Best GPU options for 3440x1440?

DKrebo87

Weaksauce
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Apr 22, 2012
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Hey everyone it’s been a long time since I posted here, hope all is well.

I am looking to upgrade my 2070S, strictly for gaming purposes, I game at 3440x1440P (165hz) and plan on staying at the resolution for at least another 3-5 years. I usually stick with Nvidia GPUs but am considering possibly looking at AMD (slight chance) as high end cards are just getting very expensive. Although ideally I would like to have the option to do Ray Tracing as I mostly play single player, narrative and/or choice driven games.

I’m also considering some second hand options as buying new 30 series makes little sense at this point, but I know there are some deals to be had on those cards albeit used, although I would prefer to buy new.

The CPU is a 9900KS, with 32GB 3200 16CAS on a MSI MEG ACE Z390 board, I don’t need to max out the display but I would like to have very good frame pacing at this resolution and have the GPU last me a few years minimum. I don’t mind tuning in-game settings to achieve good performance but I would like to get high quality visuals as well (HDR, RT etc.) especially the first 2-3 years of the GPU. I just bought the AW3423DWF and should be getting it next week and the 2070S is still a good GPU it just can’t do everything I’d like at this point.

All recommendations are appreciated! I like to talk about PC hardware in general so feel free to post your opinions. I also will be looking to sell my LG34GK950F once my new display arrives if anyone has interest, it’s been a great display in my case, no stuck or dead pixels, very nice IPS UW monitor that I have taken care of, I just don’t have original packaging. Same goes for my 2070S Strix, once I have a GPU to replace it with.

Thank you all!
 
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I saw somewhere that the 7900xtx is about as powerful as the 3080 for RT which obviously pales in comparison with the current 40 series of RTX cards.

I paid about $1,300 after tax for a 3080 just before the end of last year and now the 4080 costs as much and blows my card out of the water, in every conceivable manner.
The 4080 seems to exist only for people to convince themselves to stretch their budget and get the 4090 instead, the bastards!

The closest thing to a deal is in AMD's court but you sacrifice possible ray tracing performance. That's why I opened with the 7900xtx info.
 
Depends on your budget? Also, it might depend on your location - in the USA, you might find deals for the RX 7900 XT cards - Microcenter and what not?
I would suggest a 2nd hand 3080 12gb or 3080 Ti. If you can budget a bit more, the 3090 has 24GB of VRAM. Make sure your current PSU is sufficient for the upgrade or you might have to invest in a new PSU, too (you probably want to buy new with that part).
 
Sorry, it’s been a while since I’ve asked for this kind of advice. I’m living in northeastern US, my PSU is plenty powerful a Corsair 1200axi (cousin treated me to one over 5 years ago when I helped him with a build). Budget is somewhat of a concern I don’t want to spend more than ~$700 if I can help it.
 
Sorry, it’s been a while since I’ve asked for this kind of advice. I’m living in northeastern US, my PSU is plenty powerful a Corsair 1200axi (cousin treated me to one over 5 years ago when I helped him with a build)
Oh yeah, for sure. Good choice. I would check out the 7900 XT or XTX version then but imho, they are pricey but maybe you can find good deals there. If you want something cheaper - then I'd go for a used 3090.
 
Oh yeah, for sure. Good choice. I would check out the 7900 XT or XTX version then but imho, they are pricey but maybe you can find good deals there. If you want something cheaper - then I'd go for a used 3090.
I really want to try out an AMD GPU but I still read of terrible software/driver support that really makes me hesitant, I am not the type of person that wants to spend a significant amount of time troubleshooting, if I can avoid it. I may wait to see how the base 4070 launch price comes out, why does the market suck so much right now? Nvidia won’t give you more than 612MB VRAM and AMD seems to still have suspicious drivers by many accounts.
 
With all the VRAM issues coming up in games, your best bet at $700 is a 6950XT for $700. Comes with 16GB of memory which with a lot of newer games it does need.

If you can afford Nvidia, I would try to see if you can get a used 3090 RTX, or if you can spend an extra $100, get a 7900XT.
 
With all the VRAM issues coming up in games, your best bet at $700 is a 6950XT for $700. Comes with 16GB of memory which with a lot of newer games it does need.

