Question are video card prices headed down yet?

[igor_kavinski]

I threw away my 3060 Ti FE and PNY 3080 10GB in disgust, in return for the base M1 Macbook Air and $80 cash.

Damn Nvidia and their low VRAM tactics.

Lucked out massively, I think. Local guy was selling Zotac 3090 Trinity with refund offer in case I was dissatisfied. Techpowerup didn't dislike this card so I was like, let's get this. First run, it got close to 11000 points in Unigine Superposition 1080p Extreme. But then the more I tested it, the louder it became. Tried adjusting the fan curves. That only made it hotter because the slower fan speeds couldn't keep the RAM from overheating. Had snow all over the screen. Rebooted and that went away. But the card was still screaming like a banshee. Weirdly, in UE5 Matrix demo, night time street level stuff was all black. And the benchmark scores were wildly inconsistent. Seems the GPU/RAM was throttling hard. GPU wasn't going any less than 90 degrees celsius.

Complained to the seller and he asked to see pics of my case and the benchmark that was showing issues. When he was satisfied that I was having actual problems, he offered to replace it with another one that he had meticulously (his words) repasted and thermal padded in four to five hours. I was like, hmm...okkkk. Tested it and seems to be the real deal. Temps don't go above 80 degrees celsius.I finally got to enjoy UE5 matrix demo with maximum detail and night time street view was immaculate. Seems the previous card was heavily used in mining and seller probably thought he could sell it off to someone dumb. Damage to my wallet? Less than $650. Hope I don't have to worry about another card for the next 3 years at least.

 

[mastertech01]

Lucked out massively, I think. Local guy was selling Zotac 3090 Trinity with refund offer in case I was dissatisfied. Techpowerup didn't dislike this card so I was like, let's get this. First run, it got close to 11000 points in Unigine Superposition 1080p Extreme. But then the more I tested it, the louder it became. Tried adjusting the fan curves. That only made it hotter because the slower fan speeds couldn't keep the RAM from overheating. Had snow all over the screen. Rebooted and that went away. But the card was still screaming like a banshee. Weirdly, in UE5 Matrix demo, night time street level stuff was all black. And the benchmark scores were wildly inconsistent. Seems the GPU/RAM was throttling hard. GPU wasn't going any less than 90 degrees celsius.

Complained to the seller and he asked to see pics of my case and the benchmark that was showing issues. When he was satisfied that I was having actual problems, he offered to replace it with another one that he had meticulously (his words) repasted and thermal padded in four to five hours. I was like, hmm...okkkk. Tested it and seems to be the real deal. Temps don't go above 80 degrees celsius.I finally got to enjoy UE5 matrix demo with maximum detail and night time street view was immaculate. Seems the previous card was heavily used in mining and seller probably thought he could sell it off to someone dumb. Damage to my wallet? Less than $650. Hope I don't have to worry about another card for the next 3 years at least.

Good job! Im hoping for one near 600. Ebayers still cant help drive the price back to 800
I think Ill avoid the Ti, as I only have 850 watt PSU

 

[sze5003]

Lucked out massively, I think. Local guy was selling Zotac 3090 Trinity with refund offer in case I was dissatisfied. Techpowerup didn't dislike this card so I was like, let's get this. First run, it got close to 11000 points in Unigine Superposition 1080p Extreme. But then the more I tested it, the louder it became. Tried adjusting the fan curves. That only made it hotter because the slower fan speeds couldn't keep the RAM from overheating. Had snow all over the screen. Rebooted and that went away. But the card was still screaming like a banshee. Weirdly, in UE5 Matrix demo, night time street level stuff was all black. And the benchmark scores were wildly inconsistent. Seems the GPU/RAM was throttling hard. GPU wasn't going any less than 90 degrees celsius.

Complained to the seller and he asked to see pics of my case and the benchmark that was showing issues. When he was satisfied that I was having actual problems, he offered to replace it with another one that he had meticulously (his words) repasted and thermal padded in four to five hours. I was like, hmm...okkkk. Tested it and seems to be the real deal. Temps don't go above 80 degrees celsius.I finally got to enjoy UE5 matrix demo with maximum detail and night time street view was immaculate. Seems the previous card was heavily used in mining and seller probably thought he could sell it off to someone dumb. Damage to my wallet? Less than $650. Hope I don't have to worry about another card for the next 3 years at least.

