The ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X, the latest handheld consoles developed by Asus and Microsoft, are now officially available for pre-order. The ROG Xbox Ally X is priced at $999, while the standard ROG Xbox Ally comes in at $599. Customers can reserve either of the models by visiting Asus’ or Microsoft’s respective online stores,

Several third party retailers are also taking pre-orders including Amazon, Best Buy, Ant Online, and Walmart. Interestingly, the ROG Xbox Ally X is going to sell exclusively on Best Buy, while the ROG Xbox Ally is open for other retailers.

A trio of Asus GeForce RTX 5060 graphics cards has been listed at Best Buy in the U.S. (h/t momomo_us). These RTX 5060 retail pages appear to have been published a week too early. Perhaps more importantly, they are coming in at prices significantly above the touted $299 starting price, ranging between $340 and an eye-watering $410.

The retailer listings, now deleted, provide prices and may confirm some key details of the yet-to-launch RTX 5060 graphics cards from the Asus Prime (regular and OC) and TUF (OC) families. Nvidia has officially stated it will launch the RTX 5060 exactly a week from now, so perhaps someone at Best Buy had a mix-up with their calendar.

We were also expecting pricing at or very close to $299, but these 8GB VRAM cards are priced at up to $110 more for the Asus TUF OC model. The best price is $340 for what is usually Asus’s lowest-tier Prime effort, without any factory overclock applied.

A closer look at the Asus RTX 5060 models?

Depressing news about tariff price rises on your favorite tech, GPU prices through the roof, and the general cost of being a gamer skyrocketing. With all these extra costs and threats of prices increasing further floating about, it's so lovely to find some actual deals on our favorite tech and hardware. Today, we have a gaming laptop from HP that won't break any FPS records. However, it will offer you a mobile platform to play your games on and is upgradable, so you can beef up the specs for even better performance.

Today's gaming laptop deal is available at Best Buy for just $449. The HP Victus 15 (model: 15-fb2063dx) is the perfect gaming laptop option if you want to pick up an affordable laptop for light gaming, playing games on a home network, or cloud gaming via Xbox Gamepass.

This 2024 model of the HP Victus features a 15.6-inch IPS display with an FHD (1920 x 1080 pixel) resolution, AMD's Ryzen 5 7535HS processor, AMD's Radeon RX 6550M GPU, 8GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 512GB SSD for your operating system and games library. 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD aren't great, with Windows alone chewing up a large portion of the available RAM. If you are thinking of purchasing this laptop, you will want to look at grabbing some more RAM and upgrading to at least 16GB for gaming. The good news is that the laptop is easily upgradable, and you can add another 8GB of RAM and install up to 2TB of storage in the M.2 slots.

We've reviewed the HP Victus 16, the big brother of this laptop, and found the laptop to have excellent battery life, a comfortable keyboard, a bright display, and an attractive design. The Laptop featured in this deal is the smaller 15.6-inch model and includes many similar specifications and the same design, albeit in a slightly smaller chassis. For only $449, this laptop is the perfect gaming laptop for those on a budget looking to play games while away from your main gaming rig.

Don't forget to look at our Best Buy coupon codes for April 2025 and see if you can save on today's deal or other products at Best Buy.

Right now at Best Buy, you can find the Dell S2721NX 27-inch FHD monitor for one of its lowest prices to date. This IPS display usually goes for around $159 but it's currently discounted to just $89. This deal is part of a limited offer that's scheduled to expire by the end of February 23rd, 2025 (14 hours left at the time of publishing), so you don't have too much time to mull over whether or not you want to indulge in a new monitor.

Unfortunately, we haven't had the opportunity to review the Dell S2721NX just yet, but we definitely have plenty of experience with leading brands like Dell and other monitors on the market. If you want to get a better idea of how this monitor compares to other popular displays, you should check out our list of best gaming monitors. There you can see what our favorite picks are in various categories ranging from budget displays to those with super high-quality specs.

The Dell S2721NX monitor is built around a 27-inch IPS display panel. It has an FHD resolution which measures 1,920 x 1,080 pixels. The refresh rate isn't the highest on the market, reaching just 75 Hz, but for a monitor under $100, we can't complain too much. FreeSync should help smooth out stutters and tearing as long as your GPU can hold between 48 and 75 Hz, too. The S2721NX has a refresh rate of 4ms.

Adding further appeal to the S2721NX for occasional gaming is its low latency and low framerate compensation support. The brightness is capable of reaching 300 Nits which definitely isn't too bad for a monitor in this price range. An anti-glare matte 3H coating should aid visibility if there is a strong light somewhere in your work/play environment. The 1,000:1 contrast ratio is pretty typical for an IPS panel.

As far as video input goes, you get two HDMI 1.4 ports to take advantage of, no DP sadly. There's a 3.5mm headphone jack, too.

The purchase is supported by both Best Buy's return policy as well as a 1-year manufacturer's warranty from Dell.

Again, this discount is part of a limited offer that is set to expire by the end of the day. If you want to take a closer look at the deal, head over to the official Dell S2721NX 27-inch IPS FHD monitor product page at Best Buy for more information and purchase options.

Today's deal is for those data backup enthusiasts who need high-capacity storage options to store their precious data. Not suitable for high-speed gaming, the traditional hard disk drives in these external storage solutions use long-lasting, reliable mechanical drives. So if you want something to accompany a NAS setup, a stand-alone solution, or even to shuck, this Seagate external HDD deal may be of interest to you.

Available from Best Buy, you can save $50 on the list price of the Seagate Expansion Desktop 24TB HDD, now only $279. The large 24TB capacity means more room for your files, and with the USB 3.0 bandwidth, the transfer speeds won't be horrendous.

The Seagate Expansion external HHD comes in a rugged black plastic chassis measuring about 7x2x5 inches with small feet on the bottom and a power and USB cable connection on the rear. This unit does need external power to run, and the AC power adapter is included in the packaging.

Included in the box with the Seagate Expansion Desktop 24TB HDD is an 18-inch USB 3.0 cable and a power cable. With a purchase of this Seagate external HDD, you also have the option of using Seagate's Rescue Data Recovery Services software for data backups.

Don't forget to look at our Best Buy coupon codes for February 2025 and see if you can save on today's deal or other products at Best Buy.

If you're looking for more storage, you've got to check out this deal on the Seagate Expansion Desktop 20TB HDD. It usually goes for around $279 but right now it's marked down to just $229 at Best Buy. This is a great option for anyone looking for more storage for something like a NAS, media center, or backups for game files. That said, if you want something dedicated to gaming you would be better off performance-wise looking for an SSD instead.

If you want to get an idea of how well this HDD compares against others on the market today, you should check out our list of best hard drives for 2025. We don't have this exact model on our list but we haven't had the opportunity to get our hands on it yet for a review. You will, however, find other Seagate drives on the list so we know for sure the brand is among the most reputable.

Today's offer applies only to the 20TB model but you will find other capacities ranging from as small as 4TB all the way up to 24TB. The Seagate Expansion Desktop 20TB HDD is USB 3.0 compatible. Because this is a desktop HDD, a power cable is required for it to operate in addition to the USB connection. It has a small form factor, measuring in at 7.04/1.65/4.92in and weighing just under 3lb at 2.59lb.

With this purchase, you receive the Seagate Expansion Desktop 20TB HDD, an 18-inch USB 3.0 cable, and the power cable. You also have the option of using Seagate's Rescue Data Recovery Services software for data backups. The purchase includes a limited warranty from Seagate and is also supported by Best Buy's return policy.

Visit the Seagate Expansion Desktop 20TB HDD product page at BestBuy for more details and purchase options.

A heartily-discounted Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024), which flaunts a 120 Hz OLED screen, a Ryzen 9 8945HS, 16 GB of LPDDR5X RAM, a 1 TB NVMe Gen 4 SSD, and a mobile RTX 4060 has caught our eye as a potentially-compelling deal for our readers at just $1099.99. We've previously covered this same model of ROG Zephyrus on sale back in June 2024, but compared to that $300 discount, it now has a much healthier $500 discount. We've also reviewed a version of this laptop with a slightly beefier mobile RTX 4070.

So, let's take a slightly closer look at this laptop and its characteristics. Based on our review of a model with slightly souped-up internals, we can highly recommend the laptop for its vivid OLED display, decent speakers, and good port selection. The OLED display is officially rated for 100% DCI-P3 coverage and Pantone validated, making it ideal for professional work — consistent with our review. HDR support is also enabled, though at just 500 nits peak brightness is slightly limited compared to some higher-end OLEDs (though the final picture should still look significantly better than most higher-brightness IPS panels).

The clean, compact design also makes it pretty good for productivity and gaming on the go, though I'd highly recommend pairing a laptop like this with a cooling pad if you want to use it for intense gaming sessions.

As far as downsides go, the internal hardware is admittedly impressive, but RGB aficionados will be disappointed to know that the keyboard is single-zone, meaning you can change colors but no real exciting visual effects are possible beyond color gamut shifting for the whole board at once.

Additionally, the RAM is soldered on this unit, which means upgrading its memory capacity is impossible. If 16 GB is enough for your needs, this shouldn't be an issue, but some heavier-duty productivity and gaming users, especially those looking to stream, may not be able to overlook that downside.

Generally-speaking, though, the 120 Hz OLED panel is extremely good at this price point. While other laptops with similar specs do exist in this range, their displays are quite lacking in comparison. Additionally, the slim and light build, plus the strong I/O support on this laptop, including support for USB 4, does make it just a bit more modern than most gaming laptops floating around in this pricing range.

Nvidia's RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 GPUs are set to launch in just two days, but rumored supply-chain constraints suggest you won't be able to get one at launch, at least at MSRP, that is. Best Buy has listed a handful of RTX 5080 SKUs from Gigabyte, priced at up to 40% higher than Nvidia's suggested retail price of $999. We also found various listings at Newegg and several pre-builts equipped with the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080. On that note, Best Buy has only one model listed at MSRP, so expect serious competition from other customers, some of whom have actually set up camp outside retail stores days before launch. Now that's enthusiasm!

Things aren't looking great for Blackwell in terms of supply. A few days back, UK reseller OCUK alleged single-digit RTX 5090 inventory, with only a few hundred RTX 5080s that may sell out in seconds. Scalpers are already charging 2-3x more than MSRP if you wish to obtain a pre-reserved booking slot for the flagship RTX 5090.

Newegg has added new entries for RTX 5090 and 5080 GPUs from Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, and Zotac without a price tag. However, the site also lists new pre-builts from AVGPC and Yeyian (1,2), costing up to $4,299.

Gigabyte has shared the launch price of several of its upcoming RTX 5080 offerings at Best Buy. As it stands, only the Nvidia SFF-ready Gigabyte RTX 5080 Windforce OC SFF is listed at $999. Next up, we have the Gaming OC, Aero SFF OC, and Aorus series with a 20-30% uptick in pricing, followed by the high-end Xtreme Waterforce series, priced at up to 40% higher than MSRP at $1,399.

AIBs typically charge a bit more for fancy features and exotic cooling, plus a handful of these models are factory overclocked. With pricing out of the way, availability remains a question. We expect the supply to improve with time, but we can't say when. Alternatively, you could wait for AMD's RDNA 4 in March, where leaks allege the RX 9070 XT to keep pace with the RTX 4080 in raster performance.

The new Trump administration is eyeing to impose hefty tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, which supposedly also includes the RTX 50 series, as it's fabricated on TSMC's N4P (5nm-class) process. This might inevitably force Nvidia to increase prices for the end user, but we are unsure about the specifics of this policy.