If you can afford Nvidia, I would try to see if you can get a used 3090 RTX, or if you can spend an extra $100, get a 7900XT.

Sound advice sir.
 
If you went for a monitor as sweet as the AW3423, you really should get the best, 4080 or 4090.
If price is a bigger factor ( you spent it all on the monitor), used 3080 is a good one to get to cover the gap. Use it until you can afford new, in maybe 9 months.
 
If you went for a monitor as sweet as the AW3423, you really should get the best, 4080 or 4090.
If price is a bigger factor ( you spent it all on the monitor), used 3080 is a good one to get to cover the gap. Use it until you can afford new, in maybe 9 months.
I may wait to see how the 4070 launches in 2 weeks or so, it's rumored to launch at $599 and have performance similar to a 3080 12GB but with 3rd gen RT and DLSS 3 along with a FE possibly available at MSRP, if that ends up being the case that's probably the way to go imo. I'd like to get the 4080 for it's extra performance and 16GB it's just a pretty poor value overall, too much $ for a GPU imo, the 4070 Ti is a better value but I'm not trying to spend another $900+. A used 3080 in good condition isn't going to be less than $500, I doubt it unless I wait longer for prices to keep going down for a second hand GPU, and I'd feel a lot more comfortable buying new.
 
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our best bet at $700 is a 6950XT for $700
I was going to say something like this 6900xt and if you do not mind the power-heat with that Corsair 1200axi you can look for a 6950xt.

bit slower than the 4070ti at 1440p, but could have nice price.

a $600 4070 could be an interesting pick if it is around the corner, need to wait for the reviews.
 
Sorry, it’s been a while since I’ve asked for this kind of advice. I’m living in northeastern US, my PSU is plenty powerful a Corsair 1200axi (cousin treated me to one over 5 years ago when I helped him with a build). Budget is somewhat of a concern I don’t want to spend more than ~$700 if I can help it.
If you go the used route with AMD or Nvidia and stay with their respective high end, last gen cards. Then I would suggest contacting Corsair to see if your PSU has factory modified power cables. Transient power spikes are no joke. Otherwise you need to look into getting a more recent PSU.
 
If you go the used route with AMD or Nvidia and stay with their respective high end, last gen cards. Then I would suggest contacting Corsair to see if your PSU has factory modified power cables. Transient power spikes are no joke. Otherwise you need to look into getting a more recent PSU.
Any single GPU that’s going to potentially make me look for a new PSU when I have a 1200W in 2023 I’m not going to get involved with, I’m most likely going to be patient and wait to see how the 4070 ends up launching. The 2070S is still a decent performer at this resolution without RT, most likely leaning towards 4070 FE, or maybe a 6900XT but AMD would def be a 2nd, or 3rd option for me tbh. I read too many posts about issues with their software to this day which is a shame, because otherwise they make pretty good value GPUs. I prefer the efficiency and feature set of Nvidia as it is, and don’t want to have to deal with headaches at the driver level. In my 10+ years with Nvidia I have had 3 GPUs with really no issues and I really don’t want to start dealing with them now, if I was younger and had more time to troubleshoot and optimize I would probably take the chance.
 
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I decided to wait for the 50 series for the best performance and value, there’s really no need to upgrade every gen or two unless you just want to waste money for slight performance improvements. I received the monitor and realized I was just looking to spend more money when I didn’t need to, the 2070S still performs admirably at 1440P UW, unless the game is poorly optimized. The only feature I’ll really be missing out on is RT but I can wait another year or so for a true upgrade in performance (up to triple or more performance) although I may need a new CPU by then we will see, maybe not at this resolution. 4K gaming is just unrealistically expensive and not worth the premium IMO.
 
What about AMD software/driver issues, does it work well with Intel platform, I see a lot of complaints about AMD drivers. Either way I’m going to wait a bit for either a great sale for 40 series / 7900XT or next gen, this will allow me to save money and get a better value for the money.
 
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It does work well with Intel. I “think” AMD has worked through most of the teething issues with RDNA3.
I think the VRAM issue is a little overstated as well unless the game just isn’t that optimized, 12GB DDR6X VRAM should be plenty for 3440x1440 in the large majority of games. The 4070 Ti / 4070 is still a new GPU which will be further optimized with upcoming drivers and support.
 
