Micro Center Prices RTX 4080 Close to RTX 4090's MSRP

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Want to buy an RTX 4080? Prepare your bank account.

Gigabyte RTX 4080 Eagle
(Image credit: Gigabyte)

Micro Center is the first retailer to showcase prices of Nvidia's upcoming RTX 4080 graphics cards. Prices start at Nvidia's advertised MSRP of $1199, however, most cards easily surpass this, with AIB flagship cards peaking at $1,549.99, which is just $50 less than the RTX 4090's MSRP. Availability of the RTX 4080 Ada Lovelace GPU in both aftermarket and founders edition models will start on November 16th.

Micro Center has 13 RTX 4080 listings in all, from five companies: Asus, PNY, Zotac, Gigabyte and MSI. Gigabyte has the most amount of listings at four, with the Eagle model starting at $1,199.99 and $1,239.99 for the OC version, then jumping up to $1,269.99 for the Gaming variant. The most expensive Gigabyte model sits at $1,349.99 featuring the top-tier Aorus Master version. Unfortunately Gigabyte's Aorus Xtreme model has yet to appear, but expect we expect that version will release soon.

Asus has three Micro Center listings, featuring two RTX 4080 TUF variants and the flagship RTX 4080 ROG Strix. The first RTX 4080 TUF variant (the non-OC version) starts at $1,199.99, but the second one starts at a substantially higher $1,499.99 featuring a factory overclock. We aren't sure why the prices are so substantial, but if you're in the market for one of these cards, the very minute 100 MHz clock speed improvement is not worth the extra $300 - especially when you can overclock any of these GPUs yourself.

To nobody's surprise, Asus' ROG Strix RTX 4080 with its incredibly massive triple fan cooler design is the most expensive 4080 GPU in Micro Center's arsenal, sitting at $1,549.99

Like Asus, MSI has three 4080 listings on Micro Center's website, featuring the MSI RTX 4080 Ventus, Gaming X Trio and Gaming X Trio OC variants. The Ventus is the cheapest model, sitting at $1,279.99. Sitting in the middle is the reference clocked Gaming X Trio at $1,324.99, while the overclocked version sits at $1,399.99.

Zotac has two listings on Micro Center's website, including the Trinity and AMP extreme. The Trinity is priced at $1,199.99, and the AMP Extreme sits at $1,399.99. Strangely Zotac's factory overclocked Trinity OC is not present, but we expect that card to make an appearance sometime soon.

Rounding out the last of the five brands is PNY, with only one RTX 4080 listing on Micro Center's website for now. The model listed is the RTX 4080 XLR 8 Gaming Verto Epic-X RGB, sitting at $1,199.99.

Coming Really Close to an RTX 4090

The RTX 4080 is going to be a very expensive graphics card, with prices starting well above the quadruple digits and maxing out at just under Nvidia's MSRP for the RTX 4090.

For future RTX 4080 buyers, consider just how far you are from the RTX 4090. If your budget can stretch to $1,500 for a RTX 4080, you may want to consider an RTX 4090 if you can find it near MSRP, which will be noticeably faster card for just $50 more on some models.

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Aaron Klotz
Aaron Klotz
Contributing Writer

Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

18 Comments Comment from the forums
  • YouFilthyHippo
    Do they include a home insurance policy?
    Reply
  • ingtar33
    well i think the least they could do is include some sort of fire insurance.
    Reply
  • boe rhae
    So, a max of $2000? And it's not even a 4090, but the lesser model? Do I have this right?

    That specific card (Eagle) is worth maybe a third of its price. That is an insult. I know PC building is an expensive hobby, but I swear on my soul I will never pay $2000 for one part. That should be a crime. Jensen is out of his entire mind
    Reply
  • boe rhae
    actually that might be an error in the article (hopefully lol), since it says the Eagle is $1999 but the Eagle OC is about $700 dollars cheaper
    Reply
  • -Fran-
    Considering MicroCenter is usually the "best pricing scenario", I'll just think that nVidia is going for the "hard squeeze; tight grab" of it's fanboi base which will buy regardless of what abomination they put on a shelve. This could be nVidia truly testing the limits of its most hardcore fanbase and how hard they can squeeze every last penny out of them before they drop prices to fight AMD somewhat.

    Regards.
    Reply
  • TechieTwo
    Thankfully consumers get to vote with their wallet. A product or service is only worth what people are willing to pay for it. Nvidia can't eat these GPUs so if they don't sell at excessive prices then the price will drop. It may take some time as there are people that will pay stupid prices to own the newest anything. It's an affliction. ;)
    Reply
  • JarredWaltonGPU
    boe rhae said:
    So, a max of $2000? And it's not even a 4090, but the lesser model? Do I have this right?

    That specific card (Eagle) is worth maybe a third of its price. That is an insult. I know PC building is an expensive hobby, but I swear on my soul I will never pay $2000 for one part. That should be a crime. Jensen is out of his entire mind
    Typo that I've now fixed. The Eagle is Gigabyte's base model at $1,199.
    Reply
  • LolaGT
    The suckers will still line up to buy a $700 card at these pirate prices.
    Reply
  • baboma
    No need for more insipid carping about evil nVidia squeezing people for more money. This is normal, and is an opportunity to see how the market works, and people's buying behavior.

    People who buy high-end products at launch are price-insensitive. nVidia has established that they are still the clear performance leader, by substantial margins, and that's what these early adopter buyers care about: Best performance, bar none. There's no namby-pamby about perf/$ or perf/watt.

    Since it can't win on perf, AMD not surprisingly is angling for both of the latter for RX 7K, with substantially lower pricing, and the touted "50% improvement in perf/watt". These appeal to a different segment than the above.

    My observation is that gamers (the target demo for these) prefer the simpler appeal of balls-out perf, over the more nuanced perf/$ or perf/W. Thus nVidia's pitch has and will resonate more strongly over AMD's. Also a contributing factor is that gamers are generally less price sensitive than non-gamers when it comes to performance. That's why nVidia GPUs command a higher price over equivalent AMD cards.

    The 4080 is a perfect example of why halo products matter. They allow the lower products in the line to ride the coattail, with higher pricing than would otherwise be warranted. In buyers' minds, nVidia's 4000 cards are simply faster than AMD's.

    The more important takeaway is that the marketing for both corporations (all corporations really) behave very much similar. If AMD were in nVidia's shoes, it would market the exact same way. It's a very rational and deliberate profit-maximizing strategy, because all companies are profit-maximizing entities. People like to ascribe morality to companies, but there is no "evil" or "good" involved. It's simply about money. AMD is no different than nVidia or Intel.
    Reply
  • DataMeister
    Are they subsidizing GeForce Now with these prices? Are the first 1,000,000 GPUs going into Nvidia's racks or something so they have to charge double what they are worth to break even?
    Reply