Verified Actual Gamer Program Information [See Best Answer / 2021-10-08 update]

[LordPoopGreen]

To those wandering, the ASUS TUF 6800 XT's pictured here have an MSRP of 810$ (TUF-RX6800XT-O16G-GAMING) and are of course sold for twice as much at retailers 

[AlexP11223]

13 hours ago, Joe_ said:

My main concern is whether the verified gamer program will still be in effect when I go to buy it, does anyone know if it'll still be around in July?

Probably even Linus himself does not know because it depends on whether the GPU manufacturers will continue supporting it. As he said, you should write to them asking to support VAG via social networks, contact forms, etc. if you want more VAG GPUs.

 

Also the chance of getting a GPU via VAG is not that high even if you can jump to all videos in the first minute, so you should not make any plans relying on it.

13 hours ago, Joe_ said:

Or what is a good alternative

Maybe loudly asking other stores to implement some kind of similar anti-bot protection. If enough people do that, maybe some of the stores will improve something.

[AlexP11223]

9 minutes ago, James Evens said:

Always: 19% tax

EU countries have different VAT. 17-27%

 

9 minutes ago, James Evens said:

"normal": approx. 7€

I don't think anyone will deliver something from Canada to EU for 7€. Especially for a small company like LMG.

[AlexP11223]

Why does shipping time matter? Even if it's 2-3 months, it's extremely unlikely that GPU shortage will end by that time.

[LogicalDrm]

17 hours ago, Amongalen said:

$999 for reference 6800 XT? Aren't you talking about 6900 XT by any chance? 6800 XT is listed for $649 on AMDs site.

Could be. I was looking at listings and reviews.

 

16 hours ago, Serpents_Smile said:

So, I have a question: How do Youtube-Uploads work across the world? For the video earlier I was on time, refreshed my page a couple of times until 5 minutes after the video, went outside, used my phone to check, came back, refreshed two more times (almost always Ctrl + F5, Firefox), and then it showed me the video with the information that it had been uploaded 13 minutes earlier.

What's happening there? Is it accessing a cached page at my ISP which gets updated at intervals?
In this case I was lucky, since there was no drop, but I also took part in a drop where I think I saw the video 5 mins late, which is huge here, of course.

Any tips? Maybe I should join FP

Videos are uploaded unlisted first. So notification, when working, is fastest. But there are also Discord bot, FP bot, FP app that are good ways to make sure. And for what I've heard, FP notifications work overall better. Support the cause for $5?

 

14 hours ago, Joe_ said:

I'm wanting to buy a Radeon 6800, but I'll be wanting to buy it in a few months because I don't have the money for my whole build just yet.

My main concern is whether the verified gamer program will still be in effect when I go to buy it, does anyone know if it'll still be around in July? Or what is a good alternative if not.

Thanks

All known info is in the FAQ. I haven't had time to go back WAN Shows to collect timestamps. But they will be added for any new segments. Twitter/FB feeds are also good source of info trickling. I don't follow either, and don't really plan to add them here. They are easy enough for anyone to search and read themselves.

[HITULIKEATRAIN]

On 4/15/2021 at 11:57 AM, LordPoopGreen said:

Haven't noticed any, but if it's only when it turns on it should be fine shouldn't it? 

How did you mount your rad?

To me it is noticable. But I am very sensible to any noise from my PC.

My first Corsair H100i from ~2014 made kind of the same noise.

 

I mounted the radiator in the front (as my CPU rad is in the top). Tubes down, highest point of the rad higher than the GPU block of course.

Also tried twisting the PC around to make air bubbles go into the rad. Pump keeps annyoing me.

Cooling performance is great, too. I have like 41°C when gaming, with barely any fans spinning.

 

It's just annyoing in idle, for me at least. Although I rather have this card, even with its flaws, than my old 1660 Super.

[LordPoopGreen]

1 hour ago, HITULIKEATRAIN said:

To me it is noticable. But I am very sensible to any noise from my PC.

My first Corsair H100i from ~2014 made kind of the same noise.

 

I mounted the radiator in the front (as my CPU rad is in the top). Tubes down, highest point of the rad higher than the GPU block of course.

Also tried twisting the PC around to make air bubbles go into the rad. Pump keeps annyoing me.

Cooling performance is great, too. I have like 41°C when gaming, with barely any fans spinning.

 

It's just annyoing in idle, for me at least. Although I rather have this card, even with its flaws, than my old 1660 Super.