I think the VRAM issue is a little overstated as well unless the game just isn’t that optimized, 12GB DDR6X VRAM should be plenty for 3440x1440 in the large majority of games. The 4070 Ti / 4070 is still a new GPU which will be further optimized with upcoming drivers and support.
Older games not a problem, newer games are another matter and are complete VRAM hogs. Look on digital foundary covering The Last Of Us PC vs Ps5. RE4 is another recent one. In The Last of US, the enviroments are so detailed, complexed which requires hundreds if not thousands of textures, objects, shaders etc. Vram Is consumed even at 1080p, needing even DLSS or FSR to even play at 1080p on medium for a 8gb card with some pretty bad textures mostly in the outside areas.

That level of complexity, lightmaps, shadow maps and so on will be more prevalent on newer triple AAA titles on the console which work even at 4k resolution with upscaling.
 
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Older games not a problem, newer games are another matter and are complete VRAM hogs. Look on digital foundary covering The Last Of Us PC vs Ps5. RE4 is another recent one. In The Last of US, the enviroments are so detailed, complexed which requires hundreds if not thousands of textures, objects, shaders etc. Vram Is consumed even at 1080p, needing even DLSS or FSR to even play at 1080p on medium for a 8gb card with some pretty bad textures mostly in the outside areas.

That level of complexity, lightmaps, shadow maps and so on will be more prevalent on newer triple AAA titles on the console which work even at 4k resolution with upscaling.
7900 XT? I might give it a shot, the XFX Speedster Black looks pretty sweet.
 
What about AMD software/driver issues, does it work well with Intel platform, I see a lot of complaints about AMD drivers. Either way I’m going to wait a bit for either a great sale for 40 series / 7900XT or next gen, this will allow me to save money and get a better value for the money.
As someone who's been buying Nvidia for the past 20+ years, I switched and bought 7900 XTX.
Works fine with 13900k, no issues at all. Adrenalin software I like. It's better than GeForce Experience.
But AMD is generally behind Nvidia when it comes to drivers. A lot of games run better on Nvidia. For example in Diablo 4 beta my 7900 XTX had about the same performance as 3090. Not happy even though the card pushed steady 120 fps.
Not to mention they are ahead when it comes to AI (DLSS3) and RT.
It's really a tough choice between 4080 and 7900 XTX. For me I found Red Devil 7900 XTX Limited Edition for about €1500. Sure 4080 cost as much but those are low end 4080 while this one was top end 7900 XTX as well as AMD being a bit faster in raster.
 
As someone who's been buying Nvidia for the past 20+ years, I switched and bought 7900 XTX.
Works fine with 13900k, no issues at all. Adrenalin software I like. It's better than GeForce Experience.
But AMD is generally behind Nvidia when it comes to drivers. A lot of games run better on Nvidia. For example in Diablo 4 beta my 7900 XTX had about the same performance as 3090. Not happy even though the card pushed steady 120 fps.
Not to mention they are ahead when it comes to AI (DLSS3) and RT.
It's really a tough choice between 4080 and 7900 XTX. For me I found Red Devil 7900 XTX Limited Edition for about €1500. Sure 4080 cost as much but those are low end 4080 while this one was top end 7900 XTX as well as AMD being a bit faster in raster.
You really shouldn't use a beta game version as a comparison for drivers.
 
Yeah I just don’t really see any card out yet that’s worth the price for the performance increase, I’m going to try to be patient and wait for the 50 series or RDNA 4 unless I run into some extra money. Sure the 4090 is 3x the performance of a 2070 S but for more than 3x the cost…I’ll still be able to game at a decent level with this card overall, especially for single player games which is what I mostly play.
 
Hey everyone it’s been a long time since I posted here, hope all is well.

I am looking to upgrade my 2070S, strictly for gaming purposes, I game at 3440x1440P (165hz) and plan on staying at the resolution for at least another 3-5 years. I usually stick with Nvidia GPUs but am considering possibly looking at AMD (slight chance) as high end cards are just getting very expensive. Although ideally I would like to have the option to do Ray Tracing as I mostly play single player, narrative and/or choice driven games.

