In a recent message On the GeForce forums, an Nvidia community manager announced that the company is testing a new program called “verified priority access.” The program gives a number of potential buyers the opportunity to pre-order a GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition graphics card without the hassle that can sometimes be required to get their hands on a new GPU.
The program, such as VideoCardz correctly indicatedis a similar idea to that of EVGA Elite Priority Access system, which gave the company’s “Elite” members 24-hour exclusive early access to its new products. Elite status didn’t cost any money – users who were active on the company’s forums and Twitch streams or who had recently purchased and registered EVGA products were eligible. (EVGA will no longer be active in the graphics card business as of September.)
Those invited to join the program will receive a notification in the GeForce Experience app with a unique URL to make their purchase. It is not yet clear how Nvidia will determine who will receive this notification. Testing “currently” includes Best Buy in the US, Scan in the UK, NBB in Germany and the Netherlands, and LDLC in France, Italy and Spain, according to the post.
The program is probably an attempt to solve one-day availability problems. Flagship Nvidia cards often sell out right after launch and are hard to find for months to come. If successful, this system will hopefully see at least some Founders Edition models fall into the hands of gamers rather than scalpers right after launch.
In his recent review of the RTX 4090 Founders Edition, roadside editor Tom Warren called the map “a beast.” The device costs $1,599 and consumes 450 watts. Warren, who was testing the card, found a huge performance boost over the RTX 3090 at high resolutions, writing that “the high frames I had become accustomed to at 1440p are now available in 4K.”
