Nvidia’s newest graphics card release was one of the most anticipated in the company’s history. The RTX 3080 graphics card was revealed as one of the most powerful graphics cards available to the average consumer as Nvidia marketed it as having an about 1.5% percent performance increase in computing and in games. This performance increase also came at a lower price, making the card a more valuable option for many buyers. However, when it was time to launch the product, websites sold out instantly, leaving many disappointed.

The RTX 3080 is a performance powerhouse. As previously stated, it surpassed the RTX 2080 TI {Nvidia’s last flagship graphics card) by about a 25-40% performance increase in frames per second (FPS) and computing performance in both games and computing workloads. This fact is evident in the benchmarks done by independent reviewers like Linus Tech Tips and JayzTwoCents.

The other previously stated point was that the 3080 was cheaper than the 2080 TI. This statement is true as the 3080’s MSRP price is $699.99 while the 2080 TI’s is $1199.99. That is a $500 dollar deduction for up to a 40% increase in performance. As a result of its reveal, the anticipation of the card started the second it was announced. However, when it was time for the RTX 3080 to release, the RTX 3080 hype train became derailed.

“I think the 3080 will be the new gold standard in terms of a price/performance metric. If the specs hold up to what Nvidia is saying, then it is very promising.” sophomore David Ake said.

Many of those who expected to buy the card saw the “Auto Notify” button change to “Out of Stock” instantly. This was the result of a large amount of consumer traffic and bots. Bots are used to auto-purchase a certain amount of a product faster than a human can to solidify a purchase. The tech market has not experienced a high amount of bots that were a part of this purchase before. However, these bots took away from many actual consumers, as these bots can buy large numbers of the card within an instant.

Another undesirable aspect of the launch was from those who tried to resell the 3080. Many of those who used the bots sold their extra cards for very high prices. There was actually someone that made a bot to bid ridiculous amounts to counter these “scalpers.” These outrageous bids ranged from 40,000 to 70,00 for a graphics card that only cost $700. These high-priced offers are leaving those trying to get the card a slim amount of options until stock hopefully returns.

“I, like many, was hoping to upgrade my system to one of these graphics cards, as their price to performance value is very high. Hopefully, the next batch of launches will be more organized through needing some sort of human authentication and purchase limits to mitigate the bots.” freshmen Ben Stoger said.

With the global pandemic slowing down the production of Playstation 5s and the XBOX Seres Xs, Nvidia’s RTX 3080 has not been the exception. Its hype became its demise on launch day, as it sold out within seconds of launch. Hopefully, those who are legitimately looking to buy the card will get their wish.

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