I’m also considering some second hand options as buying new 30 series makes little sense at this point, but I know there are some deals to be had on those cards albeit used, although I would prefer to buy new.

The CPU is a 9900KS, with 32GB 3200 16CAS on a MSI MEG ACE Z390 board, I don’t need to max out the display but I would like to have very good frame pacing at this resolution and have the GPU last me a few years minimum. I don’t mind tuning in-game settings to achieve good performance but I would like to get high quality visuals as well (HDR, RT etc.) especially the first 2-3 years of the GPU. I just bought the AW3423DWF and should be getting it next week and the 2070S is still a good GPU it just can’t do everything I’d like at this point.

All recommendations are appreciated! I like to talk about PC hardware in general so feel free to post your opinions. I also will be looking to sell my LG34GK950F once my new display arrives if anyone has interest, it’s been a great display in my case, no stuck or dead pixels, very nice IPS UW monitor that I have taken care of, I just don’t have original packaging. Same goes for my 2070S Strix, once I have a GPU to replace it with.

Thank you all!
What's your budget? If you want RT, stick with Nvidia and get the fastest card you can afford.
 
If you're near a MicroCenter they usually have a few open-box 7900XTXs for just over $800 which is a hell of a deal.

It does make me wonder though since it seems like there are always AMD returns available but never any NV cards.
 
Are you dead set on getting 160+ fps on max settings? I am running a Radeon 6800 XT Liquid Devil (custom-loop water cooled) along with a Ryzen 5600X and I generally can max out my monitor or very close to it in most games I play (3440x1440 @ 100hz). CoD Warzone 2 I get pretty solid 90-100FPS across the board with all max quality settings and no FSR / dynamic resolution. I know my brother just bought a 7900XTX and pretty sure he's been happy with it on a 49" Samsung 5120x1440 @ 120hz
 
Are you dead set on getting 160+ fps on max settings? I am running a Radeon 6800 XT Liquid Devil (custom-loop water cooled) along with a Ryzen 5600X and I generally can max out my monitor or very close to it in most games I play (3440x1440 @ 100hz). CoD Warzone 2 I get pretty solid 90-100FPS across the board with all max quality settings and no FSR / dynamic resolution. I know my brother just bought a 7900XTX and pretty sure he's been happy with it on a 49" Samsung 5120x1440 @ 120hz
No I don’t need to max it out I’ll be content with ~90-130 FPS for most titles at high settings, I just prefer Nvidia for their feature set (mostly Ray Tracing as I mostly play single player titles). I would like to try AMD for their software I hear it’s much better as far as interface and features compared to GeForce Experience. As of right now I’m waiting to see how some of the 4070’s perform they’ll be available on the 13th, although I’m sure they will still be a not so good value. Maybe I should just grab a 4070 Ti and take the risk that it will last me 3-4 years as my 2070S is starting to get long in the tooth at this resolution.

However the AW3423DWF is 100% worth it, it’s amazing the difference this panel makes when it comes to color reproduction and contrast. I can’t recommend it enough, I got it on Dell’s website for $999. Even if the OLED only lasts me 5 years I’ll be happy with this kind of picture quality, it’s stunning. I expect it to last me longer though as I’m not a heavy user, time constraints make me a light to medium gamer these days.
 
If you want a new GPU for <$700 that'll last 3-5 years at 4k I don't think any card fits your requirements. I'd either buy used (6900xt or 3080TI if you want to come in under budget, 7900XT/XTX if you want to max your budget) or wait for prices to come down on something that'll last you that long. Microcenter has a 6950XT for $600 if you buy a CPU upgrade at the same time, so that's worth considering since you could sell off your intel stuff and probably end up somewhere around your $700 net change. I would honestly wait for a used card to show up in the FS forums though. NKD has a 7900XTX you could probably get for <$1k and you should be able to get 6900xt/3080TI tier stuff for <$600, and usually you can get discounts for buying a few things together from someone.

If you're near a MicroCenter they usually have a few open-box 7900XTXs for just over $800 which is a hell of a deal.

