NVIDIA 3000 Series Launch & Micro Center FAQ!

JS_MC

[FAQ Updated 3/1/22]*

Did you catch the official launch event on Tuesday, Sept 1st, where NVIDIA announced the new 3070, 3080, and 3090 cards?

https://youtu.be/E98hC9e__Xs

NVIDIA is making some very impressive claims!

• NVIDIA Ampere Streaming Multiprocessors: The building blocks for the world's fastest, most efficient GPU, the all-new Ampere SM, brings 2X the FP32 throughput and improved power efficiency.
• 2nd Generation RT Cores: Experience 2X the throughput of 1st gen RT Cores, plus concurrent RT and shading for a whole new level of ray tracing performance.
• 3rd Generation Tensor Cores: Get up to 2X the throughput with structural sparsity and advanced AI algorithms such as DLSS. Now with support for up to 8K resolution, these cores deliver a massive boost in-game performance and all-new AI capabilities.
• G6X Memory: This is the world's fastest graphics memory on the GeForce RTX 3090 and RTX 3080.
• World's First 8K HDR Gaming GPU, Powered by AI: The GeForce RTX 3090 lets you play, capture, and watch your games in brilliant 8K HDR. It features new DLSS 8K gaming, HDMI 2.1 for single-cable connectivity to 8K TVs, GeForce Experience support for 8K HDR game capture, and AV1 decode for efficient playback of 8K HDR streamed video.

I can't wait to upgrade! Coming from a GTX 1080 ti, the boost in performance will be tremendous, and I can't wait to see 2nd Gen RTX. I'll be upgrading to the RTX 3080. For me, the 3080 fits perfectly into my budget for my work and play. I've watched NVIDIA announcements in the past; however, the 3000 series launch was different for me, and I felt that I was witnessing a moment that will be remembered.

(Image Courtesy NVIDIA Official Launch Event)

Be sure to bookmark this post by clicking the star at the top right to easily check back, as we'll be updating this post once we know more about availability!

(Image Courtesy NVIDIA Official Launch Event)

I can't wait to see how these cards benchmark and how they perform, especially after Jensen showed us the significant performance increase. The multipliers are based on 4k gameplay in multiple popular games. In the launch event, NVIDIA shows the 3090 handling 8k gameplay smoothly, which is absolutely mindblowing. It's always interesting to see what Jensen has been cooking, and I'm excited about the future of PC gaming.

What are your thoughts on the new NVIDIA 3000 series cards?

What's your current GPU, and why are you upgrading? 😊

FAQ: Availability for NVIDIA RTX 3000 Series Graphics Cards

We know demand for these new graphics cards is high. We’re working hard to make these new, exciting products available to as many customers as we can. Please see below for answers to popular questions. You may also post your question here and we’ll do our best to respond quickly.

 

Q) Will you have the latest 3000 series cards on their release dates?

A) Yes, we will have a variety of top brand RTX 3000 cards available on their respective launch dates.

 

Q) Which model of RTX 3000 graphics cards are available?

A)  We will have RTX 3000 series graphics cards from our top vendors: ASUS, Gigabyte, Zotac, EVGA, and MSI, including gaming and overclocked models. These will vary store to store. Available models will be listed in the graphics cards category at launch.

 

Q) How much will the 3000 Series video cards cost?

A) Up-to-date pricing for our cards will be posted on the website once they’re available.

 

Store Related Questions

Q) Are you doing pre-orders?

A) At this time, we will not be offering pre-orders.

 

Q) Will I be able to reserve or buy them online?
A) We will not be offering reservations for in-store pick-up, or shipping for these video cards due to the high demand. 

Q) When will vouchers be handed out?

A) See your local store for more details.  In the past, we required vouchers to purchase a GPU. More detailed information on this can be found here: Random Selection Process and FAQ

 

Q) Can I buy more than one? 

A) We will be limiting purchases at this time to one per household. With limited availability, we want all of our customers to have a chance to be a part of this new product release.

Q) Were Micro Center Associates able to buy the new graphics cards?

A) Due to the high demand and constrained inventory, we’ve restricted employee purchases, so we can get new products into the hands of our loyal customers.

Check out our RTX3070 launch livestream here
Want to learn more about the RTX 3070? Check out our article comparing it to the last generation here

HarrisonNoll

Will the 3000 series be in micro center stores on launch day, and if not do we have an idea as of when?

TSTonyV

HarrisonNoll said:

Will the 3000 series be in micro center stores on launch day, and if not do we have an idea as of when?

We generally try to have availability for big launches like this on launch day. I would expect we'll have the cards available, the question is really "how many." I've heard some early reports that NVIDIA is a little low on availability for this launch, but we won't really know for sure until it gets closer to launch day. 

Abom

I'm 5 minutes from the Houston store. Looking forward to getting one launch day!

