends up falling in love with him, not knowing he was the mysterious donor. Then all the boys and girls get graphics cards for christmas, and she finds out her guardian angle was an ex-scalper, which nearly blows up the relationship. But after seeing all the advanced ray tracing and DLSS effects, she gets over it and they bone. Happily Ever After.

That's much better than my idea that begins with the dead scalper returning as a zombie — such an overused Christmas theme.

I can't wait to read the whole story to find out whether it was DLSS 3 that charmed the woman. Could it be more than just hype? No spoilers!