Let's be honest the latest launch of RTX 3000 series GPU's from Nvidia has been a shambles. A combination of a global pandemic, low stock levels, online scalpers and price gauging has meant the Latest GPU's from Nvidia have become extremely hard to get hold of since their release back in September.
I wanted the RTX 3070 Founder Edition, great specs at a reasonable price if it could be found at MSRP. I tried on launch day but they sold out in seconds, since then I checked the Nvidia site most days to find it was out of stock. However I did read a thread on reddit which suggested that www.scan.co.uk did replenish their stock every few days but would sell out in a few minutes.
This got me thinking and I decided to try and write my own code that would ping the Nvidia store API and if the RTX 3070 FE came in stock it would immediately send me an email with a link to the store. This was a huge success and after the third day of running my script I was notified the RTX 3070 was in stock at www.scan.co.uk, so I hit the link and tried to checkout as fast as possible - and it worked! I was able to sign in and check out with Paypal and my order went through with a few to spare before I saw it was sold out again.
I decided to make my code available as an NPM package to hopefully help some other frustrated gamers get their new 3000 series GPU.
All you need to run my code is Node.js, a Gmail account to send email from and another email address to receive the notification email. My code is a Command Line Interface (CLI) and will need the computer that is running to always be on, I just left it running on my laptop during the day as it's unlikely any store is going to refresh their stock at night - having said that, maybe they do? But for your reference, I got an email around 3 pm GMT.
Important
This will only work for the Founder Edition RTX 3000 series graphics cards and only for UK customers.
Installation
To run the code first make sure you have node.js and NPM installed on your machine. NPM is installed with Node.js you can get that here.
Once you have Node.js, you will need to install my NPM package globally on your machine using the following command in your terminal.
npm install -g @rossocodes/nvidia-fe-stock-cli
Now you have the package installed you can run the code provided you have a Gmail account to use as the SMTP server. I recommend you set up a new Gmail account for this as you will need to allow less secure apps to use your account. This is obviously a security risk, so it's probably best to just make a new account that is not used for anything else. You can manage access to less secure apps here
Usage
The command to run the code is:
nvidia-fe-stock-cli -m <the rtx 3000 series model you are after e.g 3060 ti> -f <your Gmail address here> -p <your Gmail password here> -e <your email address here> -r <optional: how often you would like to check the stock, it is every 2 minutes by default e.g 120>
Options
- --help - Show help
- --version - Show version number
- -m, --model - RTX 3000 series model number - default 3080
- -f, --from - Gmail address to send email from
- -p, --password - Gmail account password
- -e, --email - Email address to send email to
- -r, --refresh - How often in seconds do you want to check stock - default 120
Example
These examples are using the following email credentials which you would replace with your values:
- Gmail Address for sending email from - your.email@gmail.com
- Gmail account password - password123
- Email account to receive notifications - you@outlook.com
RTX 3080 (checks stock every 5 minutes)
nvidia-fe-stock-cli -m 3080 -f your.email@gmail.com -p password123 -e you@outlook.com -r 300
RTX 3070 (checks stock every 5 minutes)
nvidia-fe-stock-cli -m 3070 -f your.email@gmail.com -p password123 -e you@outlook.com -r 300
RTX 3060 TI (checks stock every 5 minutes)
nvidia-fe-stock-cli -m 3060 ti -f your.email@gmail.com -p password123 -e you@outlook.com -r 300
Tips
I set up an iCloud account to receive my notifications as the inbox will push to my iPhone rather than having to wait for email to be fetched. I added the Gmail account to my VIP contacts on my iPhone so I received a push notification as soon as the email hit my inbox, so I was alerted instantly once the card was in stock, so I recommend you do the same so you are as quick as possible.
Also in the UK the Founders Edition cards are supplied through www.scan.co.uk so it's best to set up an account on their site and add delivery addresses and payment details, so you can checkout as quick as possible.
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