Today's deal is on this 2024 model of MSI's Codex Z2 prebuilt gaming PC. This PC has been reduced in price by $300, making it an affordable budget option for getting into PC gaming or upgrading from a much older machine. The major component part used in the build is the current generation Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti graphics card, although, it's only just over a week until the first 50-series Nvidia graphics cards drop which will then relegate it to last-gen status. But they are going to be the two high-end cards first (RTX 5090 & RTX 5080) and they won't be cheap.

Head to Best Buy to find this deal on the MSI Codex Z2 for just $899. You're saving $300 on the MSRP price of $1199, and at $899 the MSI Codex Z2 is a great option for a budget gaming PC with this hardware configuration.

The case of the Codex Z2 is an airflow case with mesh panels to let the cool air inside, with a tempered glass side panel for viewing the internals. Inside the case is an AMD Ryzen 5 8400F processor, Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti 8GB graphics card, 16GB of DDR5 5200MHz RAM, and a 1TB NVMe SSD. This 2024 model PC also comes with WiFi 7 for easy internet connectivity. This hardware config will easily run any modern game at 1080p on high settings -- even 1440p for some games, and with the RTX 4060 Ti you can make use of Nvidia's DLSS technology to improve framerates on higher resolution monitors.

With a 650W power supply on board, you can always choose to upgrade some of the components later if the requirements of newer games demand it.

Don't forget to look at our Best Buy coupon codes for January 2025 and see if you can save on today's deal or other products at Best Buy.

Best Buy has inadvertently listed several high-end gaming laptops featuring Nvidia’s upcoming RTX 50-series GPUs, offering an early glimpse of what consumers can expect when these devices officially launch in March. Discovered by hardware enthusiast momomo_us on X, the listings include eight models from Asus and one from HP. While these laptops are currently unavailable for purchase, they are marked as "Coming Soon."

It’s important to note that pricing and configurations might change at the very end, as the listings could be placeholders set by Best Buy before the official launch in March.

The Asus ROG Strix G16 is the most affordable option, starting at $1,899. It features an RTX 5070 Ti GPU and an AMD Ryzen 9 HX processor, with the specifications mentioning the yet-to-be-announced Ryzen 9 8940HX, which could be a part of AMD’s upcoming Dragon Range Refresh. The laptop includes a 16-inch display with a resolution of 1900x1200, a 165 Hz refresh rate, and Nvidia G-Sync support. A larger 18-inch variant of the ROG Strix, equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX CPU and an RTX 5080 GPU, is listed at $2,899.

For those prioritizing portability, the refreshed Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is listed at $2,199 for the RTX 5070 Ti model and $2,999 for the RTX 5080 version. Both configurations feature the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 CPU with 32GB of memory. The base model includes a 1TB SSD, while the premium version offers a 2TB SSD. Both models retain the 120 Hz 3K OLED display introduced with the 2024 model.

The larger ROG Zephyrus G16 comes in three variants. All are equipped with a 2.5K OLED display running at 240 Hz and powered by Intel’s Core Ultra 9 285H CPU. The entry-level model, priced at $1,999, features an RTX 5070 GPU, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 1TB SSD. The mid-tier RTX 5080 model costs $3,199, while the flagship RTX 5090 version costs $3,999. The higher-end models include 32GB of DDR5 memory and a 2TB SSD.

The Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 is the most expensive listing, priced at $4,199. It features the RTX 5090 GPU, Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX CPU, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 2TB SSD. It also boasts an 18-inch 2K (2560x1600) mini-LED display with a 240 Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 1,100 nits.

Finally, the HP Omen Max 16 is listed at $2,699. It offers features similar to the ROG Strix G18, including an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX CPU and an RTX 5080 GPU.

Based on what Nvidia shared during the CES launch, laptops featuring the RTX 5090, RTX 5080, RTX 5070 Ti, and RTX 5070 mobile GPUs will be priced at $2,899, $2,199, $1,599, and $1,299, respectively. These figures reflect the base cost for Nvidia's partners, meaning retail prices for RTX 50 laptops will likely be higher. Factors such as the choice of CPU, display type, memory configuration, storage capacity, and additional features will influence the final retail pricing.

For today's Black Friday deal, you can grab a WD easystore 20TB external drive at an incredibly low price, knocking off $200 from its $449.99 retail price, allowing you to allow you grab one for a mere $249.99. This effectively brings its price down to around 1 cent per GB — $0.0125 if we're being precise. Despite being a mechanical drive, you're getting a large storage space for cheap, with a two-year warranty. No discount code is needed for this purchase.

That's a great deal for Black Friday, especially considering the drive is shuckable. That means you can pry the HDD out of the external casing and use it for your desktop PC. You should proceed at your own risk, though: Shucking the drive voids the normal two-year warranty, but you do get a capable drive for far cheaper than you normally would.

While there are options in different capacities, the easystore 20TB variant gives more space for the money you spend on it, as the 22TB version is only $100 off. Since this is a Black Friday deal, the pricing will also depend on how soon you can grab it, while stock lasts.

The drive needs additional power from an AC adapter bundled with the drive, which gives USB 3.0 speed with a Type-B to Type-A cable. These drives are brand new. WD confirms compatibility with both Windows and macOS. The easystore external drive bundles management and backup software should you be looking for a complete package as a backup unit for your PC.

Best Buy also offers the option to pay for this drive in four installments, bringing the price to $62.50 while keeping the total at $250, but we recommend just buying one outright. Once purchased, you can pick up the drive from your local Best Buy store or have it shipped, depending on your location.

To buy this WD easystore 20TB, click on this Best Buy link. We are working hard to find the best deals for you this Black Friday. If you're looking for other products, check out our Black Friday Computer Hardware Deals Live blog for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals Live blog, Monitor Deals Live, Graphics Card Deals, or CPU Deals pages. 

One of the most important parts of any gaming setup is your choice of screen or screens. There is so much variety available for personalizing a setup, whether you prefer a separate screen for each app, or maybe just one display that makes use of a split-screen layout. If it's the later, then a larger monitor certainly makes it easier to host multiple applications on the one screen. Today's deal is on an LG screen with a large luscious OLED panel, that is also curved so that is wraps around the peripheral vision to provide more immersion in gaming especially.

If you take a trip to Best Buy's website, you can find today's deal on the 45-inch LG UltraGear OLED curved gaming monitor for $ 999, a saving of $700 from the original $1,699 MSRP. This is still a fair amount of cash for a monitor, and you can certainly pick up larger OLED televisions for less, but you won't find the same refresh rates, or connectivity for connecting to a PC.

The LG UltraGear 45-inch OLED monitor (model: 45GS96QB-B.AUS) is a curved gaming monitor with a WQHD (3440 x 1440) resolution and rapid 240Hz refresh rate. The response times for this OLED panel is a mere 0.03ms, with very high contrast ratios of 1,500,000:1 and a screen ratio size of 21:9. This monitor is compatible with both AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync and is also HDR400 certified.

Housed in a black chassis the LG UltraGear is of a modern design, has thin bezels and a sturdy stand. The monitor includes speakers and has connectivity for both PC and games consoles with the inclusion of 1x DisplayPort and 2x HDMI ports and 1x USB-C.

Niche handheld gaming console maker Ayaneo has officially entered the U.S. market to compete with the best PC gaming handhelds. You can now find the 8.4-inch Kunand 7-inch Next Lite from Ayaneo at your favorite Best Buy store.

Although the Ayaneo is already popular among handheld console enthusiasts, it’s largely unknown compared to consoles from mainstream brands, such as Valve’s Steam Deck or Asus’ ROG Ally. The brand’s entry into Best Buy would allow it to be seen by more mainstream customers, especially as it’s now available in both online and brick-and-mortar branches of Best Buy.

The brand’s availability on Best Buy would also make service, repair, maintenance, and returns much easier, as the retailer should be able to handle those services directly instead of the customer working with Ayaneo through email and international shipping.

Ayaneo only included two consoles from its healthy line-up of twelve devices. The first one is its top-of-the-line Ayaneo Kun, which retails for $999, $200 off from the regular price. It sports an 8.4-inch screen with an AMD Ryzen 7 7840U processor and Radeon 780M graphics. It also has 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, which is plentiful performance. However, its current price is $999, putting it significantly higher than its competitors that are also available at Best Buy, like the 8.8-inch Lenovo Legion Go at $749.99 (AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme / 16GB RAM / 1TB SSD) or the 7-inch Asus ROG Ally X at $799.99 (AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme / 24GB RAM / 1TB SSD).

On the other hand, if you’re looking for a budget Windows handheld console, the Ayaneo Next Lite could be a good bet. It only costs $399, undercutting its competitors, like the 7-inch MSI Claw A1M for $699.99 (Intel Core Ultra 155H / 16GB RAM / 1TB SSD @ $699.99) or the 7-inch vanilla ROG Ally at $499.99 (AMD Ryzen Z1 / 16GB RAM / 512GB SSD), for at least a hundred dollars. However, its specifications are feeble, only featuring an AMD Ryzen 7 4800U chip with an AMD Radeon Vega 8 integrated graphics. It has a decent amount of RAM at 16GB and a 512GB SSD, making it good enough if your budget is tight.

Although it only has two entries in Best Buy right now, we hope that Ayaneo introduces more of its models to the U.S. market sooner rather than later. That way, consumers would have more options in the hotly contested handheld gaming PC market. This competition would hopefully lead to better products at better pricing, making the gamer the winner.

The launch of AMD’s highly anticipated Ryzen 9000 series, which will rival the best CPUs, has been pushed back by a couple of weeks, moving it from July 31 to August 8 for the Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X and August 15 for the Ryzen 9 9900X and Ryzen 9 9950X chips. Nevertheless, U.S. retailers have started listing these hot new processors with included pricing information.

AMD has not confirmed the official pricing for these processors, but Best Buy has listed the entire Zen 5 lineup. The prices range from $279 for the Ryzen 5 9600X to $599 for the Ryzen 9 9950X. Although the price tags look reasonable, we recommend approaching them cautiously since they could be placeholders.

According to Best Buy’s listings, AMD’s Zen 5 processors are seemingly on a downward trend in terms of pricing, which means great news for everyone looking to upgrade immediately as soon as these chips come out. For example, the top-of-the-line Ryzen 9 9950X is listed on Best Buy for $599, whereas the previous flagship Ryzen 9 7950X launched at $699, and the even older Ryzen 9 5950X debuted at $799.

Meanwhile, the Ryzen 9 9900X seemingly retails for $449, $100 less than the launch price for the Ryzen 9 7900X and Ryzen 9 5900X. On the other hand, Best Buy has the Ryzen 7 9700X for $359, which is $40 cheaper than the Ryzen 7 7700X and $90 lower than the Ryzen 7 5800X. Even the base-tier Ryzen 5 9600X, which sells for $279, is $20 more affordable than the Ryzen 5 7600X and Ryzen 5 5600X when they arrived on the scene.

It's incredible how AMD is evidently launching the Ryzen 9000 series at lower prices than the previous Ryzen 700 series. The price difference is pretty significant, with savings of up to $100 for specific SKUs. The Zen 5 parts already look like a formidable upgrade option for consumers, judging by pricing alone. However, we still have to put Ryzen 9000 through our labs to quantify the actual performance uplift that these processors will deliver over their older brethren.

