Ancient GPU needs replaced. Suggestions?

G

Gman1979

Gawd
Joined
Sep 21, 2011
Messages
643
So due to life, I haven't upgraded my rig in quite a while. This year I'm redoing the whole thing, starting with the GPU.

At the moment I've got a 7870xt (cut down 7950) with only 2 GB of Vram. Normally I replace things as they break, but this freaking card just won't die. It's gotten to the point where 2 GB of Vram is actually a problem now, and I need a replacement card.

With the market being in the state it is in, I'm not sure if I should buy a used card or a weaker newer one etc. My budget is flexible to a point, say $200 to $400. What would be the best bang for the buck in that price bracket currently?
 
  • Like
Reactions: travm
like this
Gman1979 said:
So due to life, I haven't upgraded my rig in quite a while. This year I'm redoing the whole thing, starting with the GPU.

At the moment I've got a 7870xt (cut down 7950) with only 2 GB of Vram. Normally I replace things as they break, but this freaking card just won't die. It's gotten to the point where 2 GB of Vram is actually a problem now, and I need a replacement card.

With the market being in the state it is in, I'm not sure if I should buy a used card or a weaker newer one etc. My budget is flexible to a point, say $200 to $400. What would be the best bang for the buck in that price bracket currently?
Click to expand...
580 8gb might be a good buy in that price range.
 
It doesn't sound like you are buying right now, just soonish. Wait a couple weeks and see if the dust settles a bit.
 
There's no option that won't be a rip off. You should be able to find a 3050, 6500xt, 580 8gb, 1660 etc. in your price range but you would still be paying ~$400 for ~$200 cards unless you luck out with a local microcenter or something similar.
 
I came to that same realization myself while looking around. ~$200 use to get a decent mid range card of some sort. I don't think the industry realizes something very important. With prices being so high, they're eliminating a lot of their older enthusiasts from the buying market. When the value for the money goes down like it is now, they put guys like myself into a corner where the obvious choice is don't buy a GPU anymore. It's at the point now where the high GPU prices have eliminated ALL plans I made for buying new games this year (and probably going forward). Even console gaming is starting to look like a better bargain at this point, and that's just sad.
 
I personally have not believed the story about how "miners are buying up all the cards". I think it's pure retail market manipulation in effect by the retailers. I say this based on the fact my brother works at a major retailer in distribution. They have stock of multiple high end cards, but only in the warehouse. Their website says OOS most of the time and they're marked up stupidly high in price. Want to buy a pallet of cards? They'll sell them to you for slightly over MSRP. If you're a consumer trying to buy one? To the back of the waiting list with ya where you'll feel so desperate you won't mind them charging you almost $2k by the time your turn comes up to buy.

That's called market manipulation. Plain and simple. AMD and Nvidia may not have much control over it directly, but their future is being damaged now by their retail partners.
 
Gman1979 said:
I personally have not believed the story about how "miners are buying up all the cards". I think it's pure retail market manipulation in effect by the retailers. I say this based on the fact my brother works at a major retailer in distribution. They have stock of multiple high end cards, but only in the warehouse. Their website says OOS most of the time and they're marked up stupidly high in price. Want to buy a pallet of cards? They'll sell them to you for slightly over MSRP. If you're a consumer trying to buy one? To the back of the waiting list with ya where you'll feel so desperate you won't mind them charging you almost $2k by the time your turn comes up to buy.

That's called market manipulation. Plain and simple. AMD and Nvidia may not have much control over it directly, but their future is being damaged now by their retail partners.
Click to expand...


One only has to look at crypto prices vs gpu prices. You can literally see where it correlates. Is it perfect, no. You still have normal supply/demand/saturation/ etc. The moment miners are uninterested in buying pallets is the moment gpu's start heading down in pricing.

The curve would be different today if no cryto existed.
 
Since crypto has began this decline this time, I have seen a large number of GPU's or sale on this forum. When crypto was up? You couldnt find a 580 for less than $500 used. There is a correlation. There was a point where you wouldnt see a GPU listed here for a month or two. Anyone paying attention to the market saw it.
 
