RTX 3000 Series Micro Center Discussion & FAQ!

CobraKai said:

Accursed - all I am saying is 8:00am may be a little too late to show up, but remember store doesn't open until 10:00am. Last release Microcenter gave out slips to come back at Noon when the NDA was up so they could sell the cards which they only got 5 FE cards that day for the 2080ti. This time it is different the 3000 series cards are more abundant thanks to the way they are made and they are releasing the AIB on the same day. Granted they won't get a huge amount probably so still best to show up a little early, but remember the 3080 is around $900 - $1000 with tax almost so it is not cheap either.

$900-$1000? Lol, no. They are $700-$800 then 8.25% in tax is only $50-70 depending.

As far as I know the pricing is 3070 - October ($500ish) - 3080 - Sept 17th ($700-800 depending on if FE or AIB), then 3090 is $1499+.

Just because you heard from one person that it may not be there on the 17th, they all don't know, but due to Covid-19 who knows really!

Felicity said:

I assume it's like how you buy any card there; you get a slip for the one you request, you bring it to the front desk for checkout. They never let you have hands on the cards, esp expensive ones. 

Anyone wanna hang out at Tustin in the morning?

Planning on driving out there from San Bernardino, about an hour away. First time ever doing this or visiting the Tustin location. Glad to have one within driving distance, but am really apprehensive on whether that trip will be in vain or not. I was planning to drive leave home by 4:30 and get there by 6am or sooner, but if the Tustin spot has people already trying to camp out by mid-night, who freaking knows what my chances will be. I'm not at all pleased with the way Nvidia has told retailers to handle this (no pre-orders) and Micro Center should have a better system going on instead of the "first come first serve", battle royal type of thing they're undoubtedly going to create with this. If I pull up after driving that far and see 30 people lined up at 6am, I'm going to lose my mind haha. 

CobraKai said:

Anyone camping out, two things, I hope you don't have to take a sh** and have to leave to go do it, and the other thing is your freaking crazy, never camped out and got the latest two releases, 1080ti and 2080ti just going day of couple hours earlier.  If you camp out, remember you need a friend and your crazy cause nothing is worth waiting overnight even with a tent. Please don't bring cash and wait either in your car or tent either there are those who like to prey on people like this. 

Agreed. Those who are planning on camping out...smh, that's crazy to me as well. It's also slightly irritating too because Micro Center is not discouraging this kind of behavior during a pandemic, and the lack of information is driving people to do strange things. It also makes it harder to get one for those who are waking up early to drive from far.

elcid_777 said:

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Felicity said:

I assume it's like how you buy any card there; you get a slip for the one you request, you bring it to the front desk for checkout. They never let you have hands on the cards, esp expensive ones. 

Anyone wanna hang out at Tustin in the morning?

Planning on driving out there from San Bernardino, about an hour away. First time ever doing this or visiting the Tustin location. Glad to have one within driving distance, but am really apprehensive on whether that trip will be in vain or not. I was planning to drive leave home by 4:30 and get there by 6am or sooner, but if the Tustin spot has people already trying to camp out by mid-night, who freaking knows what my chances will be. I'm not at all pleased with the way Nvidia has told retailers to handle this (no pre-orders) and Micro Center should have a better system going on instead of the "first come first serve", battle royal type of thing they're undoubtedly going to create with this. If I pull up after driving that far and see 30 people lined up at 6am, I'm going to lose my mind haha. 

Understandable but these things have been done for console launches, gpu's, etc and its never (that I've known of) been reduced to a battle royal mob rush of insanity outside of a few instances of things like the PS4 launch in Germany or wherever it was where you had people storming in but obviously there was no que for that and also that was a console launch which generates A LOT more hype than a relatively expensive graphics card release. People are generally pretty cool about it and form a line. First come, first serve is the only real way they can do it if you don't have preorders unless you do what they do in Japan with the raffles but that is usually done a bit in advance.

I think people are overestimating the amount of people willing to camp out all night long. There might be a few at some locations (unless there are literally only 3 or 4 cards available total, which I don't see being the case), but if you get there at 6am, chances are you will be there well in advance of the bulk of people.

Junkie said:

Yeah I understand the whole problem with people like me, and I agree to an extent its getting out of hand, but this is what MicroCenter told me to do. Besides I got time to waste. I do hope those who come in the morning are able to get a card, however, someone at the Tustin store told me there are only going to have 10 cards total...