If you have the time try flipping the rad so the tubes are connecting at the top of the rad, that way any air stuck in the pump/tubes goes to the highest point, as long as that is the highest point in the system it should be fine, maybe a little bit of air is in the pump and that makes a noise

[LogicalDrm]

6 hours ago, Memelord4560 said:

I made an account expressly for this purpose. 

How the ever loving fuck do I participate in the Verified Actual Gamers program?
I don't see links posted or upcoming drops. I'm literally watching LMG clips posted 5 days ago (April 12th 2021) Saying that before it was recorded live there was a drop. I was waiting for this to be like announced or something. 

What do I need to do to get my hands on some hardware for my rig?

This thread was merged to megathread. Please read the posted marked as best answer and if you have additional questions after it, we can chat. (This thread is among the top hits when you use google...)

 

5 hours ago, genisboy said:

Did any EU citizen get their GPU from the verified gamer thingy? How long did shipping take, and what extra fees did you have to pay for shipping,customs, and so on for your country?

Merged with megathread. There's really no point creating your own. If someone from Europe has caught GPU, and received it, they might tell so here. From what we know so far is that LMG is sending the items out in batches either weekly or every other week. Shipping, customs and tax will be different per country, and is not different than if you would order from MemoryExpress or other Canadian retailers. So for how much you will need to pay at border, ask your local officials.

 

For example I did do the research on how much it would be here. Assuming shipping is $70 (which is about what it would be from Amazon.com). For GPU at $999USD, $70 for shipping, the fees would be bit under €220. It seems thats only VAT which must mean there's some sort of trade agreement with Canada.

[Flammadeus]

I was able to get both a 3080 and a 5900x from Verified Actual Gamer program and got a survey response from Nick Light I expressed my desire to get a 6800xt for my friend who a bit of an AMD fanboy while responding to the questions they asked. Nick's reply indicates they only allow a person to buy a single CPU and single GPU from the Verified Actual Gamer program which I completely agree with however will make my search for a 6800-xt a bit more difficult. I don't know if this is has been stated previously but it's at least proof that there's an effort to prevent scalping. if this was already known please ignore me. 

[LogicalDrm]

1 hour ago, Flammadeus said:

I was able to get both a 3080 and a 5900x from Verified Actual Gamer program and got a survey response from Nick Light I expressed my desire to get a 6800xt for my friend who a bit of an AMD fanboy while responding to the questions they asked. Nick's reply indicates they only allow a person to buy a single CPU and single GPU from the Verified Actual Gamer program which I completely agree with however will make my search for a 6800-xt a bit more difficult. I don't know if this is has been stated previously but it's at least proof that there's an effort to prevent scalping. if this was already known please ignore me. 

It was something to be expected from the start. To be honest, only new thing was that you were able to get both CPU and GPU from it. Considering that CPUs of last few gens are easily available and so aren't such big scarse.

 

At least one of our local retailers has set similar rule in place. I don't know how they track it, is it with shipping info, payment details or do they actually require strong authentication first (= what you would use to access governments services).

[LordPoopGreen]

7 hours ago, genisboy said:

Guys let's stay on-topic  please only reply If you got Your GPU. I mainly wanna know shipping times and a what fellow EU  stuff has paid for it.

Depends on where you live, it took them about a week to send my card with FedEx, then after 2 days it was in France CDG, then a day later in Koeln Germany, and for some reason a day later back in France lol, anyways it went on a flight to my specific country and I got the card after about 2 weeks.

Anyways my experience doesn't really matter, Europe is large, if you live in France you'll get it earlier, if you live in Turkey you'll get it later, all in all it should take around 2 weeks.

[SwiftShot]

I am confused ass hell.  Sorry not a internet genius but where in the hell do you sign up for the program?  Is it hidden somewhere?

[IkeaGnome]

Just now, SwiftShot said:

I am confused ass hell.  Sorry not a internet genius but where in the hell do you sign up for the program?  Is it hidden somewhere?

Read the post at the top of this screen. It's marked as the solution.

"

How do I enter? Can I enter? Where to signup?

You don't. All information about the drops are posted to Youtube and are hidden in videos. So far all drops have been on LinusTechTips main channel."

[SwiftShot]

Sweet So I just need to watch his channel.  I do that already but I guess I need to be watching when videos go live.

 

[LINUSFAN321]

Has anyone's 5900x from the last VAG shipped yet? I'm not trying to sound ungrateful or anything, it's just one of my last parts I need for my build and I'm anxiously refreshing every hour hoping there isn't something wrong with my order and I'm not an anomaly  

[Flammadeus]

28 minutes ago, LINUSFAN321 said:

Has anyone's 5900x from the last VAG shipped yet? I'm not trying to sound ungrateful or anything, it's just one of my last parts I need for my build and I'm anxiously refreshing every hour hoping there isn't something wrong with my order and I'm not an anomaly  

I sent an email looking for an update and this is the response I received 

 

"Hey there!

