RTX 3000 Series Micro Center Discussion & FAQ!

xCREEPINGDEATH

Anyone else worried about these 10% on avg faster than 3080 statements? That is pretty bad. 

CrispyBudder

How many watts do I need with my power supply if I’m gonna be doing a sli 3090?

Chasemm18

@xCREEPINGDEATH I would take anything before the week after launch with a grain of salt, I think it will probably be overkill for things that have DLSS already, but I think for games that have shit optimization (it seems to be a growing trend with AAA releases these days) the 3090 will be able to compensate for that in a way that will make the delta between 3080 and 3090 greater in 4k, if you’re not gaming in 4k a 3090 is pointless, red dead will be interesting to see on the 3090 because the 3080 benchmarks were not very impressive given how it performs on other games. 

xCREEPINGDEATH

Chasemm18 said:

@xCREEPINGDEATH I would take anything before the week after launch with a grain of salt, I think it will probably be overkill for things that have DLSS already, but I think for games that have shit optimization (it seems to be a growing trend with AAA releases these days) the 3090 will be able to compensate for that in a way that will make the delta between 3080 and 3090 greater in 4k, if you’re not gaming in 4k a 3090 is pointless, red dead will be interesting to see on the 3090 because the 3080 benchmarks were not very impressive given how it performs on other games. 

Yeah so far not impressed with these cards tbh. Seems Nvidia is trying to push DLSS as the end all be all of high res gaming instead of improving the hardware

Chasemm18

Agreed BUT to be fair DLSS is incredible, death stranding actually looks better on DLSS 4k than native. With the rumor that the beta DLSS 3.0 in development will support any game that uses AA is extremely promising and would disrupt the market big time. I think AMD need to find their own alternative to DLSS, I’m excited to see if the have anything up their sleeve with this Navi launch. 

xCREEPINGDEATH

Chasemm18 said:

Agreed BUT to be fair DLSS is incredible, death stranding actually looks better on DLSS 4k than native. With the rumor that the beta DLSS 3.0 in development will support any game that uses AA is extremely promising and would disrupt the market big time. I think AMD need to find their own alternative to DLSS, I’m excited to see if the have anything up their sleeve with this Navi launch. 


Idk man. I play at 4k and rarely use AA. Makes games look soft. 

YoshiMoshi

xCREEPINGDEATH said:

Anyone else worried about these 10% on avg faster than 3080 statements? That is pretty bad. 

No. You can either
A) Get an RTX 3090 now for $1,499 in 2020, sell it in 2022 when RTX 4### is released at a loss

B ) Get a RTX 3080 now for $799, take a hit in 2021 when 10GB is not enough VRAM for 4K ultra (may even come sooner with Cyberpunk 2077), sell your card at a loss when RTX 3080 20 GB comes out in 2021, sell your RTX 3080 20 GB in 2022 at a loss when RTX 4### is released

Would you rather take the loss on one video card, or two between now and 2022?

kishinfoulux

DLSS is the real thing I'm excited for. Ray tracing is fine. Whatever. The former is the much bigger deal, especially as it starts to get more and more normalized and incorporated.

Ichthus

xCREEPINGDEATH said:

Anyone else worried about these 10% on avg faster than 3080 statements? That is pretty bad. 

I mean the 3090 is really a different type of card altogether.  It may be named the same way as the consumer-focused gaming cards, but the 3090 is the replacement for the RTX Titan. 

The RTX Titan was basically identical in gaming performance to the 2080ti despite being twice as expensive, because it was really a workstation card that was designed for applications that are heavily VRAM intensive. People should be treating the 3090 the same way. If you're concerned about 10GB of VRAM not being enough (and you really shouldn't, 10GB is plenty even at 4k) then you should just wait for the 20GB 3080 to come out instead and buy that.

xCREEPINGDEATH

Ichthus said:

xCREEPINGDEATH said:

Anyone else worried about these 10% on avg faster than 3080 statements? That is pretty bad. 

I mean the 3090 is really a different type of card altogether.  It may be named the same way as the consumer-focused gaming cards, but the 3090 is the replacement for the RTX Titan. 

The RTX Titan was basically identical in gaming performance to the 2080ti despite being twice as expensive, because it was really a workstation card that was designed for applications that are heavily VRAM intensive. People should be treating the 3090 the same way. If you're concerned about 10GB of VRAM not being enough (and you really shouldn't, 10GB is plenty even at 4k) then you should just wait for the 20GB 3080 to come out instead and buy that.


Thought they said 3090 was replacement for titan and Ti

YoshiMoshi

10 GB of VRAM is "just enough' at 4k ultra in 2020. This likely will not be the case in 2021. Even in a few months, CyberPunk 2077 may require more than 10 GB of VRAM at 4k ultra. Hence the need for the 20 GB RTX 3080 or the 16 GB RTX 3070. Would you rather have to buy a 3090 now, or a 3080 10 GB now and then a 3080 20 GB in 2021?

