Trying to find where to buy the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 can be frustrating, disappointing, even maddening — such is the rarity of available stock. But thanks to MSI there are at least a few new models on the way, potentially offering fresh opportunities to grab the GPU before it disappears again.
MSI announced four updated additions to its GeForce RTX 3080 Gaming Trio range: the GeForce RTX 3080 Gaming Z Trio 10G, GeForce RTX 3080 Gaming X Trio 10G, GeForce RTX 3080 Gaming Trio Plus 10G and GeForce RTX 3080 Gaming Trio 10G. These all share the same dimensions and triple-fan cooler design, only differing on maximum boost clock speeds and power consumption.
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In fact, they’re also nigh-identical to the MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Gaming X Trio released last year, though they’re somehow all about an ounce lighter. The release date and pricing weren’t detailed either. Still, to many prospective buyers, the price might not be as much of an issue as availability.
If you’re not hugely bothered about which board partner manufactures it, having additional RTX 3080 models on the market would in theory make it slightly easier to find one in stock. But as we’ve seen multiple times across the Nvidia GeForce RTX 30-series, overall supply levels remain low and demand is consistently overwhelming it. The hoarding influence of digital currency miners and scalpers is hardly helping, too.
So, while it will be worth keeping an eye out for these MSI cards, anyone hoping to find RTX 3080 stock should probably treat them as just another potential target — rather than the turning point in this great GPU shortage we’ve been living in for months.
At the very least, we have seen some attempts to get gaming graphics cards into the hands of actual gamers. Newegg’s raffle system aims to take away the speed-buying advantages of scalpers’ bots, while Nvidia intentionally hamstrung the GeForce RTX 3060’s Ethereum mining performance to kill demand from miners. And it sounds like the same will happen to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, too.
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