What steps can I take to ensure that I will buy a 3060?

AgentNein

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I intend to join EVGA's waitlist. I want a stronger card for VR.

What else can I do to battle the bots? Will my local Best Buy get any?
 
I intend to join EVGA's waitlist. I want a stronger card for VR.

What else can I do to battle the bots? Will my local Best Buy get any?
My 3070 came from here: https://roguecast.com/category/f6e8f7fd-3efa-411c-861e-096a36e87e3e

Don't accept PayPal. 3070 was in stock and I had enough time to go into my safe to grab my wallet and come back to the PC to punch my information in. I paid $720 for it though. I jumped on them about the $5XX price. They said it was a "glitch". /rolleyes
 
I intend to join EVGA's waitlist. I want a stronger card for VR.

What else can I do to battle the bots? Will my local Best Buy get any?
Considering how long it's taking EVGA to clear their existing waitlists, that sounds like a recipe for disappointment. And, bots gonna bot. *shrug*

I'm betting the smart play would be to alarm clock for the Best Buy drop, and then -- while everyone's scrambling for 3060's with factory mark-ups to $400+ (thnx, tariffs!) -- snag a 3060 TI FE for the same money. Work smart, not hard.
 
Joining EVGA's waitlist is probably almost useless at this point. The list is huge. If you didn't get in shortly after it opened it'll be a long time before they get to you. The one up side is it's per SKU, so if they launch a new model a new list will open. If they make an FTW Super Bling Ultra RGB edition with disco ball fans that'll be a a new SKU and a new list. There's a thread on it with people posting their queue positions and results.

The most effective way to get one is probably camping in front of a Microcenter if you have one around. It still requires luck, but at least you don't have to deal with bots. Of course that involves getting to a Microcenter early in the morning and standing around outside in the middle of winter. How much that sucks depends on where you are. It's been @^#&*@^! cold in Chicago lately. On the other hand if you have the gear the weather makes it easier to get one. Parka, snow pants, ski mask, heavy gloves/mittens, insulated boots, etc.

Best Buy is one of the easier online stores to buy from without resorting to running a bot, but it'll be for local pickup. Best Buy spreads out drops, and the site tells you a card is about to go on sale. So if you get a Discord notification or whatever about one card dropping you might not get there in time to get that card but there's a very good chance others will drop after it. On that note, you should sign up for notifications on all the new vid cards if you're trying to get one from Best Buy. Hopefully the first notification won't be the card you want. You're looking for a 3060Ti, so on a good day a 3090 drops first so you know the drops are starting and have time to prepare before the 3060Ti comes up. You just load up the product page, wait for the button to turn yellow, and then click add to cart and check out as fast as you can. Worked out for me. I got a 3090 from Best Buy on 6900XT launch day. Just be sure you have a BestBuy.com account and are logged in before you try to buy anything. I haven't tried buying a hot item since, but when I got my 3090 last December you had to be logged in. No guest checkouts allowed.

Consider a 3070 as well, especially if you can land a 3070FE from Best Buy. NV seems to be holding the line on FE card pricing while everything else went up, and the AIBs seem to be mostly producing higher end models. A 3070FE at $500 is around the price of a lot of 3060Tis from AIBs and less than a few of them.

Edit: Just realized the OP is talking about the upcoming 3060 launch. Oops. So yeah, getting in early on EVGA's list could result in a card. Gotta be quick though. Probably still worth chasing FEs at BestBuy. IIRC I think NV said there wasn't going to be a 3060 FE, so it'll be AIB prices all around and a 3060Ti FE probably won't be much more $ than a 3060.
 
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The most effective way to get one is probably camping in front of a Microcenter if you have one around. It still requires luck, but at least you don't have to deal with bots. Of course that involves getting to a Microcenter early in the morning and standing around outside in the middle of winter. How much that sucks depends on where you are. It's been @^#&*@^! cold in Chicago lately. On the other hand if you have the gear the weather makes it easier to get one. Parka, snow pants, ski mask, heavy gloves/mittens, insulated boots, etc.
I've been watching the unofficial Micro Center discord channel and in Denver what they are doing now is setting up lawn/camp chairs in their line positions on the sidewalk at night sometimes before the store even closes and sleeping in their cars in the parking lot. If enough people are doing that you may be SOL just trying to get into the line in a good position in the morning.

