We're still living in the great GPU shortage, a bizarrely gamer-centered catastrophe that's born of the COVID-19 pandemic. With everyone buying tech and games instead of lavish trips on boats or planes, there's just not enough silicone to go around.
The chip shortage is starting to make shopping for a new graphics card feel a lot like gambling. One Japanese Amazon store decided to lean into that feeling by selling graphic card "mystery boxes."
They work the same as loot boxes or gacha machines in that you pay a set price for a random reward. The only difference is, instead of a cosmetic skin or a cute toy, you could wind up with a multi-thousand dollar graphics card.
More likely you'll wind up with something a lot cheaper than that. Available GPUs range from the latest and greatest Nvidia RTX 3090 or AMD Radeon 6900 XT to the far humbler GTX900 or RX 300 series. Or you could wind up with "other series of graphics cards," which is a little foreboding. The odds are provided in an infographic, with RTX 3000-series (or equivalent) cards at 2%, while “other graphics cards” sit at 70%.
"All graphics cards are real and worth your money, so you don't have to worry about it," reads the seller page. But also, "This is a special product, so we cannot accept returns or exchanges service!"
According to PC Gamer, prices for these GPU mystery boxes ranged from $100 to $125. We can't quite tell anymore because the seller is out of stock and there's no indication when they might get more. Because the odds were provided and given the secondary market prices, it's possible that someone rolled in and bought out this seller's entire stock just to get that one RTX 3090.
If you’re not quite desperate enough to buy a random selection of graphics cards from Japan, Nvidia and AMD are releasing their cheapest and newest graphics cards to date later this month. You might even be able to buy them for MSRP.