GPU prices... is this going to kill PC gaming?

That's the card I have...£800 from overclockers I paid a while back.

 

Amazon UK have a few Gigabyte 1080s for just over £500. Cheapest I've seen them in a long time.

 

@esox71

Nice cards. This design worked out great for me...I used to do the SLI and waterblock both cards etc, but this is just ez pz and stays really cool. If they are just as reliable as the EVGA 980ti's, then all the better.

 

That's also a worry, since many will be past the 'sell-by' date as a result of 'processing years' of heat and use from cryptomining.
I don't plan on purchasing any used videocards for quite some time.

 

pc gaming will never die.

 

I never purchase used graphics cards. When I decide that I need a replacement, it's always a new one....and generally that happens when I upgrade to an entirely new PC.

 

Why? It's usually not an issue. I sell my used ones and buy used ones, no problem. You can always ask the seller how the GPU was used. Sure you can go wrong at times but usually sellers are honest.

Also, why don't you upgrade a GPU in an existing PC? Games quickly get more demanding GFX wise. Physics wise the progress is a lot slower. My i5 2500k was still not bottlenecking my R9 Fury (I upgraded, anyways). That PC was built 8 years ago with a 560 ti. That very GPU is still running like a charm btw in my brother in laws' PC. The GTX770 I picked up 2nd hand 2 years ago (was already like 1.5 years 0ld) is still running like a charm in a friends PC.
So upgrading GPU in a gaming PC is most reasonable.

 

The prices will be mad, though...if the hype properly crashes you can expect the same tendency, just in the other direction. Imagine if you'd be able to pick up 4 1080s for 500 € - no problem if 2 of them break, right?

 

From what I've read, it's relatively safe to buy cards used for cryptomining as they are very rarely overclocked, sometimes undervolted to add stability and save electricity.
https://www.howtogeek.com/342079/is-it-safe-to-buy-used-gpus-from-cryptocurrency-miners/
But of course, nothing beats piece of mind you get with new card backed by manufacturer's warranty.

 

This^^

*Also, what I like about buying from EVGA is that you can add up to 5 years extra warranty. I sold my previous cards through local classifieds and watching the way the kids handled my cards after purchasing, I said to myself I will never buy used lol. Also, you will never know what kind of conditions that card has gone through, or what overclock or bios it has run....I would consider it if I knew that information, but I would "prefer" new.

 

As an EVGA owner, you can also participate in the Folding at Home Program. This allows you to earn EVGA bucks for future GPU upgrades. I'm doing this to hopefully lower the cost of my next GPU upgrade. Note that not all countries can participate. You'll also be advancing science.
https://www.evga.com/folding/guides.asp
Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk

 

Kind of surprised folding at home is still going. You get much for it from evga?

 

Yes, it's on its eleventh year. $10 EVGA bucks max per month. I took about two days with two 1080Tis (CPU also used). EVGA sells at MSRP...I just don't want to pay for my next purchase's shipping and handling fees. So as long as it covers that, it's enough for me.

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Ars Technica is now predicting that the pricing surge might be over:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy...sane-graphics-card-price-surge-might-be-over/

 

GPU manufacturers should introduce GPU's "mileage"/watt-hours*temp degrees/wear counters implemented in hardware that cannot be reset or altered.

 

If they did it would be great for us consumers!

But why should GPU manufacturers spend money in R and D to develop an un-modifiable counter just to help the second hand GPU buyer?
I reckon they would prefer to sell you a new one

 

Took your joke to the slightly more serious side - indeed the Fiji Chips take more power than their back-in-the-day counterpart - NVIDIA 900 series. For the Fury that would be the 980/980 Ti.

The reason for it seems to be that AMD set the lower core voltage limit fairly high. At some point however they unlocked the limits to the public (NVIDIA didn't) so users could "undervolt" their GPUs. Unless you bought a GPU of the first batch it is reported to run without any issues and it's possible to get very close to the 980. In a German article from Tomshardware a TDP of 213 W under load was achieved @-96 mV lower voltage limit (980: 195 W).

Here's the article:

http://www.tomshardware.de/radeon-r...-effizienzsteigerung,testberichte-242015.html

Seems to me like NVIDIA did a better job managing power, voltages, clocks from the get-go whereas AMD took a conservative approach first.

I felt a bit bad when I realised how much power the GPU uses so thanks Serge for the heads-up. With the lowering of the voltage limit I hope to achieve a lot better efficiency. I'll report back when the GPU will have arrived from France.

 

Done. Slightly underclocked the GPUs from 1050 to 1000 MHz and "undervolted" by 75 mV. This should bring single GPU power consumption from 280 W to 200 W. System TDP should sit at around 550 W with a 750 W PSU. Runs AC benchmark like a charm:

http://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index.php?threads/benchmark-results-food-for-thought.28103/

 

Wouldn't cost them much at all..There are already sensors in the hardware. I would think they could include it in the overclocking software. But why should they? It would be more accurate to say "Why would they"?

 

Following the Nvidia tendency, also Radeons have come down in price now:

https://www.mindfactory.de/product_...agon-Aktiv-PCIe-3-0-x16--Retail-_1236596.html

That's a ~140 € price drop in fee weeks and the GPUs are now at price tags I'd consider borderline reasonable.

Still, 1070s are about 80 cheaper than 56s but I think the prices will be on par in a couple of weeks' time.

1070s now being available for about 430 € seems like things are back to normal again.