Underhanded crap. GPU is becoming the new tech bubble

With the high keep a matter to for the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 3090, possible purchasers secure felt the sting of Nvidia’s GPU shortage. This has led some to rob graphics cards at increased-than-fashioned prices. It appears to be like, it’s also incentivized a vendor with shut ties to MSI, in actual fact one of Nvidia’s greatest AIB companions, to scalp the GPUs at considerably high markups.

Starlit Partner, per MSI, is “an person gross sales subsidiary” that works under MSI. Its predominant neutral is to sell off overstock of MSI graphics cards, as properly as refurbished items. Nonetheless, an plucky Redditor found multiple listings on eBay from Starlit Partner promoting MSI’s variant of Nvidia’s fresh GeForce RTX 3080 and GeForce RTX 3090 for nearly twice their fashioned prices.

Starlit Partner listed MSI’s GeForce RTX 3080 GAMING X TRIO at $1359, or $600 over the cardboard’s $759 MSRP. One other itemizing for the RTX 3090 GAMING X TRIO used to be promoting the cardboard for $2399, or $800 over the fashioned $1599 brand. Every of these posts had been canceled by Starlit Partner as a result of “an error in the itemizing.”

After the scrape got right here to light, MSI released an announcement early this morning. The firm identified that Starlit Partner is a gross sales subsidiary of MSI that typically sells excess stock. Nonetheless, “an error allowed [Starlit Partner] get entry to to stock they had been no longer accredited to tackle,” per the observation. It’s primary that the observation doesn’t indicate why Starlit Partner listed the cards at such high markups.

MSI has promised that purchasers can either return the GPU they bought for a paunchy refund or file a claim for a partial refund, which will get better the amount spent that exceeded MSI’s MSRP.

We have reached out to MSI for extra comment and ought to aloof update this text ought to aloof the firm reply.