It does make me wonder though since it seems like there are always AMD returns available but never any NV cards.
There are definitely people who buy a lower tier item until what they want (ie. specific 4090 model) is available, then return the temp GPU/CPU. Mine has had a ton of open box motherboards and current gen GPUs sitting on the shelves.
 
3080ti level of performance will get you solid FPS in most titles, although a 7900XTX or 4080 would be ideal. Either one at 1440 is the sweet spot. You'll be 120+fps and the cards won't be struggling to do it.
 
If you want a new GPU for <$700 that'll last 3-5 years at 4k I don't think any card fits your requirements. I'd either buy used (6900xt or 3080TI if you want to come in under budget, 7900XT/XTX if you want to max your budget) or wait for prices to come down on something that'll last you that long. Microcenter has a 6950XT for $600 if you buy a CPU upgrade at the same time, so that's worth considering since you could sell off your intel stuff and probably end up somewhere around your $700 net change. I would honestly wait for a used card to show up in the FS forums though. NKD has a 7900XTX you could probably get for <$1k and you should be able to get 6900xt/3080TI tier stuff for <$600, and usually you can get discounts for buying a few things together from someone.


There are definitely people who buy a lower tier item until what they want (ie. specific 4090 model) is available, then return the temp GPU/CPU. Mine has had a ton of open box motherboards and current gen GPUs sitting on the shelves.
I’m not looking to game at 4K anytime soon, I’m running on 3440 x 1440. Would a 4070 Ti suffice or do you think going for a 7900XT is the better purchase, I would like to do Ray Tracing as I’m spending nearly $900 for a GPU in this case. It’s concerning that the 4070 Ti only has an extra 50 bandwidth compared to my 2070S.
 
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I've been with Nvidia since their 8800GT, but am strongly considering the 7900XTX. I game at 1440 and have no urge to go 4K. Spending $820 vs $1200 for a 4080 is awfully tempting. I've been waiting for news on a possible 4080Ti before making a final purchase decision.
 
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I've been with Nvidia since their 8800GT, but am considering that XTX 7900XT. I game at 1440 and have no urge to go 4K. Spending $820 vs $1200 for a 4080 is awfully tempting. I've been waiting for news on a possible 4080Ti before making a final purchase decision.
Yeah it’s getting crazy, I’m really not trying to spend $1,300 on a GPU personally.
 
I’m not looking to game at 4K anytime soon, I’m running on 3440 x 1440. Would a 4070 Ti suffice or do you think going for a 7900XT is the better purchase, I would like to do Ray Tracing as I’m spending nearly $900 for a GPU in this case.
I think the 4070ti would be fine for now, but it's too expensive and I'd worry about it in 3 years with the low VRAM & memory bus. It's performance is already bad at higher resolutions compared to older GPUs due to the gimped memory bus. So instead of that, a 6900XT or 3080ti for $200-300 less than the 4070TI would be better, or maybe a 4070 if you want better efficiency/nvidia features over raw power. Overall I think a 7900XT is probably your best choice but here's how I'd evaluate your options:

4070 / 4070ti: Too expensive for the performance you get, especially since there are good alternatives from last gen. The 4070 is better priced IMO and although it has the same weaknesses as the 4070ti, it probably won't be as big of a deal to sell it after 3 years vs the 4070ti since you'd have less invested in it. The 4070 looks like while it'll be outperformed by last gen flagship GPUs, you'll at least gain power efficiency and the RT performance might be competitive.
6900xt/3080/3080ti/ - $550-600 (try to buy in a bundle from someone or online to save more). Pros: Cheap, good memory, fast. Cons: Used, may have to bargain hunt
7900xt - $720-800 (great raw performance, may have issues in VR for now, some say overclocking brings it close to a XTX) Pros: Very fast, much better long-term card. Cons: Drivers, VR, out of your budget slightly

No matter what you buy you'll have to compromise on something so I'd decide what you're willing to lose and go from there.
 
