We’ve seen many leaks from US and European stores sticking quite close to MSRP (manufacturer's suggested retail price) for the new super-powerful Nvidia RTX 4090 graphics cards,, and the official Zotac US store will be following the trend according to its store.
On the Zotac US store, it looks like the cheapest RTX 4090 will be the Trinity model, at $1,599 (around £1,412 or AU$ 2,460). The OC models cost $50 more, but you’ve got a good chance at overclocking the standard models yourself - as long as you’re feeling confident. If you’re looking for the cream of the crop though, the AMP Extreme Airo will run you $1,699 ( £1,500 or AU$ 2,614) so an extra $100 on top. These are not very distinct from pricing of other RTX 4090 variants that are popping up as we get closer to the official launch.
Analysis: And yet, still not affordable
It seems like a lot of emphasis has been put on the OC models, and there isn’t a huge disparity between the cheapest models and their OC siblings, which makes them slightly more accessible.
The board partners sticking close to MSRP, while refreshing after the bloodbath of the previous Nvidia RTX 3000 series launch (limited supplies and bulk buying) does not distract from the fact that the launch price itself is expensive now that these factors have been essentially dealt with. Consumers had to swallow Nvidia’s highest prices ever upon the RTX 3090 release in 2020, and there was hope that now the dust has settled those prices might creep back down to a reasonable place.
We will have to wait for pricing for the RTX 4080 and rumored RTX 4070 to be released before making the conclusion that this line of graphics cards are not actually for made for the average gamer, with Nvidia seemingly determined to appeal to enthusiast gamers who will buy the most powerful GPUs regardless of price, rather than gamers on a budget.
Again, I wonder who these graphics cards are actually for. While we are all excited about such powerful components being released to the masses, it’s clear that they are not for your average gamer, or even your hardcore gamers that like to crank all their settings up to the max, because the RTX 3090 Ti will probably still be able to handle that, and now at a fraction of the cost. Maybe it would be easier to look at the RTX 4000 series as collectibles, at least until games are developed that demand the kind of graphical fire power that the RTX 4090 is designed to offer.
