Building A New Gaming PC But No Idea Where To Go To Meet My Needs With The Current Insane GPU Pricing - Need Your Advice and Expertise

GoldenTiger said:
Yes it could, at least in Sli ;). Games were much less demanding back then.
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Oh god not SLI, the micro stutters were terrible. I remember having a GTX 980 back in 2014 and stuff that weren't close to Crysis tier like The Evil Within, Dragon Age Inquisition, Shadow of Mordor felt like near slide shows at 4K. I can't imagine trying to game in 2023 with a card 20% slower than that at 4K.
 
GoldenTiger said:
Barely faster in native res raster but worse in the multitude of games supporting dlss or rt. No thanks!
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Yes.

Raster performance has long been past diminishing returns, except mayyybbee in niche VR games but anything less than +/- 20% is hard to even notice. Even where AMD has an edge in any actually demanding game DLSS is generally well implemented gives you a substantial boost.

Honestly the only differentiator that you can actually see is RT performance.

[H] reviews would have been really neat in this environment but also massively complex for them.

Also Golden was banned from multiple places iirc over causing a ruckus over the 970 3.5GB thing. He’s pretty unbiased.
 
Dayaks said:
Also Golden was banned from multiple places iirc over causing a ruckus over the 970 3.5GB thing. He’s pretty unbiased.
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I'll admit that nowadays I'm pretty Nvidia leaning, but I don't like the company. I just prefer its products. I was eventually (7 years later) unbanned from Guru3d, while tpu just dismissed me. :) I post at Guru3d a bit, but not at all at tpu.
 
As I noted in my initial comments, $750.00 is pretty much my absolute max budget for this GPU. In just now checking, the best prices that I can find on a good quality 3080ti is $1200.00, a 7900XT will be at least $1000.

It's starting to look like my only real option within what I can currently afford is a good deal on a 6800XT..............which, while it still performs pretty well, is not exactly a current GPU.
 
SlapShot said:
As I noted in my initial comments, $750.00 is pretty much my absolute max budget for this GPU. In just now checking, the best prices that I can find on a good quality 3080ti is $1200.00, a 7900XT will be at least $1000.

It's starting to look like my only real option within what I can currently afford is a good deal on a 6800XT..............which, while it still performs pretty well, is not exactly a current GPU.
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Don't know what to say. Both Nvidia and AMD have zero interest in serving that budget with the latest lineup so far. So it's either wait for the lower tiers to eventually come out, or just deal with last gen.
 
SlapShot said:
As I noted in my initial comments, $750.00 is pretty much my absolute max budget for this GPU. In just now checking, the best prices that I can find on a good quality 3080ti is $1200.00, a 7900XT will be at least $1000.

It's starting to look like my only real option within what I can currently afford is a good deal on a 6800XT..............which, while it still performs pretty well, is not exactly a current GPU.
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3080 Ti right here for $680 https://hardforum.com/threads/fs-zotac-3080ti-amp-holo.2025363/

3080 for $500
https://hardforum.com/threads/wts-e...tw3-ultra-gaming-10g-p5-3897-kr-10gb.2025511/

Used is the way to go in your price range if you can’t get to $1000
 
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I paid $720 for my 3070 about...two years ago? been a great card for me.
 
Westwood said:
I paid $720 for my 3070 about...two years ago? been a great card for me.
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Same. Use it in my VR rig (Rift 1). My 3080 was retail price. My 6800XT was retail. My 3090... well, I overpaid on that, but it had an optimus block attached already, and came with a bunch of other stuff (mobo/cpu/ram/etc) from someone here that balanced it back out.
 
Was ready to buy a quality 3080 today at what, currently represents a good price. Its is the exact brand and model that I would choose. And then I looked at this latest graph with 4k performance. Not that I will ever afford a 4080, but it's hard to reconcile purchasing a card thas HALF the framerate of the current top card.

Per the newest Tom's Hardware graph, the 490 is running a suite of 4k Ultra games at over 122fps, the 6800XT is running them at 62​

 
Not that I have any dog in this hunt... but from the date of the OP.. you are approaching 2 months into this...
This is approaching the phase of paralysis by analysis... get the best gpu your $750 will buy, and be done lol
 
SlapShot said:
Was ready to buy a quality 3080 today at what, currently represents a good price. Its is the exact brand and model that I would choose. And then I looked at this latest graph with 4k performance. Not that I will ever afford a 4080, but it's hard to reconcile purchasing a card thas HALF the framerate of the current top card.