CrownRoger2020

I don't think the RTX 3090 will be overkill for RDR2 or Cyberpunk 2020. Nvidia's 4k Ampere Cyberpunk ray tracing trailer was capped at 30 frames for a reason. As for 10%, that may be for some games rather than the average, but I'm only guessing. If you look at this Tom's Hardware article for the gap between the GTX 1080 and the first Pascal Nvidia Titan X, not to be confused with the GTX Titan X of the Maxwell generation, or the Pascal Titan Xp, the performance gap between the 2 cards varied quite a bit depending on the game: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-titan-x-12gb,4700.html

YoshiMoshi

CrownRoger2020 said:

I don't think the RTX 3090 will be overkill for RDR2 or Cyberpunk 2020. Nvidia's 4k Ampere Cyberpunk ray tracing trailer was capped at 30 frames for a reason. As for 10%, that may be for some games rather than the average, but I'm only guessing. If you look at this Tom's Hardware article for the gap between the GTX 1080 and the first Pascal Nvidia Titan X, not to be confused with the GTX Titan X of the Maxwell generation, or the Pascal Titan Xp, the performance gap between the 2 cards varied quite a bit depending on the game: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-titan-x-12gb,4700.html

how do you know it was 30 FPS?

CrownRoger2020

YoshiMoshi said:

CrownRoger2020 said:

I don't think the RTX 3090 will be overkill for RDR2 or Cyberpunk 2020. Nvidia's 4k Ampere Cyberpunk ray tracing trailer was capped at 30 frames for a reason. As for 10%, that may be for some games rather than the average, but I'm only guessing. If you look at this Tom's Hardware article for the gap between the GTX 1080 and the first Pascal Nvidia Titan X, not to be confused with the GTX Titan X of the Maxwell generation, or the Pascal Titan Xp, the performance gap between the 2 cards varied quite a bit depending on the game: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-titan-x-12gb,4700.html

how do you know it was 30 FPS?

Because on youtube the 4k option is 2160p, not 2160p60. If it was able to stay at 60fps, Nvidia would want to show that off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Efo-YDWnnpw

Ichthus

YoshiMoshi said:

10 GB of VRAM is "just enough' at 4k ultra in 2020. This likely will not be the case in 2021. Even in a few months, CyberPunk 2077 may require more than 10 GB of VRAM at 4k ultra. Hence the need for the 20 GB RTX 3080 or the 16 GB RTX 3070. Would you rather have to buy a 3090 now, or a 3080 10 GB now and then a 3080 20 GB in 2021?

I mean this all 100% speculation. We have no idea how much VRAM will be required in the future. Even at 4k max settings there's no game right now that actually needs a full 10GB of VRAM. We're hitting 7-8GB at most at the moment. I think it's unlikely to expect such drastic increases in VRAM requirements for video games for a while.

I think you're overestimating how detrimental 10GB of VRAM would be even if games started to require a little bit more at 4k. All you have to do would be lower a handful of settings and call it a day. You don't have to buy a whole new card. I'd rather buy the 10GB 3080 now because it's more than sufficient and will last for several years before I need to upgrade again even if I'm playing at 4k. 

SmolPotato

Alright, it's a new week. Time to camp MC in hopes of restock every morning.

DrutypeR

Is MC going to announce when we can line up for another batch of the 3080s? How are we supposed to know the next time the 3080 will be available in store?

CobraKai

Even if you camp outside they may or may not get any, plus they may get them later in the day, not in the morning, then what you going to just sit there the following day too after camping out the night before. Good luck with that, when you going to eat or go to the bathroom. Once you get out of line if there is one, then what???
Also, best thing to do is to just ask one of the sales guys to put your name on a list to be called, then go in to get it.
Legally this can be done as there is no vouchers on the ones coming in now.
Second unless you don't own a video card, then what's the big rush.
You gotta have that video card to play a game you so desperately have or want???
The demand is so stupid for these cards cause in 1-2 years Nvidia will come out with something better.

iceie2

Anyone have info on stock or a line at Madison heights micro center?

Hortyhoo

Duluth location updated inventory to show "limited availability" about an hour before open on one of the MSI Cards. About 50 people showed up to wait in line and when they opened, they didn't have a single 3080 in stock..  

Jimbo2005

Any word on when Cambridge MC will have some 3080s in stock in coming few weeks. 

TSTonyV

Quick update for anybody checking back here: still waiting on any kind of official estimate for 3090 quantities at the stores, but I still definitely expect availability will be even more limited than the 3080s. We just don't quite know the stock situation yet, hopefully we'll have a better idea later today or sometime tomorrow. 

cucuchu

Thanks for the update. Hopefully the individual stores can let us know on Wednesday how many they plan to have in stock so we can decide if its worth trying to get there early on Thursday.

