I'm tempted to buy a backup GPU...anyone else panic-buying?

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HeadRusch

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I've got a 1080 Ti sitting around and I'm fine dialing things back, I've only been on my 50 series card since like February....but recently I've toyed with the idea of getting something for when either my 5080 (just upper power limit O/C as I lock to 60fps, my 4k TV is 60fps limited) or my other decent GPU (4070 TI) croak........so I've been considering something like a 9070 XT or under.....probably not the 5070 at that price....but I digress......this is the only reason I have my 5080 today, I panic-bought when I saw them last year after black friday at and slightly below MSRP......and now, well......it was luck, not skill, if that means anything.

Curious who else has gone down this path........I wouldn't even need a 9070 XT class card, I'd be buying something that could tide-me-over with RT cores as enough games now do not support that 1080 TI that I'd like my spend to at least be functional......and if the market gets looser in the future, I can always offload this at a loss before things drop too far.

Thoughts?
 
lol no, its too late for that....
and used cards are creeping up too as everyone want the quick cash...
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What's the "street price" of 4090s now a day? That's my backup card. Scoring a 4090 if the price is right which it probably isn't 🫪
 
A spare 5090? Absolutely not. Even a 5080 would be a lot of money to fork out for a "backup" GPU at this point. I've basically got the 5090 and my laptops' 5070 Ti if it comes down to it.
 
They combined the GPU shortage with a stock crash now, so no backup for me.
 
I've thought about grabbing another 9070xt as a backup for the 5090, but they are minimum like $900 now, so I doubt it. If a good deal comes around maybe, could also maybe talk myself into a Radeon AI Pro R9700 if the price is ever right, but most likely I'll just have my 3090 as a backup
 
I already went down this path, sold the 5090 for 5k+, got a 5080 for my primary rig for around 950, a 5070 ti for my media rig in the living room for 750 (both were thanks to lucking out on woot), and my Legion 7i is the travel comp/backup for backup...even renewed it's warranty for $50 because I have had 2 gaming laptop motherboards fail on me in the past 6 years (one a dell, the other a lenovo though admittedly I ran the Lenovo's 3070 24x7 for mining during covid, warranty came in clutch both times). Come to think of it, my media rig is almost as good as my primary rig now (9800x3d + 5080 vs 250k + 5070ti, not a huge difference in gaming perf. and the 250k is a stronger general purpose cpu). May sell 1 out of 3 at some point but not now. I'm actually happier with the 5080 vs the 5090 way lower temps and not sweating literally and figuratively while gaming, fearing a 'meltdown'.
 
undertaker2k8 said:
I already went down this path, sold the 5090 for 5k+, got a 5080 for my primary rig for around 950, a 5070 ti for my media rig in the living room for 750 (both were thanks to lucking out on woot), and my Legion 7i is the travel comp/backup for backup...even renewed it's warranty for $50 because I have had 2 gaming laptop motherboards fail on me in the past 6 years (one a dell, the other a lenovo though admittedly I ran the Lenovo's 3070 24x7 for mining during covid, warranty came in clutch both times). Come to think of it, my media rig is almost as good as my primary rig now (9800x3d + 5080 vs 250k + 5070ti, not a huge difference in gaming perf. and the 250k is a stronger general purpose cpu). May sell 1 out of 3 at some point but not now. I'm actually happier with the 5080 vs the 5090 way lower temps and not sweating literally and figuratively while gaming, fearing a 'meltdown'.
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If you don't mind me asking where did you sell the 5090 for $5,000? Which platform/application/website?

Although at the resolution and speed that I play I can't really have anything less than a 5090 but for anyone on the lower refresh rate selling the 5090 and getting a 5080 is definitely something to consider.
 
Keeping my lightly used RTX 3080 10GB around for a backup just in case something really awful happens to my 5080 (knock on wood). No interest in selling the 3080 despite it going significantly more on eBay than it did a year ago. It's not about what I think it's worth, it's about what a replacement might cost me in the current climate. I don't want to be forced into a situation where I'm desperate. And I already know what a 3080 is capable of game-wise, which I'm fine with.

My 3080 is also still under an EVGA 10 extended year warranty - got about ~5 more years left on it. I'm morbidly curious what EVGA would do with the RMA now. They're still around today despite the naysayers. Hopefully I'll never find out.
 
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I'd just wait if you can for Q1 2027 (NVIDIA), or Q4 2027 (AMD). Otherwise, buy now, and sell in a month or two. Prices are going up (recent price hikes in China means price hikes in a few days in the U.S.). The bubble won't pop until both OpenAI and Anthropic go public. Then there'll be a bailout by the taxpayers. It'll be fun to see the reaction to that.

The best deal is still a RX 9070 16GB on Amazon for $749.99, or a combo deal for $788.88 that comes with a 750W 80+ Gold PSU.
 
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xDiVolatilX said:
If you don't mind me asking where did you sell the 5090 for $5,000? Which platform/application/website?

Although at the resolution and speed that I play I can't really have anything less than a 5090 but for anyone on the lower refresh rate selling the 5090 and getting a 5080 is definitely something to consider.
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Got an offer from someone that was hard to say no to. Also, I play at 4k 100+ fps and the 5080 is very capable of driving that in all games with everything almost maxed out. It would only be a limitation for local AI work or running a 5k display with ultra textures on everything. I did briefly have the LG 45 5k2k monitor last year with my 5080fe and it was a good combination iirc.GL.
 
My backup to my current GPU (3080) is my kids Radeon RX 6600 CORE, not amazing but it should do the job.
 
