Asus Wants Your Old Graphics Cards

When in the market to buy a new phone, you can usually trade in your current device for a new one. You can do this by taking in your phone and surrendering it for cash toward a new one, or pay off your lease and take on a new payment plan. Now, manufacturer Asus wants to let PC gamers in the UK do something similar with its new Trade Up Your Graphics program.

Under this new trade-in program, customers can take their old gear and swap them out for some of the graphics cards out there in a more affordable manner. Asus will allow customers to trade in any Nvidia GeForce graphics card beginning from the GTX 650 and up. The cards that can be submitted are divided into quality tiers -- Good, Better and Best -- based on the card's chipset and performance. Branding doesn't matter. If you trade in a higher-tier card, you're going to get more cash back on your trade-in, of course.

This is how it works. You first need to purchase a "qualifying product" from Asus between July 1 and August 31. You can check what products meet said standards via Asus' website. Then, you need to complete an online claim form within 30 days of your purchase date. You'll be prompted to mail in your old graphics card within 45 days of your claim approval, and then voila! Your reward balance will be sent via bank transfer within 30 days after Asus validates your trade-in.

On paper, it sounds pretty easy, and if you have no use for the old card anyway, it could be a great deal, especially if you want a little money back for a low-effort endeavor. The cash you receive on the cards can wildly vary, however, with a GTX 1080 Ti netting around $350 in the Best tier, and a GTX 750 Ti rated as Good might get you about $50. The value of the participating will depend on what you have to trade. 

As far as AMD cards go, only Radeon RX 480 and RX 580 are currently a part of the deal.

Worried about initiating a trade and need to know how much you'll get first? Asus's Trade Up portal has a calculator to help you break it all down.

Right now, it appears that this deal is only available in the UK, but given that it's a great move for folks who want to make a little moolah off their old components, hopefully it'll move to the U.S. in the near future.