So, this week I made 3 separate morning visits to Microcenter, hoping to snag a new GeForce RTX 30X0 card. Didn't have any luck, but it was certainly amusing people watching. Shortly after they open at 10am, an awkward group gathers around the empty shelves that normally hold hundreds of video cards. Mainly nerdy goofs like myself. But nobody knows what's going on, or how it's supposed to work as far as if/when they bring out new boxes of goodies. Everyone stands around for 20-30 minutes like a bunch of caged animals, waiting for the morning food drop.
In talking to one of the eldest techs working the computer parts area, this is what I've gathered...
While shipments are mostly random, they typically get new 30X0 cards to stock on M-W-F mornings. But not every one of those days. It varies greatly when they get shipments, and they really don't know ahead of time, and cannot take reservations. The website data on quantities and availability is completely unreliable, do not believe what you see there unless the available quantity is above 20.
On top of that, it's now the Chinese New Year. Which means Asian production of chips effectively shuts down for 2 weeks. During an already historic shortage of silicon computer chips.
