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Worst video card market ever?

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lavaheadache

Gawd
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Oct 19, 2011
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Aside from the covid shortage and mining boom, this is easily in my opinion the worst time ever to be a video card enthusiast. Performance increases just aren't there, Prices are sky high, Inventory is non existent. Even 5-6 year old cards are relatively super expensive.

I was "lucky" enough to grab a reference 6900xt for only a $150 over msrp in the covid shortage and thankfully even at 5120x1440 the card still holds it's own. Sure, I would love to replace it so I could get an uptick in frames in a few select scenarios where I "make due" with a couple boxes unchecked or a slight stutter here or there. Seriously though, I'm pretty fed up with situation as a whole.

Like a lot of the people on this forum, I've been on this ride since the beginning of 3d acceleration. While I still enjoy getting lost in a great game and tinkering with my builds, the graphics card segment plain ole sucks at this point. I've really come to appreciate other aspects of gaming.

Sure, a new video card would be nice but would it really change my experience? That's an honest and unfortunate no.....

However, if you took the Buttkicker Gamer Plus off my seat my experience would be immediately dulled. If you took my Steam Deck away from me, I would immediately be stripped of a lot of gameplay opportunity. If you took away my force feedback racing setup or ultra wide monitor I would miss out on another great level of immersion.

I guess the point I'm making is that I've reached a point where AMD and Nvidia have done a great job of alienating a die hard video card guy. I bought a new card every generation, not just because I wanted to, but because you just COULD. There was the want, the need, and the ability too. There was the power of choice to pick the card you wanted not the one you had to settle for.

Anyways, cheers to all of you people still here in the tech forums, a much better place to be than the social media pages. I still show up here and lurk in the background but really dont post at all anymore. I gave up on Anandtech long ago even though that was my original go-to.

Sorry for the ramble, guess that's what happens as you approach 50.
 
I said something to that extent very recently:

StoleMyOwnCar said:
What's sad about this is that I have occasionally looked at my Microcenters to just see if they had some good open box graphics card stock. Guess how much they have? None. They have a few pro cards at BOTH of the ones near me, and then it immediately drops down to 4060/Ti (which we all know are a shittastic deal). Maybe a couple of overpriced 7800XTs. Open box, there's nothing but trash.

Meanwhile, this person gets it from Walmart.

If I was a gamer looking to get into PC building right now, this situation would simply make me incredibly jaded and pessimistic. This isn't too great of a place for PC gaming to be in. Fuck Nvidia for this situation, overall.

The 5090 issues are a rich man's problem, but this release cycle has screwed over gamers everywhere, holistically speaking.
Click to expand...

Nvidia is the market leader and has exacerbated this further with its decisions and greed. This is where complete lack of competition gets us. With import tariffs, it's only going to get worse, too. Maybe that's why AMD decided to hold back its release. Too much uncertainty?

Probably one of the worst times in recent history to build a gaming PC specifically. To be clear, a gaming PC is far from a necessity, it's a luxury. However, it's silly when essentially your only options for GPUs are shitty overpriced 4060s that perform like trash. There's no good budget card anymore, that stopped existing. The only wins are based on getting lucky.
 
Yeah - it's bad, so bad that I think it's contributing to me really falling in love with consoles and PC handhelds (read: PS5 Pro and ROG Ally).

Some would argue the height of the last mining craze the GPU market was bad, but at least mining paid for the overpriced GPU that time. This time, there is no such caveat and the performance gains (and exciting software) isn't there.
 
I bought my 7900 xtx back in December for $820. I can probably get $1000-1100 now for it. I’m thinking about holding onto my 1080ti for a bit longer. Stupid market right now.

And for the record, this isn’t because of tariffs……. It’s NVidia shorting the gaming market of cards and artificially inflating everything.

I was really hoping to snag a 5080 but it’s a joke out there.
 
Yeah it’s pretty bleak. Find something now somehow and overpay or take the gamble that by spring/ summer cards will be easier to get. Probably over pay then too.
 
