Flintheart Glomgold
It is one of my pet peeves is the conspiracy of "artificial scarcity," which goes like this; we make less product so people talk about us in the media. This translates to: lets make less money, screw our shareholders out of money so the media can say how mismanaged our company is and hurt the relationship with our business partners. It feeds into the conspiracy that companies are out there to hurt the consumers (and according to this logic) hurt the shareholders. No one wins except (maybe) the YouTube channels and some small news outlets that get some more views.
Exactly. nVidia is failing their shareholders just fine without pandering to conspiracy theories like "artificial scarcity". We're not talking about "rare" digital goods in loot boxes, we're talking about a complex logistical supply chain of physical goods.
There
is blame to go around here (most of it on nVidia), but that's best left for broader communities/threads than EVGA's forums.
spsick
Yeah, if you guys could stop arguing about GPU shortages so we can find info here, that would be greaaaaaat ;)
At the very least, keep the topic limited to EVGA's own queues specifically rather than the broader issue. There's plenty of legitimate discourse to be had without dragging in outside vendors or conspiracy theories.
Also a friendly reminder that while a lot of us are still varying levels of frustrated, please refrain from snark, insults, name-calling, picking fights with other users, or any other "unhelpfully negative" responses. Negativity should be constructive and relevant to the thread; this isn't your outlet to scream into the void, that's what your social media account is for.
And finally, a mini-FAQ based on what I've seen in the thread thus far:
"How long until my slot comes up in X queue?"
The single most popular comment in this thread, by far. As a general rule of thumb, the further down the GPU list you are, the more units are being produced (so that 3060 Ti > 3070 > 3080 > 3090 in terms of volume), but also the more people likely vying for that GPU. Additionally, EVGA is (unofficially, based on community data) prioritizing the higher margin Ultra/overclocked SKUs in each lineup over base models. Your best bet at "guesstimating" when you'll get your queue notification is checking enewt's posts, seeing which queues are moving the fastest, and extrapolating from there. With the exception of 3753, 3881, 3883, and 3895, all SKUs appear to be moving pretty decently on a regular(ish) basis; it's safe to assume the majority of sign-ups for each SKU are within the first 48 hours of the auto-notify button being available, so any queue past that time should move in larger chunks of time (though it should be noted that doesn't mean they're producing a larger volume of units).
"Where are the Hydros?"
Currently they appear to be delayed.
"Why are Hybrids shipping ahead of air-cooled cards?"
That's EVGA's decision. You're free to
constructively criticize it here, or to reach out via their feedback form:
https://www.evga.com/support/suggestions.asp"Why isn't 3753/3881/3883/3895 moving?"
EVGA has yet to officially comment on this issue beyond Jacob stating that cards are being made relative to their demand. Again,
constructively criticize it here or reach out via their feedback form:
https://www.evga.com/support/suggestions.aspBase model cards are likely not to be fulfilled anytime soon; given how slowly the queue is slogging, I don't expect their launch day windows (9/16-9/17 for 3080, 10/28-10/29 for 3070) to be cleared
before March.
Your best bet is checking retail websites for stock drops of other SKUs/manufacturer cards if you need a card sooner than later, barring an official statement from EVGA."Any advice for getting a card sooner?"
YES! For all queues, consider monitoring Best Buy for stock drops, as they don't do forced-bundling (a form of scalping) unlike Newegg. Best Buy typically has one or two major drops per week, but the cards do go fast. Newegg also does several stock drops a week, but typically force-bundle them with other, unwanted goods that you
cannot return.
Check the actual SKU product page first during these drops, as there have been some reports of folks nabbing a card without having to buy a bundle.
For 3080 queues, consider looking for a 3090 instead; yes, the price versus performance difference isn't generally worth the money, but if you're even
remotely considering buying from a scalper, then the 3090 from an official retailer will be the better option at roughly the same price.
If you're hoping to get this card as part of a new PC build, also consider just buying a new PC. The Alienware R11 has been in stock with RTX 3080 GPUs for a while now, including several readily-available at my local MicroCenter last week. If you need one in time for the holidays, that's likely to be your last (and best) shot.
"I got a card! What now?"
First off: congrats! Second,
do not cancel your queue slots until you physically have the card in your hands. We've seen a handful of comments from folks whose orders were cancelled or packages stolen
after they had released their queue spots. Err on the side of caution and
wait.
Once you
do have your card, please release
all your queue slots. Remember that the majority of sign-ups are still waiting for their
first GPU, and releasing your queue slots will help their line move that much quicker. It also reduces the amount of ignored invites EVGA sends out, which in turn speeds up the notification process for everyone.
"Will there be more drops before 2021?"
There are more drops
likely, but not
guaranteed this week. EVGA themselves will be on holiday (hopefully staycations!) from Xmas until the New Year, and their product page very clearly states that
any order placed after 2pm on December 23rd will not ship until January 5th, 2021. These times are assumed to be US Pacific Time, so
watch your e-mail on Wednesday morning and make sure you order right away if you receive an invite. Just be warned that any such orders will almost certainly
not arrive for Xmas at this point.
That about wraps it up! Have a Happy Holidays everyone, stay safe, and cozy up with a good game.