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30xx Series Founders Edition

Soldato
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Sort of as I mentioned in other thread. Not entirely surprised, Nvidia would rather sell chips to AIBs. The bill of material on these FE models must be high yet going for MSRP. Real purpose is to provide a Halo type product and for marketing which also provides a basis to say the price of the 3080 is only 649 yet offers this level of performance, even if every other AIB model may be more and fe rarely available. Throw into the mix dealing with less aftercare support to deal with and needing infrastructure in place for that and not surprised fe is going to be rare / limited in sales.
 
Soldato
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Sort of as I mentioned in other thread. Not entirely surprised, Nvidia would rather sell chips to AIBs. The bill of material on these FE models must be high yet going for MSRP. Real purpose is to provide a Halo type product and for marketing which also provides a basis to say the price of the 3080 is only 649 yet offers this level of performance, even if every other AIB model may be more and fe rarely available. Throw into the mix dealing with less aftercare support to deal with and needing infrastructure in place for that and not surprised fe is going to be rare / limited in sales.

Not going to bother with scalped AIB cards. Only ever had terrible experiences with them.
 
Soldato
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5,952
Sort of as I mentioned in other thread. Not entirely surprised, Nvidia would rather sell chips to AIBs. The bill of material on these FE models must be high yet going for MSRP. Real purpose is to provide a Halo type product and for marketing which also provides a basis to say the price of the 3080 is only 649 yet offers this level of performance, even if every other AIB model may be more and fe rarely available. Throw into the mix dealing with less aftercare support to deal with and needing infrastructure in place for that and not surprised fe is going to be rare / limited in sales.
Makes sense what you're saying although NV could slap a higher price tag on FE's & the infrastructure has to be in place anyway, and already is for previous FE's and that's the difficult bit, scaling up to support more sales would be easier.
I didn't read limited as strictly limited or intentionally limited. Can only speculate on that but I'm assuming limited due to capacity, having to fulfil third party contracts.
I don't like paying more than I have to so I'll be checking a few times a day. If unlucky, maybe there might be a refresh later anyway or will sit out the gen.
 
Soldato
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Makes sense what you're saying although NV could slap a higher price tag on FE's & the infrastructure has to be in place anyway, and already is for previous FE's and that's the difficult bit, scaling up to support more sales would be easier.
I didn't read limited as strictly limited or intentionally limited. Can only speculate on that but I'm assuming limited due to capacity, having to fulfil third party contracts.
I don't like paying more than I have to so I'll be checking a few times a day. If unlucky, maybe there might be a refresh later anyway or will sit out the gen.

No way Nvidia would jack up the price, rather it not be on offer for sale saying its limited then get egg on there face. A fair bit of there marketing not just for this gen but generations going forward use the price / performance factor as a lynchpin.

Contracts may vary for infrastructure but important if combined with the high price tag to make and dealing with less aftercare and just cream the profits from selling chips, win win for Nvidia. Looking around at this thread and others, the demand for FE is massive with plenty settling for other SKUs simply due to FE being out of stock. Nvidia likely crunched the numbers and figured they get more profit selling chips to AIBs then then making and producing the FE model and all that goes along with it.

I do not think its intentionally limited, I think its limited simply by virtue of demand. Not many being produced but demand being significant and it will be for a long while yet with FE. Into the New year I suspect or amusingly for 3080 if the 20gb model becomes available.
 
Soldato
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Worth remember that it wasn't that long ago AIB's sold FE's, known as reference cards back then. The price of those would vary. Then NV I think moved to selling Titans direct only, you couldn't get a Titan anywhere else but you could get the 70's, 80's with different cooler designs from AIB's. And then since the 20 series NV redesigned the reference coolers to be more competitive with AIB designs, stopped AIB's from selling reference cards(FE's) and now sell direct a version of each model, not not just the Titan. If anything a move seems to have been made to try to sell more products direct to customers so it'd be strange to prefer AIB's to sell them now for more profit while still coming up with new FE designs, having the infrastructure in place to sell and support to end customers.

Sounds like possibly reconsidering distribution options to the EU so hopefully if they can get on top of the supply issue, we may see better availability in a few months
 
Soldato
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Worth remember that it wasn't that long ago AIB's sold FE's, known as reference cards back then. The price of those would vary. Then NV I think moved to selling Titans direct only, you couldn't get a Titan anywhere else but you could get the 70's, 80's with different cooler designs from AIB's. And then since the 20 series NV redesigned the reference coolers to be more competitive with AIB designs, stopped AIB's from selling reference cards(FE's) and now sell direct a version of each model, not not just the Titan. If anything a move seems to have been made to try to sell more products direct to customers so it'd be strange to prefer AIB's to sell them now for more profit while still coming up with new FE designs, having the infrastructure in place to sell and support to end customers.

