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According to the well-known YouTube channel (and occasional GPU news leak) Moore’s Law Is Dead, Nvidia may be limiting its range of RTX 4090 graphics cards in an effort to boost the lackluster sales of its little brother, the RTX 4080.
This obviously hasn’t been confirmed by Nvidia, but it shouldn’t be entirely surprising. If true, it’s bad news for everyone involved: as we noted our RTX 4080 review, it’s really not a great GPU when you consider the price tag. MLID agreed and described it in a recent video as “the last card in the Lovelace lineup anyone wants”.
RTX 4080 stock has fared much better than the flagship GPU, with 4080 models available from various retailers at or slightly above retail price – something that certainly lends credence to MLID’s claims. Meanwhile, the RTX 4090 is still hard to find for a reasonable price, and we can expect that to get even worse if the leaks are accurate.
The RTX 4090 is an absolute beast despite its hefty price tag, making it the de facto best GPU on the market right now for high-end workloads like 8K gaming and 3D rendering. More mainstream consumers might consider the 4080, but really would be better off with the more reasonably priced ones RTX 4070Ti (or the incoming RTX 4070, which may arrive with multiple variants I hope not).
Analysis: Nvidia should cut its losses and focus on delivering the cards people really want
Thing is, if I was looking for a new GPU, this news wouldn’t make me jump to buy an RTX 4080 instead. If anything, I’d probably jump ship altogether and buy the excellent AMD Radeon RX 7900XTXwhich is currently at the top of our list best graphics cards Scoreboard.
After the big fiasco surrounding the unveiling of the RTX 4080 and subsequent rebranding of the 12GB model into the RTX 4070 Ti, I’m concerned that Nvidia is currently burning consumer goodwill like firewood – especially given how hard the company is going omniverse nonsensesomething the average consumer doesn’t care about.
I’m sure Nvidia never intended to reveal that it was throttling its RTX 4090 stock (if MLID’s three separate sources are to be believed), but it’s still a dark move. Why not accept that the 4080 wasn’t the product people wanted, and continue to produce more 4090s and market the budget-friendly RTX 4060 and 4050?
It’s not exactly an unusual strategy for any technology manufacturer to limit supply of a popular product in order to move unsold units of another but similar item, but it feels particularly disingenuous here. I cannot in good conscience recommend the RTX 4080 everyone in a world where the 4090 and 4070 Ti (and heck, even the RTX 3090) to exist. Nvidia, it might be time to let this one go.
