- A Finnish retailer has aired price tags for Gigabyte’s RTX 5080 models
- Only the WindForce variant is at the MSRP
- The six other RTX 5080 boards shown are 15% to 35% pricier
Nvidia’s RTX 5080 is priced at an MSRP of $999 in the US – and in line with that in other regions – which was a pleasant surprise, but it seems that the worst fears of some gamers might be realized, if pricing on some third-party boards that just popped up is anything to go by.
This info come from a Finnish retailer, Proshop, which has jumped the gun and listed Gigabyte’s RTX 5080 models with pricing, and only one graphics card is set at the MSRP in Finland (€1,229) out of a total of seven boards.
As VideoCardz reports, only the Gigabyte WindForce model is pitched at that €1,229, with the other six variants being a good deal more expensive.
Even the most affordable of those non-WindForce offerings, the Gaming OC and Aero OC, are both €1,419, which is a considerable premium over the baseline graphics card.
The Aorus variants are a good deal more expensive still, with the priciest version of those, the Aorus Xtreme WaterForce, reaching €1,669.
What this means is that Gigabyte has one RTX 5080 board, the WindForce, at the MSRP, and the other flavors are between 15% and 35% pricier. Obviously we should exercise a whole lot of caution around these prices, in case they turn out to be wrong somehow, or placeholders, but we’re very close to release now (and they sound plausible).
Analysis: An ominous sign – but don’t panic yet
As noted at the outset, this was the worry I – and many others – expressed at the time of Nvidia’s announcement of the RTX 5080 pricing.
On the one hand, it was great to see that $999 MSRP attached to the RTX 5080, when rumors had suggested Nvidia might sell it at $1,200 in the US (and proportional to that elsewhere), or maybe a good chunk more than that. Especially considering that the RTX 5090 price got jacked up.
On the other hand, the main concern was that most third-party models wouldn’t be at MSRP, and that scenario is exactly what appears to be playing out with Gigabyte’s RTX 5080 graphics cards – at least if the info from Proshop is correct. And it may not be, as already mentioned, so we mustn’t jump to any conclusions yet.
This remains just an ominous hint at the moment, then, although even if it proves right, there’s a chance that other graphics card makers won’t follow suit, and may have more models at the MSRP level. Or rather, their second-tier above baseline models hopefully won’t have a 15% hike, and instead exhibit a more modest increase.
If there are very few third-party RTX 5080 models on sale at the MSRP (or close), then the likelihood is that at launch – and maybe for quite some time after – those boards will sell out in a flash (along with Nvidia’s Founders Edition). Making the reality of getting an RTX 5080 at the MSRP level a shaky prospect, in short, but there’s still hope yet that this scenario won’t play out.
