Finding a true GeForce RTX 3080 deal right now — meaning, finding the GPU at a great price — would be rather like finding Bigfoot: Blurry photos and bad costumes aside, neither one exists. The conjunction of the pandemic, increased demand from a variety of sectors, supply chain difficulties, shortages of several key components, and then cryptocurrency mining fever all lined up in such a way as to destroy all hope of finding an RTX 3080 for Nvidia's $699 MSRP. Outside of periodic small restocks at brick and mortar retailers such as Best Buy or Micro Center, you won’t be able to acquire any of the best graphics cards without paying a big markup. Depending on your definition of a deal, however, you can still find savings. We can't provide absolutely awesome prices, but we can point to some options that are at least worth considering in the current GPU climate.
There are actually several graphics cards that can be lumped together under the GeForce RTX 3080 deal banner. Do you want the original GeForce RTX 3080 10GB desktop card, which remains our favorite (theoretical) pick for the best overall graphics card? Or do you want the more recent GeForce RTX 3080 Ti 12GB, which boasts similar performance to the GeForce RTX 3090 but with half the VRAM? Finally, there are laptops sporting the mobile GeForce RTX 3080, which is really more like the desktop RTX 3070, but it's branded as a 3080 — probably because getting a GA102 GPU into a laptop would be difficult at best, considering the desktop cards draw 320W or more power. We'll look at all three options here.
Before we get to the RTX 3080 deals, let's set the stage. Our GPU price index tracks recently sold GPUs on eBay. That's not a perfect look at the market, but it does give a reasonable indication of what some people are willing to pay. Not surprisingly, retail prices at places like Amazon and Newegg tend to follow the eBay trends — perhaps minus eBay's 14% pound of flesh, perhaps not. If you can find a GeForce RTX 3080 or GeForce RTX 3080 Ti for several hundred dollars less than the typical eBay price, we'd consider that a "deal" — even if it still ends up being rather expensive.
How Much Does a Standalone GeForce RTX 3080 Cost?
We have a few places we can look for a standalone GeForce RTX 3080. Most vendors charging "reasonable" prices are sold out and have been since the cards launched last year. The easiest place to find an RTX 3080 is eBay, though as usual you'll want to exercise caution — avoid buying from new accounts, and if the price looks too good to be true (basically, anything under $1,000), it probably is. There are tons of scams going on right now, so act accordingly. Beyond eBay, there are third parties selling GPUs on Amazon and Newegg, and there's also the Newegg Shuffle. Here's what we've found looking at current prices.
Theoretically, the Newegg Shuffle looks like the best bet, but I can speak from experience and say that out of hundreds of attempts, I have never been selected for an RTX 3080 shuffle — I've only "won" the opportunity to buy an expensive bundle four times, and twice it was for a CPU bundle. The other two times were for an RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3090 bundle priced at over $2,500. Thanks but no thanks. If you can find a card that's actually in stock, Newegg still might be your best bet, but do note that the typical price for the RTX 3080 is over twice the MSRP in all of the cases we checked.
That takes care of the RTX 3080 10GB cards, but what about the more expensive RTX 3080 Ti 12GB?
Nvidia "solved" the problem of incredible demand and not enough supply for the RTX 3080 by releasing the RTX 3080 Ti, with a suggested price that was 70% higher for about 10–15% more performance. The result is near-RTX 3090 performance for slightly less money, but the 3090 was really a card designed for graphics professionals. Regardless, the markup on the RTX 3080 Ti tends to be more like 50% rather than more than double, but few gamers should be seriously looking at a graphics card that costs a couple grand.
Interestingly, the going rate on eBay tends to be lower than most of the other options on the RTX 3080 Ti. That's probably because all RTX 3080 Ti cards have Nvidia's hashrate limiter (LHR models), while there are still non-LHR 3080 cards floating around. Miners are willing to pay a premium for the non-LHR cards, driving the average price up. Sellers on Newegg and Amazon meanwhile charge so much that you're already paying scalper prices, so maybe the cards won't just end up being resold on eBay — since tax, shipping, and eBay's cut all need to come out of the sale price.
The bottom line is that if you can find an RTX 3080 for anywhere close to $1,000, that would definitely constitute an "RTX 3080 deal." While the RTX 3080 Ti runs faster, the higher baseline price means you'd be lucky to find one for under $1,500, and that's the sort of RTX 3080 Ti deal we're looking for.