A fool and their money are easily separated. This is what the market is creating and praying on. Creating fomo, when there isn't really anything to be excited about and then creating a shortage and charging up the butt for it. Where's 3d vision now? Where's proprietary gpu accelerated physx now? At least those were pushing the proverbial ball forward. Now we get fake frames and fake resolution and melting power connectors (lol) All which actually suck in comparison to older tech advances.
 
peppergomez said:
Yep it's bleakaf. I am 2+ years overdo for a new system but the pricing and availability of GPUs in particular is so unreasonable I keep putting it off
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I don't think that pricing is going to change anytime soon. If you're hellbent on Nvidia, it's only going to get worse. If you can "suffer" like some of us, you can probably get your hands on a pretty robust 7900 XT(X) for a decent price and it's good enough for damn near everything. Just missing all the proprietary shit Nvidia is known for.
 
Another view point that I've been having....

Nvidia wants you to think that asking them to make a gaming card is like asking a fine cabinet maker to build you a wooden square box. They'll build you a box but by golly are you going to have to get in line and pay for it dearly. The reality is that AMD I'd already providing
nearly everyone already with gaming devices with playstation, xbox, and handheld other than switch. Where they are missing the mark is that most people likely have no idea they are already playing on AMD hardware yet coveting the green team when it comes to PC gaming. I dont get it.

I say this all as being relatively brand agnostic from a consumer stand point.

Give me a compelling product that provides what I'm looking for and I'll consider it.


The real insanity is that AMD cards almost always come out in the end being just as good as the competition or even slightly better depending on the angle. Look back and you'll see the trend. AMD cards just age way better. Viral marketing and paying developers to prioritize first is usually how Nvidia wins out of the door performance.
 
Last edited:
StoleMyOwnCar said:
I said something to that extent very recently:



Nvidia is the market leader and has exacerbated this further with its decisions and greed. This is where complete lack of competition gets us. With import tariffs, it's only going to get worse, too. Maybe that's why AMD decided to hold back its release. Too much uncertainty?

Probably one of the worst times in recent history to build a gaming PC specifically. To be clear, a gaming PC is far from a necessity, it's a luxury. However, it's silly when essentially your only options for GPUs are shitty overpriced 4060s that perform like trash. There's no good budget card anymore, that stopped existing. The only wins are based on getting lucky.
Click to expand...
B570/580 enters chat. You have Xbox and ps5 also.
 
doz said:
I bought my 7900 xtx back in December for $820. I can probably get $1000-1100 now for it. I’m thinking about holding onto my 1080ti for a bit longer. Stupid market right now.

And for the record, this isn’t because of tariffs……. It’s NVidia shorting the gaming market of cards and artificially inflating everything.

I was really hoping to snag a 5080 but it’s a joke out there.
Click to expand...

This exactly.. we haven't even seen any potential affects from tariffs as of yet...
It could get worse
 
Legendary Gamer said:
I don't think that pricing is going to change anytime soon. If you're hellbent on Nvidia, it's only going to get worse. If you can "suffer" like some of us, you can probably get your hands on a pretty robust 7900 XT(X) for a decent price and it's good enough for damn near everything. Just missing all the proprietary shit Nvidia is known for.
Click to expand...
I'm waiting for the AMD GPU launch in March and hoping that will a reasonably priced card that can do a good enough job at 4k with better RT and power usage than the 79000xtx

I will do my best not to get ripped off by NVIDIA
 
No, we aren't even close to the worst time ever. There is still inventory on the shelves in the mid range and entry level that's not overpriced. When we were in the crypto boom and pandemic shortages there was literally NOTHING to buy without paying stupid prices for.
 
It'll get better. Like all markets, they fluctuate. There's the AMD 9070 XT and 9070 arriving within a month. Then there's the RTX 5070 Ti and 5070. Most likely more Intel B550's in stock. If enough of the mid to lower range graphics cards are released that aren't bought out by scalpers, the market will "normalize", and you'll see a lot of the older cards in the used market plummet. But yeah, right now it's bad.
 