Intel won't have an answer for Ryzen 9000 until later this year with the chipmaker's next-generation Core Ultra 200 (codenamed Arrow Lake) processors. With the whole Raptor Lake and Raptor Lake Refresh instability drama and Ryzen 9000's attractive MSRP, Intel will not easily compete with Zen 5.

Gamers can purchase the anticipated Asus ROG Ally X at Best Buy for $749.99, $150 more than the regular ROG Ally. Buyers can pick up Asus' latest gaming handheld console in-store on July 26 or have it shipped to them by the same date.

The ROG Ally X uses AMD's Ryzen Z1 Extreme APU with eight Zen 4 cores with SMT (simultaneous multithreading) and an iGPU with 12 RDNA 3 Compute Units. Its other vital upgrades over the standard ROG Ally include bigger storage, a larger 80Wh battery, and an improved cooling system to keep the device cool. The ROG Ally X also likely fixed a notorious microSD Card slot issue on the original ROG Ally, which was never addressed or fixed.

The ROG Ally X has only one memory and internal storage configuration with 24GB LPDDR5 onboard memory running on a dual-channel configuration and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD with Windows 11 pre-installed. All the additions and improvements resulted in the console weighing 678 grams, 70 grams over the Z1 and the Z1 Extreme variants. Unlike its previous variants, which are only white, the ROG Ally X is only available in black.

Additionally, given the popularity of gaming devices such as docking stations, which provide a stationary gaming experience while providing up to six ports, including multiple USB ports, video outputs, and gigabit ethernet, we should see an influx of accessories and expansion options. 

Seeing the overall positive experience with the previous generation console, many who haven't purchased a portable game console would be tempted to buy the ROG Ally X. However, like many other manufacturers, Asus now competes in a market with multiple options, including manufacturers like Ayaneo, MSI, and Valve.

Those in the market for a new gaming laptop in the $1000 range should take a look at this offer from Best Buy on the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop. This laptop has a recommended price of $1599 but right now it's marked down to just $1099. 

The laptop has everything you need for solid, low-to-mid-range gaming on the go, including RTX 4060 graphics, a Ryzen 9 8945HS CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD and a 14-inch, 2880 x 1800 display. It weighs a mere 3.31 pounds.

We had the opportunity to review another higher-end model of the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 and were overall pleased with the experience. However, we weren't completely floored, rating it at 3.5 out of 5 stars. It's important to note that there are a few key differences between the edition we reviewed and the model that's on sale today so some of the points, like GPU performance, won't apply.

What is the same, however, was the OLED 2880 x 1800 screen (Best Buy lists the screen as 2560 x 1440 but this appears to be a mistake on Best Buy's part). As you can see, it's very bright and fairly colorful.

We found the keyboard solid if unimpressive and the audio output was really good. We also appreciated the wide variety of ports, which including USB 4 Type-C, USB 3.2 Gen Type-A, HDMI and a headphone jack.

AMD’s latest Ryzen AI 300 (Strix Point) chips are seemingly delayed after Best Buy moved back the availability date of Asus laptops that sport these chips by two weeks. Although Team Red did not give an exact release date for its latest laptop processors, multiple rumors have gone around saying that Ryzen AI 300 chips will be available on July 15, while the Ryzen 9000 processors will hit store shelves on the 31st of that month.

However, a hardware leaker posted yesterday on Weibo that AMD is moving its launch to July 28, thus bringing the launch of the latest AMD desktop chips closer. BestBuy now confirms this move, as multiple Asus laptops that sport Ryzen AI 300 processors have their release dates listed as July 28 after being set to July 15.

The retail giant did not give any reason for this delay. Since AMD did not give any timeline for the new chips’ launch dates except saying they’ll be available in July, the company is still on track with the new processors’ release schedule.

Many would likely be interested in AMD’s Ryzen AI 300 chips at launch. These are the first AI processors from Team Red to hit 50 TOPS of AI performance from its NPU. This is slightly higher than Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Elite X chip, which only delivers 45 TOPS.

Even though the AMD AI processor has a higher NPU performance, it won’t enjoy Microsoft’s Copilot+ features at launch. Tom’s Hardware confirmed this with AMD, and we were told, “Yes, Copilot+ will come via a Windows Update later this year.” This means users who purchase a laptop with a Ryzen AI 300 processor must wait a few more months to enjoy Microsoft’s latest AI features.

Nevertheless, early benchmarks support AMD’s claims that its latest laptop CPUs gain 15% over the last-gen Ryzen 7 7735U. We also expect these APUs to have significantly better graphics performance as they upgrade their graphics engines with RDNA 3.5. However, all these benchmarks and numbers mean nothing if we can’t get our hands on these devices and run real-world benchmarks. So, we’ll have to wait until the end of July before we can start testing these laptops and comparing them against the new Snapdragon X Elite laptops launched a few weeks back.

Best Buy has laid off a large number of its Geek Squad employees this week, according to a report published by 404 Media. The tech retail company has not made any official statement, but many workers are said to have received an email about a 'work from home' event in which they were informed to wait for a call from their respective bosses to receive confirmation about their employment status. Some 'going sleeper' posts in r/GeekSquad, an unofficial worker's subreddit, indicate that the layoffs are of a larger scale than the hundreds we saw made redundant last summer.

One worker told 404 Media, "Our leadership gave individual calls stating we were being let go for the simple fact that the company couldn't afford to pay us, more or less. It was extremely short notice and devastating."  Meanwhile, we are sad to see some posts have been shared by people who say they stayed with the company for as long as 34 years. 

Despite the lack of clarity from Best Buy at the moment, it is clear that such an announcement via email does create mass panic, as all would question their future with the company. Companies routinely conduct layoffs for multiple reasons when needed, and decency dictates both tact and clarity should be applied. Laws in certain states also require companies to disclose mass layoff numbers, such as the WARN Act in California. 

Geek Squad agents replaced by AI?

Companies typically have many reasons to restructure, resulting in mass layoffs. Based on Best Buy CEO Corie Barry's response during the last company call, the company is redirecting its resources to incorporate AI and implement a new business strategy. The company further emphasized its commitment to integrate AI and said, "We will continue to lean heavily on analytics and technology to achieve these efficiencies. This includes leveraging AI safely and effectively.”

Best Buy wouldn't be the first company to implement mass layoffs to make savings from AI efficiencies. Last year Microsoft did the same, and this year followed up with further job cuts in the Xbox and Blizzard Activision, with some pointing at generative AI displacing humans in the workplace.

It is uncertain how Best Buy intends to integrate AI to undertake Geek Squad duties, or if it will be used as a support tool for tech support agents. But this restructuring plan also involves removing physical media from its Best Buy stores and updating its retail departments while adding that it plans to push Best Buy Health. With newer changes, Corrie anticipates better financial results, saying that the industry will grow again after two years of decline, adding that it is simply a matter of timing. 

Irrespective of the company's goals, it paints a painful story of people with years of service and dedication to a company being cast aside for quick cost savings. 

Today at Best Buy, you can find the Alienware AW3423DWF for the lowest price we've seen for this gaming monitor since it first launched. This huge, 34-inch gaming screen was released at a price of $899, but right now you can pick it up for just $749. According to the produce page, this discount is scheduled to expire by the end of the day. At the time of publishing readers still have over half a day to grab this deal.

We had the opportunity to review the Alienware AW3423DWF back in 2022, and were overwhelmingly pleased with our experience, rating it at 5 out of 5 stars. Everything from its physical design to the image quality and performance stands out and makes for a seriously winning combo.

The Alienware AW3423DWF features a 34-inch Quantum Dot OLED panel with a gently sweeping curvature of 1800R. It's AMD FreeSync Premium Pro certified and has a WQHD resolution (3440 x 1440 pixels) which is more or less the pixel density sweet spot for a screen of this size and type. The refresh rate can get as high as 165 Hz and the response time can get as low as 0.1ms.

Apienware's OLED monitor covers 99.3% of the DCI P3 color gamut and is illuminated up to a maximum possible brightness of 250 Nits in SDR mode. That figure may seem low, but the true blacks of the OLED panel help boost image contrast and clarity. Moreover, this monitor has an HDR 1000 mode. There are multiple video inputs to choose from including two DisplayPort inputs and one HDMI port. You must use the DisplayPort to reach the maximum possible refresh rate, as the HDMI port caps out at 100 Hz. There are USB ports available for external peripherals and a 3.5mm jack for audio devices.

Visit the Alienware AW3423DWF product page at Best Buy in the US or Canada for more details and purchase options.

If you've been holding out to upgrade your gaming laptop to one with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 40 series graphics processor, you may want to take a close look at this deal from Best Buy on the Lenovo Legion Slim 5 gaming laptop. Not only is it backed by an RTX 4060 graphics card, but it also features a 14.5-inch OLED display.

We had the opportunity to review a similar model of the Lenovo Legion Slim 5 back in August of 2023 and ultimately found it to be a fantastic experience, rating it at 4.5 out of 5 stars. If you want to see how this laptop stacks up against others on the market, check out our list of best gaming laptops for 2024. 

This edition of the Lenovo Legion Slim 5 comes with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU. It outputs to a 14.5-inch OLED screen that has a native resolution of 2880 x 1800 pixels and can reach a refresh rate as high as 120 Hz. The brightness levels can get as bright as 400 nits.

Lenovo's laptop is powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS that has a base speed of 3.8 GHz up to a maximum of 5.1 GHz when boosted. You've got 16GB of DDR5-5600 RAM to take advantage of, as well as a 1TB internal SSD for your storage needs. An HDMI 2.1 port if you want to attach to a second display or feel like some big screen entertainment. On the topic of connectivity, there are also four USB ports and a headphone jack. The keyboard is backlit but, as usual, this feature will impact the battery life which can last up to eight hours under optimal conditions.

Visit the Lenovo Legion Slim 5 14.5-inch OLED gaming laptop product page at Best Buy for more details and purchase options.

Best Buy is set to discontinue physical media sales such as DVDs and Blu-rays in its stores, reports The Verge. This move symbolizes a significant shift in consumer behavior, steering away from physical media ownership towards a landscape dominated by digital formats and streaming platforms. The transition, aligning with broader industry tendencies, is slated to commence as early as the first quarter of 2024.

Best Buy stood as a bastion for movie and music enthusiasts for years, offering an extensive array of films and music in physical formats. The stores were meticulously curated, allowing customers to explore, hold, and purchase a rich selection of Blu-rays and DVDs, an experience reminiscent of browsing through a library. This tactile interaction with media is something that the digital navigation of streaming services cannot replicate, and Best Buy’s decision signifies a significant reduction in spaces offering such an experience. Furthermore, the image quality of movies on Blu-rays is arguably better than the quality of ‘4K’ videos on streaming services. In contrast, the image quality of the film on Ultra-HD Blu-rays is unprecedented, and it will be years before streaming services come close.

But it looks like the consumer does not see the difference. The decision reflects a more extensive industry trend, marking a decisive move towards digital consumption. Notably, corporate giants like Disney have also recalibrated their strategies, prioritizing digital subscriptions and streaming services like Disney Plus and Hulu over physical media distribution. This industry-wide evolution is changing the paradigm of media ownership, emphasizing temporary access over physical possession.

The ramifications of this shift are profound, particularly concerning consumer choice and experience. The availability of physical media in retail outlets is dwindling, restricting options for consumers who prefer owning physical copies of movies and music. This move could leave enthusiasts and collectors with limited venues to explore and purchase physical media, underscoring the diminishing prevalence of such formats in the retail landscape.

