Nvidia this week launched its Verified Priority Access for the GeForce RTX 5080 Founders Edition and GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition add-in-boards allowing a limited number of verified U.S. customers to purchase some of the best graphics cards directly from the Nvidia Marketplace without any hassle.
To qualify, users must have an Nvidia Account created before January 30, 2025 and submit their interest through a form. Selected users will receive email notifications sometimes next week and will be able to purchase Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 5080 Founders Edition and GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition boards at MSRPs — $999 and 1999, respectively — without having to pay a premium to retailers or scalpers.
By launching its Verified Priority Access program, Nvidia ensures that some — we do not know how many though — of its loyal customers will be able to lay their hands on its latest products without having to pay extra or camp near traditional retailers. Considering that these people are loyal GeForce users and registered at Nvidia’s forums, the green company can fully expect them to spread the word how good the GeForce RTX 5080 and GeForce RTX 5090 graphics cards are in the forums, which will work as advertising and will to some degree reassure the gamers crowd that the latest AIBs from Nvidia are available relatively widely.
As an added bonus, Nvidia will be able to sell its own Founders Edition graphics cards directly to gamers, thus earning some additional cash and not sharing the profit with its add-in-board partners as the VPA program does not cover products even from the close allies of Nvidia in the U.S., such as Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, or PNY.
This Verified Priority Access program is currently limited to U.S. users and applies only to the lates GeForce RTX 5080 and RTX 5080 Founders Edition models. It is unclear whether Nvidia also plans to launch its VPA program for its GeForce RTX 5070 Ti FE when and if it becomes available.
This is not the first time when Nvidia launches its Verified Priority Access program with its range-topping graphics cards. In 2022 the company already offered such a program for its GeForce RTX 4090. Later on the company expanded it with GeForce RTX 4080 and with products by its AIB partners.