Good thing you were able to get it replaced. I've always avoided zotac for reasons you described and the fact that they usually run hot or use crappy parts in general.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Good job! Im hoping for one near 600. Ebayers still cant help drive the price back to 800
I think Ill avoid the Ti, as I only have 850 watt PSU

Hold tight onto your seat as I reveal my PSU wattage:

Spoiler: Generic PSU

650W !!!

I actually have a Deepcool 1kW model brand new and I was hoping to kill off the existing one with the 3090 as an excuse to use the new one. No such luck so far with maximum stress from Unigine Superposition, UE5 Matrix demo and Furmark. We'll see when I try the card later with a Ryzen 2700X and a 12700K.

 

[mastertech01]

Hold tight onto your seat as I reveal my PSU wattage:

Spoiler: Generic PSU

650W !!!

I actually have a Deepcool 1kW model brand new and I was hoping to kill off the existing one with the 3090 as an excuse to use the new one. No such luck so far with maximum stress from Unigine Superposition, UE5 Matrix demo and Furmark. We'll see when I try the card later with a Ryzen 2700X and a 12700K.

Sounds incredible for 650W!

 

[igor_kavinski]

I think Ill avoid the Ti, as I only have 850 watt PSU

From what I've read, most 3090 RAM chips can exceed 100 degrees celsius. You really want to go for a modded 3090 with thermally padded RAM chips.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Sounds incredible for 650W!

Maybe not so incredible coz the current CPU is just a 65W i7-5775C.

 

[mastertech01]

Im just running a Gigabyte Z490 Auros Extreme and 11700k, a couple optical drives, a couple SSD, 9 fans, etc. No water pumps

 

[CP5670]

From what I've read, most 3090 RAM chips can exceed 100 degrees celsius. You really want to go for a modded 3090 with thermally padded RAM chips.

They generally run hot but the FE is the only one with problems, since the vram backplate is not connected to the rest of the heatsink.

I got a new PSU mainly for the connectors. My old 850W (now on FS/FT) is perfectly good power-wise even for the 4090 but only has two 8pin plugs, so you can't have both a 2xEPS12V CPU and 3-4x PCIE GPU.

 

[mastertech01]

Mine is only 850W Platinum with this arrangement. I am hoping it will do for a 3090 non TI with my setup

 

[igor_kavinski]

Man, even with an open case, the 3090 spits out insane amount of heat. After I shut down the PC and replaced the side panel, I could smell the "hot" smell I'm used to smelling from a steam iron!

 

[igor_kavinski]

Im just running a Gigabyte Z490 Auros Extreme and 11700k, a couple optical drives, a couple SSD, 9 fans, etc. No water pumps

If you are not overclocking the CPU, your PSU shouldn't sweat even with a 3090 Ti. Plus, you could reduce the power level of the 3090 Ti to 90% and undervolt it to make it more power friendly. Don't pass up a good deal if you find one!

 

[biostud]

For me as a pretty casual player which mostly play World of Tanks and does not care that much about raytracing (or rather the price for the video cards it requires), currently it seems like a regular RX 6800 and O/C simply is the best price/performance in that price range ATM.

 

[mastertech01]

For me as a pretty casual player which mostly play World of Tanks and does not care that much about raytracing (or rather the price for the video cards it requires), currently it seems like a regular RX 6800 and O/C simply is the best price/performance in that price range ATM.

Im definitely not a gamer by todays standards either and could easily settle for less. Im just hoping to take advantage of a once in a lifetime chance to get a top of the line card for bargain prices. It will likely be my last purchase unless my daughter asks me to find a better one for her computer some day in the future. Its like getting a Lincoln for a Ford price.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Im just hoping to take advantage of a once in a lifetime chance to get a top of the line card for bargain prices.

I know exactly what you mean. I bought a used Geforce GTX Titan X 12GB for $190 just before the mining boom and it served me really well and prevented me from going insane when GPUs became too expensive.

 

[biostud]

Im definitely not a gamer by todays standards either and could easily settle for less. Im just hoping to take advantage of a once in a lifetime chance to get a top of the line card for bargain prices. It will likely be my last purchase unless my daughter asks me to find a better one for her computer some day in the future. Its like getting a Lincoln for a Ford price.

I still game, and play with a couple of friends and have a G9 to drive when I game.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Reminder: You are rolling the dice buying used. @GodisanAtheist got a bad card the first time, and I just went through it myself.

I put in a max bid of $225 on a PNY XLR8 RTX 3060 and "won". Card looked new, but immediately threw up code 43. After some troubleshooting and trying to force Nvidia drivers, it would lock up trying to load windows, so back it went. Dude had a bunch of listings for the same model so I knew it was a mining card. No box included of course.