Oh man. I ran up to Microcenter for some ram just now. Got here about 5 mins before open and of course there is a line. I was 4th. They opened and I followed everyone to the GPUs because why not. The rep stated they had one open box MSI Suprim 5080. The first guy took it of course and immediately went to the parking lot to take pics and post it for sale…
 
CraptacularOne said:
No, we aren't even close to the worst time ever. There is still inventory on the shelves in the mid range and entry level that's not overpriced. When we were in the crypto boom and pandemic shortages there was literally NOTHING to buy without paying stupid prices for.
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I already addressed this point in the OP. THOSE were external extreme situations. I'm talking a new normal.
 
I got a 3090 paid for and then some thanks to mining (along with the kids 3060 ti's) and have yet to see a reason to upgrade. Honestly, it is really only bad at the high end. Price and performance are not that bad in the low to mid.
 
The fact that even Intel's "flagship" B580 is hard to get your hands on should tell you all that needs to be said about the current market.
 
vegeta535 said:
B570/580 enters chat.
Click to expand...

No it doesn't. Last I checked, those are incredibly hard to get your hands on. And then unfortunately further testing uncovered severe flaws in the way they operate, so that they're incredibly CPU limited.

As far as consoles, that's pretty irrelevant. I was never addressing consoles. Consoles are consoles, PC gaming is PC gaming.
 
No drop today oh well. The market does suck. Don’t let it suck away your enjoyment of hobbies. They’re a luxury not a right. I didn’t get a card today so now I’m working on my new gecko vivarium and finishing up my Lego “The Endurance” set. Gotta be stoic about this shit because we can’t change the situation by being angry. Life’s too short!
 
NVIDIA isn't alone to blame here. AMD has decided to not pursue the high end and this upcoming release is going to be no faster than their current cards. They really missed the mark here, upcoming FSR tech is looking much better and even if they only had achieved 75% of the 4090 it would have been a huge win. Instead, they are matching the 4080 at a much better price but that's not really getting me into the next gen when I have a 4070ti. I hope Intel keeps going.
 
lavaheadache said:
I already addressed this point in the OP. THOSE were external extreme situations. I'm talking a new normal.
Click to expand...
This isn't a new normal, this is just a temporary blip and it happens literally every time a new generation of cards is released. Stock on older models dries up, people panic buy all high end cards causing a shortage and the supply normalizes after a few weeks/months and it's back to normal. You really need to settle down man, it hasn't even been a week and you're already proclaiming this as the new normal? LOL kids these days......
 
obs said:
I got a 3090 paid for and then some thanks to mining (along with the kids 3060 ti's) and have yet to see a reason to upgrade. Honestly, it is really only bad at the high end. Price and performance are not that bad in the low to mid.
Click to expand...
This is a good point, you have options if you're OK with used and searching in the low-to-mid range market.

Just last week, a family member had picked up a set of 1070's for dirt cheap ($40 a piece, I think) - seller wanted them gone since "SLI is dead". That's true about SLI, but as individual cards, those are only a bit slower than a used 3050 (going for 3-4x the price).
 
doz said:
I bought my 7900 xtx back in December for $820. I can probably get $1000-1100 now for it. I’m thinking about holding onto my 1080ti for a bit longer. Stupid market right now.

And for the record, this isn’t because of tariffs……. It’s NVidia shorting the gaming market of cards and artificially inflating everything.

I was really hoping to snag a 5080 but it’s a joke out there.
Click to expand...
I also got a 7900 xtx last year for around $850. I won't be parting with it anytime soon.
Last good deal I got on a launch was when I scored a Vega7 on launch day for MSRP. Apparently I was one of the few to land that one, however.
 
lavaheadache said:
Another view point that I've been having....

Nvidia wants you to think that asking them to make a gaming card is like asking a fine cabinet maker to build you a wooden square box. They'll build you a box but by golly are you going to have to get in line and pay for it dearly. The reality is that AMD I'd already providing
nearly everyone already with gaming devices with playstation, xbox, and handheld other than switch. Where they are missing the mark is that most people likely have no idea they are already playing on AMD hardware yet coveting the green team when it comes to PC gaming. I dont get it.
Click to expand...
Most PC gamers do not give a shit about consoles or mobile devices. Or, if they do AMD is the only game in town for mobile devices outside of laptops. Therefore its irrelevant. The fact that AMD hardware is good enough to run console games isn't an indicator that the same is true for PC gaming. PC games have quality and visual settings above and beyond those of consoles. Also, consoles are what they are but that doesn't mean their performance is good. There are a lot of games where you have to choose 30FPS mode or potato mode visuals to hit 60FPS. On a PC, I need not make that choice.
lavaheadache said:
I say this all as being relatively brand agnostic from a consumer stand point.