Sounds like possibly reconsidering distribution options to the EU so hopefully if they can get on top of the supply issue, we may see better availability in a few months

If it was the case then Nvidia would make everything themselves. Fact is they are not they need to keep AIB's on side also. It is not strange to keep coming up with FE models and improving them, the brand / marketing value it represents is significant. Hardly unique and goes back generations with the cooler styling being extremely recognisable and improvements year on year being of value. There is a difference between doing some direct sales and flooding the market with consistent availability of the product.

As I said I expect the FE model will keep selling, but as per Nvidia's own words its FE is limited. I expect the rest of 2020 stock for FE will go out as fast as they come while getting easier to pick up few months into 2021 in but hope to be proven wrong but I doubt it as I also plan on picking up couple of FE models for various builds of mine.

Guess we will see in a few months :)
 
Associate
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And so my watch is ended. Real shame that they're not even distributing FE cards in Europe, they actually look like professional hardware rather than something a 14 year sketched with a Monster Energy can for inspiration, but I've had a newly build system waiting since mid-September with no GPU to run it. Pleased to have a Zotac Trinity in hand and running well, even if it's not the best looking!
 
Associate
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31 May 2016
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If it was the case then Nvidia would make everything themselves. Fact is they are not they need to keep AIB's on side also. It is not strange to keep coming up with FE models and improving them, the brand / marketing value it represents is significant. Hardly unique and goes back generations with the cooler styling being extremely recognisable and improvements year on year being of value. There is a difference between doing some direct sales and flooding the market with consistent availability of the product.

As I said I expect the FE model will keep selling, but as per Nvidia's own words its FE is limited. I expect the rest of 2020 stock for FE will go out as fast as they come while getting easier to pick up few months into 2021 in but hope to be proven wrong but I doubt it as I also plan on picking up couple of FE models for various builds of mine.

Guess we will see in a few months :)

Why is it that Nvidia relies on AIB partners whilst AMD seems to make their own cards?
 
Soldato
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Why is it that Nvidia relies on AIB partners whilst AMD seems to make their own cards?

They both rely on AIB's, in fact most (not all) of the AMD blower style coolers you will buy them via an AIB partner who will slap there brand on the box and manage the warranty and aftercare. Nvidia was not unique with this really, as up to the Pascal generation, the FE model was sold via AIB partners, even though they all were produced in the same place. Production of the actual physical hardware is done by subcontractors for both AMD and Nvidia anyways as is the production of the core (TSMC and Samsung). On aftermarket coolers plenty of options around for AMD GPUs aside from some specific models. Recall hardware unboxed doing there highest number of reviews around the time on the 5700XT as there were so many AIB models and they were generating solid reviews for them with nearly 12 of them on hand.
 
Associate
Joined
31 May 2016
Posts
137
They both rely on AIB's, in fact most (not all) of the AMD blower style coolers you will buy them via an AIB partner who will slap there brand on the box and manage the warranty and aftercare. Nvidia was not unique with this really, as up to the Pascal generation, the FE model was sold via AIB partners, even though they all were produced in the same place. Production of the actual physical hardware is done by subcontractors for both AMD and Nvidia anyways as is the production of the core (TSMC and Samsung). On aftermarket coolers plenty of options around for AMD GPUs aside from some specific models. Recall hardware unboxed doing there highest number of reviews around the time on the 5700XT as there were so many AIB models and they were generating solid reviews for them with nearly 12 of them on hand.

I see, had no idea AMD relied on AIB also. Many thanks for the explanation!
 
Associate
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1 Feb 2017
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Be interesting to see who Nvidia use to sell the card outside North America. They obviously have BestBuy for there, they dropped a load of 3080 yesterday there just before Nvidia announced they won’t be selling on there own site.

Rainforest would be the best choice since they serve all of Europe easily. Would love it to be here or another uk based retailer but Brexit probably means that’s off the cards.
 
Soldato
Joined
19 Oct 2008
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5,952
Nvidia no longer selling FE on their website (sorry if this is old news)

https://www.techradar.com/news/nvid...unders-edition-stock-passes-baton-to-best-buy
Temporary I think:

'
We have heard your feedback regarding the NVIDIA online store and are working to improve the experience.

In the meantime, we will be selling our GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 Founders Edition through other partners. In the US, you can shop for Founders Edition at Best Buy - GeForce RTX 3080 and GeForce RTX 3090 . In Europe, we continue to review Founders Edition fulfillment options.

Founders Edition units are limited, and more will be available in the coming weeks alongside an increasing supply of boards from our global board partners.
'
No idea what it means for the uk in the short term.
 
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