WTF?! An account professing to signify EVGA place a preproduction RTX 4090 prototype up for auction on eBay yesterday, with the proceeds likely to charity. It started off a bidding war and shot up to 5 figures prior to the listing inexplicably disappeared immediately after about 10 hours.
EVGA satisfied with Avid gamers Nexus and JayzTwoCents very a even though in the past to notify them that they were terminating their partnership with Nvidia. When the YouTubers shared the information afterward there was an outpouring of appreciation and aid for the beleaguered AIB companion. About a thirty day period back, EVGA despatched two performing preproduction samples of their FTW3 RTX 4090 to GN and JayzTwoCents for them to tear down and exhibit us what we skipped out on.
We believed that would be the previous we would see of the GPU that wasn’t intended to be. But, yesterday, it appeared in the history of an EVGA and Intel livestream that was raising dollars for the St. Jude Children’s Investigate Healthcare facility. Shortly immediately after, the GPU was listed for auction on eBay with the proceeds also likely to St. Jude. In advance of the listing disappeared this early morning, the value had risen to $13,200 more than 35 bids. With extra than six days still left to go, it was well on its way to becoming the most highly-priced GPU at any time sold.
The eBay listing was reasonably light-weight on specifics. It had four images of the GPU and five traces of text that described it as a “upcoming gen” prototype that arrived with no a guarantee, stated it could only be delivered within just the United States, and affirmed that the auction was for charity. The spec sheet said the card experienced 24 GB of GDDR6 and a PCIe 4. x16 connector.
There have been some customers on Twitter that had been promptly suspicious. EVGA hadn’t advertised the auction anyplace, and it did not come from the eBay account that the enterprise experienced used prior to. But the timing and the charity angle designed perception, and JayzTwoCents tweeted an endorsement of the auction that if he intended to be sarcastic, did not appear across that way.
Sure, this is totally legit, EVGA is auctioning off one particular of their “Not 4090” Future Gen Movie Cards for charity, see it below https://t.co/oRaoneLsdH
— JayzTwoCents (@JayzTwoCents) December 10, 2022
Most confusingly of all, if the listing was a rip-off, it wasn’t a single aimed at earning dollars. It was element of eBay’s charity program, meaning that the funds would go straight from the buyer to the verified charity. Probably the listing was reputable but EVGA took it down at the request of Nvidia, or possibly eBay located it suspicious and preferred to examine alone.
My hope is that the listing returns and that the GPU is traded for a hefty donation to a great trigger. If there was the choice of shipping and delivery it to Australia, I would undoubtedly have set down $13,300 on it myself.