Is the RTX 4090 FE vaporware?

[sphinx99]

I notice on Best Buy's site they've been sold out since launch with not a single one reviewed.

nVidia's site, no evidence they're popping up even infrequently or am I missing something?

eBay shows about a 100 sold and another 100 listed, but who knows how many of those are re-listings, fakes, etc. It might be reasonable to surmise less than a 100 units being "scalped" in total, which is surprisingly low.

There was at least buzz that these had been getting stockpiled, etc., but I am wondering if these units are only shipping in tiny quantities, and mostly only to influencers?

 

[Dreamerbydesign]

Does it seem odd they'd be limited initially? nVidia knows how to make money. I do not think it is past them to purposely provide low numbers of these, in order to flush out the 30 series. They may very well have many of these ready. They also have tons of old stock apparently left to sell. Benefits them less to sell these.

And the FE has been reviewed and taken apart. GN has some great info on it.

 

[OFaceSIG]

The FE is like the store brand at the grocery store, but better, it's the same chip. They make better money on their FE cards then they do selling bare chips to AIB partners. Trust me, it's not vaporware. Just probably sold out quick because all the Nvidia **** bois have to drop their loads, I mean cash, to get one ASAP.

 

[kirbyrj]

The FE is like the store brand at the grocery store, but better, it's the same chip. They make better money on their FE cards then they do selling bare chips to AIB partners. Trust me, it's not vaporware. Just probably sold out quick because all the Nvidia **** bois have to drop their loads, I mean cash, to get one ASAP.

Or the bots just grabbed them all again...

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fr...57.m570.l1313&_nkw=rtx+4090+founders&_sacat=0

They are out there...

 

[BassTek]

Mine should be here mid next week hopefully.

 

[LukeTbk]

eBay shows about a 100 sold and another 100 listed, but who knows how many of those are re-listings, fakes, etc. It might be reasonable to surmise less than a 100 units being "scalped" in total, which is surprisingly low.

Is that a small amount versus Asus, MSI on ebay, at the price and expected avaibility I would imagine it would be a niche affair.

For example a founder edition just gave me 96 results versus 426 for all 4090 together, 20-25% of the card sold being FE would not seem out of line considering there is 25 non FE 4090 being sold according to pcpart picker, that would make the FE extremely over-represented on EBAY (would make sense has MSI-ASUS-Gigabyte-Zotac-Nvidia would be the big mover in the north america market ?, so one of 5 and a model attractive to scalper that would be popular among buyer and sold at a good price)

 

[sphinx99]

Is that a small amount versus Asus, MSI on ebay, at the price and expected avaibility I would imagine it would be a niche affair.

For example a founder edition just gave me 96 results versus 426 for all 4090 together, 20% of the card sold being FE would not seem out of line considering there is 25 non FE 4090 being sold according to pcpart picker, would make the FE extremelly over represented on EBAY (would make sense has MSI-ASUS-Gigabyte-Zotac-Nvidia would be the big mover in the north america market ?, so one of 5)

That's a fair point.

 

[NKD]

Best buy had a huge drop earlier this week. Mine is getting ready for pick up Sunday. Might be tomorrow. They really did improve the bot detection this time. I have never got in to cart this quick and also limited people to doing on one card no matter which brand you were getting on the same drop. if you had an order in for FE you couldn't order any of the other ones being dropped. FE went out the quickest but they did have huge overall drop.

 

[LukeTbk]

Looking at the result, after you consider tax that was probably paid when bought over MSRP and ebay share:
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fr...H_TitleDesc=0&LH_Sold=1&LH_Complete=1&_sop=15

Seem already risky, 2 of them were already sold under $1600 USD if that not some glitch-fake and many under $2200, if you are someone that gave 13% of that amount to ebay and paid 7% in sales tax, even on a $1600 model that $200 of profit without considering anything else, not bad but by hours-risk not that magical either and if the card were $1750+ there is nothing left.

 

[x3sphere]

I've had no luck getting one since launch day. Weirdly had an easier time getting the 3080, the drops seemed more frequent? At least at launch, I know it got a lot harder to get during the crypto boom.

But looking on https://stockx.com/nvidia-founders-geforce-rtx-4090-24gb-graphics-card-900-1g136-2530-000 the price has been trending down quickly.

I may wait and see what AMD has on offer at this point, Nvidia's loss for not having ample stock I suppose.

 

[LukeTbk]

But looking on https://stockx.com/nvidia-founders-geforce-rtx-4090-24gb-graphics-card-900-1g136-2530-000 the price has been trending down quickly.

On this the FE seem to be the most sold models, I think being the most popular to buyer and one much easier to count than say MSI GeForce RTX 4090 GAMING TRIO, could make it seem much rarer than it is.