The good news is that other retailers, such as Walmart and Amazon, continue to offer physical media. However, according to The Verge, Walmart's offerings and in-store experiences may not resonate with the same charm and variety historically associated with Best Buy. Yet, despite the evolving landscape marked by the diminishing allure of physical movie shopping, Amazon and Walmart will likely become primary alternatives for consumers seeking physical media.

US retailer Best Buy appears to have spilled some Radeon RX 7700 XT details ahead of AMD’s expected official launch. Twitter tech detective momomo_us unearthed a listing on the retailer’s website that apparently shares images and specs for a Gigabyte GV-R77XTGAMING OC-12GD. Except, it has more than a few issues.

All indications are that AMD will reveal Navi 32 GPUs with the RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT in the next few days at Gamescom. Until the official reveal, we need to exercise caution with retail listings like this one at Best Buy. It looks as though someone cloned an existing Gigabyte RTX 4070 listing, updated some of the items, but missed a few pieces.

Some of the specs appear to be in line with expectations, but there are notable gaffes, like mentioning the product’s GPU is an “Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070,” and one of the images clearly showing Gigabyte Radeon RX 7900 XT packaging. The price is also most certainly a holdover from a different GPU, probably an RTX 4070 Ti given that it's $879 — more than an RTX 4070, and also more than the typical RX 7900 XT. Oops.

But the name at least looks correct: GIGABYTE - Radeon RX 7700XT GAMING OC 12GB GDDR6 PCI Express 4.0 Graphics Card. And we can laugh at the perhaps 7900 XT pricing: It was $999.99 and has now been slashed to $879.99. Interestingly, you can add this product to the shopping cart today, with delivery by Aug 25 touted, and it qualifies for the Starfield game bundle.

While most of the listing details are quite suspect due to the mishmash of references to other SKUs we mentioned above, we are at least on some more solid ground with the Gigabyte codename. The GV-R77XTGAMING OC-12GD name indicates this is a Radeon RX 7700 XT Gaming model with 12GB of VRAM and a factory overclock. That's the expected configuration and has been for some time.

AMD should debut both the RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT graphics cards shortly. We expect the 7800 XT to have a 256-bit interface and 16GB, while the 7700 XT looks to have a 192-bit interface and 12GB VRAM. The GDDR6 memory could run at anywhere from 18 to 20 Gbps, based on other RDNA 3 GPUs, though we don't know exactly where it will land on the cards yet. We also don't have clock speeds, but the RDNA 3 GPUs here will probably run in the 2.5 GHz (boost clock) range.

Little or nothing has been seen with regard to Radeon RX 7800 and/or 7700 non-XT graphics cards. There would probably be room for them in the market, but we might again see AMD ignore this type of gap filling or make these models OEM exclusive. There is also a chance of more Golden Rabbit Editions (GRE) models from this generation, or using the previous gen to fill the gaps and go toe-to-toe with Nvidia rivals at the widest range of price points.

AMD has a special event on Friday at Gamescom 2023. It was previously confirmed we would get more Radeon RX 7000 cards revealed at the event, but no specific models have been officially mentioned. It's a reasonably safe bet that it will be RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT, but check back in a couple of days for the full details.

Nvidia has some of the best graphics cards that money can buy now. The company's GeForce RTX 40-series graphics cards are everywhere; however, the exclusive Founders Editions launched recently in China. As always, scalpers quickly bought all the stock to resell the Ada Lovelace graphics cards for a handsome profit.

The launch date for Nvidia's GeForce gaming graphics cards is generally available globally. However, Nvidia doesn't offer the Founders Edition in every region. Some countries don't have direct access to the Founders Edition; therefore, consumers have no choice but to turn to third-party retailers. Such was the case with China. In retrospect, Nvidia didn't launch the GeForce RTX 30-series (Ampere) Founders Edition models in China. It seems that the chipmaker wants to do things differently for this generation.

In the U.S. market, consumers can buy Nvidia's Founders Edition graphics card straight from the company's online store or through Best Buy. Nvidia hasn't setup up shop in China; instead, the chipmaker chose JD.com, one of China's leading online retailers, to distribute its Founders Edition models. Chinese news outlet ITHome reported that the stock is reportedly depleted. However, it's hard to put it in context, considering that we don't know the amount of Founders Edition graphics cards Nvidia assigned to the Chinese market.

China has a standard VAT (value-added tax) rate of 13% for imported goods, although the Chinese MSRP doesn't accurately reflect that. By nature, the Founders Edition graphics cards already carry a higher price tag, but to add salt to the wound, scalpers are now reselling the graphics cards for even more outrageous prices.

Stores are selling the GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition for 27% above the Chinese MSRP. The GeForce RTX 4080 Founders Edition is the least affected, exhibiting only an 11% increase over the official pricing. Meanwhile, scalpers are flipping the GeForce RTX 4070 Founders Edition and GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Founders Edition for 46% and 56%, respectively, above their respective MSRPs.

Luckily, there are abundant custom GeForce RTX 40-series graphics cards with reasonable price tags that Chinese consumers can pick from. As for the Founders Edition, that's probably out of reach for most buyers considering the massive premiums that scalpers have slapped on the graphics cards. However, with the type of obnoxious pricing we're seeing, it won't take long before the scalpers realize they won't move any units. Once the initial hype is over, they will ultimately have to lower the pricing to offload the graphics cards.

While Best Buy, America's largest brick-and-mortar electronics retailer, has been closing stores this year among bleak PC sales, Micro Center has plans to continue expanding its retail footprint. Earlier this year, the company announced that it would be adding three new stores by the end of 2024, with the first opening in Indianapolis this summer.

Today, Micro Center has officially revealed the locations of the final two new locations, which will open in Miami and Charlotte next year. When all three new stores have opened, the company will have 28 outlets in the U.S. across 19 U.S. states, ranging from California in the west to New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts in the east. You can see a complete list of store locations on the company's site.

Due to open in early 2024, the Charlotte store will offer 35,700 square feet of space and be located at 4,744 South Boulevard. The Miami location will open later in the year at 7,795 W Flagler Street with 31,700 square feet full of PC hardware, computer systems, electronics and maker gear. The stores will feature the same layout as the company's Tustin, California outlet.

Micro Center has store pages live on its website for Charlotte, Miami and Indianapolis. Customers who visit those pages and sign up for a mailing list will get a coupon they can redeem for a free, 128GB USB Flash drive once the stores open.

"We are thrilled to be expanding and bringing our unique offering to new customers in Indianapolis, Charlotte, and Miami," Micro Center's CEO Rick Mershad said in a press release. "Our goal is to provide the best selection of products, exceptional customer service, and knowledgeable associates who can help customers find exactly what they need."

Founded in Columbus, Ohio in 1979, Micro Center is a favorite shopping destination for anyone who builds PCs, tinkers with Raspberry Pis or does any kind of 3D printing. The company stocks more than 400 types of filament, along with 3D printers and accessories from major vendors such as Creality and AnyCubic. It's also one of the few places where you can buy Raspberry Pi boards at MSRP, provided that they are in stock.

Unlike Best Buy, Amazon and Newegg, Micro Center's business model revolves pretty-much exclusively around getting customers to come into the store. Most of the products are not available for purchase online, though you can reserve them for in-store pickup.

According to Chief Merchandising Officer Warren Beneson, the company has 3.6 million active customers who spend an average of 45 minutes per store visit. If you live near a Micro Center, you will often find in-store coupons with huge discounts or free items. Recently, the company offered new customers a free 256GB SSD. 

Key products such as CPUs, GPUs and monitors are frequently on sale for lower prices than you'll find online. For example, right now, the company has a 32-inch LG 32GP750 2K, 165 Hz monitor on sale for $229 when its lowest price on Amazon and Newegg is $296. 

Micro Center is also one of the few places you can actually see and touch high-end peripherals and components. The stores stock well over 150 different gaming keyboards from brands such as Razer, Corsair and Asus. They also have about the same number of PC cases, including those from Lian Li, Fractal Design and NZXT.  The Fractal Design North, our current pick for best PC case, is available to see and buy with all of its wood-paneled glory. 

With these store expansions, the company expects its revenue to grow revenue to $2.2 billion in 2023 and $2.4 billion in 2024.

Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that Micro Center will have 27 stores after the next three launch. It will actually be 28.

If you're in the market for a large-scale UHD monitor, then you should take a closer look at this offer from Best Buy on the LG 32UN650-W. This is a 32-inch IPS monitor with a dense UHD resolution. It usually goes for around $400 but right now it’s discounted to just $349. That is its best price to date.

This isn’t exactly a gaming monitor but it has plenty of good specs that would work out well in that regard. That said, we’ve got a list of the best computer monitors on the market today that you should absolutely check out to get an idea of what’s leading the way.

The LG 32UN650-W features a 32-inch IPS panel with a resolution of 3840 x 2160. It can reach a refresh rate of 60Hz and has a response time of 5ms. It covers 95% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, illuminated by a brightness of 350 nits.

Users have a few video input options to take advantage of including two HDMI ports and one DisplayPort input. Audio-wise, it has two integrated 5W speakers as well as a 3.5mm audio jack for external audio peripherals. The LG 32UN650-W is supported by a one-year manufacturer’s warranty.

Visit the LG 32UN650-W product page at Best Buy for more details and purchase options. As of writing, it’s not clear for how long the discount will be made available.

The time has arrived — the 4060 Ti is now available for purchase. The reviews for the Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti cards are in, and you might be searching for a new card. Here we've compiled a list of the upcoming GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB graphics cards in preparation for next week's launch, which will vie for a spot on our list of the best graphics cards. Best Buy remains Nvidia's exclusive partner for Founders Edition cards, and they'll be sold at the official $399 MSRP. In addition, below we have included several of the chipmaker's partners, including Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, Zotac, PNY, and Colorful. Some vendors' models have been listed early, while others will be listed in the coming days. Below we have the links to the models that are available at etail now, and we'll constantly update this article and add more links as the cards are listed over the coming days (we have the custom Gigabyte already listed, for instance). 

The list consists of GeForce 4060 Ti graphics cards featuring 8GB of memory since the 8GB model is the first to arrive on the market on May 24. However, 16GB models from AIB partners will be nearly identical to the ones shown here, with double the VRAM and a higher price tag. The exception is the Founders Edition model, which Nvidia will offer exclusively for the 8GB variant.

The GeForce RTX 4060 series was announced earlier, featuring the RTX 4060, RTX 4060 Ti 8GB, and RTX 4060 Ti 16GB. The RTX 4060 Ti 8GB highlighted in this article will launch on May 24 with a starting price of $399. Here's the rundown of all the models announced so far, how much they cost, and where to buy them.  

Nvidia

The GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Founders Edition will be the only 4060-series Founders Edition card. It will have 8GB of VRAM and looks to be nearly identical in design to the RTX 4070, except with a different color shroud. Under the hood, it will have a different PCB, GPU, and other components, but the aesthetics look good, and we expect it to set a reasonably high bar for different RTX 4060 Ti cards to clear.

Best Buy remains Nvidia's exclusive partner for Founders Edition cards, and they'll be sold at the official $399 MSRP. 

• $399.00 - Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Founders Edition

Asus

Asus has revealed four custom GeForce RTX 4060 Ti graphics card and their respective overclocked variants. As usual, the ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4060 Ti model sits at the top of the product stack with the fastest clock speeds. In addition, the more compact  Dual GeForce RTX 4060 Ti comes in both black and white flavors.