PowerSpec_MichaelB

elcid_777 said:

kishinfoulux said:

Well Microcenter finally replied to my text (several hours later).

"Good day! We're sold out nationwide. No ETA currently for when we will be receiving more. Those also can not be reserved/preordered due to such high demand."

Guess I should finally sleep. I've been up for a while since I left work the other day lol.

yeah, getting tired of these bs, mysterious, vague blanket statements by micro center. fck nvidia for doing this. they honestly don't deserve anyones money. greedy scum bags. 

The post below does not reflect the views of Micro Center, but rather my personal opinion/views.

While I understand the frustration, we can only really provide information that we have answers to. Anything beyond that would be conjecture and that would only serve to further frustrate everyone. I'd rather give you a blanket statement regarding what I do know if the alternative is to keep you all in the dark. The simple truth of the matter is that we do not have specific answers as to when we will receive new inventory or what models are available during those shipments. Those decisions are made far above the pay grade of the average MC employee and even then, those making those decisions are entirely at the mercy of the available supply being manufactured and offered to various retailers worldwide.

We can run this information up the chain and pass along the requests we get, but the demand for these cards are so high that by the time we get a definitive answer, that answer may change or no longer be relevant by the time actual product shows up. It's almost futile to give out a stock number of how many cards a store may have, because they sell out so fast that by the time I check and convey that information, 10 cards can turn into 0 cards.

Understand that we are not trying to give everyone the runaround. It's in our best interests to do our best to help everyone get the products they are looking for. Even if I take my Micro Center hat off and address you as a fellow enthusiast, I want to see you all get these cards because it serves my interests for others to have access to this hardware to better inform me on my own personal purchasing decisions in the future.

I know this might not mean much to most people, but I do want to thank everyone for sticking with us. This might be one of the craziest product launches I've ever seen, and it happened in the middle of a global pandemic. The fact that everyone is still here, sharing information with one another and helping each other get their cards and promotional deals is nothing short of inspiring. Hopefully when we get through this turbulent launch, you all stick around to discuss your thoughts on the RTX 3000 series in general, as I'd love to see some overclocking results and some custom power modifications/exotic cooling results. Best of luck to everyone still looking to source a GPU and my thanks again for those of you that already got their cards but are still here helping others do the same.

YoshiMoshi

any lines yet?

spauls121

TSMichaelB said:

elcid_777 said:

kishinfoulux said:

Well Microcenter finally replied to my text (several hours later).

"Good day! We're sold out nationwide. No ETA currently for when we will be receiving more. Those also can not be reserved/preordered due to such high demand."

Guess I should finally sleep. I've been up for a while since I left work the other day lol.

yeah, getting tired of these bs, mysterious, vague blanket statements by micro center. fck nvidia for doing this. they honestly don't deserve anyones money. greedy scum bags. 

The post below does not reflect the views of Micro Center, but rather my personal opinion/views.

While I understand the frustration, we can only really provide information that we have answers to. Anything beyond that would be conjecture and that would only serve to further frustrate everyone. I'd rather give you a blanket statement regarding what I do know if the alternative is to keep you all in the dark. The simple truth of the matter is that we do not have specific answers as to when we will receive new inventory or what models are available during those shipments. Those decisions are made far above the pay grade of the average MC employee and even then, those making those decisions are entirely at the mercy of the available supply being manufactured and offered to various retailers worldwide.

We can run this information up the chain and pass along the requests we get, but the demand for these cards are so high that by the time we get a definitive answer, that answer may change or no longer be relevant by the time actual product shows up. It's almost futile to give out a stock number of how many cards a store may have, because they sell out so fast that by the time I check and convey that information, 10 cards can turn into 0 cards.

Understand that we are not trying to give everyone the runaround. It's in our best interests to do our best to help everyone get the products they are looking for. Even if I take my Micro Center hat off and address you as a fellow enthusiast, I want to see you all get these cards because it serves my interests for others to have access to this hardware to better inform me on my own personal purchasing decisions in the future.

I know this might not mean much to most people, but I do want to thank everyone for sticking with us. This might be one of the craziest product launches I've ever seen, and it happened in the middle of a global pandemic. The fact that everyone is still here, sharing information with one another and helping each other get their cards and promotional deals is nothing short of inspiring. Hopefully when we get through this turbulent launch, you all stick around to discuss your thoughts on the RTX 3000 series in general, as I'd love to see some overclocking results and some custom power modifications/exotic cooling results. Best of luck to everyone still looking to source a GPU and my thanks again for those of you that already got their cards but are still here helping others do the same.

