It’s been a tough couple of years for PC gamers hoping to score a new GPU. A confluence of events including the pandemic and cryptocurrency price spikes have caused supply to dwindle, but those of you in the US have a reasonable shot at picking up one of Nvidia’s latest RTX 30 GPUs tomorrow (August 26). Dozens of Best Buy stores in the US are getting restocks of the RTX 3090, RTX 3080 Ti, RTX 3080, RTX 3070 Ti, RTX 3070, and RTX 3060 Ti. However, you’ll have to get an early start to the day.
Nvidia released the RTX 30-series GPUs almost a year ago, and there has never been a time when you could simply wander into a store or hop on Amazon to buy one. The cards have been in such high demand that aftermarket prices reached obscene levels. Some resellers were asking thousands of dollars for a single high-end GPU, and people were paying those prices.
If you can get to Best Buy early enough, though, you are guaranteed the opportunity to buy a GPU. Staff will begin handing out tickets at 7:30 AM local time. You can bet people will be lined up long before the appointed hour, so late risers need not apply. There will probably be people camping out overnight like a console launch for a chance to get a shiny new GPU. You can only get one ticket, and they must be used as soon as the store opens.
Here are the Best Buy Stock Numbers & Store List for the Founders Edition 3000 Series In-Store Restock
About 17,000 units total
Order in the sheet is : 3090, 3080, 3070, 3060 Ti, 3080 Ti & 3070 Ti https://t.co/LMOQMjwI9b pic.twitter.com/w1PI7FtLNE
— GPU Restock Monitor – NVIDIA, AMD & CONSOLES (@GPURestock) August 24, 2021
Best Buy has a landing page where you can see which stores are participating in the massive restock. Most states have at least one option. Best Buy has not, however, confirmed how many cards it will have for sale at each store. For that, you’ll have to trust an unconfirmed stock leak from the Twitter account @GPUrestock.
As you can see above, the restock should live up to the hype if this is accurate. Stores should have between 10 and 50 of each card model, amounting to more than 100 per store. There’s no guarantee you’ll be able to get an RTX 3090 with your ticket, but you’ll be able to get something. Even the 3060 Ti is better than anything you’ll find in stock at other retailers. Best Buy is the preferred retailer for Nvidia’s Founder’s Edition cards, so you’ll have to look elsewhere if you were hoping for overclocked or otherwise tweaked cards.
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