In the GPU arms race, there are really only two dominant companies vying for market supremacy, Nvidia and AMD. While both have their merits, and much of it comes down to personal choice, it's the former which seems to be making more ground in terms of new products. With the tech giant putting out more products than its rival, and a rumor that the company has finalized plans for the next generation in its RTX 30 series, there is probably more to choose from with Nvidia than with AMD, providing customers can get hold of them.
Even though Nvidia and AMD prices are set to come down this quarter, and supplies may begin to become more regular again sooner than expected, it's still difficult for gamers and PC enthusiasts to get hold of any new equipment. However, one plucky young lad has managed to bypass an online queuing system and bag himself a brand new RTX 3090 graphics card.
A few days ago, 11-year-old Ricardo Santana was lucky enough to purchase the Nvidia GPU from Newegg, which specializes in computer hardware. The report says that the boy and his father had tried for months to secure a GPU through the retailer's online lottery system known as Newegg Shuffle. The system allows only so many graphics cards to be purchased each day, and with around 100,000 people in the queue, it's still very difficult to get hold of one.
However, both father and son managed to find a loophole in the system. Essentially, Santana used the website's custom PC building service, which was listing the Nvidia RTX 3090 card as part of a bundle deal. By using the app for the site, the young gamer was somehow able to select the GPU individually. Allegedly, at the time of the report going live, it was possible to select a graphics card even if it was listed as sold out, and add it to the online basket.
Sadly, Newegg, which recently announced it would be accepting Dogecoin as payment, has now plugged the loophole. While customers can still use the PC building feature, the "hot items" have now been removed. This could be down to the story being covered publically and the retailer becoming wise to the issue. However, last week, the Senior Brand Manager for the company did give kudos to Santana on finding and exploiting the loophole. It's a bit of a shame it's now been closed, but it's perhaps understandable from a retail perspective.
Source: PC Mag