Nvidia is seriously undersupplying the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 GPUs, leading to a shortage that the company has finally acknowledged. Because of this, retailers and manufacturers are finding ways to ensure that everyone has a fair chance of getting a GPU directly from them and avoid scalpers who use bots to buy these graphics cards en masse and then sell them online for over twice or thrice the selling price. Because of this, Newegg posted on X that it’s reinstating its Shuffle program, which it first introduced in 2020 during the launch of the RTX 30-series GPUs during the pandemic.
The last Shuffle occurred at 10 a.m. PT on February 15, and Newegg raffled off three RTX 5080s for purchase. The retailer offered the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 5080 Gaming OC 16G, Asus TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 5080 16GB OC Edition, and ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5080 16GB OC Edition at premium prices. Gigabyte's model has gone from $1,199.99 to $1,399.99, whereas the Asus TUF Gaming and ROG Astral have increased from $1,349.99 to $1,484.99 and $1,499.99 to $1,649.99, respectively. Newegg has previously blamed the U.S. tariffs for the price hikes.
Unfortunately, the retailer said it doesn’t know when the next Shuffle will run, as each event depends on the arrival of GPU stocks in its warehouses. Nevertheless, you can receive notifications when it launches by signing up for notifications under your account or downloading the Newegg app to your phone. Alternatively, you can follow the company on X and other social media platforms, as it posts events like these there.
If you join the Shuffle program and are selected to purchase the GPU, it will automatically be added to your cart. You must then complete the transaction within the given window. Do not move the item to the Wish List or Save For Later, as you will lose your allocation (although you can get it back by clicking the link in the “You have been selected” notification).
Moves like this show how retailers work hard to ensure end-users get their hands on these GPUs. That way, they can thwart scalpers who use bots and other tools to gain an unfair advantage and then sell these in-demand items at way more than MSRP. While this is an admirable move, the onus to improve the situation is still on Nvidia, as it’s seemingly the bottleneck. After all, borders are now open, and we no longer have a graphics card supply chain problem brought on by lockdowns, unlike during the global COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 to 2022.