My point being, that card should have been on the good side of the bathtub curve/cradle to grave but was already nerfed from mining. Even if it had worked on arrival, for how long? Yeah, not buying any used card generation that could have been mined on, from someone I don't know and trust.

My advice is suck it up and buy new. Unless a potentially nerfed card in the near future is an acceptable gamble in your mind.

I recently bought a XFX Qick RX6800, but it may go back. That 7900XT is calling to me. The more everyone poo poos the value, the more I want it. I have always been anti authoritarian. Had to run my own businesses most of my life due to that. I did one stint with corporate overlords for 3.5yrs and we had many a donnybrook in that time. I have no idea why they didn't fire me? Or why I stayed that long? Anyhow, the harder everyone pushes Nvidia, the harder I am pushing back.

Tired of everyone parroting whatever reviewers decide is value as well. Take your Ferengi calculator and shove it. I can decide value by my own metrics. Which are far more nuanced than running a bunch of canned benchmark and 60 second in game passes, on a pristine testbed. /rant du jour

Follow me for more WTF content!

 

[igor_kavinski]

Follow me for more WTF content!

I wish you had a Youtube channel

 

[maddie]

Reminder: You are rolling the dice buying used. @GodisanAtheist got a bad card the first time, and I just went through it myself.

I put in a max bid of $225 on a PNY XLR8 RTX 3060 and "won". Card looked new, but immediately threw up code 43. After some troubleshooting and trying to force Nvidia drivers, it would lock up trying to load windows, so back it went. Dude had a bunch of listings for the same model so I knew it was a mining card. No box included of course.

My point being, that card should have been on the good side of the bathtub curve/cradle to grave but was already nerfed from mining. Even if it had worked on arrival, for how long? Yeah, not buying any used card generation that could have been mined on, from someone I don't know and trust.

My advice is suck it up and buy new. Unless a potentially nerfed card in the near future is an acceptable gamble in your mind.

I recently bought a XFX Qick RX6800, but it may go back. That 7900XT is calling to me. The more everyone poo poos the value, the more I want it. I have always been anti authoritarian. Had to run my own businesses most of my life due to that. I did one stint with corporate overlords for 3.5yrs and we had many a donnybrook in that time. I have no idea why they didn't fire me? Or why I stayed that long? Anyhow, the harder everyone pushes Nvidia, the harder I am pushing back.

Tired of everyone parroting whatever reviewers decide is value as well. Take your Ferengi calculator and shove it. I can decide value by my own metrics. Which are far more nuanced than running a bunch of canned benchmark and 60 second in game passes, on a pristine testbed. /rant du jour

Follow me for more WTF content!

We have a lot more in common than I thought.

 

[mastertech01]

We have a lot more in common than I thought.

Problem for me is finding a NEW 3090 FE for less than two arms and a leg. Im not against getting an AMD card, I used one for 10 years. But I still want the mostest for the best price.

 

[mastertech01]

I guess I put too much credit to people who did reviews on mined cards and declared it did no damage to them at all.(IE Gamers Nexus) Of course the guy doing the review owned massive mining rigs too. LOL

 

[igor_kavinski]

I guess I put too much credit to people who did reviews on mined cards and declared it did no damage to them at all. Of course the guy doing the review owned massive mining rigs too. LOL

Yeah. Something was seriously wrong with my previous 3090. How the hell does it show no issues in Unigine Superposition but in UE5 Matrix demo, the roads at night were BLACK with faint visible headlights of cars? It's like some dedicated unit in the GPU used for that purpose was damaged.

Anyone have any clue what GPU unit a night scene would specifically depend on? Maybe this? https://developer.download.nvidia.com/assets/gamedev/docs/TransformAndLighting.pdf

Does that even exist in modern GPUs still?

Seriously, folks. Start using the UE5 Matrix demo for sanity testing of suspected mined cards.

 

[maddie]

I guess I put too much credit to people who did reviews on mined cards and declared it did no damage to them at all.(IE Gamers Nexus) Of course the guy doing the review owned massive mining rigs too. LOL

Were the RX 6xxx series mined on a lot?

 

[mastertech01]

Were the RX 6xxx series mined on a lot?

I dont know, all the ones he reviewed from my recollection were RTX 30xx and maybe 20xx

 

[Insert_Nickname]

I have always been anti authoritarian. Had to run my own businesses most of my life due to that.

You and me both.

If I respect the one(s) in charge, I don't have issues. But if it's some buffoon with nothing to show for it, my anti-authoritarian gene just freaks right out.