• Asus ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB GDDR6 OC Edition
• Asus ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB GDDR6
• $459.99 - Asus TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB GDDR6 OC Edition
• Asus TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB GDDR6
• $399.99 - Asus Dual GeForce RTX 4060 Ti OC Edition 8GB GDDR6
• Asus Dual GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB GDDR6
• Asus Dual GeForce RTX 4060 Ti White OC Edition 8GB GDDR6
• Asus Dual GeForce RTX 4060 Ti White 8GB GDDR6

MSI

MSI "wins" right now with a whopping eight different SKUs for the RTX 4060 Ti 8GB. Of course, that's four variants and then overclocked versions of each of those (the "Gaming X" cards are also overclocked, even though they don't include "OC" in their model names). We expect the Ventus cards to be the base models, though the triple-fan 3X may carry a slight price premium over the dual-fan 2X model. The Gaming models will have larger coolers and additional premium features.

• MSI GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Gaming 8G 
• MSI GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Gaming Trio 8G 
• $439.99 - MSI GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Gaming X 8G 
• $459.99 - MSI GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Gaming X Trio 8G 
• MSI GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Ventus 2X Black 8G 
• $399.99 - MSI GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Ventus 2X Black OC 8G 
• MSI GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Ventus 3X 8G 
• $419.99 - MSI GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Ventus 3X OC 8G

Gigabyte

Gigabyte has announced five different RTX 4060 Ti 8GB models so far, ranging from the compact Aero OC and the base model Eagle cards topping out with the Aorus Elite and Gaming OC models. There may also be non-OC variants of the Aero and Gaming cards, though those aren't currently listed. We expect the Eagle to sell for Nvidia's $399 MSRP, while the other four cards will likely carry a moderate price increase.

• $469.99 - Gigabyte Aorus GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Elite 8G
• $429.99 - Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Gaming OC 8G
• $449.99 - Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Aero OC 8G
• $419.99 - Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Eagle OC 8G
• $399.99 - Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Eagle 8G

Zotac

Zotac has announced three dual-fan RTX 4060 Ti 8GB graphics cards, including black and white versions. These cards have an aerodynamic (read: curved) aesthetic, a 2.2-slot wide cooler, and Zotac’s IceStorm 2.0 advanced cooling solution.

Zotac has also unveiled a Spider-Man: Across the Spider Verse-themed Twin Edge 4060 Ti 8GB model that comes with a bundle of themed goodies, including a tote bag and decorative decals to commemorate the movie that releases in theaters on June 2. In addition, the card has been modified with Spider-Man decals on the fans and a custom (magnetic) backplate featuring the same theme.

• Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Twin Edge 8GB 
• Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Twin Edge OC White Edition 8GB 
• Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Twin Edge OC 8GB - Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Bundle

PNY

PNY also has three different 4060 Ti models. Two are base model configurations, meaning they should be priced at $399. The overclocked Verto card will likely have a modest price premium.

• PNY GeForce RTX 4060 Ti XLR8 Gaming Verto OC Edition 8GB 
• PNY GeForce RTX 4060 Ti XLR8 Gaming Verto Edition 8GB 
• $399.99 - PNY GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Verto Dual Fan Edition 8GB

Colorful

Colorful announced five different models, two of which come with a factory overclock. We don't usually see Colorful cards in the US as much as other brands, though the company sells many cards in Asia.

• Colorful iGame GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Advanced OC-V 8GB 
• Colorful iGame GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Ultra W-V 8GB 
• Colorful iGame GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Ultra W Duo OC-V 8GB 
• Colorful GeForce RTX 4060 Ti NB EX-V 8GB 
• Colorful GeForce RTX 4060 Ti NB EX Duo-V 8GB

It's been a tough few months for the tech sector, with major declines in PC sales and layoffs at large companies like Intel, Microsoft, Dell and Lenovo. However, one tech retailer appears to actually be growing. Micro Center just announced that it's opening a new store in Indianapolis on June 23rd of this year, with two more outlets to follow by 2025. 

The new store from the Columbus OH-based chain will join 25 other outlets in states ranging from New York to Missouri, Texas, California and Colorado. The privately-held company told us that it expects to grow revenue in 2023, going from $2.1 billion in 2022 to $2.2 billion and then $2.4 billion in 2024.

 These numbers clearly pale in comparison to the U.S.'s leading tech retailer, Best Buy, which turned in $46.3 billion in revenue for the 12 months which ended on January 31, 2023. However, Best Buy does this with 1,144 stores so the average Micro Center store generated 84 million in revenue versus just 40.4 million for Best Buy.

Micro Center is well known among PC hardware enthusiasts, because it's one of the best in-person places to buy components such as graphics cards, CPUs and SSDs. It has a much wider selection of components and peripherals than a typical Best Buy, and its prices for in-person shopping are often cheaper than those you'll find online at Amazon or Newegg.

Micro Center is also one of the best places in the United States to buy Raspberry Pis, maker components and many of the best 3D printers. It is the only national chain we've seen that stocks products from the likes of Adafruit, Sparkfun and Pimoroni. And, if you can find them in stock (a problem everywhere these days), the company sells Raspberry Pi boards at their MSRPs. 

In a recent conversation, Micro Center Chief Merchandising Officer Warren Beneson told us that the company's strategy is to bring people into its stores in person, rather than competing against Amazon for online transactions. Most of the store's primary products are not available for purchase or delivery online, but you can usually reserve items for in-store pickup or check prices and stock at microcenter.com.  

The company frequently sends out coupons with impressive special offers, such as the ability to buy a 3D printer for just $100. It also has its own store brands for PCs (PowerSpec PC), components and 3D printing supplies. Its Inland filaments are among the best 3D printing filaments you can buy. 

The company says that it has 3.6 million active customers, having reached 1.1 million new customers in the last two years with a total of 30,000 daily transactions. Customers spend an average of 45 minutes in the store, picking out products. The average Micro Center customer is also knowledgeable. According to the company, only one percent of customers say they are "new to technology."

While PC enthusiasts like Micro Center because they can actually see and touch many models of cases, keyboards, SSDs, CPUs and graphics cards, the company also caters to small business clients. Thirty percent of customers identify as "business customers" and the company is the process of adding more small business-specific fixtures to its stores. It has long sold a variety of thin clients, servers and workstations.

Though Micro Center is in expansion mode, it is not by any means a new chain. The company launched in 1979 and many of its C-suite have been with the brand for decades. CEO Rick Mershad has served 40 years, while Beneson has been on board for 19 years.  Back in the 1980s, the stores used to have a rainbow stripe aesthetic that was reminiscent of early Apple branding. 

The Indianapolis store will be located at 5702 E. 86th Street in that city. The company is not publicly disclosing the addresses and launch dates of the other two stores. To see if there's a Micro Center near you, check the Store Locations page on the company's website. The site also has more details about the upcoming Indianapolis store.

US electronics retailer Best Buy has apparently decided to clear out its existing Nvidia GeForce RTX 30 series stock. Earlier today, it put up some actually good Ampere GPU offers in a ‘clearance’ sale, but understandably the stock flew off shelves before anyone could screengrab any crumbs of availability.

Best Buy is the exclusive brick and mortar retailer of Nvidia GeForce RTX 30-series Founders Edition GPUs in the US, and in its haste to clear stock, the RTX 3080 10GB FE was probably the biggest bargain among the clearance items. This powerful Ampere architecture card was cut from $699 to $419 to free up shelf space. Curiously, the GeForce RX 3080 FE discount made it even cheaper than RTX 3070 Ti and RTX 3070 cards that were not in the clearance sale. We’d like to know how many were sold at this very keen price.

Other high-end RTX 30 GPUs that were in the clearance sale at Best Buy included the RTX 3090 Ti, which was cut from $1999 to $879, RTX 3090 cut to $749, and an RTX 3080 Ti cut to $719. Lower rung RTX 30-series cards didn’t attract compelling discounts, which might mean their replacements are a bit further out. In a search of the site for availability at the time of writing, there appeared to be very few models of RTX 3070 or above now in stock, so the clearance sale seems to have been a success.

There is some implied good news behind the now evaporated RTX 30-series bargains. Nvidia has had its high-end RTX 40 series graphics cards in retail for several months now, but the traditional volume selling 70-, 60-, and 50-class desktop cards have yet to arrive — though laptop versions are set to launch with availability due soon. In brief, it looks like retailers like Best Buy are clearing stock and shelf space for a new range of GeForce RTX 40-series graphics cards, as we can assume the future RTX 4070 and 4060 Ti would have made higher tier RTX 30-series stock look unattractive.

Hopefully Nvidia will launch the RTX 4070, RTX 4060/Ti, and RTX 4050/Ti desktop graphics cards sooner rather than later. There are plenty of leaks about these upcoming mainstream models, and we reported on an apparent exposé of the RTX 4060 specs only yesterday.

Best Buy has created program for Mac users called Upgrade+ that allows customers to upgrade to a new MacBook the way people often switch to new phones: in multi-year increments and paying month-to-month.

With Upgrade+ customers will need to finance a qualifying MacBook with Best Buy for 36 months. Once those 36 months are up, users get the chance to upgrade the MacBook to a newer version via financing, keep the laptop (and make one final payment for the rest of the balance), or return it to Best Buy, where it will likely be sold as used or refurbished.

The plan requires you to finance your original Mac purchase with Best Buy (through Citizens Pay, subject to credit approval), and is only available for Mac laptops with Apple Silicon (ie. M1 or M2 based chips). It's not unlike Apple's iPhone Upgrade program, except that Apple does that over a 1-year period.

After the 36 months are up, you'll be free to swap your MacBook for a newer version, without paying the leftover balance — assuming that you choose to move financing to a new machine. If you return the laptop to Best Buy, the store will handle the final payment. If you keep the device, you'll pay the difference.

Best Buy's example suggests that if you bought a Mac laptop for $999.99, you would pay $19.99 per month for 36 months, and then finish it off in month 37 with the remaining $280.35. This could be a good deal if you already intend to buy a new Mac this often, though those who want to do it sooner or keep it longer may not save money. They can, however, pay over time if they wish.

Upgrade+ can be optioned out with AppleCare+ and select accessories when you order, but the program will not be eligible for discounts of any type that might appear in the Best Buy store.

Currently, Best Buy has five MacBooks that qualify for Upgrade+, including the MacBook Air in both M1 and M2 variants, a MacBook Pro 13 M2, MacBook Pro 14 M1 and MacBook Pro 16 M1.

The MacBook Air M1 will cost $999.99 and start at $19.99 a month, while the M2 version ups that to $1,199.99 and $26 per month. For the MacBook Pro 13 inch M2, the cost goes up to $1,299.99 or $28.17 a month, and the MacBook Pro 14 with the M1 goes up to a significantly more expensive $1,999.99 per month at a rate of $43.34 a month. Finally, the MacBook Pro 16 inch with the M1 chip is priced at $2,499.99 and goes for $54.17 per month. You might be able to find a Best Buy coupon for the scheme, it's not a guarantee but it's worth checking.

Members of Best Buy's TotalTech program will get AppleCare+ at no cost for 24 months, as long as they keep active. Apple already lets you pay over time for laptops for 0% APR for 12 months, but if you're looking to trade in fairly often for the latest and greatest, Apple's fans may start considering the Best Buy route.

Nvidia's GeForce RTX 4090, which may soon become one of the best graphics cards, goes on sale on October 12. As a result, retailers from around the country have started to list the next-generation GeForce RTX 40-series flagship in preparation for its looming launch.

