According to Suroosh on the Nvidia forums, (opens in new tab) Nvidia is testing a new purchasing program for the RTX 4090. The Verified Priority Access program guarantees a certain number of creators and gamers get a chance to buy Nvidia’s best graphics card. The program requires the GeForce Experience app to work and uses an in-app notification that invites selected participants to buy a Founders Edition 4090.
Nvidia is reportedly testing this new program to ensure that some of its customer base can bypass day-one availability issues that often occur at launch. Unfortunately, this is exactly what happened with the RTX 4090, with most models going out of stock almost instantly at launch. Even now, all RTX 4090 models are out of stock at retailers like Newegg and Best Buy.
Unfortunately, Nvidia did not disclose who would gain access to this priority program, or how many customers can potentially get into the system. All we know is Nvidia is testing the program with select retailers in specific countries, including Best Buy (United States), Scan (United Kingdom), NBB (Germany & Netherlands), and LDLC (France, Italy, and Spain).
If we had to guess, Nvidia is probably limiting the current test run to only the most popular gamers and streamers online today, potentially spreading out to more mainstream consumers if testing goes well. This priority program is very similar to other systems, such as EVGA’s queue order or the Newegg shuffle, that debuted during the GPU shortage.
A program like this isn’t bad, especially during major GPU launches. If done right, it can prevent a lot of cards from falling into the hands of scalpers and ensures at least some people can buy a GPU at launch without worrying about availability.
However, its success will depend on how many people can get into the queue and how many cards Nvidia will withhold for priority members only.