Despite The Cold, People Are Camping Out For A Chance To Buy A $2,000 Graphics Card
Nvidia's latest high-end gaming graphics cards—the RTX 5090 and 5080—launch later this week. Signs are pointing to supplies being limited and almost everyone is expecting the cards to sell out. As a result, some people are camping outside Micro Centers despite cold weather, rain, and the retailer discouraging the behavior, all for a chance to buy a new, powerful GPU.
On January 30 Nvidia will begin selling both the $2,000 RTX 5090 GPU and the slightly-less-powerful-but-still-beefy $1,000 RTX 5080 GPU. While both graphics cards sport high prices, that hasn't stopped hype from building and that has led to Nvidia warning people that the cards are likely to sell out fast. Some stores have been warned that they might not get the new GPUs until February or later. As you might expect, people who are worried about missing out or who want to resell the cards for a profit are already lining up outside stores in tents and chairs to give themselves a better chance to grab either graphics card at launch.
As reported by IGN, according to posts found on the Micro Center subreddit, people have spotted tents outside at least one store in California. Another user spotted someone sitting in a chair outside a Dallas, Texas location. Other posts are from folks claiming they're driving out soon to start camping out at their local stores before the launch. People on the subreddit are also discussing how bathroom breaks should be handled.
This is all happening despite Micro Center officially discouraging people from camping out for the new GPU due to the cold temperatures in many parts of the United States.
However, some on Reddit are claiming that managers and employees at different Micro Center stores are encouraging campers and even bringing them coffee.
While some of the people camping out for a new GPU are likely doing it simply to upgrade their PC, others may be waiting for days to buy a card so they can flip it on eBay or other sites for a hefty profit. At least one person on the Micro Center subreddit who claims to be in one of the previously mentioned tents in California says that they aren't looking to resell the card, but not many people in the comments believe them.
Hopefully, things stay peaceful and civil at these Micro Center stores and we don't see a repeat of what happened in 2021 when people chaotically stormed a store for GPUs after a restock. To help combat this, Micro Center is limiting sales to one GPU per person and is instituting a voucher system.
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