Nvidia's RTX 4080 graphics card was spotted in Europe and the UK ahead of its big launch on November 16, but unfortunately these are even more worrying prices for potential buyers than we've already seen in the US.
If you recall, US pricing, for third-party models of the RTX 4080, meaning custom cards made by Nvidia's manufacturing partners, came out late last week and hasn't made for a good display overall. Of course, there were some 4080 GPUs that met Nvidia's recommended prices, which was really a relief, but the higher-end models came at a pretty ridiculous premium.
If you expected the situation in Europe to be better, think again based on the first glimpses we've seen now.
In the UK, retailer Box offers several Asus RTX 4080 models starting at a rather tempting €1,399 (TUF Gaming (opens in a new tab)), with the entry-level Palit RTX 4080 (opens in a new tab) new tab) also at this level. (two variants of GameRock - opens in a new tab)).
Asus' TUF Gaming OC Edition (Opens in a new tab) jumps to $1,571, and if you want the top-end ROG Strix RTX 4080 (Opens in a new tab), this is for you at $1,649. If ay.
As Tom's Hardware (opens in a new tab) points out, the situation in the rest of Europe also looks pretty dire. The Asus TUF RTX 4080 costs €1430 in France (InfoMax), almost €1500 in US dollars, and Kr 11 in Denmark (Proshop), which is even more (around €299,00).
Analysis: Aggravated Price Misery
Note that the mentioned Asus TUF RTX 4080 is one of the graphics cards that sits at MSRP in the US (Micro Center at least), so it's quite disappointing to see it go up significantly in the UK, United States and Europe.
Now, these early prices don't represent the entire RTX 4080 price landscape, of course; so we don't get carried away. Major retailers like Scan, Overclockers, etc. in the UK they don't have prices for the RTX 4080 models yet, although product listings are on the site.
That being said, we don't view this as a good sign either, and more of an indication that stocks could falter at launch. It would be a sadly familiar situation, and one that could lead to price inflation anyway, as resellers look to salvage inventory and perhaps resell it for even more profit.
We're making progress, naturally, but the whole RTX 4080 launch is starting to fill us with dread. And sure, it's hard to be optimistic, especially for the UK market when you still can't get an RTX 4090 for under $1,800 right now (opens in a new tab).
Over time, prices will stabilize further, though some gamers may look to wait for more affordable Nvidia graphics cards to emerge, such as the RTX 4070 Ti (although affordable will be a relative term here, this GPU could definitely look like a bargain on the market). comparison with prices). listed above). Similarly, there are options from AMD in the form of RDNA 3 GPUs, but again only higher-end models, with the RX 7900 XTX aiming to go with the RTX 4080.
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