ThatOneGuy

I am excited for the new release (I am planning on getting a 3070), but I am not sure if my ryzen 5 3600 is going to bottleneck it or if my case has enough airflow to keep it cool.

garyhost

TSTonyV said:

HarrisonNoll said:

Will the 3000 series be in micro center stores on launch day, and if not do we have an idea as of when?

We generally try to have availability for big launches like this on launch day. I would expect we'll have the cards available, the question is really "how many." I've heard some early reports that NVIDIA is a little low on availability for this launch, but we won't really know for sure until it gets closer to launch day. 

Hi, do you think if I called my local store on the 16th they would be able to and willing to tell me if a card would be available when they open the next day, which would be the release of the 3080? 

Ichthus

ThatOneGuy said:

I am excited for the new release (I am planning on getting a 3070), but I am not sure if my ryzen 5 3600 is going to bottleneck it or if my case has enough airflow to keep it cool.

The 3600 should be just fine for a 3070. The only time I'd say your CPU is a "bottleneck" is if you're going for ultra-high refresh rate 1080p competitive gaming in esports titles and the ONLY thing you care about is maximum FPS. 

People fixate on the idea of bottlenecking so much but in reality there's ALWAYS a "bottleneck" somewhere, and there's ALWAYS going to be better hardware at some point. Don't worry about it too much, the 3600 is a nice mid-range processor with some strong value. 

Brad_Isnard

What is the best strategy to ensure getting a 3080 on launch day? Is it best to camp out or try to reserve one online?

TSTonyV

If you want one on launch day, then you'll want to come into the store. We will most likely sell out fast before online reservations can be fulfilled. 

BolognaBruh

Do you think it will be to the point of needing to wait outside of the store for hours to make sure I get one on time? 

PowerSpec_MichaelB

BolognaBruh said:

Do you think it will be to the point of needing to wait outside of the store for hours to make sure I get one on time? 

That is definitely a possibility, however we have no way of knowing for certain. It will depend entirely on how large the demand is for these products as well as how busy our stores are for other various shoppers. The only real advice we can give for those interested in procuring these new cards is to maintain a close eye on our online inventory and to come in as early as you can to improve your chances at getting one of the new cards. 

Be mindful that with products that have limited inventory due to low supply or extremely high demands, you may see limitations imposed such as 1 card per household or the inability to reserve the product (first come, first serve). If any of these limitations are in-place, you'll see it reflected as such on the product page online.

It's also important to remember that while the website may show some products in-stock, they could very well be in the cart of a customer and might not be available when you arrive. It may also be difficult to contact stores for inventory updates while they are assisting the increased volume of customers in-store. We are all gamers and tech enthusiasts ourselves, so we share your enthusiasm for these product launches and will do our absolute best to help everyone during these product launches to make sure everyone has a fair shot at getting their hands on these new and exciting products.

 If for some reason your local Micro Center store sells out of the RTX 3000 series card, we ask that you remain patient for new inventory to arrive. While we may not be able to provide estimates as to when new inventory is set to show up (much like we don't know the exact availability of product at the launch date), we do try our very best to maintain a steady supply of inventory to meet the high demands of our customers. As always, if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask. We are happy to answer any questions we can pertaining to this product launch.

MDRad

Hi! Should we expect the store to open at the regular hour? (E.g. for me it is VA Fairfax which opens at 10a ET). Or do you have special hours for launches like this? Thank you. 

umgoblue007

Any idea if a Z390 motherboard and/or a Intel Core i9-9900K (5.0 GHz Turbo) (16-Thread) (8-Core) 3.6 GHz CPU will be good enough to handle the 3090 card?  I just bought a new custom rig earlier this year and thinking about getting a new graphics card.  

PowerSpec_MichaelB

umgoblue007 said:

Any idea if a Z390 motherboard and/or a Intel Core i9-9900K (5.0 GHz Turbo) (16-Thread) (8-Core) 3.6 GHz CPU will be good enough to handle the 3090 card?  I just bought a new custom rig earlier this year and thinking about getting a new graphics card.  

I imagine it will perform just fine. The thing to keep in mind is that high refresh rates at lower resolutions typically end up CPU bound anyways, and the 9900K is still one of the fastest single-threaded processors around, on-par with the likes of the 10900K still, but falls a bit shorter at multi-threaded workloads. Multi-threaded workloads, especially one that can tax all 8 cores/16 threads of your 9900K are quite rare in gaming at the moment, especially if you play at resolutions higher than 1080P.

I use a 2080 Ti with my 8700K and have only ran into a legitimate CPU bottleneck once, and that was when I was attempting to push an absurd amount of frames at a lower resolution, resulting in my CPU failing to provide enough draw calls for the GPU.

TSTonyV

LCC said:

Hi! Should we expect the store to open at the regular hour? (E.g. for me it is VA Fairfax which opens at 10a ET). Or do you have special hours for launches like this? Thank you. 