I've got a life to live and responsibilities. It may be your best chance to get a card, but also will take the most time/effort in my opinion.

Otherwise Best Buy drops seem to be working for a lot of folks, but I've personally had no luck with them. I managed to snag a Zotac card on a stock alert Discord. But let's be honest, was not at all my first choice for card.
 
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Get in a stock discord ASAP.

Unless you just get dumb lucky, you're not getting a card otherwise. Best Buy has been good to me but you can't go by checking randomly, as soon as they drop there are thousands of people trying to add to cart who have been notified through discord, you need to be one of them.
 
Get in a stock discord ASAP.

Unless you just get dumb lucky, you're not getting a card otherwise. Best Buy has been good to me but you can't go by checking randomly, as soon as they drop there are thousands of people trying to add to cart who have been notified through discord, you need to be one of them.
Also if you try for the Best Buy drops, be sure to set your phone instead of email for getting your login code. Phone is instant, email can take minutes.
 
crossroad.jpg
 
Good luck dude. Chances are you're not getting one. Too many shooting for too little.

Sorry.
 
There is also the AMD 6700 and 6700XT announced, base on the navi 22 silicone. The 6700XT will have 12GB RAM, is competing probably with the 3060Ti not the 3060 and is probably performing a bit under the 3070.
The 6700 will be 6Gb, which is quite low for such a GPU. Those will launch in March 2021.
There will also be another GPU called 6600 and 6600XT with the exact same amount of different difference as 6 and 12GB. That one may be another kind of GPU, not sure which. It may be launched at the beginning of the summer, May or June. That one may be close to the 3060.
Also there is the 6500 which is going to be 4 and 8GB. This will definitely be another GPU, the Navi 23, and may be competing with the 3050 at Nvidia. It may be launched during summer.

So depending on price and stocks, one may chose one or another. There is no so much choice that one could chose exactly what he wants at the official price, and the problem may become even worse this year. So waiting, if the graphics card is needed, is not a solution either.
 
From where I'm sitting, it appears the smart move is to find out when a Microcenter gets stock in, and then camp out that day. You obviously can't beat the bots, but if you camp in front of microcenter, you really only have to compete with the other people in your neck of the woods who have the time to go there in person and sit there in line for hours.

I think the smart thing to do right now is just play older games that don't require a 30 series card. The market is just too crazy right now. Many on here have probably seen my threads about repairing dead graphics cards, and the big reason I've stopped making those is that even broken cards go for crazy prices now.
 
It's freeeeeeeezing up here in MA. And college kids line up in droves. Here, you just aren't getting one. No chance. I have totally given up the search. 2022 hopefully there is stock. Until then my 2070 is good enough.

But dude....good luck!
 
It's freeeeeeeezing up here in MA. And college kids line up in droves. Here, you just aren't getting one. No chance. I have totally given up the search. 2022 hopefully there is stock. Until then my 2070 is good enough.

But dude....good luck!

Yeah this weekend its colder than a vampire's demeanor over here.
 
For those of us who a) don't have a Microcenter close to us and b) are trying to buy something at MSRP, best buy FE cards are still the best option. I'm wondering if they ever restock during the weekend? I have FE models saved (3060 Ti and 3070), with my card information and address already saved in the system. So, technically, I could complete a purchase in ~3 seconds if I can just add to card - checkout (faster if you're already in the cart page with wanted items saved). I have a chrome plugin refreshing the tab every 10 seconds while I'm on the computer, to make it more likely that I'll notice if it actually becomes available at any moment.

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For those of us who a) don't have a Microcenter close to us and b) are trying to buy something at MSRP, best buy FE cards are still the best option. I'm wondering if they ever restock during the weekend? I have FE models saved (3060 Ti and 3070), with my card information and address already saved in the system. So, technically, I could complete a purchase in ~3 seconds if I can just add to card - checkout (faster if you're already in the cart page with wanted items saved). I have a chrome plugin refreshing the tab every 10 seconds while I'm on the computer, to make it more likely that I'll notice if it actually becomes available at any moment.