Miners are causing the higher prices. Because they buy everything they can get their hands on. That's where the scalpers come in. They find them first and put prices to an extreme. Then once a gamer needs a card there are none to be found. That's where we are at now. Stock is coming around. We cards are coming out. Supply is still low which in turn drives prices up. There will be a point where the gpu market will crash. Miners won't mine and unload all their hardware. Retailers will have stocked shelves because the market is flooded.

When will this happen? Once crypto gets regulated tighter. Don't hate the retailers for asking higher than msrp. They are just trying to take advantage of a market that's willing to buy from low supply.
 
I like new over used. I don't like cleaning someone's DNA out of the card, undoing mining BIOS modifications and trying to source non-counterfeit replacement fans.

If you're redoing the whole rig, buying a pre-built is a better deal right now.
 
Think you can still get 7870s new on amazon...crossfire? :p
 
Do you have access to a microcenter? You can get an open box 6600 for $380 there if you're patient. If you can stretch to $500 then you'd have a lot more options if you're patient and wait for a shuffle win or an evga b-stock drop or something.
 
Nvidia and AMD both had their highest quarterly earnings EVER.

But people still blame greedy miners for high prices. Crypto prices are half what they were 2 months ago and there is no realistic ROI for miners, but you still can't readily buy cards.
 
Yep. Profits are way up in almost every sector. We are being gouged. It really feels like the crypto boom/Covid /supply chain combo pushed the prices up and now either retailers or manufacturers or both are doing anything possible to keep them there.
 
Gman1979 said:
I came to that same realization myself while looking around. ~$200 use to get a decent mid range card of some sort. I don't think the industry realizes something very important. With prices being so high, they're eliminating a lot of their older enthusiasts from the buying market. When the value for the money goes down like it is now, they put guys like myself into a corner where the obvious choice is don't buy a GPU anymore. It's at the point now where the high GPU prices have eliminated ALL plans I made for buying new games this year (and probably going forward). Even console gaming is starting to look like a better bargain at this point, and that's just sad.
Click to expand...
Be honest with yourself. You don't spend much money on a GPU and you very rarely purchase one. You aren't the target market.
 
Bad time to be GPU shopping. Stay put or limit to the used market. Or go APU like Ryzen 5600G ($200) or 5700G ($250). Those integrated graphics aren't terrible.
 
kirbyrj said:
Nvidia and AMD both had their highest quarterly earnings EVER.

But people still blame greedy miners for high prices. Crypto prices are half what they were 2 months ago and there is no realistic ROI for miners, but you still can't readily buy cards.
Click to expand...
Actually I follow the forums regularly and daily. In the used market, there has been a ten fold increase in the amount of cards available as this price crash happens. People are offloading cards. The used market is coming back around. The new market deals with other constraints that aren’t directly influenced by miners initially.

I do not at all think it’s coincidence we are now seeing plenty of used cards being sold. A month ago I couldn’t find a 580 on here for less than $400, and any better cards weren’t even available. Now? Plenty of cards have been posted in the past week.

Crypto has a lot to do with it. I don’t find many people who disagree. And when I do it’s usually pro crypto people.

Sure retailers are increasing prices when they have demand and short supply. But if you took mining out of the equation do you think we’d still be in this situation? I don’t.
 
jmilcher said:
Actually I follow the forums regularly and daily. In the used market, there has been a ten fold increase in the amount of cards available as this price crash happens. People are offloading cards. The used market is coming back around. The new market deals with other constraints that aren’t directly influenced by miners initially.

I do not at all think it’s coincidence we are now seeing plenty of used cards being sold. A month ago I couldn’t find a 580 on here for less than $400, and any better cards weren’t even available. Now? Plenty of cards have been posted in the past week.

Crypto has a lot to do with it. I don’t find many people who disagree. And when I do it’s usually pro crypto people.

Sure retailers are increasing prices when they have demand and short supply. But if you took mining out of the equation do you think we’d still be in this situation? I don’t.
Click to expand...

New cards. You still can't buy new cards. Just like you can't buy things that don't mine at all like PS5's and XSX's.

