Guides

How to buy an NVIDIA RTX 3000 series GPU (3060TI, 3070, 3080, 3090)

Nicholas Sakadelis

Here are some tips to make ensure you find one of the new NVIDIA RTX 3000 graphics cards.

With the global pandemic ravaging supplies for luxury items, it has been nothing short of a hassle to get PC components. While consoles are more plentiful in supply, drops of graphics cards have sold out in mere seconds, leaving many potential buyers increasingly frustrated.

We were able to snag an RTX 3080 for retail price, and during the long 2-month journey, we learned about plenty of avenues to be in tune with all of the drops.

Before we hop in, let’s talk odds. For the RTX 3080, you will be regularly dealing with extremely low supply. The odds of getting one of these is low.

For the RTX 3070 and 3060TI, the drops have been larger, and many have successfully got their hands on a card. Lastly, if you’re willing to pay $1,500, drops for the RTX 3090 last a bit longer than the 3080 due to the higher price.

With that being said, here are some of the strategies that can get you the best chance at getting an RTX 3000 GPU.

Stock Checkers

There are a variety of stock checker bots across social media and on independent websites. To stay updated, you’ll need lots of notifications. The best social network to find out about drops is Twitter. If you turn on tweet notifications, there are accounts dedicated to tweeting when stock is available. Here are some of those accounts.

In addition to accounts like these, you can follow Newegg’s official Twitter account for stock alerts/drop announcements.

There’s also the option of Twitch streams that monitor websites. If you play games and keep them on in the background, they stay completely silent until stock drops. The stream will play a notification sound, and then the chat will be spammed with the link to the available card. We used Falcodrin’s stock checker for our daily notifier.

Best Buy

Your best bet to get any card is from Best Buy. While Newegg has plenty of drops, Best Buy has a queue system for buyers.

Once you see a drop is live (often around the afternoon EST), you’ll have the opportunity to enter a virtual line of buyers to get a card if inventory is available. It’s better than spamming “add to cart” and being met with errors like competing websites.

Computer Stores

For the US and Canada, Microcenter and Canadian Computers occasionally get a supply of cards. In the US, Microcenter runs by first come, first serve. So if you’re by one, you should visit now and then to test your luck.

For Canada, Canadian Computers has a pre-order system where you’ll have a card reserved for you when it comes in stock. It may take some time (over a month), but you’ll be guaranteed a card. We were able to get an RTX 3080 in 5 weeks with them.

What’s the best way?

If you’re in Canada, Canadian Computers is the best way. If you’re not, keeping an eye on stock checkers and waiting for Best Buy drops is the way to go. Best Buy has a much better system for buyers, and we were able to grab a 3070 on launch day from their site.

As long as you have Twitter notifications for stock alerts, you shouldn’t miss many of the restocks. Normally, there is one sizable restock a week at Best Buy, but occasionally it takes 2 weeks.

Hopefully this helps you get a card!

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