My current lineup consists of:
9070xt Elite
6900xt Merc 319
6700xt Strix
280x Dual X OC

I think I'm good for a minute... :)

I also still have my not working 290x Lightning (which I'd really like to get going again sometime, if possible)
 
Also, while I never came close to any connector melting with any of my GPUs, I did often get a slight whiff of 'overheated plastic' from the PC during extended use of the 5090, never quite nailed down what it was since everything was running in an E-ATX case with a 120mm side fan blowing directly on the connector. Another strange behavior was my H100i pro's fans would go berserk and spin at close to max speed sometimes with the 5090 during extended use (FE , PNY, Zotac didn't matter), something that didn't happen with the 4090 or 5080, CPU temps weren't abnormal but something about the 5090's thermal load was triggering it is my best explanation.
 
horse said:
My current lineup consists of:
9070xt Elite
6900xt Merc 319
6700xt Strix
280x Dual X OC

I think I'm good for a minute... :)

I also still have my not working 290x Lightning (which I'd really like to get going again sometime, if possible)
Click to expand...

ive got a 290, 480, 580, 5700, 6700 and a 9060xt 16gb on hand, "just in case"...
 
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My current is a 3080Ti FE and my backup is 3070Ti FE.
 
Got my RTX 4070 in my HTPC incase something happens to my RTX 5070 - I'm good 😎
 
Glad I kept my 3090 now it's my back up to the 5090 if I don't have 3090 laying around I probably would pick up a 5080/70. If that fails it's back to a 2080ti still running in my den rig. If that fails it's old-school 1080ti .
If that fails and nothing to replace it I'm just quit gaming or probably be dead because the world ended.
 
I have a bunch of GPU's, but only a hand full worth gaming on as a backup for 1080p and up.
2x R9 270's
670GTX
GTX 1060 6GB
GTX 1070
RX 480 4GB
RX 580 8GB
 
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Sold my last 5090 and went to a MSI Suprim 5080 and honestly it’s all I really need to enjoy games at 4k. I have a secondary PC with almost the same specs as my main PC but with a 9070XT at 1440P. Both use LG 45” monitors.I guess I can consider that my backup plan.
 
I've got a 5090, 3090, B580 and a 1660Ti. 3090 is a good enough backup if the 5090 dies that I'm not going to go buy another card "just in case". Actually even the cheap B580 does ok. Doesn't look as nice, but I have yet to find a game I can't run decently on it. If I lost a card I might buy something. Maybe. Depends on which one and what pricing looks like at the time.
 
i have never had need for a backup card. i've killed two cards in my time, stretching back to an ATi rage 2c. one was a 7900 GTO that i tried to voltmod but botched the solder job and the other was a sapphire HD 4870 that just gave up the ghost with no warning. keep in mind that i usually keep my parts long term. i think i managed to squeeze nearly 8 years out of a GTX 970.

these things are pretty reliable if you take care of them.
 
I have a 5090 on my main PC and a 4090 in the sim rig. I also have an old 3080 Ti I've kept in storage and a 2080 in my wife's PC so I'm good in case anything happens.
 
The card most people have now, is the card they will have a decade from now. The purpose of data centers is to corner the market on hardware so that people have no other option but to rent compute.

Undervolt. Underclock.
 
nullptr69 said:
The card most people have now, is the card they will have a decade from now. The purpose of data centers is to corner the market on hardware so that people have no other option but to rent compute.

Undervolt. Underclock.
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I'm just going to run my 5090 at stock and leave Asus GPU Tweak III running since it's a ROG Astral with per-pin power monitoring. Tweak III can shut down the system if a pin goes out of spec.

I don't think we'll be stuck for a decade, but it's going to be a rough few years. I just think 10 is too much. That's like 2 rounds of fab building.
 
nullptr69 said:
The card most people have now, is the card they will have a decade from now. The purpose of data centers is to corner the market on hardware so that people have no other option but to rent compute.

Undervolt. Underclock.
Click to expand...
Hope not especially not on the 80 series cards cause if the 6090 is unattainable fine but the 6080 needs to be accessible otherwise there will be no more diy custom enthusiast desktop PC building. Although I'm sure consoles and handheld might be taking the gaming bulk if that happens but even then they will make you pay a subscription fee to play online so that's not guaranteed either. The trick is going to be us enthusiasts getting our hands on a 6090 or I'd imagine just the 6080 because the 6090 might be priced out of 99.999999% percent of the population.
 
It's way too late for backup GPUs.

Well, you can at least for tonight still buy a B580 12GB for $330 on Newegg. That is, at least in today's insanity, a hell of a good price for 12GB and decent performance.

9060xt 8GB cards are now passing through the $500 mark. There's no point.

The question we all have to start asking now is if consumer PC hardware is going to exist in 5 years. Keep the 1080 Ti stored safely, you may need it.
 
I have 2 backup GPUs for my RTX 4090 (3 if you count my laptop)
  • RX 9070 XT
  • Intel ARC B580
My laptop has an RTX 5090 mobile (24GB VRAM), so I'm set for a while.
 
This is really an interesting topic...

A few months ago, I bought a XFX mercury 9070xt and a waterblock for my son's pc. I bought it on hardwareswap. However, the first one i bought it turned out to be a swift. I was irritated and was going to resell it but never have. Now, I'm thinking I'll just hold it for some reason.
 
So summary: no its too expensive to buy a dupe at this point, but also all of you are hoarders so this problem doesn't apply to you. :)
I can go back to my 1080 Ti, drop back down to "somewhere above 1080p but below 1440p" for the later games...make the best of it.
I'll also begin preparations for the return of Amber monitors because colors are getting too expensive.
 
Yeah, great...

Lets all horde a bunch of cards we're not even using and inflate the price even more...
 
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