according to Suroosh on the Nvidia forums, (opens in new tab) Nvidia is testing a new buying program for the RTX 4090. The Verified Priority Access program ensures that a certain number of creators and gamers get the chance to buy her Nvidia’s premier graphics card. This program requires the GeForce Experience app to function and uses in-app notifications to encourage selected attendees to purchase the Founders Edition 4090.
Nvidia is reportedly testing this new program to help some of its customer base avoid the day one availability issues that often occur at launch. Unfortunately, this is exactly what happened with his RTX 4090, with most models going out of stock shortly after launch. Even now, retailers like Newegg and Best Buy have all his RTX 4090 models out of stock.
Unfortunately, Nvidia has not disclosed who has access to this priority program or how many customers may have access to the system. What we do know is that Nvidia is a select retailer in certain countries, including Best Buy (US), Scan (UK), NBB (Germany and Holland), and LDLC (France, Italy, Spain). It’s testing the program.
If I had to guess, Nvidia is probably limiting its current test run to only the most popular gamers and streamers online today, and if the test goes well it could spread to more mainstream consumers. This priority program is very similar to other systems that have emerged during GPU starvation, such as EVGA’s queue order and Newegg shuffle.
Programs like this aren’t bad, especially during the boot of a major GPU. Done right, it could keep a lot of cards out of scalper hands and at least some people would be able to buy GPUs at launch without worrying about availability.
However, its success depends on how many people can get in the queue and how many cards Nvidia withholds from preferred members only.