Unlike Ampere, which launched at insane prices in dark times, the GeForce RTX 4090 appears to maintain the $1,599 MSRP. The GeForce RTX 4090 still costs a small fortune, but it's encouraging to finally see a modern graphics card debut at MSRP since we've grown accustomed to seeing Ampere at scalper prices. Best Buy (via momomo_us) has listed four custom GeForce RTX 4090 graphics cards with price tags spanning from $1,599 to $1,749. Nonetheless, we recommend you approach the pricing cautiously as the listings could be placeholders, which we hope not. Once prices are settled though, you could always use a Best Buy coupon to help bring them down whatever they may be.

The MSI GeForce RTX 4090 Suprim Liquid X 24G sells for $1,749 and is the most svelte model out of the four graphics cards. However, unlike the other triple-slot monsters, this model only occupies two PCI slots. The reason is that the graphics card has a hybrid cooling system and outsources some of its thermal responsibilities to an external 240mm radiator.

Gigabyte's GeForce RTX 4090 Gaming OC 24G checks in at $1,699 with a thick 3x WindForce cooler. The cooling setup revolves around a vapor chamber with ten composite cooper heat pipes and three 110mm cooling fans. Although Gigabyte didn't reveal the clock speeds, the model name insinuates it comes with a large factory overclock to justify the $100 premium in the price tag.

Meanwhile, the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4090 WindForce 24G and MSI GeForce RTX 4090 Gaming X Trio 24G stick to Nvidia's MSRP. Both graphics cards rely on a robust cooler with a triple-fan setup. Nvidia's GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition will also sell for $1,599 for fans of the reference design.

MSI and Gigabyte have in common that neither vendor has announced the clock speeds for their respective GeForce RTX 4090 graphics cards. In addition, regardless of the model, the custom graphics cards come with a single 16-pin PCIe power connector (12VHPWR). Rated for 450W, the GeForce RTX 4090 pulls a significant amount of power, which the 12VHPWR connector can provide. MSI and Gigabyte recommend an 850W power supply as the minimum, while the latter suggests a 1,000W unit for the overclocked models.

The GeForce RTX 4090 isn't the only graphics card to hit the retail market on October 12. Whether you believe in coincidences, Intel will finally launch the much-awaited Arc A770 for $329 on the same day. Arc Alchemist can't compete with the GeForce RTX 40-series, not with the GeForce RTX 4090, at least. However, if you trust Intel's benchmarks, the Arc A770 performs like a GeForce RTX 3060, so it's an entirely different market segment.

The Lenovo Yoga 6 13 laptop is available at Best Buy for just $649, down from its asking price of $949. This discount saves users $300 off the MSRP while providing plenty of juicy specs like a 4.8GHz processor and 16GB of RAM to get excited about, you might be able to save a bit more with Best Buy coupons.

This edition of the Lenovo Yoga 6 13 laptop features an AMD Ryzen 7 5700U processor which has 8 cores, 16 threads, and can reach up to 4.3 GHz with boost clock enabled. Users get a 512GB internal SSD for storage and 16GB of RAM for memory. It uses integrated AMD Radeon graphics, outputting to a 13.3-inch touchscreen with an FHD resolution of 1920 x 1080px.

It has two 1W speakers built-in as part of its Dolby Atmos speaker system and a 720p webcam built into the center of the lid. Users have a total of 4 USB ports to use for peripherals. The Lenovo Yoga 6 13 uses a Lithium-ion polymer battery and comes with the 64-bit edition of Windows 11 Home pre-installed.

Visit the Lenovo Yoga 6 13 laptop product page at Best Buy for more details and purchase options. If you want to snag some accessories, check out our Memorial Day deals list for more tech deal savings and be sure to check back throughout the Memorial Day holiday for more.

Finding a laptop isn’t too difficult right now as Memorial Day weekend sales continue. We use third-party tools to verify price history, like Google Shopping, PCPartPicker, as well as CamelCamelCamel for Amazon items, to make sure each deal is worth the investment. If you don’t have time to research for yourself, check out our list of best gaming laptop deals and other various Memorial Day deals for a compilation of the best discounts we can find.

The news that Best Buy decided to effectively put Nvidia's GeForce RTX 30-series graphics cards behind a paywall on Friday caused much controversy with PC DIYers, gamers, and enthusiasts. It might have instigated the policy to reward individual gamers who enrolled in its membership program. However, the move seems to have had some unintended consequences, evidenced by scalper social media boasts about snagging dozens of GPUs. One bragged that "I bought almost $20,000 in GPUs today," all thanks to the Best Buy membership paywall, noted PCMag.

Totaltech is a $199 annual membership subscription that Best Buy promotes quite heavily, probably due to the well-known profitability of such add-on retail services. Positive aspects of the subscription are things like extended product warranty, extended return periods, free two-day shipping, and an elevated level of service or after-sales help.

Previously, one particular highlighted benefit of Totaltech, "access to exclusive Totaltech member prices," has meant exclusive purchase access to hot tech like the PlayStation 5. Unfortunately, this same policy swept over Nvidia's GeForce RTX 30-series produce line, which holds some of the best GPUs on the market. Thus, being a Best Buy Totaltech member became a prerequisite for buying into the green team's latest desirable 3D acceleration products.

There appears to have been some conditions built into the GeForce GPUs paywall to prevent scalping, but they weren't thought through properly. For example, one scalper noted that "you can only buy one of each SKU" (SKU means a stock-keeping unit, so refers to a particular model). Yet, this same individual bought "almost $20,000 in GPUs" by going through Best Buy's stock, grabbing one of each model, and ordering it a minute or two after the previous order. Scalpers quickly sidestepped Best Buy's implemented obstacles. This failing is severe, with Best Buy's position in the U.S. market as the exclusive Nvidia Founders Edition GPU reseller – a fact which the scalpers gleefully highlighted to one another.

Many social media users, who were interested in buying low and selling high into this desperately distorted market, exploited the scalping loophole. Scalpers will see the $199 subscription fee as a modest cost of doing business. Still, this kind of additional payment will be enough to put off many individuals who want a modern GPU, or two, for their own, a friend or family member.

We hope that Best Buy will remedy the apparent loopholes that the scalpers exploited with such relish, investing thousands of dollars in helping to maintain the higher than MSRP pricing trend. But unfortunately, the restriction of one particular SKU per customer must be strengthened in short order for Best Buy to try and salvage some credibility with PC gamers and enthusiasts.

One of the more reliable places to obtain a current-generation NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series graphics card -- at MSRP -- has been Best Buy. From time to time, the U.S. retailer stocks these best graphics cards for gaming for anyone to purchase. And in months past, the company has even held in-store events where anyone lined up at a brick and mortar location could purchase one card at MSRP (if they were lucky enough to receive a ticket). 

That is all changing now, and it's because of Best Buy's Totaltech program. The full GeForce RTX 30 range was available to purchase this afternoon (including the flagship GeForce RTX 3090) at Best Buy, but the retailer limited those sales to customers that paid an extra $199 for a Totaltech membership. The yearly membership fee entitles you to such perks as free Geek Squad tech support, free 2-day shipping, 60-day returns, and 24 months of product protection (among other benefits).

One other benefit is "Access to exclusive Totaltech member prices," which is apparently what went down with this most recent GeForce RTX 30 drop. Best Buy's shenanigans were first spotted by @CameronRitz, who tracks the in-stock status for various hot ticket items like GPUs and gaming consoles.  

Four hours after Best Buy opened the floodgates for the GeForce RTX 30 cards, they're now all currently out of stock. Inventory usually evaporates very quickly during these drops, but we'd imagine that it lasted a bit longer today due to the new Totaltech prerequisite.

We understand why Best Buy is trying to squeeze as much money as possible from customers with specialty programs like Totaltech. It's a business, after all, and Newegg similarly toys with gamers' emotions with its Newegg Shuffle promotion. But for enthusiasts that have been put through the wringer for well over a year with inflated GPU prices, Totaltech just pours more salt on the wounds. 

Best Buy's confidence to extend the $200 Totaltech paywall to GPUs isn't surprising given that it has done the same with the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X during past stock drops. In other words, buckle up folks; it's going to be a bumpy ride!

Intel's 12th Gen Alder Lake processors have barreled into the list of best CPUs for gaming, but more SKUs are on the way. In addition, Best Buy (via momomo_us) has revealed the specifications and pricing for the upcoming non-K models that target consumers with stricter budgets.

According to rumors making the rounds in hardware circles, Intel will reportedly announce Alder Lake's non-K chips at CES 2022. Considering the time frame of Best Buy's listings, it's doubtful that they're placeholders. The non-K series may launch at CES 2022. Nonetheless, we recommend you approach the information with caution.

For buyers who don't need the power or unlocked multiplier of the Core i9-12900K ($599), the Core i9-12900 and Core i9-12900F are legit alternatives at $529.99 and $509.99, respectively. You still get all the 8P + 8E configuration benefits, albeit at lower clock speeds.

The Core i7-12700K ($419) is one of the more balanced options in Intel's Alder Lake product stack. Nonetheless, the more budget-friendly and power-efficient options include the Core i7-12700 and Core i7-12700F, which may retail for $359.99 and $329.99, respectively.

Intel Alder Lake Non-K Specifications And Pricing

Currently, we consider the Core i5-12600K ($299) as the best overall processor for gaming. But if your budget doesn't allow it, the Core i5-12600, Core i5-12500, and Core i5-12400 are good 65W options as well. However, there will be a performance gap between the models above and the K-series chip.

The Core i5-12600 could be available for $239.99, whereas the Core i5-12500 may retail for $219.99. Like last generation's Core i5-11400, the Core i5-12400 will probably be the best budget gaming Alder Lake chip. At $209.99, the Core i5-12400 could potentially offer the best bang for your buck. Or, if you don't require integrated graphics, the Core i5-12400F might sell for as low as $179.99. The Core i3-12100, Core i3-12100F, Pentium Gold G7400, and Celeron G6900 will also have their place in the market with price tags below the $140 mark.

The pricing for Alder Lake non-K processors certainly looks very attractive, but their success will depend partially on the price of the upcoming H670, B660, and H610 motherboards as well. In addition, it'll be interesting to see how AMD reacts to the new Alder Lake chips. The chipmaker's Ryzen 5000 (Zen 3) had crushed it before Alder Lake arrived and stole the show, but a small price cut could put Ryzen back in the picture.

Update 9/22: Best Buy has made a post on its official site confirming that it will have an in-store console restock event on Thursday, September 23rd. Best Buy employees will hand out tickets for individual consoles starting at 7:30, which will guarantee ticket holders an opportunity to purchase that console. The post also allows you to find a participating store nearby.

Online PS5 and Xbox Series X restocks are commonplace enough that our colleague over at Techradar, Matt Swider, now dedicates a whole chunk of his Twitter feed to keeping track of them. But now, Matt’s reporting that Best Buy’s going to hold its first ever in-store PS5 and Xbox Series X restock event this Thursday. If this holds true, this would also be the first time you’d be able to find a PS5 in-store at any major non-club retailer in 2021.

What makes in-store restock events so exciting is that bots can’t just buy up all the stock just a few seconds after opening. You’ll still have to contend with resellers and line jumpers, of course, but at least in-person, you can give them the evil eye.

Swider’s sources tell him that we can expect more than 50 consoles per participating store, and he says he has proof that the consoles are being stocked directly at store locations. That last part’s unusual, since they usually go to regional warehouses.

Still, you can see Matt’s receipts here, cropped and scrubbed of identifying info to protect his sources.