I watch the forums too. I wouldn't say 10 fold increase. I've seen one guy liquidating a bunch of old RX5700s at high prices. I've seen a bunch of 1080Tis. And maybe I've seen 2 or 3 6900xt's (no 6800xt's) and one or two 3090's, a handful of 3080's, etc. I don't see anyone selling below original MSRP like you'd expect in the used market.

Either way, used cards are not the same as new cards to some people. The point I'm making is that an unreasonable ROI is important to miners, so it's extremely unlikely that miners are buying pallets of cards at this point like some here contend. If mining was the only cause of the shortage of cards, you'd expect new cards in abundance using your line of reasoning since profitability is down. You would have also expected plenty of consoles available since they were never able to mine. At best all you have is a few small timers unloading a couple extra used cards in forums while the prices are high.

Edit:
I'm not saying crypto doesn't play a part. I'm saying that its not the ONLY part. For example, crypto without supply chain issues or COVID related issues and you'd still be able to buy cards. Likewise, supply chain issues without crypto and you'd still probably be able to buy some cards. Crypto, COVID, Supply chain all equals a lack of availability.
 
Last edited:
kirbyrj said:
New cards. You still can't buy new cards. Just like you can't buy things that don't mine at all like PS5's and XSX's.

I watch the forums too. I wouldn't say 10 fold increase. I've seen one guy liquidating a bunch of old RX5700s at high prices. I've seen a bunch of 1080Tis. And maybe I've seen 2 or 3 6900xt's (no 6800xt's) and one or two 3090's, a handful of 3080's, etc. I don't see anyone selling below original MSRP like you'd expect in the used market.

Either way, used cards are not the same as new cards to some people. The point I'm making is that an unreasonable ROI is important to miners, so it's extremely unlikely that miners are buying pallets of cards at this point like some here contend. If mining was the only cause of the shortage of cards, you'd expect new cards in abundance using your line of reasoning since profitability is down. You would have also expected plenty of consoles available since they were never able to mine. At best all you have is a few small timers unloading a couple extra used cards in forums while the prices are high.
Click to expand...
I have not made any comments about consoles or any other types of consumer electronics. Only GPU's. I have seen many more 3k series cards in the last 2 weeks for sale. Ebay, here, and other forums. A few months back when crypto was more profitable, those used cards were not where to be seen. New cards again IMO are a whole different ball game. I understand new cards have not caught up in the retail chain yet to meet demand.
 
jmilcher said:
I have not made any comments about consoles or any other types of consumer electronics. Only GPU's. I have seen many more 3k series cards in the last 2 weeks for sale. Ebay, here, and other forums. A few months back when crypto was more profitable, those used cards were not where to be seen. New cards again IMO are a whole different ball game. I understand new cards have not caught up in the retail chain yet to meet demand.
Click to expand...

I edited above a little bit.

Maybe I'm missing something. It's not unexpected that you'd see more used cards in a crypto market downturn. If I'm mining with 5 cards and I sell one of them while the GPU price is higher than what it would mine. Plus, I still have 4 cards mining in case I'm wrong. I think smart money would be selling a few cards right now if I had a small time crypto farm like I see some doing. You still don't see nearly as many FS posts with video cards as you used to pre-Ampere/RDNA2 when the supplies were better (I think I sold my RX5700 for something like $250 near the end of the RDNA1 lifecycle :eek: with the thought that next gen card availability would be better). And the pricing of the used cards in the forums for hundreds over MSRP in a down crypto market seems to emphasize that lack of supply is a driving factor for the price of the cards right now not crypto. And that's why I also mentioned consoles since they are irrelevant for mining, are not available, and show the supply issue being primary.

Once again. I'm not saying crypto doesn't play a part. I'm just saying it isn't the only part and the "crypto bad" mentality isn't encapsulating the whole situation.

Edit: I remember the last crypto crash when you could get RX580 8GB and 1060 6GB cards for $125 used. The 4GB and 3GB varieties were like $75-80. The used market was flooded. We don't see $300 3060Ti's yet, so the supply is still dictating the overall price.
 
Last edited:
kirbyrj said:
I edited above a little bit.