Per the newest Tom's Hardware graph, the 490 is running a suite of 4k Ultra games at over 122fps, the 6800XT is running them at 62​

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Time to up your budget, then. At $750 you are not that far off. Just eat ramen and drink water for a while, baby!
 
SlapShot said:
Was ready to buy a quality 3080 today at what, currently represents a good price. Its is the exact brand and model that I would choose. And then I looked at this latest graph with 4k performance. Not that I will ever afford a 4080, but it's hard to reconcile purchasing a card thas HALF the framerate of the current top card.

Per the newest Tom's Hardware graph, the 490 is running a suite of 4k Ultra games at over 122fps, the 6800XT is running them at 62​

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The 4090 is a beast. No denying that fact. You just have to decide if you want to shell out the money for that beastly performance or not.
 
DooKey said:
The 4090 is a beast. No denying that fact. You just have to decide if you want to shell out the money for that beastly performance or not.
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I was just pointing out the shocking difference. Something that far exceeds the performance differences in the entire previous history of video cards. I wouldn't buy the 4090, on principle, even if I could afford it. That kind of price for a GPU is absurd. You can build quite a nice entire pc for that money.
 
So, I am nearing my final decision. Just debating whether to spend $599.00 for an outstanding version of the RX 6800 XT, or $130.00 more for the same outstanding version of the 6950 XT. I know logic says the 6800, but the fact that it's a newer model, and the limited additional performance of the 6950, while not cost justified, gives me a bit more comfort level. And I need to decide quickly, as 6800's are either disappearing from stock, or being jacked up in price because of limited stock and captive demand. At Amazon alone, the specific 6800 XT card I am considering went up $300.00 in the past two days. It also increased the same or more at other major vendors.
 
Not that it is much of a price difference.. AMD reference 6950 XT show "new low price" for $699 and ready to "add to cart" now :)

1676057001985.png
 
The 4090 is also well over double the price for that performance. Idk, if you're even considering going from a $750 to nearly 2k, it tells me you never really had a budget to begin with.

*Edit* Disregard. Saw your next comment lol.
 
NightReaver said:
The 4090 is also well over double the price for that performance. Idk, if you're even considering going from a $750 to nearly 2k, it tells me you never really had a budget to begin with.

*Edit* Disregard. Saw your next comment lol.
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You've misunderstood my comments somehow. I was not, and would never even remotely consider spending anything like that amount on a GPU. I honestly wouldn't possibly consider spending over $1k even if I had that much available in the budget. Prices have gotten completely out of hand, and beyond logic in this category of component. And I've been building pc's for thirty years. I thought I had seen everything.
 
jlbenedict said:
Not that it is much of a price difference.. AMD reference 6950 XT show "new low price" for $699 and ready to "add to cart" now :)

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Thanks. But I would happily spend the extra $30.00 for a seriously well made, overcolcked, and near completely silent model that I am considering. Quiet operation is very important to me for a number of reasons.
 
SlapShot said:
Sorry, my post was overlapping your edit, and I had not yet seen it when I sent the response.
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It's all good. Wife would freak out if I told her I was even thinking about a 4090 lol. That and I refuse to support this new pricing structure from either company, really.
 
NightReaver said:
It's all good. Wife would freak out if I told her I was even thinking about a 4090 lol. That and I refuse to support this new pricing structure from either company, really.
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I completely understand and share your feelings on the matter.
 
I recently read the PC Gamer best graphic cards in 2023 article, and was surprised by this statement:

"We suggest avoiding the high-end RX 6950 XT and RTX 3090 Ti, as you'll be able to get more performance for your money in a few months"

I've done a ton of research, read reviews, compared graphs and checked every reference possible, and the 6950 XT keeps coming up as the only logical choice in my max budget of $800.00 category. I was all set to buy one, but the PC Hamer statement gave me pause. .