Thank you for taking the time to communicate with us. Houston's launch should be interesting between a pandemic, demand, and a tropical storm; hopefully I manage to get one if I line up on Wednesday

YoshiMoshi

People literally waiting for 20+ hours, and treated it like the second coming of Christ. Then when they didn't get a card, treated it like they ran out of food and water lol. I understand the frustration, but it's just first come first serve. The person who waited in line for 24 hours deserves a card, and the person who should up at 5 AM went past the stock the store had. It's just how it works. It's a matter of who wants it the most. MC is more fair, because who ever wants it the most gets it. As opposed to online retailers, where bots will outbeats any human. There's not a chance for a human to get a card online within the next few months, probably not tell next year. Where at least MC allows us the opportunity to play fair, and whoever wants it the most and is willing to sit in line for hours and hours will get the card.

elcid_777

YoshiMoshi said:

10 GB of VRAM is "just enough' at 4k ultra in 2020. This likely will not be the case in 2021. Even in a few months, CyberPunk 2077 may require more than 10 GB of VRAM at 4k ultra. Hence the need for the 20 GB RTX 3080 or the 16 GB RTX 3070. Would you rather have to buy a 3090 now, or a 3080 10 GB now and then a 3080 20 GB in 2021?

Agreed, I am currently playing Horizon Zero Dawn at 4k, ultra settings with a Zotac 3080 Trinity, and afterburner is reporting almost 10gb of vram. However, this is allocated and what the game is asking for, not necessarily using. And yes....I was able to get my hands on a 3080. Had to purchase from someone who waited all night at the Tustin,CA store and at a much greater price than msrp unfortunately. I am ashamed I fell to a scalper but what has been done cannot be undone and I have the 3080. We need a new driver from nvidia asap, and also, zotac and msi ventus 3080 seem to have an issue with crashing in games unless core clock is lower by -30 to -50. All in all, the 3000 series release is a clusterfuck of a mess. 

elcid_777

Ichthus said:

YoshiMoshi said:

10 GB of VRAM is "just enough' at 4k ultra in 2020. This likely will not be the case in 2021. Even in a few months, CyberPunk 2077 may require more than 10 GB of VRAM at 4k ultra. Hence the need for the 20 GB RTX 3080 or the 16 GB RTX 3070. Would you rather have to buy a 3090 now, or a 3080 10 GB now and then a 3080 20 GB in 2021?

I mean this all 100% speculation. We have no idea how much VRAM will be required in the future. Even at 4k max settings there's no game right now that actually needs a full 10GB of VRAM. We're hitting 7-8GB at most at the moment. I think it's unlikely to expect such drastic increases in VRAM requirements for video games for a while.

I think you're overestimating how detrimental 10GB of VRAM would be even if games started to require a little bit more at 4k. All you have to do would be lower a handful of settings and call it a day. You don't have to buy a whole new card. I'd rather buy the 10GB 3080 now because it's more than sufficient and will last for several years before I need to upgrade again even if I'm playing at 4k. 

Afterburner is reporting closet to 10gb of vram usage in Horizon Zero Dawn at 4k ultra..

YoshiMoshi

elcid_777 said:

YoshiMoshi said:

10 GB of VRAM is "just enough' at 4k ultra in 2020. This likely will not be the case in 2021. Even in a few months, CyberPunk 2077 may require more than 10 GB of VRAM at 4k ultra. Hence the need for the 20 GB RTX 3080 or the 16 GB RTX 3070. Would you rather have to buy a 3090 now, or a 3080 10 GB now and then a 3080 20 GB in 2021?

Agreed, I am currently playing Horizon Zero Dawn at 4k, ultra settings with a Zotac 3080 Trinity, and afterburner is reporting almost 10gb of vram. However, this is allocated and what the game is asking for, not necessarily using. And yes....I was able to get my hands on a 3080. Had to purchase from someone who waited all night at the Tustin,CA store and at a much greater price than msrp unfortunately. I am ashamed I fell to a scalper but what has been done cannot be undone and I have the 3080. We need a new driver from nvidia asap, and also, zotac and msi ventus 3080 seem to have an issue with crashing in games unless core clock is lower by -30 to -50. All in all, the 3000 series release is a clusterfuck of a mess. 

Couldn't agree more. No idiot would think that more than double the price of the 3080 to get a 3090 to get a 10 % increase in performance is worth it. However, if you game at 4k ultra, than you may have justification to get a 3090 for the more VRAM. If the generation is two years long, like the last two generations, then the 3090 will get you to 2022 when the 4#### series is revealed. If you game at 4k ultra and get a 3080 10 GB, you may have to get a 3080 20 GB in 2021, or turn down the graphical settings a bit.

Cost of a 3080 10 GB in 2020 + cost of a 3080 20 GB in 2021 > RTX 3090 in 2020
Under the condition that the RTX 3080 20 GB is > $800, which I think it will be.