Nvidia’s biggest and boldest card to date, the RTX 4090 (opens in new tab), is set to release on October 12 for $1,599. That’s the reference price for the card, and the one you’ll see on Nvidia’s own Founders Edition card. However, you should expect to pay more for some high-end third party models, and early listings suggest that could be as much as, uh, €2,550. Or $2,000.
Gulp.
Over on German retailer Caseking, you’ll find the Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 4090 AMP! Extreme Airo for an eye-watering €2,279 (opens in new tab). It’s a lovely looking car, sorry, card—I was just thinking about how I spent the same amount on my car. This card brandishes a 2,230MHz base clock and a 2,580MHz boost clock, and I can only assume it keeps cool with an absolute behemoth of a heat sink stuck atop it.
Zotac also offers the second most expensive card on the site, the Trinity OC, at €2,199.
Over in the US, Newegg has the Asus GeForce RTX 4090 24GB ROG Strix OC listed for $2,000 (opens in new tab). I was initially surprised as to the price of this one—MSI has its watercooled Suprim Liquid GPU going for $1,750 (opens in new tab)—but then it is a Strix model and they’ve always run for a high cost. The Strix cards usually stay plenty cool, however, and I would expect no less of this RTX 4090 model at this price. It’s likely to run relatively quickly, too, though neither Newegg or Asus note the clock speeds yet.
Though the highest price I’ve seen so far comes from Finland’s Proshop, as spotted over at Videocardz (opens in new tab), which has the Asus Strix OC going for €2,550 (opens in new tab) including VAT. Big oof.
UK prices are still largely to be confirmed, as Scan, Overclockers, and Box don’t have prices listed. That is for all but one card over at Box: the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4090 Gaming OC is listed for £1,872 (opens in new tab). I don’t dare to think what the price of the Asus Strix might run up to in the UK right now.
Remember the UK is getting the worst of the RTX 4090 even at MSRP—the Founders Edition is priced at £1,679. That’s roughly $1,858 on today’s GBP to USD exchange rate, and a far cry from the $1,599 MSRP of the same card in the US.
It’s worth noting that these are early listings and not necessarily the final price. Though I would be surprised if these aren’t bang on the retail price come launch day.
I’ve also heard from retailers that there’ll be no pre-orders for Nvidia’s RTX 4090, or any card in the RTX 40-series, though that was to be expected. Anyone that does offer pre-orders might be breaching the rules, so be wary of any you see as they might not be genuine.
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What that does mean is that we can expect a rush for the RTX 4090 at launch. Nvidia hasn’t announced where it will be selling its Founders Edition card at launch, though it’s likely going to stick to its tried and tested channels. That means Best Buy in the US and Scan in the UK, though you can currently sign up to be notified closer to the time on the Nvidia website.
It might be that Nvidia goes back to its own store for the RTX 40-series Founders Editions, but that might run the risk of bots buying up all the stock, which was why Nvidia shut down its store following the initial RTX 30-series release.
If bots and resellers do get their hands (robotic or otherwise) on these cards at launch, and they will to some extent, then we can expect prices to be far in excess of even $2,000 for those second-hand listings. Just be prepared to pay a lot more for one of these GPUs if you’re scouring eBay for one. Ideally, Nvidia will have plenty of stock initially and be able to replenish quickly, though demand will likely outstrip supply for some time. The RTX 4090 has an absolutely massive GPU inside it, too, so that’s likely going to make supply slightly trickier.
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