The event process will work something like Best Buy’s recent RTX 3000 series GPU in-store sales, Swider’s sources expect. In other words, you’ll line up on Thursday morning outside of Best Buy, then managers will hand out tickets between 7 and 7:30am local time that you can trade in to make a purchase. You’ll then have to manually take your console home, since Best Buy hasn’t shipped consoles directly to customer doorsteps at all in 2021.

Also, you probably won’t be able to pre-purchase online and then claim your console in person. That would kind of defeat the point of the event, and while it’s possible (Target operates on a similar system), Swider hasn’t seen any talk of such a system yet.

Keep in mind, all of this information is still coming from anonymous sources. Swider’s urging readers not to start lining up at Best Buy yet, and instead wait until either he or Best buy can confirm the official ordering method for the event.

If things do proceed like Best Buy’s previous GPU events, though, then you’ll want to head in prepared. At his local Colorado Best Buy last month, our senior editor Jarred Walton saw 200 people show up for the event and many leave empty handed. The experience at that store was peaceful, at least, but that wasn't the case at every store. In New York, Swider says that the first 19 people his team saw in line were all resellers, and that they held spots for line jumpers to join them at the last second, pushing people buying for personal use even further back in the queue.

And we mean “pushing” literally. The line jumpers claimed to have always been there, which led to conflict, and Swider tweeting out that the line was “pure chaos.” Scenes like that might be why Best Buy and other stores haven’t hosted in-person console restock events this year. But it’s been 39 days since the last online console restock, and now we probably know why.

It's been nearly a year since Nvidia launched its Ampere GPUs with the GeForce RTX 3080, and things have not gone to plan. Normally, we expect new GPUs to sell out quickly for the first couple of months, then supply catches up to demand and you start to see cards regularly in stock and waiting on store shelves. The RTX 30-series and RX 6000-series — and any thing else worthy of mention in our best graphics cards list — continue to sell out in rapid fashion. Today, August 26, Best Buy had 17,000 Nvidia GPUs for sale at various locations around the U.S.

I ran over to my local store, a location in Fort Collins, Colo., just to check out the scene and see how many people were waiting for a new GPU. The answer: far more than there were cards available.

The pictures here are the remnants of the crowd, gaming hopefuls that didn't catch the worm. I was told people started lining up as early as 11 a.m. yesterday, with many camping out overnight. At 7:30 a.m., Best Buy employees went down the line, asking people what card they wanted and giving them a photo of the card in question — assuming that card was still available. All told, the Fort Collins store received 120 RTX 30-series GPUs, all Founders Edition models ranging from the RTX 3090 down to the RTX 3060 Ti. There were perhaps 200 people in line, and many left disappointed.

The lucky ones were admitted into the store starting at 8 a.m. to acquire their hard won reward: RTX 30-series cards sold at Nvidia's MSRPs. I figure quite a few people will end up flipping those cards on eBay for a tidy profit, as our GPU price index indicates the average price for a 3090 still sits at over $2,250. But of course, most people were far more interested in a less extreme, more affordable card.

By 10 a.m., there were still five unclaimed cards left on the shelves, from people that either had a change of heart or simply failed to show up. Yeah, I know: Who waits in line for hours, perhaps overnight, but then decides not to buy the part they got a ticket to purchase? (Answer: People that only wanted an RTX 3080, most likely.) There were still maybe 30 people in line, but another 100 or more people had arrived too late and didn't bother waiting around. The employees let us know that there were two RTX 3060 Ti cards, one RTX 3080 Ti, and two RTX 3090 cards. The last three cards make sense, but the 3060 Ti was a bit surprising.

In our testing, which you can see in our GPU benchmarks hierarchy, it's nearly as fast as an RTX 3070, and it beats the previous generation RTX 2080 Super by a few percent. More importantly, it was available for just $400. Incidentally, right now RTX 3060 Ti sells on eBay for an average price of about $930, more than double the MSRP. Worst-case, someone could buy the card and then immediately turn around in sell it for a nice profit. Not that we'd encourage people to do that, but it was surprising any GPUs were still waiting for the late arrivals.

Interestingly, one of the people at the front of the line had actually managed to get an RTX 3080 Ti earlier in the morning, but he had a severe case of buyer's remorse. (Note: No one wanted to provide me with names, choosing to remain anonymous.) That's not too surprising, considering the $1,200 asking price. He was waiting to swap the card out for the RTX 3060 Ti, which meant someone else in line would be able to buy the 3080 Ti. The fifth person waiting for the 10 a.m. deadline said he figured he was going to get an RTX 3090, as likely those two cards would be the last to go. It might be the fastest GPU on the planet, but $1,500 is still a bitter pill. When I asked if he planned on mining with the card, he said no, but he wasn't sure he'd actually keep it long-term. Such is the market we live in right now.

The last person I spoke with, who managed to land one of the remaining RTX 3060 Ti cards, told a story that's become all too familiar during the past year. He'd been planning a new build for over a year, hoping to replace his old PC with something more capable, but shortages had kept him waiting. Luck smiled at him today, though, and the new GPU should go nicely with his Core i5-11600K build that he's been using for the past month, playing StarCraft on Intel's integrated Xe Graphics while he waited for a GPU, "because that's about all the integrated graphics can handle."

I wish we could say there was light at the end of the tunnel, but it's still likely to be another six months or more before the supply of new GPUs can even come close to keeping up with demand. Maybe a few Best Buy locations didn't sell out quite as quickly, but 17,000 cards is a drop in the bucket compared to the millions of PC gamers apparently still waiting to upgrade. The lesson here is that if you really want a new graphics card and hear about another big drop happening somewhere, pitch  your tent and plan on spending the night. Otherwise, the only other real option would be to pay exorbitant scalper prices.

Best Buy has received a veritable boatload of Nvidia Ampere graphics cards that you will be able to purchase from tomorrow, August 26. The news comes courtesy of the GPU Restock Monitor Twitter page, which shared the distribution sheet for Best Buy's restock throughout the U.S. If you still haven't made the cut for a new graphics card, even with our Where to Buy guide, this might be your chance.

It's anyone's guess how long the supplies will last after the restock, but considering the state of the GPU market and all the pent-up demand that's still to be satisfied, there's only one real answer - not as long as you hope. 

The restock will come in at around 17,000 units of almost all the RTX 30-series graphics cards Nvidia has released to date - including the RTX 3060 Ti, RTX 3070, RTX 3070 Ti, RTX 3080, RTX 3080 Ti, and the unicorn-like RTX 3090. Around 10 through 50 of each graphics card will be made available at each Best Buy location.

Best Buy is Nvidia's partner in distributing their Founder's Edition graphics cards, and the leak does point towards the possibility that this restock is mostly an Nvidia-direct affair. However, Best Buy hasn't officially confirmed the expected availability.

As has been the unfortunate case in these pandemic times, it's likely that the only way for users to nab one of these graphics cards is to physically go to their Best Buy store of choice and wait for the store to open — the hope here is that you are one of the lucky customers who receives a coupon that guarantees access to one of the in-stock graphics cards. When the coupons are gone, so is your chance at getting a graphics card in this restock.

Best Buy staff should begin handing out these coupons from 7:30 am, with the store opening to the general public at 8 am (local time, depending on the store in question.) 

If you do choose to go to a Best buy to finally secure an Nvidia RTX 30-series graphics card, you may want to brush up on the available models from both Nvidia and partners. our Best Graphics Cards for Gaming in 2021 guide can help you with that - and you can even read it through your smartphone while waiting in line.

Nvidia RTX 30 Series GPU Deals at Best Buy

AMD’s premium level Ryzen 9 5900X CPU is back down to its lowest price so far, $539.99, thanks to a huge discount at Best Buy.

This 12-core, 4.8 GHz boost clock processor is a great choice for anyone looking to add serious current-gen single and multi-core performance to their machine.

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This chip's stellar specs lead to some stunningly fluid gameplay. In our own testing alongside an RTX 3090, the Ryzen 9 hit an impressive 163.2 FPS in Borderlands 3 at 1080p Ultra, exactly the same in Far Cry 5 and 150.7 FPS in Hitman 2. Plus, when tested with something far more intense like Microsoft Flight Simulator at 1440p, frame rates reached 52.4 FPS.

Combine that with blistering speeds in creative apps like Premiere Pro (the CPU hit a score of 959 in Puget Systems Benchmarking), and this is a powerful all-rounder to add to any build.

At Best Buy, WD's massive 14TB Easystore external hard drive just got a $130 price cut — taking it down to just $289.99.

Need a huge amount of storage for backups or archives? This is an ideal option at a bargain price.

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A lot of WD’s external hard drives at this capacity and speed sell for over $400, which makes this saving extra special. All you have to do to use it is plug and play — just connect this to your computer via USB 3.0 and get up to 5Gbps of throughput.

Plus, you can make the most of your drive with a complete software package with transfer utilities and backup capabilities, which pairs with the two-year warranty for a great solution to any storage problems.

Corsair's K95 RGB Platinum keyboard is easily one of the best gaming keyboards for comfort, usability and style on the market, and now you can get it for its cheapest price since January. Currently sitting at $119 over at Best Buy, it offers a tempting combination of responsive Cherry MX Speed switches, macro keys, RGB lighting, dedicated media keys and even fun flourishes like a volume wheel.

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The K95 Platinum is the result of many years of iteration on Corsair's original K95 concept, sticking to the company's ethos of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

It's aluminum construction is as solid as the Corsair's confidence in its ideas, while its gunmetal gray look makes sure it appears as sturdy as it feels. 

The big draw is, of course, the Cherry MX Speed switches. But there's also 18 programmable keys for custom game macros, plus plenty of other premium features that give you flexibility without getting in your way. Take the media keys that are offset to the keyboard's right side, or the brightness and game mode buttons on its left side. There's also an included palm wrest to make long sessions easier. And I always love a volume wheel.

It's these kind of touches that have allowed the K95 keyboard design to push on through the years. While $119 may not be the exact lowest price we've seen on it this year, it's still a great sale on a proven piece of tech.

Best Buy has announced that tomorrow, July 20th, it will begin selling RTX 30 series graphics cards in limited quantities at its physical brick and mortar stores across the country. Similar to MicroCenter, Best Buy will use a 'first-come first-served ticket system to determine which lucky customers can actually buy a new graphics card.

If you want the best chance of getting a graphics card, you need to be at one of Best Buy's store locations by 7:30 AM local time, which is when the blue shirts start giving out tickets.

However, it's reasonable to assume that people are already camping out at Best Buy just to get the chance of buying a graphics card. We've seen this sort of thing happen with MicroCenter where customers camped out at the store for days on end in the hope of snagging a graphics card.

If you can make it to a Best Buy (preferably as early as possible), this is the best time to snag a precious RTX 30 series graphics card with supply still strained by demand.

Here's the press blast from Best Buy on the matter: 

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series graphics cards will have limited quantities available on Tuesday, July 20, only in select stores.

Blue Shirts at participating stores will start handing out tickets at 7:30 a.m. local time* that morning. We’ll hand out one ticket per customer in line. If you get a ticket, you will be guaranteed the opportunity to purchase a graphics card inside the store beginning at 8 a.m. local time.

Graphics cards are limited to one per customer.*

You can find a list of the stores with stock here. 

Nvidia just announced the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti a couple hours ago, and Best Buy didn't waste any time listing the new Ampere graphics card on its online store. In a time where stock is close to zero and we're used to seeing ludicrous pricing, seeing a graphics card at its MSRP is a rare sight. The GeForce RTX 3080 Ti goes on sale on June 3 and, as always, we expect all hell to break loose.