I'm seriously wondering what is coming out in the next few months that will truly provide more performance for the money. Except for the release of the 4090, which has been a while, and costs more than an entire quality pc these days. every new NVidia card has been essentially trashed by the reviewers. I cannot see anything coming from them that will possibly mater. EVGA has already announced they will no longer make nVidia GPU's, and I understand there are more likely more companies about to announce that too. Who can blame them when they continue to release GPU's that have crap performance, perform no better than older models (and in some cases worse) but cost much more? And as PC Gamer posed the question themselves "What has nVidia ever done for us?"

As I mentioned before, I have every piece of hardware necessary to build the new pc except the GPU. I CAN wait 2-3 months max, IF, for some reason that makes sense, and there will be a GPU if that will honestly give me a better performance option, dollar for dollar than a 6950 XT. The catch is that the entire 6000 series from AMD has been discontinued and are no longer being made. That means that 6950XT availability is already dropping and they will be gone soon. It won't be there as an option in a couple months.

I was ready to grab a high quality 6950 XT for $700.00, but I'm just not sure now. And I know I set my budget at a max of $750-800.00, but I would eat ramen noodles for a month and spend $900.00 for a good 7900 XTX, but I don't see that happening even in the next six months. .
 
SlapShot said:
I recently read the PC Gamer best graphic cards in 2023 article, and was surprised by this statement:

"We suggest avoiding the high-end RX 6950 XT and RTX 3090 Ti, as you'll be able to get more performance for your money in a few months"

I've done a ton of research, read reviews, compared graphs and checked every reference possible, and the 6950 XT keeps coming up as the only logical choice in my max budget of $800.00 category. I was all set to buy one, but the PC Hamer statement gave me pause. .

I'm seriously wondering what is coming out in the next few months that will truly provide more performance for the money. Except for the release of the 4090, which has been a while, and costs more than an entire quality pc these days. every new NVidia card has been essentially trashed by the reviewers. I cannot see anything coming from them that will possibly mater. EVGA has already announced they will no longer make nVidia GPU's, and I understand there are more likely more companies about to announce that too. Who can blame them when they continue to release GPU's that have crap performance, perform no better than older models (and in some cases worse) but cost much more? And as PC Gamer posed the question themselves "What has nVidia ever done for us?"

As I mentioned before, I have every piece of hardware necessary to build the new pc except the GPU. I CAN wait 2-3 months max, IF, for some reason that makes sense, and there will be a GPU if that will honestly give me a better performance option, dollar for dollar than a 6950 XT. The catch is that the entire 6000 series from AMD has been discontinued and are no longer being made. That means that 6950XT availability is already dropping and they will be gone soon. It won't be there as an option in a couple months.

I was ready to grab a high quality 6950 XT for $700.00, but I'm just not sure now. And I know I set my budget at a max of $750-800.00, but I would eat ramen noodles for a month and spend $900.00 for a good 7900 XTX, but I don't see that happening even in the next six months. .
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Any new card under the 4070 Ti or 7900 XT will be better.
 
SlapShot said:
I recently read the PC Gamer best graphic cards in 2023 article, and was surprised by this statement:

"We suggest avoiding the high-end RX 6950 XT and RTX 3090 Ti, as you'll be able to get more performance for your money in a few months"

I've done a ton of research, read reviews, compared graphs and checked every reference possible, and the 6950 XT keeps coming up as the only logical choice in my max budget of $800.00 category. I was all set to buy one, but the PC Hamer statement gave me pause. .

I'm seriously wondering what is coming out in the next few months that will truly provide more performance for the money. Except for the release of the 4090, which has been a while, and costs more than an entire quality pc these days. every new NVidia card has been essentially trashed by the reviewers. I cannot see anything coming from them that will possibly mater. EVGA has already announced they will no longer make nVidia GPU's, and I understand there are more likely more companies about to announce that too. Who can blame them when they continue to release GPU's that have crap performance, perform no better than older models (and in some cases worse) but cost much more? And as PC Gamer posed the question themselves "What has nVidia ever done for us?"

As I mentioned before, I have every piece of hardware necessary to build the new pc except the GPU. I CAN wait 2-3 months max, IF, for some reason that makes sense, and there will be a GPU if that will honestly give me a better performance option, dollar for dollar than a 6950 XT. The catch is that the entire 6000 series from AMD has been discontinued and are no longer being made. That means that 6950XT availability is already dropping and they will be gone soon. It won't be there as an option in a couple months.

