The bot's measure to intercept inventory of the latest graphics cards is not to sell them online: for the launch of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, Best Buy will sell only Founders Edition cards in stores.

"Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition graphics card will be available in limited quantities only at select Best Buy stores on Thursday, June 3," the company outlined in a post.

Instead of shifting inventory online or risking bots bypassing the line, Best Buy will distribute tickets to customers in line starting at 7:30 AM local time. Customers who get tickets will be able to redeem them for an RTX 3080 Ti at 9:00 AM local time.

Back in the old days.

Each store will only distribute as many tickets as there are RTX 3080 Ti graphics cards. In other words, each store will distribute as many tickets as there are RTX 3080 Ti graphics cards.

Cities and stores with RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition in stock are:

This may be a bit of a hassle for those living far from participating stores hoping to get their hands on a Founders Edition, but the bots will certainly one way to ensure that brand-new GPUs are not lost to robo-mits. Other retailers at least have custom cards available online. These will be available today at 6am PT / 2pm BST / 3pm CET.

Who would have thought that in 2021 we would be back to in-store purchases only? But it is certainly one way to satisfy at least a few customers in the current global chip shortage.

Here are some tips on where to buy RTX 3080 Ti today.