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What is this my best buy offer pricing...
 
What is this my best buy offer pricing...
Oh you can disregard that. It was my birthday a couple days ago, so they tend to give you a discount for a couple weeks. I have until the 28th to use that discount, but yeah, virtually 0 chance I'll be able to buy a GPU by then.
 
Oh you can disregard that. It was my birthday a couple days ago, so they tend to give you a discount for a couple weeks. I have until the 28th to use that discount, but yeah, virtually 0 chance I'll be able to buy a GPU by then.
It's fine, I probably won't be able to get anything in stock until my birthday anyway. Born in August.
 
For those of us who a) don't have a Microcenter close to us and b) are trying to buy something at MSRP, best buy FE cards are still the best option. I'm wondering if they ever restock during the weekend? I have FE models saved (3060 Ti and 3070), with my card information and address already saved in the system. So, technically, I could complete a purchase in ~3 seconds if I can just add to card - checkout (faster if you're already in the cart page with wanted items saved). I have a chrome plugin refreshing the tab every 10 seconds while I'm on the computer, to make it more likely that I'll notice if it actually becomes available at any moment.

View attachment 329303

So far, they've only done drops on some Tuesdays and some Fridays. It's very simple to be notified the second a drop happens by just joining and signing up for the proper alerts for the card you want on one of a number of popular stock discord servers. Just refreshing the pages on your own is going to be very slow. As soon as the drop happens, tens of thousands of members on those servers are all trying to do what you're doing, yet they were notified instantly while you're relying on your own page refreshing.
 
So far, they've only done drops on some Tuesdays and some Fridays. It's very simple to be notified the second a drop happens by just joining and signing up for the proper alerts for the card you want on one of a number of popular stock discord servers. Just refreshing the pages on your own is going to be very slow. As soon as the drop happens, tens of thousands of members on those servers are all trying to do what you're doing, yet they were notified instantly while you're relying on your own page refreshing.
That's not a bad idea. So far I've only seen notifications for "any" card at "any" price, though. I'm very specifically looking for FE cards at MSRP, which only seem to be sold at Best Buy. Is there a discord server for that? I'm not very familiar with it - have only used it a few times to play Destiny 2 with friends. How would I search for it or sign up for one of those channels?

So far the only service I have found that I can actually understand how to use is this one - https://www.nowinstock.net/computers/videocards/nvidia/rtx3060ti/
 
There is also the AMD 6700 and 6700XT announced, base on the navi 22 silicone. The 6700XT will have 12GB RAM, is competing probably with the 3060Ti not the 3060 and is probably performing a bit under the 3070.
The 6700 will be 6Gb, which is quite low for such a GPU. Those will launch in March 2021.
There will also be another GPU called 6600 and 6600XT with the exact same amount of different difference as 6 and 12GB. That one may be another kind of GPU, not sure which. It may be launched at the beginning of the summer, May or June. That one may be close to the 3060.
Also there is the 6500 which is going to be 4 and 8GB. This will definitely be another GPU, the Navi 23, and may be competing with the 3050 at Nvidia. It may be launched during summer.

So depending on price and stocks, one may chose one or another. There is no so much choice that one could chose exactly what he wants at the official price, and the problem may become even worse this year. So waiting, if the graphics card is needed, is not a solution either.
AMD supply is far worse then anything Nvidia has. They will be practically impossible to get a hold of.
 
For those of us who a) don't have a Microcenter close to us and b) are trying to buy something at MSRP, best buy FE cards are still the best option. I'm wondering if they ever restock during the weekend? I have FE models saved (3060 Ti and 3070), with my card information and address already saved in the system. So, technically, I could complete a purchase in ~3 seconds if I can just add to card - checkout (faster if you're already in the cart page with wanted items saved). I have a chrome plugin refreshing the tab every 10 seconds while I'm on the computer, to make it more likely that I'll notice if it actually becomes available at any moment.