Your order has not yet been handed off to the courier. We’re hoping to get all the Ryzen CPUs handed off sometime this week, with deliveries occurring sometime next week. You’ll get a more specific ETA once that handoff occurs.

Hope this helps!

Adam
Customer Support Representative - LTTStore.com"

[hackky]

47 minutes ago, LINUSFAN321 said:

Has anyone's 5900x from the last VAG shipped yet? I'm not trying to sound ungrateful or anything, it's just one of my last parts I need for my build and I'm anxiously refreshing every hour hoping there isn't something wrong with my order and I'm not an anomaly  

I got MSI 3080 Sea Hawk from 29. Mar drop and they send me "we shipped it" e-mail 1. Apr. 

Fedex tracking saw it first 8. Apr and now it's stuck in customs. I'm in Europe, so that could delay things, but if I were you, I would not hold my breath. I'm not ungrateful, this is just how world works right now and we have to obey by it..

[hammerquill]

I was thinking, if more cards become available to the VAG program, LTT might consider doing a collab with someone like Blender Guru on YT, to get a few of the cards out to people working on teaching themselves 3D design and animation. They have also been left out in the cold in the GPU shortage. And that channel is pitched just right - he's a good teacher and the community is good, and has lots of scrappy young freelancers as well as people just starting to learn. A 3D artist gauntlet co-promoted with Blender Guru or someone like that would be a cool addition.

 

Dunno if LTT people are reading this thread regularly, but I thought I'd throw that out there, especially since on the videos that mention VAG there are always a bunch of people asking if you could include the 3D artist world a little.

 

I don't represent Blender Guru, and am only barely on the edge of that community, but it struck me as a worthwhile idea.

[thedarkdad3]

Ill give one away/ If i had more SUBS  

[Junction Runner]

Well I don't know if they read my SC on the wan show but my car just got fucking totaled. Not going to be upgrading hardware for a long time now. Fuck my god damn life. Best of luck to everyone else. 

I hate this fucking game called life.

[CoolCatDaddy]

5 hours ago, hammerquill said:

I was thinking, if more cards become available to the VAG program, LTT might consider doing a collab with someone like Blender Guru on YT, to get a few of the cards out to people working on teaching themselves 3D design and animation. They have also been left out in the cold in the GPU shortage. And that channel is pitched just right - he's a good teacher and the community is good, and has lots of scrappy young freelancers as well as people just starting to learn. A 3D artist gauntlet co-promoted with Blender Guru or someone like that would be a cool addition.

 

Dunno if LTT people are reading this thread regularly, but I thought I'd throw that out there, especially since on the videos that mention VAG there are always a bunch of people asking if you could include the 3D artist world a little.

 

I don't represent Blender Guru, and am only barely on the edge of that community, but it struck me as a worthwhile idea.

Well it's called the "Verified Actual Gamer" program, not the "Verified Actual 3D animator" program. Sorry dude but this program isn't for you.

[spamsgood]

Pretty much as the title says. I have had a subscription to float plane in the past but I stopped in favor of YouTube premium for no ads everywhere. But I'm wondering if I should re-sign up for Float Plane to maximize my odds on seeing it in time. 

[Spotty]

2 minutes ago, spamsgood said:

Pretty much as the title says. I have had a subscription to float plane in the past but I stopped in favor of YouTube premium for no ads everywhere. But I'm wondering if I should re-sign up for Float Plane to maximize my odds on seeing it in time. 

Merged with the thread discussing the Verified Actual Gamers program.

Signing up to Floatplane won't give you any benefit in the VAG program. They can't give an advantage to Floatplane members as requiring payment (subscription) would fall in to lottery laws instead of giveaway laws.

[spamsgood]

1 minute ago, Spotty said:

Merged with the thread discussing the Verified Actual Gamers program.

Signing up to Floatplane won't give you any benefit in the VAG program. They can't give an advantage to Floatplane members as requiring payment (subscription) would fall in to lottery laws instead of giveaway laws.

just found this thread lol. yeah makes sense my question was more in line of "helping me see the notification better" rather than only to one or the other and having an advantage. the main post said the video drops to both so that answers my question.

 

[Kilrah]

20 hours ago, AlexP11223 said:

I don't think anyone will deliver something from Canada to EU for 7€. Especially for a small company like LMG.

They were not talking of the shipping cost (paid by the shipper) but the processing fee couriers charge the recipient for the customs process in addition.