"Multiple Unnamed Sources" Definition: Internet Rumor.
Gamers Nexus is not a site I'd recommend for reliable information. But it is fun to speculate. Vendors will play with pricing prior to the holidays, always do. And you can't have a HUGE price discount w/o actually edging prices in advance. Your 10% off sale will have more of an impact if you raise prices 10% beforehand and than put up ads saying 20% off.
Aside from that.... 1080 Ti market share drop[ped slightly from 1.54% to
1.53% ... so doesn't seem like any 'watershed" moment ha spassed. Many things are possibilities ... with the 20xx series announced and in stores, did vendors go safe and hedge on their orders for 10xx series cards and new stock is in transit ? We have no reliable information either way and it will eb 2 weeks or more before we are in a better position to make a reasonable interpretation. We have 5 build lists this week for folks, non eof whuch are going foirward ... all sitting tight until Black Friday sales .
Why on earth would Nvidia continue production of a product that counters its own new product? The RTX2080 is the 1080ti replacement at price point, with similar performance. It's almost a given that the production of 1080ti is over. Nvidia wants us to buy RTX2080, not 1080ti. Their own focus is now on RT, so it's pretty obvious from a business sense to cease production of the older model. Pascal is dead. Long live Pascal (sort of).
Common business sense. It's one thing having a product ready to demonstrate ... it's another having a product that you can make in a fiscally responsible manner. A paper launch occurs when a competitor launches a product and they don't want consumer to blow their wad of money on that competitor's product ... a paper launch give a "let's wait and see" pause. In any new launch, there's the time where you can get yields off the production line to demo ... another when you can get them out to reviewers and in small quantities to stores but can not meet demand. And then there's production yields that can actually keep up with demand.... that point has abviously not been reached give the problems affecting a significant number of users.
But here we have a unique situation. There is no competitive product. At this point, we'd be in the low yield short supply stage but uniquely in this case, there was still a lot of 10xx stock and the 20xx yields are still low that they decided "Hey, lets put these new cards coming off w/ low yields in stores to get some cash flow ... because so many consumers lack impulse control, we can sel these at exorbitant prices. It will make our old cards look like a bargain, we get free press and we can get all the no impulse control folks to spill $200 more of the hard earned cash... the proverbial win-win-win situation". Is this just more proof of a company that is singularly greedy ? No, it's just capitalism and it's what any company not only would do but is required to do under current law. As long as they are not breaking laws, or hurting long term business prospects, all corporate boards have a fiscal responsibility to shareholders to maximize profits. If they can't get necessary working yields out of the 2xxx series production lines to meet demand, they must serve the market ... and the most logical means to do that is to sell 10xx series cards till they yield improves on 2xxx.