Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Want an RTX 4080? Nvidia may have a way to make it easier to get

If you’ve been wanting to buy an RTX 4080 at a reasonable price, but haven’t had much luck, Nvidia may have a solution that’s worth exploring.

The company has just announced that it will be expanding its Verified Priority Access (VPA) program. It will now include the RTX 4080, but the good news doesn’t stop there — it will also serve up cards that were made by Nvidia’s board partners.

Related Videos
The RTX 4080 in a running test bench.
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

To give more people a chance to buy a Founders Edition GPU, Nvidia launched a trial program in October called Verified Priority Access. Nvidia partnered with retailers in the U.S., the U.K., Germany, France, Netherlands, Spain, and Italy in order to try to distribute some of the RTX 4090 GPUs to customers.

Through the Verified Priority Access program, Nvidia sends out custom links to let select customers buy a new graphics card without forcing them to go through the usual anxiety-inducing shopping process when a new product drops. This means you wouldn’t have to spam refresh on a particular website only to find out that the card sold out while you were typing in your card details — or at least that’s the idea.

Initially, the trial run only included an RTX 4090. and it was only available in Nvidia’s own Founders Edition model. Today, the company announced that it was pleased with the initial phase of the trial and will be expanding it.

According to Nvidia, VPA will now “give a limited number of opportunities to purchase GeForce RTX 4080 graphics cards shortly after the worldwide release on November 16.” The card just launched yesterday, so it’s likely that the first links will start being sent out soon. In addition to the RTX 4080, Nvidia will also supply some RTX 4090s at the same time.

This time around, aside from Nvidia’s Founders Edition cards, customers may be able to score some GPUs made by Nvidia’s partners, although no specific names have been thrown around. The availability of these custom GPUs will depend on the location and the retailer.

Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

Once you’re selected to buy a GPU, you’ll have to be quick, as the cards are distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. Each user will receive a unique link to buy a single graphics card. The link will appear in GeForce Experience, and if you don’t yet have an account, you won’t be able to enroll — only accounts made on or before November 15, 2022, will be able to participate in this phase of the trial.

Although the worst of the disastrous GPU shortage is well behind us, Nvidia’s best graphics cards still have an alarming tendency to sell out in minutes. Once that happens, they’re either out of stock for a while or they come back at an increased price due to scalpers, or even simply retailers increasing the price according to the demand. In short, scoring a new RTX 4090 or RTX 4080 at the MSRP is no easy feat, so VPA seems like a good way to open up sales to more users.

Editors' Recommendations

No one is buying the RTX 4080 — will Nvidia finally slash its insane price?
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 lays on a pink surface.

Most of Nvidia's best graphics cards are currently readily available for sale, but that's not a good thing. No one is buying Nvidia's ill-fated RTX 4080, and a price cut might be on the way.

Will this situation give an edge to AMD, which is currently seeing an uptick in GPU sales?

Read more
Nvidia may have another monster GPU in the works, and the price could be outrageous
GeForce RTX logo is shown on the side of a graphics card.

Today, yet another sign of an upcoming Nvidia Titan RTX Ada GPU appeared -- the card's specs were spotted in a shipping manifest. This suggests that engineering samples of the monstrous GPU might be on their way to various development centers around the globe.

Everything points to the Nvidia Titan card making a big comeback in this generation, and the development seems to be farther along than it initially seemed to be. There's a catch, though -- how many people will even be able to afford it?

Read more
Nvidia’s RTX 4090 Ti may be on the way, but do we really want it?
MSI RTX 4080 Suprim X installed in a PC.

Nvidia's most frequent leaker, kopite7kimi, just shared the specifications of a rumored RTX 4090 Ti GPU. Said to be even more powerful than the RTX 4090, Nvidia's latest product would surely top any ranking of the best graphics cards.

It might not be the greatest GPU of this generation, though. Nvidia seems to have another ace up its sleeve that would defeat even the RTX 4090 Ti. But do we really want these two monstrous GPUs?

Read more