The GeForce RTX 3080 Ti fills in the gap between the GeForce RTX 3080 and GeForce RTX 3090, in regards to both pricing and performance. More importantly, the graphics card takes the fight to AMD's Radeon RX 6900 XT, which has a $999 MSRP before any Best Buy coupons. Nvidia specced the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti as close as possible to the GeForce RTX 3090 without cannabalizing the latter.

Fused with the same GA102 silicon, the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti comes with two disabled Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs) in comparison to the GeForce RTX 3090. That's less than a 3% difference in regards to the CUDA count between the two Ampere siblings. The margin should be almost negligible in the real world, and it just goes to show that Nvidia is a smart surgeon.

Nvidia had to make some sacrifices to the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti's memory system to knock the MSRP down to $1,199, $300 cheaper than the GeForce RTX 3090. While the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti retains the 384-bit memory interface, the graphics card arrives with half the amount of memory in comparison to the GeForce RTX 3090. The memory is clocked slightly lower as well. The compromises aren't as serious as they sound, though. At the end of the day, the difference in memory bandwidth between the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and GeForce RTX 3090 is under 3%.

The GeForce RTX 3080 Ti makes more sense as a gaming graphics card than the GeForce RTX 3090. While modern titles are demanding more and more memory, especially at the higher resolutions, 12GB should suffice for a while. The GeForce RTX 3090's 24GB of GDDR6X memory is overkill outside of professional workloads.

The reviews for the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti aren't out yet, but if the specifications are any indication of performance, the graphics card will sell better than the GeForce RTX 3090. The Founders Edition will be the best bet for budget-conscious consumers that want a GeForce RTX 3080 Ti at MSRP since custom GeForce RTX 3080 Ti designs will probably carry a hefty premium.

Since Best Buy is Nvidia's official partner for Founders Edition cards, we expect it to stick with the $1,199 pricing. The real problem will be meeting demand, which will inevitably eclipse supply and then some, just as it has with every other GPU launched in the past nine months. Good luck!

Best Buy have listed a $750 Intel Iris Xe powered "CyberPowerPC Gamer Xtreme Gaming Desktop" on their site, and it has already sold out. While the Intel Iris Xe may not be a graphical powerhouse, this budget gaming system comes with an 11th Gen Rocket Lake CPU.

The Intel Iris Xe GPU is interesting,  despite its lack of pixel prowess. The Xe DG1 is just visible in the top PCIe slot of the machine pictured on Best Buy’s site, is a passively cooled card with 4GB of LPDDR4X VRAM, and 640 shading units spread across 80 execution units. Best Buy doesn’t supply a pic of the back of the PC, but we’d expect DVI-D, HDMI, and DisplayPort ports, in line with the Asus card already revealed.

The PC in question is a Gamer Xtreme Gaming Desktop from CyberPower going for $750, with an 11th-gen Intel i5-11400F (six cores, 12 threads, boost up to 4.4GHz) with the ‘F’ designation meaning it doesn’t pack integrated graphics. There’s 8GB of RAM and a 500 GB NVMe SSD, so you know you’re not looking at a particularly highly powered model here. Similar money gets you PCs with GTX 1650 GPUs, and the benchmarks that leaked a few months ago don’t look brilliant.

Still, while this is perhaps not the kind of PC that would have us dancing in the streets, it’s an important moment in the history of GPUs: Xe is here, there are now three players in the market, and with the launch of the DG2 cards, built on the more powerful Xe-HPG architecture with hardware-accelerated ray-tracing later this year, things are about to get really interesting.

Looking to upgrade your setup with some branded gaming hardware, including some of the best laptops, best mice and/or best microphones? Razer's always near the top when it comes to premium gamer lifestyle gear, but its products usually come with a steep price tag to match.

But right now at Best Buy, you can circumvent this problem with site-wide Razer deals including up to $500 off Razer Blade laptops and up to $60 off accessories.

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Tempting, right? But for those who aren't really feeling it with these deals (or like colors other than black and green), we've got you covered. Check out what Dell is up to with its Alienware discounts, or the ongoing Lenovo Legion price cuts.

Fry’s Electronics wasn’t the only electronics retailer affected by COVID-19. The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Best Buy laid off 5,000 employees of its 102,000 employees in response to the pandemic-hastened rise of online shopping.

Best Buy CEO Corie Barry said in an earnings report that “online sales grew almost 90% to a record $6.7 billion and made up 43% of our total Domestic sales” in the 13-week fourth quarter of 2021 that ended on January 30.

But that doesn’t mean the company’s brick-and-mortar stores were obsolete. Quite the opposite: Barry said, “almost two-thirds of our online revenue was either picked up in store or curbside, shipped from a store or delivered by a store employee.”

So why did Best Buy lay off 5,000 of its employees and say that it plans to close some of its stores this year? According to CNN Business, it’s because Barry thinks the company has “too many full-time and not enough part-time employees.”

That makes sense from an economic perspective. Many states offer protections to full-time workers that guarantee them some form of paid time off, healthcare, and other benefits. Part-time employees aren’t eligible for those so-called perks.

Best Buy also said that it expected the sales growth it experienced in 2020—it turns out that people buy a lot of new electronics when they’re stuck inside for a year—to slow in the first half of 2021. Reducing its sales staff can help it maintain margins.

It’s a balancing act. One side has Best Buy offering employees cash bonuses for risking exposure to COVID-19 and giving them paid time off to get vaccinated; the other has the company laying off those same employees for greater flexibility.

Cheap Gen 4 NVMe storage is hard to come by, which is why we are big fans of the WD Blue SN550 SSD — the best DRAMless storage you can get with competitive read/write speeds and a five-year warranty.

But what makes the best SSDs better? A cheaper price. Right now over at Best Buy and Walmart, you can get one for just $99.99 — amazing value for money at just $0.10 per GB.

• More: Best Deals on SSDs and Hard Drives
• Best External Drives: Portable Hard Drives and SSDs

Let's address the inconsistencies. Yes, the list prices on Walmart and Best Buy are slightly inflated, but the real MSRP as you can see on WD's own website is 130 bucks. Nevertheless, this is still a good deal across the board.

Across our testing of this 1TB drive, the SN550 offered impressive game loading speeds, beat out other more expensive drives in PC Mark 10 benchmarking and had a consistently strong write performance under thermal pressure.

And we really like Western Digitals generous five-year warranty on this device. Make no mistake, regardless of the shifty list pricing happening here, WD's Blue SN550 offers the best bang for your buck at this cost.

Finding an affordable IPS display is always exciting when upgrading from something like a VA or TN panel display. The IPS quality is notably higher when it comes to vibrancy and color depth. This offer is for the 24-inch Lenovo Q24i-10 monitor, which is now $80 off.

There are plenty of monitor deals to sift through for anyone interested in comparison-shopping. Be sure to check back often; we share the best deals on tech we can find with our readers every day. These offers can change at a moment's notice, so double-check every deal before locking in a purchase.

This 24-inch IPS display had an FHD resolution, which measures in at 1920 x 1080. That isn't the highest you'll find on the market, but it's definitely enough for casual gaming and watching movies.

According to the specs, the panel has a refresh rate of 75Hz and a 4ms response time. To help reduce screen tearing, it supports AMD FreeSync.

Visit the Lenovo Q24i-10 product page at Best Buy for more details and checkout options.      

If you haven’t bought either a Playstation 5 or Xbox Series X/S yet and still want to get in on the ground floor of the next console generation, Best Buy just announced what might be your last chance to get one before Christmas.

On December 14th, the big box electronics chain published a blog post stating that it’s planning to restock both consoles on December 15th starting at 8 am Central/9 am Eastern time. The consoles will only be up for sale online, which isn't that surprising, but what's new is that you’ll only be able to pick them up through curbside pickup. 

We don’t yet know how long supplies will last or if Best Buy is planning any more restocks in the following days. We wouldn’t be surprised, though, since the blog post says the console restock also kicks off the store’s “3-day sale” event for last-minute Holiday shoppers.

While online-only launches have become the norm during the pandemic, limiting something as big as a gaming console to curbside pickup is a new strategy. This is likely an effort on Best Buy’s part to counter bots, which have plagued major tech releases throughout the year by instantly buying up all available stock to resell at a higher price elsewhere.

We’re certain that plenty of scalpers are willing to take a car to their local Best Buy for a several hundred dollar profit, but this might at least stop bot users from ordering multiple units. It also means that the stock situation will be more individualized across specific stores, so it’s possible your local Best Buy might luck out and have some units left over for actual end-users.

Still, among other disappointments, this is the year of “sold out.” Good luck to all the keyboard warriors looking to snag a next-gen console. For everyone else, don't worry. You're not necessarily losing out by waiting to buy a next-gen console until game libraries get a little beefier.      

It's Cyber Monday! For us at Tom's Hardware, that means it's time to round up all the best deals on tech we can find. We know it's not always easy to tell a deal from a dud, so we're highlighting at least one notable deal per day on tech we know you can use.

If you're looking for the best deals on monitors, you're in luck. Today we're sharing a discount on this 28-inch 4K IPS monitor from Samsung, which is now just $259 at Best Buy or possibly less with a Best Buy coupon. Be sure to check out our list of best gaming monitors for 2020 to see how it stacks up in today's market.

This UR55 from Samsung features a 28-inch IPS panel. It also supports AMD FreeSync—designed to reduce screen tearing while gaming and rendering 3D graphics.

This model has a 4K resolution @60Hz, which measures in at 3840 x 2160. According to the specs, it has a response time of 4ms.

It also has two HDMI ports for input and can be easily mounted to a wall or arm using a 75mm x 75mm VESA wall mount.

Check out the Samsung UR55 product page at Best Buy for more details and checkout options.

For more savings, check our list of best Cyber Monday deals overall, best Cyber Monday monitor deals, best Cyber Monday SSD deals, best Cyber Monday CPU deals, best Cyber Monday graphics card deals, best Cyber Monday laptop deals, best Cyber Monday gaming PC deals and best Cyber Monday Raspberry Pi deals.

A secondary or even tertiary monitor can be a game changer in a home office, and because these displays aren’t your primary screen, they don’t even need to be that specced out. That makes the holiday deals season a great time to look for a new display, because even if the specs vary from listing to listing, it’s not hard to find more-than-acceptable screens for below $100. 

Take this $90 (down from $150) Samsung T350 sale at Best Buy, which will net you a 24 inch IPS monitor with a 1920 x 1080 resolution. It's one of the best Cyber Monday monitor deals you can get.

This monitor also has a 27- inch sibling that’s on sale right now for $130 (down from $180) if you want to veer a little larger, but either way, it’s got everything you’ll need from a budget display. There’s no curved screens or high refresh rates to be found here- you’ll have to look at the best monitors for those- but even just having IPS makes this a pretty enticing Cyber Monday monitor deal.

This monitor’s biggest flaw might be a lack of connectivity options, since it interfaces via HDMI and VGA and only has one port for each. It does have thin bezels, though, and maxes out at 75HZ as opposed to 60Hz.

Visit the product page over on Best Buy for more details, and for more savings, check our list of best Cyber Monday deals overall, best Cyber Monday monitor deals, best Cyber Monday SSD deals, best Cyber Monday CPU deals, best Cyber Monday graphics card deals, best Cyber Monday laptop deals, best Cyber Monday gaming PC deals and best Cyber Monday Raspberry Pi deals.