I was ready to grab a high quality 6950 XT for $700.00, but I'm just not sure now. And I know I set my budget at a max of $750-800.00, but I would eat ramen noodles for a month and spend $900.00 for a good 7900 XTX, but I don't see that happening even in the next six months. .
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sk3tch said:
Any new card under the 4070 Ti or 7900 XT will be better.
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What sk3ch said.

Honestly surprised this thread is still going after goldentiger’s posts.

Buy the best nVidia card you can afford. There’s literally no justifying AMD unless it’s emotional, which is foolish.

At least buy AMD’s latest gen if you’re going to be like that.
 
I saw a 6950 XT on sale for 650 the other day. At that price, it's worth it. At 700 it's still a decent purchase.
 
Decko87 said:
I saw a 6950 XT on sale for 650 the other day. At that price, it's worth it. At 700 it's still a decent purchase.
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Today, sure. But in like weeks the new cards come out.

There's a reason why Micro Center all of a sudden has tons of them...

Screenshot 2023-02-19 at 8.25.38 PM.png
 
sk3tch said:
Today, sure. But in like weeks the new cards come out.

There's a reason why Micro Center all of a sudden has tons of them...

View attachment 550397
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Kind of doubting the 4070 will be faster, also is there a chance its 8 gb of vram? It'll be more efficient, but I don't know what I'd want one for 4k, I'd rather have a 6950 xt which is pretty close to the 4070 ti and a 7900 XT. Also, I'm guessing the 7800 XT is going to be roughly the same speed as the 6950 xt considering how much of a let down the performance on the 7900 XT was (just barely faster than the 6950xt).
 
Decko87 said:
Kind of doubting the 4070 will be faster, also is there a chance its 8 gb of vram? It'll be more efficient, but I don't know what I'd want one for 4k, I'd rather have a 6950 xt which is pretty close to the 4070 ti and a 7900 XT. Also, I'm guessing the 7800 XT is going to be roughly the same speed as the 6950 xt considering how much of a let down the performance on the 7900 XT was (just barely faster than the 6950xt).
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Good points.

I guess I still get a migraine about this entire conversation because a measly $100 will swing this dude to the right card versus all of this hand wrangling over buying last gen stuff.
 
SlapShot said:
I recently read the PC Gamer best graphic cards in 2023 article, and was surprised by this statement:

"We suggest avoiding the high-end RX 6950 XT and RTX 3090 Ti, as you'll be able to get more performance for your money in a few months"

I've done a ton of research, read reviews, compared graphs and checked every reference possible, and the 6950 XT keeps coming up as the only logical choice in my max budget of $800.00 category. I was all set to buy one, but the PC Hamer statement gave me pause. .

I'm seriously wondering what is coming out in the next few months that will truly provide more performance for the money. Except for the release of the 4090, which has been a while, and costs more than an entire quality pc these days. every new NVidia card has been essentially trashed by the reviewers. I cannot see anything coming from them that will possibly mater. EVGA has already announced they will no longer make nVidia GPU's, and I understand there are more likely more companies about to announce that too. Who can blame them when they continue to release GPU's that have crap performance, perform no better than older models (and in some cases worse) but cost much more? And as PC Gamer posed the question themselves "What has nVidia ever done for us?"

As I mentioned before, I have every piece of hardware necessary to build the new pc except the GPU. I CAN wait 2-3 months max, IF, for some reason that makes sense, and there will be a GPU if that will honestly give me a better performance option, dollar for dollar than a 6950 XT. The catch is that the entire 6000 series from AMD has been discontinued and are no longer being made. That means that 6950XT availability is already dropping and they will be gone soon. It won't be there as an option in a couple months.

I was ready to grab a high quality 6950 XT for $700.00, but I'm just not sure now. And I know I set my budget at a max of $750-800.00, but I would eat ramen noodles for a month and spend $900.00 for a good 7900 XTX, but I don't see that happening even in the next six months. .
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Something to keep in mind about articles like that one is that often they're written several weeks before they get published. The author was probably alluding to the current generation of GPUs from AMD and Nvidia. Which was either under an extreme NDA or simply pure speculation when that piece was originally written.
 
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