In a lInkedIn job post for Senior Marketing Manager, NVIDIA has seemingly confirmed the launch of a Ti version of their GTX 1080 graphics card. The relevant line is a simple one: "980 Ti users get first spot in line for 1080 Ti pre-orders, or Step Up offer".

If true, this is an interesting way for NVIDIA to go on about with their newest generation graphics card releases, and would be a good way to essentially "corner" their current user base into future hardware upgrade paths by increasing the value of staying within the GeForce family. Considering NVIDIA's current product stack, we wouldn't be surprised to see GTX 1080 Ti retail at about $999, so a value of $200 for your used 980 Ti seems reasonable in such a trade-in program (from a purely corporate perspective, naturally).However, a move such as this also has the potential to open the proverbial can of worms: what about current owners of GTX 1070 or GTX 1080 graphics cards? Should they have the same right to participate in such an upgrade program? Or maybe even more, since this is a program designed to reward loyalty, and they've already acquired the company's latest and greatest (at the time)? Only time will tell, but I wager rivers of digital ink will run under this particular bridge, it NVIDIA does indeed decide to build upon it.

Yet another point of contention may be the fact that NVIDIA's add-in board partners, such as EVGA, ASUS or MSI, just to name a few, will see this upgrade program as a way for NVIDIA to keep sales of their products in-house (admitting that this offer will only be available towards an eventual acquisition of their Founder's Edition 1080 Ti graphics cards). This is definitely not a slight issue either, since any unbalancing acts towards the status quo are sure to have repercussions in the AIBs' relations with the company.

Nvidia is expected to unveil the new GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics card at the CES 2017, scheduled to kick off in January in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.