Give me a compelling product that provides what I'm looking for and I'll consider it.
Click to expand...
I'd be fine buying another AMD card if they actually competed on the high end. That's the only market I personally care about. I'm only interested in the top two cards on the market at any given time. NVIDIA most often competes with itself here.
lavaheadache said:
The real insanity is that AMD cards almost always come out in the end being just as good as the competition or even slightly better depending on the angle.
Click to expand...
No they aren't. On the high end, AMD hasn't competed seriously in several years. The 7900XTX is roughly equivalent to a 4080 Super and comes with some caveats you do not have with NVIDIA cards. The idea that AMD cards are "jUsT aS gUd" as NVIDIA's is laughable and they aren't even close to being slightly better. The 7900XTX competes with the 4080 Super on both price and performance and there is a pretty big gap between the 4080 Super and the 4090. AMD's cards are significantly worse than NVIDIA's offerings at ray tracing. DLSS, proprietary or not typically provides better results than FSR does. So objectively, the 7900XTX is worse than the 4080 Super, the 4090, the 5080 and the 5090. My guess is that it will probably be beaten by the 5070Ti which puts the 7900XTX as fifth in line for performance.

Even before the launch of NVIDIA's 50 series, the 7900XTX just didn't compete well. It's priced about the same as the 4080 Super while throating whale dick at ray tracing. Not really a deal and not good enough as far as I'm concerned. I couldn't give a shit about 1080P or 1440P gaming. The fact that the 7900XTX is fast enough for some people is irrelevant to me. It's not great for people pushing 3840x2160 and higher displays who want to max out the visuals in the latest AAA games.

If you need an "angle" to see one product as better than another you are doing mental gymnastics to convince yourself that something is good when it objectively isn't.
lavaheadache said:
Look back and you'll see the trend. AMD cards just age way better. Viral marketing and paying developers to prioritize first is usually how Nvidia wins out of the door performance.
Click to expand...
This statement just doesn't make any sense. NVIDIA wins the performance because their cards are faster and have features that AMD cards do not or they execute similar features much better. NVIDIA has a lead on AMD when it comes to hardware and software. There are a lot of business related reasons for that but it is what it is. As for AMD's cards aging better, I think that's more copium. Oh I remember the article talking about their drivers aging like a fine wine or some such shit but I couldn't care less who's faster 5-10 years from now. I rarely keep a GPU more than one or two generations.

AMD vs. NVIDIA is usually a battle in the bread and butter segments and that's where AMD does OK when it prices itself accordingly. I'm not arguing against their value in certain segments. That's all fine but on the high end, AMD has been a joke for awhile. Their cards aren't "jUsT aS gUd" as NVIDIA's. People flock towards team green because AMD has nothing that competes with the high end segment at all.

atom said:
NVIDIA isn't alone to blame here. AMD has decided to not pursue the high end and this upcoming release is going to be no faster than their current cards. They really missed the mark here, upcoming FSR tech is looking much better and even if they only had achieved 75% of the 4090 it would have been a huge win. Instead, they are matching the 4080 at a much better price but that's not really getting me into the next gen when I have a 4070ti. I hope Intel keeps going.
Click to expand...
I think that's some marketing guy lying through his teeth. They aren't pursuing the higher end market because they can't. I'm sure they tried to internally but their designs just don't scale well enough or perform well enough for whatever reason to get close. It's unfortunate because if AMD could compete here we'd see lower prices and I'd be able to walk into Microcenter a week or two after a product launches and buy whatever off the shelf.
 
I'm just tired of these shortages. I don't care if it's because of demand, crypto, the pandemic, A.I., or anything else... this happens way too much these days.
Back in the day I could just grab whatever card that I wanted. Tech has gotten so popular now that I don't see how this gets better.
We just have to continue to avoid scalpers like the plague and hope availability improves since EVGA isn't here to do the queue system anymore (which is how I got my current 3090).
 
