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How To Get a RTX 3080/3090 Practical Advice (Updated 22/09/20)

Shadowmask72
Honored Visionary
OK fellow consumers and friends. I've been well-invested in this 3080 launch debacle, probably more than most since I already sold my RTX 2080 Ti so I'm now using an i9 9900K integrated graphics, GeForce Now, PS4 and Xbox Cloud Gaming for my kicks. 

As you may or may not know, Nvidia have acted pretty naively with the 3080 launch considering they should have expected bots and scalpers to take all the stock, and high demand after their own hype. However, thankfully they are revoking suspicious orders manually. You can see a stock checker for Digital River (European handlers) which seems to be rising hourly because this process obviously takes time.

The issue now then is how does Nvidia move forwards in announcing stock availability? They surely can't expect people to sit on their website and press F5 all day. How do they prevent the bots from taking all the stock again? In their statement, they did mention emails being sent out when stock becomes available, however faith in that system seems low considering the email notifications for the launch were sent out 1 hour after the launch time previously, by which time the stock was long gone. Perhaps then this will be the only way to buy from them via the email link so make sure you sign-up to be notified.

There's some reason to be encouraged though. Nvidia are looking into ways to prevent bot/scalper purchases even if adding a captcha to the store front. But bots can pass those checks, so I hope they figure something else out. Either way, I expect a 3080 relaunch in the coming days rather than them trickling out stock. How they handle it though is anyone's guess. Some retailers are taking pre-orders now but in a queue system, so you can take the gamble of pre-ordering now and waiting your turn. It could be weeks or months though. There's light at the end of the tunnel, as Nvidia is resupplying vendors daily. Yes, that's right, "daily" using their own words. This is encouraging then and means the wait might not be as long as you think. 

My advice though moving forwards then and especially if you are after a 3090 next week is to not put all your faith in getting the Founder's Edition cards and go for an aftermarket version. There is decidedly less interest in the 3090 though from my research, but stock levels are likely to be much less than the 3080. The problem I see with the Nvidia website is I think stock will naturally be extremely limited so even if you're not competing with Bots, your competing with like-minded consumers en-mass. I also don't believe Nvidia will have a tangible solution to the bot/scalper issue by next-week (but they have said they've improved things in a recent update to the store). Sure, it's easy to code re-captcha into a store-front but I am not confident this method can eliminate bots entirely. There is also no guarantee that their website won't "break" again like it did yesterday.

In my experience monitoring the 3080 launch, I found that alternative retailers offered the best chance of securing cards. Several hours after launch I saw pre-orders open for next day, and even a couple of cards in stock.  Some might suggest it's prudent to have more than one store page open in your browser. This might help. Getting alerts might help as well. There are several sites which offer this

Either way, the bottom line is Nvidia wants your business and if the bots/scalpers get them all, then the negative press shrouds them, so it's not a case of they are happy because they got the money anyway. There's enough legitimate customers to buy all the stock, and I would wager they prefer that and moving forwards against AMD who are poised to announce their own wares at the start and end of October. Now, some folks might want to wait for that and then make an informed choice (depending on the RX 6000 series specs). 

Also this is day one. Expect things to level-out over the coming weeks. Sure, the supply chains have been affected by COVID-19, but manufacturing still continues and there's plentiful resources available to large companies such as Nvidia.  Some people are concerned they won't have a new card for the release of Cyberpunk 2077. That's one of this year's most anticipated titles (and showcased during the 30 series reveal). I strongly believe that by the game's November 19th launch there will be plenty 30 series cards available. So a bit of patience will calm your nerves.  Also, word is that a greater amount of inventory will be available in October.

- Keep an eye on EVGA Jason's Twitter feed as he seems to announce when EVGA have stock US or EVGA have stock EUR. They are getting new drops every few days I believe. They are also manually reviewing orders and cancelling bot orders.


Happy Hunting.


System Specs: MSI NVIDIA RTX 4090 , i5 13700K CPU, 32GB DDR 4 RAM, Win 11 64 Bit OS.
34 REPLIES 34

hesten_unam
Protege

kojack said:



probably more than most since I already sold my RTX 2080 Ti so I'm now using an i9 9900K integrated graphics, PS4 and Xbox Cloud Gaming for my kicks.


That's one reason why I never sell anything, I've always got backups. 🙂 I've probably still got my Nvidia Riva TNT here somewhere if I get really desperate.

Somebody wrote a bot script that fucks with scalpers on ebay. It makes fake accounts then starts an unrealistic bidding war on 3000 series cards, boosting the price way too high, then of course not paying.

qfvte4ubwxt4.jpg





lol, this is the best thing I've seen all week 😄

Shadowmask72
Honored Visionary
Well, scalpers are now doing instant-buy listing, so this don't really work for those who clued-up. I also wish the persons who did this targeted them all so no one could buy them. But, it only really works if Nvidia suddenly have loads of stock so the value of these cards drop. That's not likely to happen any time soon until maybe November.


System Specs: MSI NVIDIA RTX 4090 , i5 13700K CPU, 32GB DDR 4 RAM, Win 11 64 Bit OS.

pyroth309
Visionary

RuneSR2 said:

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I kind of have to laugh tbh. So the 2000 series was priced higher than ever so only people who really needed a card or people who didn't mind paying the premium bought them. Then they act surprised when they price this series reasonably and everyone with an old card tries to jump on it at once.