Normal store hours will apply. 

umgoblue007 said:

Any idea if a Z390 motherboard and/or a Intel Core i9-9900K (5.0 GHz Turbo) (16-Thread) (8-Core) 3.6 GHz CPU will be good enough to handle the 3090 card?  I just bought a new custom rig earlier this year and thinking about getting a new graphics card.  

A 9900K would be plenty for a 3090. 

umgoblue007

I have a 4K 120Hz monitor (overclockable to 144Hz).  So I want to get the highest frame rate at 4K at ultimate settings for triple A titles.   I’d probably shell out for a 8K monitor once they become more available.  I guess the question is if the 3080 would be sufficient?  Is there a need for the 3090?  Quite a price jump.

PowerSpec_MichaelB

Sadly we don't know how the 3090 compares to the 3080 as of yet, no performance metrics or benchmarks have been released for the 3090. No doubt it will be faster, but I don't know if it will be fast enough to justify the massive price premium unless you are doing something heavily intensive with VRAM. An 8k monitor might indeed justify that purchase, but I imagine it will be quite some time before those become affordable, especially considering the current pricing of 8K televisions.

As for the 3080, I currently game on a 4k 120hz OLED gaming TV with a 2080 Ti and have been just fine for the most part. The 3080 is faster than the 2080 Ti, so I would think it should suffice for most titles, though newer AAA titles on ultimate settings might be pushing it if you are expecting to also maintain 120 frames per second. I imagine even a 3090 will struggle to hit 120fps in 4K on all titles at maxed settings.

I would recommend waiting for benchmarks to release and see which cards provide the level of performance you are looking to achieve. From there, buy the best card you can afford within your budget. I think your platform is fine for now and I just don't foresee the 9900K being the bottleneck in this situation, especially at 4k.

JS_MC

@TSMichaelB I'd agree, benchmarks are key to my decision of what to buy. @umgoblue007 8K sounds like an amazing experience, I can 'see' why you'd be wanting to upgrade. 😊

LeOnion

Will there be a midnight release or wait until the store opens its doors at the regular time? Will there also be reservations?

TSTonyV

We will not be doing a midnight release. Reservations will be available at some point however based on past releases we will likely have the cards available only if you come into the store, at least to start off with until supply/demand stabilize. 

umgoblue007

I live in Manhattan, so I frequent both the North New Jersey and Brooklyn NY locations.  Will availability vary depending on specific location?   Will reservations depend on the specific location or will all locations follow same process?  I can’t wait for the new cards!

TSTonyV

All locations should follow the same process, but availability may vary from store to store. 

DrutypeR

Can we get a post on here when there will be reservations or when the store procedures are announced?

Daviid

Will microcenter only have the FE cards in store or could we expect some AIB versions as well?

Joela

Daviid said:

Will microcenter only have the FE cards in store or could we expect some AIB versions as well?

I was told by an in store rep that there would be AIB's in stock as well.

yaeji

I live about 35 minutes from the Dallas location, probably won't be able to get a 3080 on launch day. Does anyone know of a certain timeframe that any Ampere card (mainly the 3080) will go back in stock? Yesterday, I bought a couple things for my upcoming build and told an in-store rep that I'd be coming back on release, but again, I don't think that's happening..

TSTonyV

DrutypeR said:

Can we get a post on here when there will be reservations or when the store procedures are announced?

Yes, once we get the rest of the details we should have an update posted here.

Daviid said:

Will microcenter only have the FE cards in store or could we expect some AIB versions as well?

Joela said:

Daviid said:

Will microcenter only have the FE cards in store or could we expect some AIB versions as well?

I was told by an in store rep that there would be AIB's in stock as well.

We will have AIBs, I believe we will have FE cards, but again, waiting on final details. 
 yaeji said:

I live about 35 minutes from the Dallas location, probably won't be able to get a 3080 on launch day. Does anyone know of a certain timeframe that any Ampere card (mainly the 3080) will go back in stock? Yesterday, I bought a couple things for my upcoming build and told an in-store rep that I'd be coming back on release, but again, I don't think that's happening..

NORMALLY with high demand stuff like this we try to restock frequently, within a few days. However we don't know what availability will be like at the beginning with this launch. For all we know we could sell out of initial stock then not receive any more from manufacturers for two weeks. 

floydian022

Apparently, no FE cards: 

https://twitter.com/microcenter/status/1304475301100105729

DrutypeR

floydian022 said:

Apparently, no FE cards: 

https://twitter.com/microcenter/status/1304475301100105729

Thank you for posting this response. I was hoping to go for either FE card or Asus Strix. If Micro Center near me wont be carrying either Ill go through the online route.

floydian022

Honestly, it was what I was expecting from the get-go, as IIRC, FEs were only available at the NVidia store and Best Buy at the 2000 series launch.  Saw the convo here regarding whether MC would have them this time around or not, and figured I'd share the tweet.

DKC1995

I have a Ryzen 5 3600 CPU and a B450 Asrock Mobo. Will the motherboard be compatible with the 3070?