EVGA has introduced a queueing system to help those wanting to buy RTX 3000 graphics cards who are struggling with the limited stock available, and bots or scalpers grabbing the scarce GPUs which do pop up.
This is something we’ve seen folks on Reddit (and elsewhere online) cry out for, and the idea is that you can notify EVGA that you wish to buy an RTX 3000 GPU, then you’ll be placed into the queue.
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As stock of the relevant graphics cards becomes available, when your turn in line comes up, you’ll be emailed and will then have a short window of time – eight hours – to make your purchase. And the further good news for folks who have already registered their interest in an EVGA card is that they are already in line (even for those who clicked the notify button pre-release).
EVGA announced: “To sign up, use the notification button on the product you would like to be notified for. For everyone who already used the notify button previously, you are already entered.
“Once product is available (and it is your turn to purchase), you will receive a secure email that will allow you to purchase the product that you received a notification for. Please note that you have 8 hours to place your order, if your order is not complete within 8 hours, the product will be released back into queue system.”
“Also note that your email address that was used for the notify system MUST MATCH an email that has a registered EVGA account, if an account is not available with that email, you will need to create one before you can purchase.”
To begin with, this system is now live for the US and Canada, with the idea of rolling it out to other regions later, depending on how it works and is received.
EVGA also confirmed that fresh stock of RTX 3000 graphics cards is expected to arrive later this week, so emails will start going out to queued gamers then.
Not a panacea
While this queueing system is a very welcome initiative, it’s not a cure-all for defeating bots and scalpers. Although it certainly makes things harder for them, and fairer for the average consumer actually trying to buy a graphics card to play games with rather than resell on eBay for hugely inflated prices.
Furthermore, there are of course a whole lot of people already on the waiting list – reportedly over 50,000 before EVGA even made this announcement – so temper your expectations, anyway. Particularly given that Nvidia has said that it expects RTX 3000 GPU stock shortages to persist into 2021.
Still, it’s great to see EVGA taking some countermeasures against bots, and the firm has certainly been doing some sterling work lately in terms of upholding its reputation. You might recall that when the whole capacitor controversy blew up around the RTX 3080, the graphics card maker was commendably upfront and transparent about what was going on with EVGA products.
As a result, there are already plentiful comments online from PC gamers who want to go with an EVGA graphics card simply because of the company’s conduct since Nvidia’s Ampere range was launched. Other card manufacturers will hopefully be sitting up and taking notes.
If you're looking for a new GPU, check out our guide on where to buy an Nvidia RTX 3080 to find stock.
Via Tom’s Hardware