I do believe Nvidia wants to sell to average gamers and individuals over bots as any smart company wants to keep the average user happy....but I doubt they are really that upset about it when the money hits their account lol.

PC gaming is still growing, it's estimated to be up 5% this year with more than 1.3 billion PC gamers. That's a lot of people starving for a good deal on an upgrade.

Anonymous
Not applicable
Whats funny is that they will be releasing TI/Super cards later on 😛 soo all this madness over a card that is going to replace even sooner by something better.

RuneSR2
Grand Champion

Mradr said:

Whats funny is that they will be releasing TI/Super cards later on 😛 soo all this madness over a card that is going to replace even sooner by something better.


Maybe, the average Joe might just know of 3080 and 3090 - and of course 16GB and 20GB aren't official versions yet. Some who have bought 3080 10GB may be surprised and sad that they did not wait for 3080 20GB, who knows - as many may not be able to afford selling and upgrading from 10GB to 20GB soon. It might be a good idea to choose wisely and not to panic 😉

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

nalex66
MVP
MVP
The Ti and/or higher memory versions will come at a price, though. I've seen rumours of them being $300 higher, and the 3080 is already pushing the upper limit of what I want to spend on a GPU. I can justify it based on the fact that I haven't upgraded in 4 years (rather than my usual 2-3 years), but I'm not spending even more for the Ti. The 3080 will suit me fine, when I can eventually get one.

DK2, CV1, Go, Quest, Quest 2, Quest 3.


Try my game: Cyclops Island Demo

Anonymous
Not applicable

nalex66 said:

The Ti and/or higher memory versions will come at a price, though. I've seen rumours of them being $300 higher, and the 3080 is already pushing the upper limit of what I want to spend on a GPU. I can justify it based on the fact that I haven't upgraded in 4 years (rather than my usual 2-3 years), but I'm not spending even more for the Ti. The 3080 will suit me fine, when I can eventually get one.


Yes, but if money is problem I would just wait for the AMD cards at that point. The 10GB version is ok - but the amount just too low for 4k long term with many games already using 8 and 10. I am looking into upgrading to 4k my self.

If you are getting these cards (3080, 3090) for 1080p you are just wasting your money at this point with 2k inching pretty close. The best bang for buck I feel will be the 3070 TI that is rumor with GDDR6(none x) 16GB.

I feel like this is the year that 4k and 1080p will finally split just like 720p to 1080p back in the day.

RuneSR2
Grand Champion
Agreed, Big Navi with 16GB could be fun. I've had Nvidia for the last 14 years or close, could be fun going back to Radeon - but of course only if AMD gets most things right this time.

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

nalex66
MVP
MVP

Mradr said:


nalex66 said:

The Ti and/or higher memory versions will come at a price, though. I've seen rumours of them being $300 higher, and the 3080 is already pushing the upper limit of what I want to spend on a GPU. I can justify it based on the fact that I haven't upgraded in 4 years (rather than my usual 2-3 years), but I'm not spending even more for the Ti. The 3080 will suit me fine, when I can eventually get one.


Yes, but if money is problem I would just wait for the AMD cards at that point. The 10GB version is ok - but the amount just too low for 4k long term with many games already using 8 and 10. I am looking into upgrading to 4k my self.

If you are getting these cards (3080, 3090) for 1080p you are just wasting your money at this point with 2k inching pretty close. The best bang for buck I feel will be the 3070 TI that is rumor with GDDR6(none x) 16GB.

I feel like this is the year that 4k and 1080p will finally split just like 720p to 1080p back in the day.


It’s not that money is a problem per se, just that there’s a point beyond which it’s a case of diminishing returns. Another few hundred dollars for a bit more VRAM or a few % more FPS, on top of the price of the 3080, crosses that threshold for me. 

I’m gaming at 1440p, but I’d like to try raytracing with upcoming titles like Cyberpunk 2077, and I’d like some more oomph for VR. I’m not willing to cross over to the AMD camp, because I believe that Nvidia has better driver support, especially for VR. I feel like 3080 is the sweet spot of this generation for me.

DK2, CV1, Go, Quest, Quest 2, Quest 3.


Try my game: Cyclops Island Demo

PhoenixSpyder
Rising Star
With the initial leak benchmarks comparing the 3080 to 3090 and only showing 5%-10%+ increase it'll be interesting to see what happens down the road when software catches up with the hardware. We may just yet see that 20%+ performance boost that Nvidia mentions. No doubt the extra cores + memory aren't just doing nothing presently, but may be utilized better down the road.

Also, a thought...if they do release a 3080Ti, it will no doubt cannibalize the 3090...and would probably put performance somewhere close to the 3090. I think instead they will release a 3090Ti if they release a Ti at all. It will also depend on what AMD pulls out of the hat. They have 2 choices they can make, what ever it is, we know they always leave the Ti for besting.

i7 8700k; 5ghz (water cooled), Asus Rog Strix Z370-E Gaming, Corsair 270R case, EVGA 3090 FTW3 Ultra, 32 GB Corsair Veng DDR4 2666 Ghz, Adata SX900 SSD, 1TB M.2 SSD, Adata Su800 SSD, Adata SU650 SSD, BarraCuda 2TB HD, Toshiba 3tB HD, Rift (dead), Rift S, Win 10 Pro 2004, Inateck KT4006 USB3.0