Best Buy GPU restock for Nvidia RTX 30-series happening today, October 1

Shoppers wait outside of Best Buy for the opening of Black Friday shopping.
(Image credit: Aimee Dilger/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Update: Best Buy has confirmed the Nvidia RTX 30-series GPU restock is happening today, Friday October 1, 2021. That's in-store only, and as far as we know there's no stock headed to the retailer's online store. 

Before you head to your closest store, though, you'll want to check this official webpage to see if they will have any available stock. If they do, you'll want to go grab a place in line by 7:30am local time, which is when staff will allocate tickets to those waiting. These tickets are transferrable for one graphics card when the store opens at 8am local time.

There's a limit of one graphics card per customer, and once the tickets are allocated out that's all the available stock accounted for.


Original story: If looking for an Nvidia RTX 30-series graphics card, and live in the US, Best Buy could be your best bet for a GPU restock this week. Rumours suggest the retail giant will release more Founders Edition GPUs before the weekend, but you'll likely have to travel by car, plane, or rail to get to your closest store in order to pick one up.

Best Buy has not confirmed the stock drop yet, but rumours are swirling about the potential drop. Largely these come from Twitter account @GPURestock, who accurately foretold of the last major Best Buy GPU restock.

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They say people close to store managers are saying the next GPU restock will happen Friday, October 1. On that day, employees will hand out tickets, one per GPU in-store, to those waiting in line, as Best Buy has done for previous GPU drops.

They also report that you can actually discover whether your local Best Buy will have stock available, and of what cards, by checking the Best Buy app.

Tips and advice

The Nvidia RTX 3070 and AMD RX 6700 XT side by side on a colourful background

(Image credit: Future)

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There's no way to know if this is a database error or something similar, but if you search for RTX and then tap on the slider that limits results to those in stock at your nearest store, you might find some RTX 30-series Founders Edition are listed. These cards aren't available for pick up and are reportedly 'sold out'—good start, I know—but in theory the fact they even show up could mean that store has received a delivery of these cards and is nearly ready to hand them out to lucky punters.

It feels a little like the ancient art of divination, but there's perhaps some logic in the madness.

In lieu of confirmation, though, be ready to get over to a Best Buy in time for the stock drop just in case it does occur. Best Buy has previously put up a stock checker and announcement page regarding any upcoming in-store drops, as it did last time, so in theory we'll receive confirmation about the drop ahead of time.

Jacob Ridley
Senior Hardware Editor

Jacob earned his first byline writing for his own tech blog. From there, he graduated to professionally breaking things as hardware writer at PCGamesN, and would go on to run the team as hardware editor. Since then he's joined PC Gamer's top staff as senior hardware editor, where he spends his days reporting on the latest developments in the technology and gaming industries and testing the newest PC components.