The second most popular (MSI Trio) 11 sales in the oct 19-20 versus 31 for the FE

 

[tryin49]

Between this and the last gen I've never had any success getting an FE card added and successfully checked out at Best Buy. While I'd prefer an FE I'd rather just go down and grab something from Microcenter than waste an hour refreshing BB constantly in the hopes of seeing that 'Add to Cart' button and it actually working.

 

[GotNoRice]

On launch day some people figured out how to add the 4090 FE to their cart on the Best Buy website earlier than they should have been able to (before 6am). No one else had a chance even if they were trying right at 6:00am.

I'd love it if they simply allowed you to order a card and they filled it as they became available. Supposedly the cards go up for sale sometimes, but unless I'm hitting refresh on the page all day, how will I know? It would be nice if Best Buy wasn't the only place to get a FE...

I think that when the 4080 is out and the new AMD cards are out, having more cards to choose from will reduce the demand for the 4090, but who knows... I really hope that I can get one before the holiday shopping season starts.

 

[Rvenger]

Not vaporware, just limited supply.

 

[CoreStoffer]

In practical terms, it does look like vaporware here in Europe. I can find them listed on nVidia’s own UK webshop and German webshop, but not sure if any cards have actually been at sale there for a brief moment. Beyond that, I can’t source any. I think the FE models are mainly for the US market, not sure why though….

 

[kirbyrj]

Where did those invites come from?

 

[GoldenTiger]

Where did those invites come from?

GeForce experience is giving instant cart add invites to people at random for the fe at Bestbuy.

 

[kirbyrj]

GeForce experience is giving instant cart add invites to people at random for the fe at Bestbuy.

Yeah, I figured it out. I guess I didn't have my Nvidia account set up properly. You have to set it to US in your preferences and opt into rewards and stuff like that.

 

[GotNoRice]

I'd love to know how they are doing these invites or if they are truly random. How do they know which Geforce Experience users are even in the market for a 4090? Is it based on the number of games you have setup through Geforce Experience? Or are there a bunch of invites going out to 2060 users playing Minecraft?

 

[NukeDukem]

I'd love to know how they are doing these invites or if they are truly random. How do they know which Geforce Experience users are even in the market for a 4090? Is it based on the number of games you have setup through Geforce Experience? Or are there a bunch of invites going out to 2060 users playing Minecraft?

Who knows. I've missed out on a card so far, despite being in several lines at BB. I could use an invite. I even sent them a request through GeForce Experience feedback, essentially saying I have a 3090Ti and want to buy your new card so take my money already. No dice! I think Nvidia just doesn't like me

 

[LigTasm]

I wanted to buy one, but if the new AMD cards have even 80% of the performance I'll just buy that instead. I just want decent RT performance with DLSS/FSR at 4K. Seems like they're sandbagging until AMD drops.

 

[Chris_B]

Nvidias video on the 4090 did say "limited" founders edition:



Says it more or less at the start here and at least one other time, so seems it wasn't a mistake.

 

[pippenainteasy]

Not vaporware, just limited supply.

It's funny because they actually have a massive oversupply of Lovelace dies, they way over-ordered and has been trying to beg TSMC to cut production. They are just stockpiling chips for 4090 Ti/Tesla and waiting for all the Ampere supply to clear out of the channel, while milking their current customers $1600 for a heavily cut down AD102 SKU.

 

[LukeTbk]

It's funny because they actually have a massive oversupply of Lovelace dies, they way over-ordered and has been trying to beg TSMC to cut production

Outside the how much is actually know for those kind of things (i.e. did they achieve to walk out in exchange of a fee), considering the giant Hoppers H-100 also use 4-nm and apparently the AD103-104 has well, not sure how much we can assume they have massive amount of a niche 4090 gpu in stock, has there was a list of different of sku for them to make with that command if they got stuck with it.

Stockpiling lower (and more in direct Ampere competition) chips would make a lot of sense, but 4090 seem less obvious, there is pleasing AIB and going overboard with their feeling, has the would have bought an $1600+ GPU would it have been available but would go down for an Ampere crowd must be small.

And it seem to be much more limited in some market than the US, making it look very much with your usual always the case lack of supply on launch more than a calculated drip.

 

[WilyKit]

Searching for RTX 4090 on Best Buys site shows the FE version as "Unavailable" while all other brands are being shown as "sold out"

 

[Surly]

Searching for RTX 4090 on Best Buys site shows the FE version as "Unavailable" while all other brands are being shown as "sold out"

Lets see if availability miraculously improves in the next 4-6 weeks... coincidentally when the 7900XT/XTX cards are rumored to be available...

