Retailer Bundles $100 Steam Gift Card With RTX 40-Series Purchases

GeForce RTX 40-series GPUs
GeForce RTX 40-series GPUs (Image credit: Nvidia)

Nvidia's GeForce RTX 40-series products are some of the best graphics cards available. Nonetheless, that doesn't mean that business has been good for retailers. In the case of Micro Center, the retailer found it necessary to include a small incentive to help bolster sales.

Micro Center is currently bundling a $100 free Steam gift card for all GeForce RTX 40-series graphics card purchases, whether the flagship GeForce RTX 4090 or the latest mainstream GeForce RTX 4070. The retailer has 73 different custom models available, although only 17 are available for shipping. Micro Center is one of the few retailers with a brick-and-mortar presence. If you have a nearby Micro Center, you can get an additional discount of up to $85, depending on the model of the graphics card.

The $100 gift card is an excellent stimulus since consumers can choose the title they want from Steam rather than receiving free copies of games that may not interest them. In addition, there are many interesting upcoming games on Steam, such as Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Redfall, and Street Fighter 6, that buyers can use the gift card on.

(Image credit: Micro Center)

According to a DigiTimes report, Nvidia isn't in a hurry to increase GeForce RTX 40-series graphics card production. The Ada Lovelace graphics cards carry premium price tags, which hasn't helped user adoption. Furthermore, many of Nvidia's partners still have an excess of GeForce RTX 30-series supply that they still need to sell. For example, MSI recently launched new GeForce RTX 3060 Ti models, an SKU that launched almost three years ago and recently refreshed a few months ago.

Unlike Micro Center, other retailers, like Japanese store NTT-X, have gone as far as giving away an Arc A750 with GeForce RTX 4090 purchases.

Micro Center's $100 Steam gift card is an added value on top of Nvidia's current Overwatch 2 Ultimate Battle Pass Bundle for GeForce RTX 40-series purchases. The promotion, which runs from April 12 to May 8, applies to the GeForce RTX 4090, RTX 4080, RTX 4070 Ti, and RTX 4070. The gaming bundle has a value of $29.99, so it's pretty cool if you're an Overwatch 2 player. However, it may not have the same value for gamers that are not into the game.

Zhiye Liu
RAM Reviewer and News Editor

Zhiye Liu is a Freelance News Writer at Tom’s Hardware US. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.

  • bigdragon
    I like this. While I would prefer a price drop instead of some bundled credit, the idea of having a Steam gift card is way better than being forced into accepting a big publisher title. There's little variety and innovation in the AAA space. Good job, Micro Center!

    Looks like Micro Center has a huge inventory of RTX 40-series models. Lots of them are showing up as "25+ in stock" as compared to most RTX 30-series models showing in the single digits. People don't appear to be buying. The RTX 4070's appear to be the most overstocked. Hopefully this means gamers are rejecting Nvidia's higher prices.
    Reply
  • LostFate
    Now, if only it were possible to find a RTX 4090FE through literally anyone other than a scalper. Are they sitting on that much stock of 3rd party cards that they need to incentivize people to buy them? If so, what does that say about the 3rd party cards?
    Reply
  • CelicaGT
    Still nope, mostly on principle, but also because my backlog is getting out of control. That said, I'd rather spend 800CAD on Steam on games that my 3060 can run than on a 4070 at this point. But that's more out of spite than principle....
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    Microcenter is practically begging people to take those things outta there. Their returned GPU cages are overflowing.
    Reply
  • Eric Van Boven
    LostFate said:
    Now, if only it were possible to find a RTX 4090FE through literally anyone other than a scalper. Are they sitting on that much stock of 3rd party cards that they need to incentivize people to buy them? If so, what does that say about the 3rd party cards?
    Yup this. Been waiting so long. The FE just looks better than the rest. Maybe time for Nvidia to stop using 3rd party cards.
    Reply
  • LostFate said:
    Now, if only it were possible to find a RTX 4090FE through literally anyone other than a scalper. Are they sitting on that much stock of 3rd party cards that they need to incentivize people to buy them? If so, what does that say about the 3rd party cards?

    The free Redfall game I got had nothing to do with my 4090 purchase. I don't much care about a $50 game (or $100 gift card) on a $1750 item. I'd have made the purchase with no incentive at all. I definitely wasn't sitting here saying "I really want a 4090 but only if I get a free game with it!" :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO:

    Eric Van Boven said:
    Yup this. Been waiting so long. The FE just looks better than the rest. Maybe time for Nvidia to stop using 3rd party cards.

    My build has a white/black theme... and while the 3090 FE did look good I had no problems grabbing a Gigabyte Aero 4090 when I upgraded. With the white case this white card really looks good against all the black internal parts.

    Didn't realize the FE was having stock issues. Is it just the price?
    Reply
  • lumineZ
    And still no.
    The amount of money you have to throw at a 4xxx card is insane. I vote with my wallet and even if I want a 4xxx card I will skip this generation. Vote with your wallet.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    TravisPNW said:
    Didn't realize the FE was having stock issues. Is it just the price?
    Nah, just Nvidia cutting production and throttling distribution to maintain inflated prices. That is their official strategy at least until sales crash hard enough to hurt their net income. Inflated unitary gross profit does you no good without sufficient volume to cover all of your sunk and recurring costs.

    lumineZ said:
    And still no.
    The amount of money you have to throw at a 4xxx card is insane. I vote with my wallet and even if I want a 4xxx card I will skip this generation. Vote with your wallet.
    I'm still running a GTX1050. At this point, I'm almost set on upgrading to an A750. Never thought I might one day contemplate buying an Intel GPU as a protest vote against AMD and Nvidia's price-gouging. Of course, that wasn't even an option until only a few months ago.
    Reply
  • hannibal
    True. Nvidia can afford of making less GPUs just to sell them at higher price…
    Reply