Nvidia RTX 3080 Preorders Were An Epic Mess
PC gamers who stayed up or rose early to nab the founder's edition of the RTX 3080 were largely disappointed.
Another day has dawned on gaming creation, but many PC enthusiasts aren't too happy about it. The exclusive "founder's edition" of one of Nvidia's fancy new GPUs, the RTX 3080, was set to release at around 6 AM PT / 9 AM ET at online outlets like Amazon, Best Buy, and Newegg. Unfortunately, it appears that very few consumers were able to actually order a card, which has led to a significant amount of gamer rage on Reddit and elsewhere.
A popular thread on the PC gaming subreddit alleges that the card was never available on Nvidia's own site. Several commenters say that they refreshed the page at the exact instant of the card's release, only to be immediately greeted with "out of stock" notices. Other users reported not receiving emails about the card's availability until more than an hour after launch. According to PC Gamer, traffic from the event temporarily took down the servers of Overclockers, Novatech, and Newegg.
Newegg announced this afternoon that it saw "more traffic than the morning of Black Friday" for the launch of the new Nvidia card, confirming that its allotment sold out in five minutes--and that it would have been faster if not for site issues. It added that bot protection was in place and that the orders placed were made by humans. It also recommended turning on auto-notify, though it warned this is no guarantee that you'll be alerted in time.
Those wanting RTX 3080 GPUs, here's some info:
— Newegg (@Newegg) September 17, 2020
This morning we experienced more traffic than the morning of Black Friday
Limited inventory sold out in 5 mins
We'll release more as we get more
Bot protection was in place, orders were human
Turn on Auto Notify & check back
Many experienced issues checking out due to the volume of traffic on our site. It would have sold out faster. Auto Notify isn't a guarantee, but we recommend it as well as checking the site.
— Newegg (@Newegg) September 17, 2020
When asked about the shortage, Nvidia gave the following statement to PC Gamer: "We are seeing unprecedented demand for the RTX 3080. We have been in production since August and are making them as quickly as possible. Our NV team and partners are shipping more every day to etailers & retailers."
Meanwhile, eBay listings for the RTX 3080 have ballooned well past the card's asking price of $699.99, with several listings reaching more than $10,000. (As several outlets have noted, these bids might not be genuine, since users can cancel them.)
> Nvidia RTX 30 series supply extremely scarce. Motherboard vendors adopt bundling strategy, tying high end motherboards to GPUs.
— RetiredEngineer® (@chiakokhua) September 16, 2020
"Graphics cards in short supply, 'gaming factories' snapping them up like crazy"
"顯卡大缺貨 電競廠瘋搶"https://t.co/GVA7sD05Xd
A report from Chinese outlet Commercial Times (translated by Twitter user @chiakokhua) indicated that supply of the new 30-series GPUs would be constrained due to a global parts shortage and the ongoing coronavirus crisis. It appears that has come to pass, at least in the short-term. At least we have memes.
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