10!?! Oh my god... well there goes my chance of getting one at Micro Center. Ughh

Hey guys. An asus rep said the strix won't be sold until Monday. Is that true? 

I have a best buy close by and a microcenter about an hour away in Paterson nj. I called both yesterday but they sales rep for both said they don't know what cards or if they will have any in stock on the 17th and wouldn't know till like midnight before. Is it possible not all micro centers would have any 3080 graphics cards on release? Also when should I get to the store to stand a chance at getting in time for a new card 3am or 4am? The sales rep for microcenter said they would give out vouchers but said that will be when the store opens at 10.

I'll be trying my luck at the Patterson location in New Jersey, after my work shift. I have this feeling that when I pull up to the parking lot it will either be empty or there will be like 20 people there already. No in between lol. I'm debating with myself what to do in the latter scenario. If there are already, at least, ten people there it doesn't seem worth it to wait like 6-7 hours in line to leave empty handed.

Any Michigan peeps in here or am in this alone.

Andrewshi1 said:

Im gonna be waiting at the Michigan store waiting

I’ll see ya there you might beat me I might beat you but best of luck to both of us.

walbyus said:

Hi everyone! Lurker here. Decided to post.
For those braving the micro center store fronts on release day, why not order online with newegg or b&h? Those sites probably have a higher stock, you don't have to worry about covid and, depending on your location, you could have a card by the weekend at the latest? I'm curious because I was planning on ordering online, but it seems most of you will be going in person...want to make sure I'm not missing out on something.

Thanks guys and girls!

not worried about covid. i worked the census have been tested when i got concerned from overexposure, been fine. I'm not gonna go camp in a tent with strangers.

because 1. when i give them my money, i will receive a card. if they do not have cards, i will not give them my money. 
2. if newegg/etc have not enough stock by contrast, they may take my money temporarily, and then refund me, or even worse, simply waste my time. to hedge my bets would be to do both but I don't have THAT kinda money. we have to operate under the assumption that if it's not in my hands, i don't have it yet. no assurances from nvidia or anyone else will assure me anyone at all will have stock after a few hours; maybe last year, but not now. they couldn't even get the reviews out in time. 

also microcenter is awesome and I've been trapped in my room for weeks please help 

kishinfoulux said:

I'll be trying my luck at the Patterson location in New Jersey, after my work shift. I have this feeling that when I pull up to the parking lot it will either be empty or there will be like 20 people there already. No in between lol. I'm debating with myself what to do in the latter scenario. If there are already, at least, ten people there it doesn't seem worth it to wait like 6-7 hours in line to leave empty handed.

You think the Paterson location will only have 10 in stock? Doesn't that seem kinda low and what time were you thinking of going 3am?

walbyus said:

Hi everyone! Lurker here. Decided to post.
For those braving the micro center store fronts on release day, why not order online with newegg or b&h? Those sites probably have a higher stock, you don't have to worry about covid and, depending on your location, you could have a card by the weekend at the latest? I'm curious because I was planning on ordering online, but it seems most of you will be going in person...want to make sure I'm not missing out on something.

Thanks guys and girls!

TSTonyV said:

So I've recently seen some reports that the high-end models of the cards are going to be released later by the manufacturers (ASUS ROG Strix, EVGA FTW3, etc...) and it's the base models that will be available early. Apparently the higher end models have higher power limits for better boosting/overclocking capabilities as well. 

I was hoping we'd see some of those early on, but if that rumor is true then at this point I have absolutely no guesses as to what models we'll actually have. 

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Lyric said:

Since the FE Cards won’t be available, what are the prices looking like? I was expecting to spend $700+ tax and get to my Denver MicroCenter early, even possibly camp in my car as I live 3hrs away one way into the mountains.


thanks for any info

From information I've seen online it looks like pricing on AIB models is fairly close to MSRP. $730-750, maybe up to $800 for the 3080s depending on specific model, but we don't know exactly yet. 

@TSTonyV This would make me very sad! I was hoping to get a FTW3 Ultra/Strix/Gaming X Trio card day-of (basically any high-powered version). Any update on this or if it applies to all stores and all high-powered cards? Thanks for keeping us posted!