I'm satisfied with good enough. The skyrocketing prices from the 30xx series on weighed heavily on settling for a system that doesn't necessarily provide as many frames as possible, but provides a playable experience without needing to upgrade every few years. The game market is over saturated with flavors of the same game, uniqueness seems to have been lost to most developers, and the "advancements" in technology in regard to GPU's have been almost insulting for what they think their value is. There should be a separation between AI hardware and GPU hardware. It seems like everything has been growing more out of sync for at least five years. The new approaches seem to not be genuine, they're chinese knockoff frames thrown in to make the number higher, the quality of the frames are being degraded by guestimations. In my life I don't accept degraded knockoffs as what I'm doing, I role with authenticity and all of the new tech just seems like it's a bunch of bullshit to sell more cards at higher prices. We're overdue for real change, optimization can only go so far. The minute details just aren't what I'm paying attention to when I'm playing a game, I'm playing for the overall feel and trying to be one with the character, not sit and gawk at a texture or whatever. Things really don't look that much different than they did 15 years ago overall and it just seems like gimmicky money grabs are getting out of control.
 
Dan_D said:
DLSS, proprietary or not typically provides better results than FSR does. So objectively, the 7900XTX is worse than the 4080 Super, the 4090, the 5080 and the 5090. My guess is that it will probably be beaten by the 5070Ti which puts the 7900XTX as fifth in line for performance.
Click to expand...

I think this is the big nail in the coffin for AMD, and why they're holding off a bit to try to improve their AI tech. It's not because they want to, but because right now Nvidia is technically better on all fronts. For longevity, with the strides DLSS is making, I think it's only copium to try to say that FSR is actually in any way caught up to it. It isn't. And it's not going to at this rate. A tiny bit of Nvidia's resources being taken up by DLSS research is enough to completely outstrip any progress AMD makes in that department. So you can buy an Nvidia card, and know that with DLSS it's probably going to perform even on newer titles. My 2080 RTX is doing fine in Jedi Survivor solely because of DLSS, even at 4k, and the game still looks great. Granted FSR still performs "fine", but can anyone honestly sit here and tell themselves that FSR is just as good? I don't think they can.

Hell my laptop with a 4060 mobile chip is even playing Jedi Survivor.

I have no idea how the heck AMD is going to catch this bus, or how anything outside of a government breakup is going to stop Nvidia.
 
In canada you can still get 4070 super and 7800xt near msrp (with the current usd to cad exchange rate)

https://www.canadacomputers.com/en/...c-evo-12gb-gddr6x-dual-rtx4070s-o12g-evo.html
https://www.canadacomputers.com/en/...oc-edition-16gb-gddr6-dual-rx7800xt-o16g.html

It could have been worst at the peak of the first crypto spike as well (you could get some cards if you did not minded the exact skus are ready to pay a lot), not just the during covid one. Above that bar seem to be real thin here too.
 
Echo rant: I’m in a similar boat as OP. Over 2 years ago, I decided that I would be a day-one buyer of the 4080 at $800, and if NV got greedy and priced it at $900, I would hem and haw, but probably still pay it. Then it came out at $1,200, which was a hard pass. NV’s $800 4070 Ti was barely an upgrade from my 6800 XT and a big downgrade in VRAM, also a hard pass. By the time the 4080S showed up at $999, I was no longer willing to pay $800-900 for a 4080-equivalent because time had marched on. Now we have essentially the same 4080 for the 3rd time and 4th calendar year in a row, still $999. No thanks, buddy. I’ll pay $650 tops for a 4080 or equivalent, no more, and the 16 GB VRAM that looked good in late 2022 is starting to look pretty paltry, too. Time marches on, and so do my expectations. FSR may be a full year behind DLSS, but support is improving, which means my 6800 XT gets a free upgrade with every passing month. I do wish I had DLSS, but I’m glad I don’t have to suffer the 3080’s 10 GB VRAM, and I don’t need my eyes gouged out at the checkout line.