GeForce RTX 3080 Deals in Prebuilt PCs
While it's difficult to find a standalone RTX 3080 deal, large OEMs and system integrators are prioritizing putting graphics cards into complete systems. That's a form of bundling, the idea being that charging a slightly lower premium on the graphics card but selling an entire PC can yield a higher net return. Here are some of the current "deals" we're tracking with RTX 3080 PCs.
You can probably find some similar RTX 3080 deals elsewhere, but the general rule of thumb is that you'll get an RTX 3080, Core i7 or Ryzen 7 CPU (or better), 16GB (or more) of memory, at least 500GB of SSD storage, and of course the motherboard, power supply, and case that make everything work. Pricing starts at about $2,100, with higher spec models going for $2,500 or more.
Considering just the RTX 3080 graphics card would set you back $1,600 or more, buying a complete desktop for another $500 might not be a bad idea. We recently discussed the pros and cons of GPU shucking — buying a prebuilt PC, ripping out the GPU, and then selling off the rest of the system. Some deals are better than others, and we found that in general you'll pay about 50% more than Nvidia's official $700 MSRP for the graphics card, once you subtract the cost of the rest of the system. These days, having only a 50 percent markup counts as a good RTX 3080 deal.
The good news (sort of) is that, often, the more expensive the GPU and PC you choose, the closer the GPU gets to the nominal MSRP. Take the iBuyPower system at Best Buy we’ve listed below as an example, which sells for $2,400. Pricing things out, not including the graphics card you'll pay about $950 for a comparable DIY PC. Factor in another $200 for having the PC pre-assembled and tested, not to mention a legit copy of Windows 10, and that means iBuyPower / Best Buy is "only" charging around $1,250 for the GPU, which would definitely qualify as an RTX 3080 deal. Plus, unlike some big OEMs, it looks as though iBuyPower just uses one of several custom RTX 3080 cards from Asus, Gigabyte, or MSI, any of which would be better than an OEM-only design.
GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Deals in Prebuilt PCs
Doing the same for an RTX 3080 Ti bumps the prices up quite a bit, but it also increases some of the other specs as well. You're now looking at around $3,000 as the starting price, for a well-equipped PC with 32GB RAM, a 1TB SSD, and a Core i7-11700KF (or better) processor. The memory and storage upgrades account for about $100 of the price difference, which means you'd still be looking at around $1,750 for just the graphics card (again, putting $200 to assembly and warranty support).
That's steep, but it's not quite as bad as what you'd pay for just the GPU on its own. If you're in the market for a complete PC upgrade — and let's be honest, if you're looking at an RTX 3080 Ti, you better be rocking at least a Core i9-9900K or Ryzen 9 5900X or better — it's likely less of a headache than trying to acquire the parts to build your own PC. It's potentially also less fun, if you're the type of person who enjoys tinkering with their hardware.
GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop Deals
Despite the similarity in name, the mobile GeForce RTX 3080 bears little resemblance to its desktop counterpart. Where the desktop 3080 uses the GA102 GPU with 10GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit memory interface, with 8704 CUDA cores clocked at 1710MHz, the mobile RTX 3080 uses the GA104 GPU with 8GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit interface, and 6144 CUDA cores clocked at up to 1710MHz — but many laptops will limit power and clock speeds, with the minimum boost clock being just 1245MHz. The net result is generally slightly lower performance than the desktop RTX 3070.
But a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, right? It's just a slower, more power-friendly rose that hopefully won't roast your lap. The good news is that prices, for a complete laptop that you can take on the road, or tote to class, end up being pretty comparable to the RTX 3080 desktop PCs. The laptops won't be as fast, but you won't need to add your own display, keyboard, mouse, and speakers — unless you want to.
Specs and other features can vary substantially among laptops, just like with desktops. The lowest price on an RTX 3080 laptop deal we've been able to find right now is the MSI GP66 Leopard at Newegg, normally priced at $1,899 but currently available for $1,799 (after a $100 rebate card, blech). Still, specs are good with a Core i7-11800H CPU, 16GB RAM, a 1TB SSD, and a 1080p 240Hz IPS display. Alternatively, there's a Gigabyte Aorus 15.6-inch at Best Buy, with the same features except it has 32GB memory, for $1,899 and without any rebate shenanigans to deal with.
If you just want to see what’s out there, check our complete list of all the RTX 3080 laptops you can buy. We'll be looking for any other reasonable GeForce RTX 3080 deals during the Black Friday and holiday season and will update this page and our list of the best Black Friday gaming laptop deals if and when we find them.
If you happen to find something better that we've missed, give us a tip in the comments and we'll add it to the list. Assuming you've already got yours, you'll be helping others to acquire some better gaming goodness this holiday season.
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