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NVIDIA apologizes for RTX 3090 pre-orders before they even begin

The $1,500 GPU built for "extreme gamers" goes on sale this morning.

NVIDIA

NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3090 is going on pre-order this morning, but it sounds like you’re going to need a lot of luck to get one. In a blog post, the company has essentially pre-apologized for the lack of supply, while stressing that it’s strictly designed (and priced) for enthusiasts.

“Since we built GeForce RTX 3090 for a unique group of users, like the TITAN RTX before it, we want to apologize upfront that this will be in limited supply on launch day,” the company wrote. “We know this is frustrating, and we’re working with our partners to increase the supply in the weeks to come.”

The RTX 3090 is designed for what NVIDIA calls “extreme gamers,” with features like 10,496 CUDA cores and a prodigious 24GB of GDDR6X memory. It’s also made for “creators making movies and rendering cinematics” or 8K gaming — provided you’re one of the very few people with an 8K TV. It also said that you’ll only see a 10 to 15 percent performance boost over the RTX 3080, but you’ll pay over double the price — $1,500 compared to $700.

Still, that’s not likely to discourage buyers who want to buy and flip the cards for a profit — in fact, the high price and apology could create even more demand. After all, when the RTX 3080 Founders Edition went on sale, it instantly sold out and started popping up on eBay for insane prices.