Zotac’s Master Plan To Stop RTX 5090 Scalpers Is Genius

Getting a hold of an RTX 5090 or an RTX 5080 hasn’t been easy with scalpers waiting in the wings, but Zotac has a plan to combat this issue. While several retailers and manufacturers have come up with ways to try and prevent the scalping of new GPUs (and other in-demand products), Zotac’s approach seems to be the best solution we’ve come across.

Last week, Zotac posted on its Discord server that it would be selling RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 GPUs directly to consumers to fight back against scalpers. The idea is that Zotac will hold raffles for consumers, and winners of those raffles will be able to buy one GPU of their choice. On top of that, GPUs will be priced at MSRP. This is a far cry from what other manufacturers have done. Particularly MSI and ASUS. Both companies have increased the costs of most if not all RTX 50-series GPU models across the board.

Newegg, a popular PC component retailer in the US, has also increased the cost of cards it’s selling. According to the company, this is happening because of Trump’s Chinese tariffs that took effect last week. This is also potentially the reason MSI and ASUS increased the prices of their GPUs. If you still haven’t been able to purchase an RTX 5090 or an RTX 5080, then you might want to consider joining the Zotac Discord server, if you’re not already a member. That being said, there are rules in place to actually win one of these raffles.

Zotac won’t let just anyone buy an RTX 5090 or RTX 5080

As noted in Zotac’s Discord server announcement, there are some “rules of engagement” to being able to buy one of these GPUs. Obviously, you’ll need to win the raffles Zotac puts out. To win the raffles, however, you have to meet certain requirements.

First and foremost, you need to be an active member. Meaning, you need to participate in discussions, interact with other contests or messages, and so on. Zotac says “spam low-effort messages will not count.” In short, you can’t just go in and give a one-word answer to one or two posts and be eligible. If you win, you also have to respond within a certain amount of time to purchase the GPU. Additionally, Zotac isn’t allowing people to buy more than one card per household.

On top of this, it will disqualify any entrants that are discovered to have cheated. Anyone engaged in toxic behavior in the server will be disqualified as well. It’s not a foolproof system. However, it appears that it could work a lot better than the way others have handled this same situation.

The company will ban people from future contests if they find out GPUs were sold

The cherry on top of all this, perhaps, is Zotac’s response to anyone they discover to have sold the GPU from a raffle win. Those users will be banned from future contests. While it doesn’t entirely stop people from entering, winning, and selling the cards at a markup, it won’t really be efficient for scalpers to enter Zotac’s contests for the new RTX 50-series GPUs.

Zotac also states that all serial numbers are recorded to track and verify purchases. And that will expose scalpers if they’re caught, in addition to the bans. In a world where some retailers, manufacturers, and scalpers are making it infinitely harder to buy one of NVIDIA’s new GPUs, Zotac is trying to do right by the consumer. And that’s admirable.