Scoring a new graphics card may feel impossible, but a tweak to EVGA’s free Elite membership may make your quest merely next to impossible instead. The company earned the accolades of PC enthusiasts around the globe by introducing a queue-based system for GPU sales on its website, and now, EVGA will give its Elite members “priority access” to the line.
Here are the key bits from yesterday’s announcement:
“EVGA is excited to announce ELITE Priority Access, the latest benefit to EVGA ELITE Members. EVGA ELITE Members enjoy numerous benefits allowing them to save money, make money and enjoy exclusive access. With ELITE Priority Access, EVGA ELITE Members will have 24 hour exclusive early access to the queue system on newly-launched EVGA products giving them the ability to reserve their purchasing slot before the general public.”
Brad Chacos/IDG
The EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 XC Black.
The new system starts with the release of the EVGA Z590 FTW WiFi motherboard launching later this week, but EVGA says it will also apply to all future launches. With all sorts of leaks springing over a GeForce RTX 3080 Ti potentially launching later this month, offering 12GB of GDDR6X memory and performance between the (theoretically) $700 GeForce RTX 3080 and $1,500 RTX 3090, deep-pocketed gamers who haven’t been able to luck into a graphics card might want to consider signing up.
Again, Elite membership is free, and while there’s no doubt that there will likely more people queuing up than actual EVGA RTX 3080 Ti offerings for sale—assuming that rumored card launches, of course—the Priority Access will probably offer much higher odds of landing a GPU in your hands than slamming the F5 button at major retailers on the day of new graphics card releases. You need to qualify for an Elite membership by either purchasing and registering EVGA products in the last year or two, or by being active in the company’s community forums and Twitch streams.
Check out our guide to the best graphics cards for gaming if you want to wrap your head around the current GPU landscape before registering with EVGA. (Spoiler: It’s bleak.) Alternatively, if you’ve given up trying to land a graphics card at a sane price, our looks at Nvidia’s GeForce Now and Microsoft’s new Xbox Cloud Gaming give a glimpse of what’s possible streaming your games over the Internet these days. Cloud-based gaming gets a bad rap but it’s really leveled up over the last few years.
Editor’s note: This article was updated slightly after publication to add the line about eligibility requirements.