People who got GPUs, how did you do it?

newbieclocker · 13 Jun 2021 at 17:55

I notice a lot of forum members on here have managed to secure themselves a RTX 30 card of some sorts. I'm just wondering the procedure of how you did it?

I was there for the release of the RTX 3080 and had ample time to place a pre order and get whatever, but I decided against it as I wanted to wait for a potential 3080ti. I've regretted this decision since as the market has become flooded with scalpers and miners.

I tried getting a RTX 3080ti and I didn't even see the add to basket button appear. I had lots of tabs open with different 3080ti's, I really didn't mind which one I got. I'm wondering now if I would have been better refreshing just one card, rather than all ten tabs I had open.

How did you guys manage to buy? In store, just got lucky online?

HangTime · 13 Jun 2021 at 18:52

It's as simple as:

1) Be lucky (most important)
2) Don't be fussy (buy whatever even if it's not a great deal or card you want the most)
3) Get your ducks in a row (user account with card payment details pre-entered etc etc).

kmax86 · 13 Jun 2021 at 18:57

Started late march. Signed up to various discord alerts for FE drops/other gpus and monitored alerts religiously.

Missed a bunch of drops but eventually got lucky and bagged a 3070.

During a drop i only f5 spammed 1 card. It changes from oos to no buy button. Waited a bit more as some folks will be declined in their checkout.

no_1_dave · 13 Jun 2021 at 18:58

Buying my 3080 at launch was easy because I know somebody who worked at a competitor... I text them asking them to put one aside for me and they did

Got a 3090FE about a month or so ago by seeing the stock alert popup on Discord while I happened to be at my PC. I just clicked it, went through the captcha and bought it. Unfortunately it had really bad coil whine which I couldn't cope with so it found its way to CEX pretty fast :rolleyes:

Aegis · 13 Jun 2021 at 19:00

I got an MSI RTX 3070 Suprim X from one of OC's competitors - they have an email notification system for when stock comes in and when I got the email I was able to purchase right away. However, said competitor was (over)charging £900 then for the card and are now charging £1,400 for the exact same card so I wouldn't recommend them unless you're desperate. They do have stock though and if you're gonna be scalped, better to be scalped by a retailer I guess...

newuser · 13 Jun 2021 at 19:13

I bought a 3090FE when they were still hanging about in stock for a good few hours.
Nearly bought one the drop before but was annoyed that they wanted postage for a 1400 quid card.
Next time added it to basket and got to the end of checkout, waited a few hours to ponder.
Checked before I went to bed and it was still there. Asked the cat that was lying on my chest if I should buy it. He said, 'myeah.'

newbieclocker · 13 Jun 2021 at 19:17

Has anyone got an invite to these discord drop servers?

heatonpkmassive · 13 Jun 2021 at 19:22

If I'd have been really looking out for the Telegram alerts, I'd have had one by now. But I haven't, usually seen them 10 minutes later by which time it's usually all over.

Aegis · 13 Jun 2021 at 19:26

heatonpkmassive said:
usually seen them 10 minutes later by which time it's usually all over.

I hate to break it to you, but it's all over 10 seconds after those alerts go up.

heatonpkmassive · 13 Jun 2021 at 19:29

Aegis said:
I hate to break it to you, but it's all over 10 seconds after those alerts go up.

I did fear this :cry:

Purgatory · 13 Jun 2021 at 19:32

newbieclocker said:
Has anyone got an invite to these discord drop servers?

https://discord.gg/UvX3ZphT

Oh Ed not again. · 13 Jun 2021 at 19:33

Discord + scanning the general chat channel between 1-3pm especially on Thursdays.

Got a 3080FE on the third drop before everything got really silly.

newbieclocker · 13 Jun 2021 at 19:39

Purgatory said:
https://discord.gg/UvX3ZphT

Cheers

WildRAID · 13 Jun 2021 at 19:40

Basic telegram alerts, got 3060 Ti FE on the first try. It was a 2nd or 3rd drop of these cards.

varkanoid · 13 Jun 2021 at 19:44

HangTime said:
It's as simple as:

1) Be lucky (most important)
2) Don't be fussy (buy whatever even if it's not a great deal or card you want the most)
3) Get your ducks in a row (user account with card payment details pre-entered etc etc).

This above.

Starting from the 3060ti release I went

3060ti FE > Palit 3070 > 3080 FE > 6900xt

and I`m not very lucky.

3) above for me nailed it most including pre-signing into website and making sure I had done the captcha in advance. Checking the website every half an hour or so and watching
Discord. In all honesty Discord helped but didnt get me the cards. Working from home helped more as I can check the website regularly. Website turning on captcha gave me more warning than Discord as when I tried last year the captcha wasnt on all the time only when some drop was appearing.

Going on cards the 3060ti FE of the Nvidia cards was the best @ 1440p, cool, quiet and great undervolting. 3070 is just too hot, 3080FE good card but too loud and too hot when it was stressed (eg Days Gone) and the mem temp can pray on your mind.

anTastico · 13 Jun 2021 at 20:07

Kfa2 3080
Ordered one few days after launch from Ocuk. Three months later it came through.

Then in February I started trying to get another for my brother, still trying. No way am I going 2,3,4x msrp. I've got my limits and sticking to them.

I did manage to "get" a evga 3070 from amazon.de latter end of May with an eta of 10th-11th June. All I got was an email saying its delayed -_-

Eledil · 13 Jun 2021 at 20:14

Purgatory said:
https://discord.gg/UvX3ZphT

Thanks, signed up and waiting.

gordy16 · 13 Jun 2021 at 20:39

Purgatory said:
https://discord.gg/UvX3ZphT

cheers, also jumped on the bandwagon.

harmattan · 13 Jun 2021 at 20:40

Ordered three 3080s on launch day. Nothing fancy, just brought up multiple windows (across multiple devices) and F5-ing. I also focused on cards I didn't think would move volume e.g. vanilla Eagle, entry Zotac, but not sure if that helped. Got one day 1, got added to queue for 2nd and 3rd both of which came in literally the same day a month later. Of the three, one went to co-worker for retail price who covered for me in a meeting, another I kept, and the other has a story...

I tried selling another on Gumtree (for not much more than retail). When I showed up to the agreed meeting spot (B&Q lot) dude was gearing to jack me for it, but I had come prepared and had a buddy with me so he bailed. It may sound like I'm trying to be "hard", but please use common sense and bring a friend and trade in a public place if selling one of these in person.

I finally sold that one on Ebay for a very small profit, wish I would have waited a few months to take better advantage of absurd prices. I had two other launch reservations I cancelled since my conscience wouldn't allow me to keep them -- wish I would have held onto them and sold to friends or just hard-up gamers who are now stuck with older cards.

CuriousTomCat · 13 Jun 2021 at 21:00

It's easy for some people because stay on top of discord. I have a full time job during the day and I give my job 100% so discord is out of the question. Other people may be self employed, or they sneakily surf the internet instead of working or they work split shifts or they work part time etc. There's lots of reasons why some people are able to buy a GPU.