Maybe I'm missing something. It's not unexpected that you'd see more used cards in a crypto market downturn. If I'm mining with 5 cards and I sell one of them while the GPU price is higher than what it would mine. Plus, I still have 4 cards mining in case I'm wrong. I think smart money would be selling a few cards right now if I had a small time crypto farm like I see some doing. You still don't see nearly as many FS posts with video cards as you used to pre-Ampere/RDNA2 when the supplies were better (I think I sold my RX5700 for something like $250 near the end of the RDNA1 lifecycle :eek: with the thought that next gen card availability would be better). And the pricing of the used cards in the forums for hundreds over MSRP in a down crypto market seems to emphasize that lack of supply is a driving factor for the price of the cards right now not crypto. And that's why I also mentioned consoles since they are irrelevant for mining, are not available, and show the supply issue being primary.

Once again. I'm not saying crypto doesn't play a part. I'm just saying it isn't the only part and the "crypto bad" mentality isn't encapsulating the whole situation.
Click to expand...
I have never blamed only crypto. There are many factors at work here as well as just bad timing IMO. Your logic makes complete sense and I agree. We see plenty of "crypto has nothing to do with it" rhetoric, and frankly its from the pro crypto crowd. I only really see that tho on select forums and small subreddits that are obviously pro crypto. I think we are on the same page though. I just meant I have seen many more used cards for sale now that crypto seems less profitable for the minute.
 
Gman1979 said:
I personally have not believed the story about how "miners are buying up all the cards". I think it's pure retail market manipulation in effect by the retailers. I say this based on the fact my brother works at a major retailer in distribution. They have stock of multiple high end cards, but only in the warehouse. Their website says OOS most of the time and they're marked up stupidly high in price. Want to buy a pallet of cards? They'll sell them to you for slightly over MSRP. If you're a consumer trying to buy one? To the back of the waiting list with ya where you'll feel so desperate you won't mind them charging you almost $2k by the time your turn comes up to buy.

That's called market manipulation. Plain and simple. AMD and Nvidia may not have much control over it directly, but their future is being damaged now by their retail partners.
Click to expand...

When they say miners are buying all the cards, I think they mean they buy pallets of cards before they ever reach the retail market.

Part of the problem is cards have been hard to get for years now - eventually people adjust and forget about paying MSRP.
 
Seeing more used cards at scalping prices doesn't mean anything but the market is still messed up. Yes I see a good bit of gpus for sale but all at over msrp. Used at iver msrp is scalping. Not a escalated market. So tell me who is buying these cards if the majority of us won't pay those prices. It's desperate gamers or miners.

A little story for you guys. Go sit at a bar and listen to what people talk about as investments. If you hear it at the bar it's too late. Well guess what the truth of it is. People also heard it and decide.to jump in on it. That's what is still happening with mining. People are still trying to get in on it. Those people will buy everything they can get their hands on. If I decided to put my 3060ti on market place what should I ask in price? $500 I payed for it new? $700 and give someone a "deal"? Or ask $850 like everyone else?
 
The best current 'deal' is $460 for an MSI RX 6600. That is an 8gb card that will hold up for many years at 1080P/1440P.

I cannot fathom that an RX 580 4gb that I keep as a spare ( returned from my smoker brother ) is worth $250 on Ebay when I spent just over $100 on it ~3 years ago
 
GeForce now....my buddy started using that service. It's Nvidia's master plan. Price people out, but still make money with a service.
 
kirbyrj said:
Nvidia and AMD both had their highest quarterly earnings EVER.

But people still blame greedy miners for high prices. Crypto prices are half what they were 2 months ago and there is no realistic ROI for miners, but you still can't readily buy cards.
Click to expand...


Go look at Newegg last year in April. The number of cards from newegg that was available was less than 10 (from actual newegg). The cards available last year were cards like gt 1030 and amd 7700. This was when rtx 3070 were selling for 1500-1800 on the used market. If crypto doesn't go up, you will start to see more availability and not just from microcenter. Microcenter has had more and more available cards.