I think the 4070ti would be fine for now, but it's too expensive and I'd worry about it in 3 years with the low VRAM & memory bus. It's performance is already bad at higher resolutions compared to older GPUs due to the gimped memory bus. So instead of that, a 6900XT or 3080ti for $200-300 less than the 4070TI would be better, or maybe a 4070 if you want better efficiency/nvidia features over raw power. Overall I think a 7900XT is probably your best choice but here's how I'd evaluate your options:

4070 / 4070ti: Too expensive for the performance you get, especially since there are good alternatives from last gen. The 4070 is better priced IMO and although it has the same weaknesses as the 4070ti, it probably won't be as big of a deal to sell it after 3 years vs the 4070ti since you'd have less invested in it. The 4070 looks like while it'll be outperformed by last gen flagship GPUs, you'll at least gain power efficiency and the RT performance might be competitive.
6900xt/3080/3080ti/ - $550-600 (try to buy in a bundle from someone or online to save more). Pros: Cheap, good memory, fast. Cons: Used, may have to bargain hunt
7900xt - $720-800 (great raw performance, may have issues in VR for now, some say overclocking brings it close to a XTX) Pros: Very fast, much better long-term card. Cons: Drivers, VR, out of your budget slightly

No matter what you buy you'll have to compromise on something so I'd decide what you're willing to lose and go from there.
Nice breakdown, thanks. Yeah I don’t plan on gaming with VR at all, I may have to abandon the current RT requirements for a better overall card in the 7900 XT, supposedly it performs well with UE5’s hardware RT which is a good sign considering a lot of great games will be using this engine in the next few years or so. Plus it has that really nice 20GB VRAM on a 320 bit bus and it can be found for the same price or less than a 4070 Ti. How are AMD and their board partners with warranties?
 
Nice breakdown, thanks. Yeah I don’t plan on gaming with VR at all, I may have to abandon the current RT requirements for a better overall card in the 7900 XT, supposedly it performs well with UE5’s hardware RT which is a good sign considering a lot of great games will be using this engine in the next few years or so. Plus it has that really nice 20GB VRAM on a 320 bit bus and it can be found for the same price or less than a 4070 Ti. How are AMD and their board partners with warranties?
If I were buying AMD i'd buy direct via AMD.com as that will have the best warranty support.
 
If I were buying AMD i'd buy direct via AMD.com as that will have the best warranty support.
Ok, do you think the 9900KS would create a significant bottleneck at 3440 x 1440, I don’t play super high refresh rate competitive games much.
 
I had big time reservations coming from a i7 8700k with strix 1080ti on water build! I took the plung this time and went with all AMD build. That being a power color liquid devil 7900xtx and r7 7700x processor. I couldn't be more happy with my choice as the drivers have been stable and the seat of the pants wow factor were incredible! Still puts a smile on my face everyday. The 7900xt looks to on the same level with the 4070ti at this point. But remember that amd seems to always get a little stronger with there drivers as the cards age... Good luck with your decision
 
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I had big time reservations coming from a i7 8700k with strix 1080ti on water build! I took the plung this time and went with all AMD build. That being a power color liquid devil 7900xtx and r7 7700x processor. I couldn't be more happy with my choice as the drivers have been stable and the seat of the pants wow factor were incredible! Still puts a smile on my face everyday. The 7900xt looks to on the same level with the 4070ti at this point. But remember that amd seems to always get a little stronger with there drivers as the cards age... Good luck with your decision
Thanks I’m leaning towards the 4070 Ti, I’m a sucker for ray tracing, dlss and am interested in frame gen. This seems to be the trend for getting gains in very demanding games going forward, unfortunately Nvidia is dominating the market so there’s little to no competition in these areas. The only thing that really concerns me is the tiny 192 bit bus it comes with. If it were GDDR7 the bus wouldn’t be an issue. Supposedly the increased L2 cache is supposed to lower memory bandwidth requirements though, so that’s most likely the best choice for 1440 UW. I will wait either way to see how the 4070 performs, but I’m most likely going to pay the extra $200 for the Ti model.
 
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Posted this in another thread as well. I run 7680x1440 across 3x 32" 144Hz. monitors.

I personally have been on the fence about this for several weeks now, and just pulled the trigger on a 4080FE to replace my 2070S. Yes, I probably spent more than I should have, even though I got it at the "list" price of $1,200. However, given where TSMC is located and the fact that China is increasing the pressure on them big time, I didn't want to chance things escalating before I made my decision. If China invades, prices are going to go WAY up.
 
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