 

[FrgMstr]

Not till Q1.

 

[DPI]

ASUS 4090 pages removed from BB. Lots of other signals I'm noticing that seem to line up with FrgMstr assertions about channel getting very dry for 1-2 quarters.

4090 Winter is coming.

 

[LigTasm]

Its never been so hard to spend $1600, I haven't even caught the tail end of one of these things. Stock trackers show them in stock for 30-90 seconds at a time. Oh well, looks like AMD is going to win this round if they have more than 25 cards stock for an entire continent.

I happened to go into my local Best Buy yesterday to get a phone charger cable, and they said they haven't had one in stock in two weeks and have no shipment incoming.

 

[cageymaru]

NVIDIA is still working on getting the old cards out of the channel.
https://www.pcgamer.com/vietnams-king-of-vga-is-selling-mountains-of-graphics-cards-on-the-street/

Jensen's crack team moving mining cards.
https://www.facebook.com/100004014558952/videos/425118239801445/

 

[Dreamerbydesign]

It’s obvious they are waiting for stock to clear of older cards. They released just enough to not be called a paper launch. Even pressure from AMD may not be enough to have them release more into the retail channel. Dollars are the bottom line. New cards are not depreciating as fast as the old stock of last gen cards.

 

[DPI]

I happened to go into my local Best Buy yesterday to get a phone charger cable, and they said they haven't had one in stock in two weeks and have no shipment incoming.

Talking to a random BB employee only tells you that that particular employee doesn't know anything, or is tired of answering the same question over and over and is pretending not to know anything. Guaranteed they've had 4090's trickling through, even if only a handful of bounced (canceled or QLA'd) online orders that ended up at the store but didn't get picked up, but sniping one is a specific process and can be time consuming.

 

[LigTasm]

Talking to a random BB employee only tells you that that particular employee doesn't know anything, or is tired of answering the same question over and over and is pretending not to know anything. Guaranteed they've had 4090's trickling through, even if only a handful of bounced (canceled or QLA'd) online orders that ended up at the store but didn't get picked up, but sniping one is a specific process and can be time consuming.

I talked to the manager behind the CS desk, they checked everything including the tuesday drop that hadn't been stocked yet. I've sniped several deals at BB over the years and know some of the tricks including the one with the app to show you whats physically in the store but don't have on the shelf because its "reserved" for someones order.

Regardless, there were a few posts here about the PNY model in stock at adorama, so I placed an order for that. We'll see if it goes through, it would be nice to get some 4K powaaa.

 

[Slade]

so how many people have this 4090FE in their box, and how's the fan wobble?

 

[badmojomk]

I talked to the manager behind the CS desk, they checked everything including the tuesday drop that hadn't been stocked yet. I've sniped several deals at BB over the years and know some of the tricks including the one with the app to show you whats physically in the store but don't have on the shelf because its "reserved" for someones order.

Regardless, there were a few posts here about the PNY model in stock at adorama, so I placed an order for that. We'll see if it goes through, it would be nice to get some 4K powaaa.

Mind explaining this app trick? I've seen a couple of references to it. But can't seem to do it properly.

 

[NukeDukem]

Mind explaining this app trick? I've seen a couple of references to it. But can't seem to do it properly.

1. Search for "4090" on the BB app. Not "RTX 4090", or anything else.

2. After the results show up, click the "In store at (your store location)" tab on the upper left.

3. You will either see "No products found" (the vast majority of the time obviously), or a card will show. It will be labeled as "Sold Out". However, this indicates the item is physically at the location.

4. At this point, go to the store that shows the item. Get there early and try to speak to an employee, preferably a manager. The card should be there, however it MAY not be in their store inventory. If they can't find it on the computer, have the manager look for the box. It could still be on the truck. Be firm and hodl the line, as some have reported shady behavior from BB employees who want to hide the card. I had no issues personally.

Good luck!

 

[Epyon]

If I have to do stupid shit like that fuck it. I got other shit to do anyways

 

[LukeTbk]

Seem to be in stock from the Amazon nvidia store right now. Nope was from a scalper that had a nice idea to have a well placed visit nvidia store, seem to be a common trick

 

[somebrains]

If I have to do stupid shit like that fuck it. I got other shit to do anyways

I agree.

Unless gpu compute produces more invoices a month there will be a 4090ti.

It’ll be faster, they may even have more polish or fixes.

 

[Slade]

I think my method of walking into a computer store, seeing a video card I liked and buying it on the spot was a much better use of my time than trying to get the 4090FE Indiana Jones Adventure edition.

If anyone does manage to get a 4090FE, post up if the fan is not wobbly/crooked or making weird noises.