There is no blanket threshold amount above which scalping happens and below which scalping stops.[...]
There will always be scalper, even if they lose money . . .
Back to reality: The amount of scalping depends on the difference between MSRP and demand driven higher street price.
The two main counter strategies are:
1) Auction. AIBs or nVidia can auction the first charges, until broad availability is reached. Everyone interested can make his bid. The highest bids are winning. Consequence: Scalper and consumer are paying the same price. Nothing to gain for scalper.
2) Fill the warehouses with high stock and start selling, once there are enough to supply each buyer with a product. Consequence: Scalper won't find consumers, who will pay more.
In the past, Titan was significantly more expensive. These days the high-end models with 24 GB Vram are only a bit more expensive, the 4090 disproportionate more performant, than the x080 series. Good prices for fans of high-end GPUs. 3090 and 4090 are fairly priced. Within the next 4-6 weeks I will decide, which one I buy. 3090 around 1000$ or later the 4090 around 1600-1700$, once the early adopter problems are solved, market saturated, AMD 7000 in the shells.
40x0 series continues the problem of 30x0 series. Overpriced mid-tier cards.