Youch! Europe+EVGA Step Up = NO GO!

[Andyf]

Just a little heads up to Europeans planning on using the EVGA step up programme.

The exchange cost of a new card is based upon the EVGA-Europe retail value, which is actually way beyond prices that you will find on online retailers such as overclockers etc.

Hence:
price of GTS512 on EVGA website = $359 ~ £175
price of GTS512 on EU website = E379(!) ~ £258! ~ $530 ARG!

So it turns out just to be extremely expensive to step up if you are a european

Theres the added problem that they are rejigging the EU/USA comms system, so all EU stuff goes through the US, hence long waiting times, and confusing information (one page says prices in dollars, the next, in euros, etc)

I've just spend 2 days trying to get some confirmation from EVGA, and all the above has been confirmed.

Just a little warning to those who were planning on stepping up/ planning on getting an EVGA card, that if you are a european, you should no consider the step-up programme as a selling point.

Now hopefully they'll let me get a GT instead (which wasn't listed as an option since it hasn't been updated yet- sigh)

 

[dario03]

I'm pretty sure step up is based on retail price in America to.

 

[Andyf]

It is, only the retail price is not significantly (if at all) greater than prices at newegg etc. At the moment, the two costs are the same, there was about $20 difference a few weeks ago. This is not the case for EVGA europe, where the online price is more than 30% higher than comparable retailers.

Anyway, if you want a comparison, as US customer upgrading a 320 GTS to the new G92 GTS will pay in the region of $75-85, depending on when they bought the 320. A European cost is about $180 for the same upgrade. Now I know European prices are always higher than US prices (maybe 1.3-1.4x for graphics cards), but once all the step up differences have been applied, you can see that it comes to a waste of time of EU residents.

$180! You may as well buy a new graphics card!