Since prices have risen for existing cards, I might sell my 6800 XT in a few weeks if I can clear $400 and then grab a 9070 XT 4-6 weeks later if AMD doesn’t go crazy with pricing, or a heavily-discounted 7900 XT or GRE if they do. It’s not the level of performance I want, but it’s the most I’m willing to pay in this awful GPU market.
 
doz said:
I bought my 7900 xtx back in December for $820. I can probably get $1000-1100 now for it. I’m thinking about holding onto my 1080ti for a bit longer. Stupid market right now.

And for the record, this isn’t because of tariffs……. It’s NVidia shorting the gaming market of cards and artificially inflating everything.

I was really hoping to snag a 5080 but it’s a joke out there.
Click to expand...
It's hard to argue for selling a 3k GPU when you can sell it for $30k, or 70k...

We need more fabs. We need a LOT more fabs. Everyone switching to TSMC has fucked us badly.
 
arthur_tuxedo said:
heavily-discounted 7900 XT or GRE if they do
Click to expand...
Heavily discounted 7900xt will be hard to find, if 9070xt-9070 does not push (the very few still around, pcpart picker has none under $945 available to ship) them down

Best buy seem empty, microcenter seem all out of stock, AMD last quarter result Sue said they were really aggressive in pricing to clean the channel dry, could just be an excuse for the low revenues. If something nice like heavily-discounted 7900xt exist again, that will be because we are out of a bad gpu market.
 
lopoetve said:
It's hard to argue for selling a 3k GPU when you can sell it for $30k, or 70k...

We need more fabs. We need a LOT more fabs. Everyone switching to TSMC has fucked us badly.
Click to expand...
There are a lot of fabs and increasing, but demand for AI silicon has increased exponentially.
 
CraptacularOne said:
No, we aren't even close to the worst time ever. There is still inventory on the shelves in the mid range and entry level that's not overpriced. When we were in the crypto boom and pandemic shortages there was literally NOTHING to buy without paying stupid prices for.
Click to expand...
To be fair he did exempt those two circumstances in the OP. It is reminiscent of those times.
 
LukeTbk said:
Heavily discounted 7900xt will be hard to find, if 9070xt-9070 does not push (the very few still around, pcpart picker has none under $945 available to ship) them down

Best buy seem empty, microcenter seem all out of stock, AMD last quarter result Sue said they were really aggressive in pricing to clean the channel dry, could just be an excuse for the low revenues. If something nice like heavily-discounted 7900xt exist again, that will be because we are out of a bad gpu market.
Click to expand...
I meant second-hand. I snagged a 7900 XTX about 4-6 months ago via Amazon Marketplace in Used - Acceptable condition for $707, although it turned out to be DOA and I had to send it back. If the 9070 XT has close-enough performance with better efficiency and ray-tracing, but AMD gets greedy and prices it at $700, that should still push the XTX down to $600 or better, and the 7900 XT to hopefully $500 or better. I would consider that a good enough value to tide me over until the 60x0 vs UDNA wars in 2026.
 
The situation is perfectly ripe for AMD to make a comeback in the GPU market and correct pricing to more acceptable levels. Unfortunately, they tend to be over optimistic about how people view the value of their products. $50-100 is not going to be enough when AMD is considered lacking in many features. I don't think most gamers care about frame generation but better upscaling and RT performance is a must for anyone spending over $500.
 
obs said:
There are a lot of fabs and increasing, but demand for AI silicon has increased exponentially.
Click to expand...
Are they online and producing yield at node for this kind of product to make up for the silicon being more complicated to do...
https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-i...growth-now-comes-from-more-expensive-products
nearly all semiconductor industry growth now comes from more expensive products, not higher production volumes

TSMC's wafer shipments prove just that: the world's No.1 foundry shipped 2,957 million 300-mm equivalent wafters in Q4 2023, down from 3,702 million in Q4 2022 and below three million for the first time since 2020. However, it only saw a slight drop in revenue.

Did the rise in fabs, made up for the diminishing yield of those more and more complex (bigger die, more complex nodes) product people do ? And how more step (time) per wafer are now required, making a wafer is now well over 1,000 steps.
 
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