Do I think supply would be at this rate if rtx 3070's mined 6-8 dollars a day? No I don't. You can buy bundles a couple days after they drop. During the height, they would mostly sell out within a couple hours. They would certainly not last a full day.

If crypto was like April last year you would still have a hard time buying a card.
 
thecold said:
Go look at Newegg last year in April. The number of cards from newegg that was available was less than 10 (from actual newegg). The cards available last year were cards like gt 1030 and amd 7700. This was when rtx 3070 were selling for 1500-1800 on the used market. If crypto doesn't go up, you will start to see more availability and not just from microcenter. Microcenter has had more and more available cards.

Do I think supply would be at this rate if rtx 3070's mined 6-8 dollars a day? No I don't. You can buy bundles a couple days after they drop. During the height, they would mostly sell out within a couple hours. They would certainly not last a full day.

If crypto was like April last year you would still have a hard time buying a card.
Click to expand...

Depends if crypto keeps going down or recovers. I don’t think many have given up on it yet but they will if it drops another 50%.
 
Varmint said:
Depends if crypto keeps going down or recovers. I don’t think many have given up on it yet but they will if it drops another 50%.
Click to expand...

You are seeing hesitancy on buying. Yes, you don't see a massive sell off. I wouldn't expect a massive sell off at this price.
 
Furious_Styles said:
580 8gb might be a good buy in that price range.
Click to expand...
+1
I upgraded my 7870 in 2018 to a 580 8gb. Seemed like a great upgrade and is still serving me well.
Actually I had two of them in xfire... The 7870. Hard to kill. Best GPU of this millennium.
 
matt167 said:
The best current 'deal' is $460 for an MSI RX 6600. That is an 8gb card that will hold up for many years at 1080P/1440P.
Click to expand...
Will it? Some next gen features are pretty limited on this card. I would go with cheaper solution like 3050 or 6400 and upgrade in 2 years. Even 3050 with DLSS can come close to it in special cases with all raytracing on.

 
havoc lingers said:
Will it? Some next gen features are pretty limited on this card. I would go with cheaper solution like 3050 or 6400 and upgrade in 2 years. Even 3050 with DLSS can come close to it in special cases with all raytracing on.

Click to expand...


Try to find an RTX 3050 at $250 MSRP to even the $329 for one of the nicer models but where it would make sense... You literally need to play the lottery to find this deal, or the price of a 3050 often exceeds a 6600 when sold by actual retailers. If you watch the Newegg shuffle, you will find $500 RTX 3050's. Ontop of that, buying a 3050 for it's RTX ( which it does a little bit better than AMD ) is pointless in this tier of card. DLSS has some merit, but not enough to justify buying a tier less for the same money

The RX 6400 I don't think is out just yet, I have not payed attention, but the 6500 is available at MSRP more or less in some cases because it's really trash. It's a 4gb card. But a have it now placeholder at best.. $200 now and $200 2 years from now is still $400 in total, but a 6600 could probably go for 6 years at least at a $60 premium
 
Maybe I overlooked this, but I did check twice........

What are the specs of the rest of the system and what do you run on the system? I see it as a balancing act between the weakest point in the system.

Would I stick a 2070 super in a i7-2600k with a z77 chipset and DDR 3 memory? Probably not.......

If vram is the issue, then anything with 4gb would be fine and you can probably find something cheap........
 
matt167 said:
The best current 'deal' is $460 for an MSI RX 6600. That is an 8gb card that will hold up for many years at 1080P/1440P.

I cannot fathom that an RX 580 4gb that I keep as a spare ( returned from my smoker brother ) is worth $250 on Ebay when I spent just over $100 on it ~3 years ago
Click to expand...

^^ This

You can find Asrock or MSI RX 6600's (non-XT) for around the mid 400's (Newegg has plenty in stock), and that would be one of the better bang / buck points.
 
Similar to others i went from a 7870 to a 8GB RX480 in 2016. I'd still be using it if I hadn't had a large inheritance and was able to snag a 6700XT last summer for like £250 lower than they currently retail at now.

My brother now uses the 480 in his new 3600 rig over the old 7850 hed had before.

Don't ignore the old RX480!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top