Canceled Nvidia GeForce graphics card sells for the same as a brand-new RTX 5090

An incredibly rare Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti with 20GB of VRAM has sold on eBay for $1,999, and is apparently in full working order with one critical exception: Nvidia drivers do not support this card. The GPU itself is actually less powerful than most modern cards, but is one of the few to ever surface on the secondhand market.

Compared to the best graphics card of the moment, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090, the 20GB VRAM variant of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti doesn't measure up to it. The 20GB 3080 Ti model doesn't even have native driver support, with the card's seller stating a third-party driver like Nvidia-patcher is required to get the card running. Despite this, the RTX 3080 Ti 20GB VRAM sold for as much as an RTX 5090, and the reason why will require a very, very brief history lesson.

Back in 2020, rumors were circulating of a 20GB variant of the RTX 3080 Ti, but Nvidia never confirmed its existence. Only the 12GB model ever made it to market, but the existence of a prototype 3080 Ti card confirms that Nvidia was at one point exploring the idea. The reason as to why the 20GB 3080 Ti was reportedly canceled remains a mystery, sadly, and it's likely that the prototypes were never meant to see the light of day, let alone pop up on an eBay listing.

It is, however, interesting that Nvidia was seemingly at one point considering adding so much VRAM to one of its cards. It seems all too common that Nvidia products arguably don't have as much VRAM as you'd expect for the price tag, as we found during testing in our RTX 5070 review. Even the 12GB model of the RTX 3080 Ti seemed miserly considering that its direct competition, AMD's Radeon RX 6900 XT, had an additional 4GB of VRAM over the 3080 Ti.

Regardless, getting your hands on a 20GB VRAM version of the 3080 Ti is a distant dream for many collectors. That said, the June 2025 eBay listing wasn't the first time that an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti with 20GB of VRAM was sighted in the wilds. Back in 2023, one reportedly surfaced on Facebook marketplace in Australia for $1,100. It seems unlikely that the two cards are the same, but it is interesting that the asking price has increased so much in a relatively small timeframe. It further cements that this prototype 3080 Ti model is an incredibly uncommon collector's item, and you probably won't ever see it for yourself.

While you can't get your hands on the discontinued RTX 3080 Ti model, you can try to get your hands on an RTX 5090. Unfortunately, the RTX 5090 is frequently out of stock, at least at the time of writing. Fortunately, there is the decently powerful Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 GPU, which is much cheaper than the 5090, if you can find it in stock.

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