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Best Buy reserves your card for (I think) 10 minutes once you hit the Checkout page. You'll need all 10 of those minutes to do their account/payment verifications depending on what they throw at you.
Aside from a page refresher you can point Distill at the "Sold Out" button to search the text "Add to Cart" and you'll get a ding as soon as it changes.

Once you actually hit the button you will have to wait in a queue/lottery system. I'm not sure being fast even matters at all.
 
That's not a bad idea. So far I've only seen notifications for "any" card at "any" price, though. I'm very specifically looking for FE cards at MSRP, which only seem to be sold at Best Buy. Is there a discord server for that? I'm not very familiar with it - have only used it a few times to play Destiny 2 with friends. How would I search for it or sign up for one of those channels?

So far the only service I have found that I can actually understand how to use is this one - https://www.nowinstock.net/computers/videocards/nvidia/rtx3060ti/
Shot you a PM.
 
For those of us who a) don't have a Microcenter close to us and b) are trying to buy something at MSRP, best buy FE cards are still the best option. I'm wondering if they ever restock during the weekend? I have FE models saved (3060 Ti and 3070), with my card information and address already saved in the system. So, technically, I could complete a purchase in ~3 seconds if I can just add to card - checkout (faster if you're already in the cart page with wanted items saved). I have a chrome plugin refreshing the tab every 10 seconds while I'm on the computer, to make it more likely that I'll notice if it actually becomes available at any moment.

View attachment 329303

BB drops are about two weeks apart, generally on Tuesdays or Fridays, between 11am and 12pm EST. (Last one was at 11:30am 11:15am exactly.)


Oh you can disregard that. It was my birthday a couple days ago, so they tend to give you a discount for a couple weeks. I have until the 28th to use that discount, but yeah, virtually 0 chance I'll be able to buy a GPU by then.

Well, you might be in luck, because the next likely drop dates are the 23rd (2 weeks from last drop) and the 26th (Friday after the two-week mark). I suppose there's also the possibility of one on the 25th (in case they batch the drop with the 3060 launch), but who knows what the timing of that might be.

Get on one of the stock checker Discords or Twitter feeds. When rumors of a drop start flying, open up one of the YouTube livestreams half an hour or so before a likely drop. I used this one on YouTube -- the guy who runs it gets awfully chatty around when the drops are due (and sometimes talks politics *shudder*), but the air-raid siren when the drop happens is hard to miss. When the drop happens, follow the best practices for BB drops.
 
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Checking a popular Discord, the first alert came in at 11:13AM so that checks out.
 
I think I'll just roll with my 2060 and upgrade my processor to a 5600X soon. It's been shown that Zen 3 helps VR framerates significantly over Zen 2.

Thanks for the help, all.
 
For BestBuy
  • Make sure you have an account with them, recommend credit card information, shipping address is on file as well
  • Save the graphic cards you are interested in
  • Those saved cards will show up when you open up your cart and will show available or not and option to add to cart if they do
  • If a card becomes available you can add to cart but will have to wait a period of time before you can with their two step process
  • Once in cart, immediately check out, since credit card and address info is already there this can be only a few seconds, you may have to put in your cvn number for your credit card
EDIT: Looks like below script could be spyway, just do it the manual way.
For Chrome, you can use a Google Auto Refresh script if you want for a given page:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/easy-auto-refresh/aabcgdmkeabbnleenpncegpcngjpnjkc
 
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For BestBuy
  • Make sure you have an account with them, recommend credit card information, shipping address is on file as well
[...]
Also make sure your mobile phone number is on file. Best Buy's SMS verification system is nearly instant. Their email system... not so much.

When you're racing the plebs for a spot in the queue, seconds matter.
 
Also make sure your mobile phone number is on file. Best Buy's SMS verification system is nearly instant. Their email system... not so much.

When you're racing the plebs for a spot in the queue, seconds matter.
This whole situation is a crock of you-know-what. Thanks Nvidia.
 
Damn, unable to find any via search of the model number.
According to the thread there were 30 in-stock and sold out in about a minute.
The model number is shown in the screenshot which is incredibly useful for refreshing EVGA's website.

Also we can see the price and I was right about $390. :p
 
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