High-end video card shortages

[3.0L]

Just curious if any of you gamers have been looking to upgrade your video card and how you might have solved the problem (or not).

I recently upgraded my home built computer with a new ASUS ROG Crosshair Hero VIII motherboard and AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-core CPU. I had planned to replace my aging nVidia GTX 1080 video card with an nVidia RTX 3080, but couldn't find one anywhere at a reasonable price, or find one at all. Lately, the RTX 3080's seem to be shipping directly from China and at a very high cost. Also, there is the risk of getting a (very) used one if going that route. So, I passed.

Then yesterday I noticed that Newegg was advertising ASRock Radeon RX6900XT Phantom 16GB video cards, shipped from their own facility. Although I would've preferred the RTX 3080, I decided to go with the AMD Radeon video card. It should arrive today, so after the installation and some game testing (MS FS 2020), I'll report back with my impressions.

[shiftdnb]

I've been looking since they came out. You have to be really diligent about checking various websites selling them at certain times. For instance Best Buy usually has their stock updates on Thursdays from what I've seen. What frustrated me the most and basically put me off from constantly monitoring the sites was I would get a card in my cart, go to pay for it and then it would be gone.

[Frostynorth]

Stopped looking this past summer, the prices are getting insane and would be CPU limited with a 3080 anyways (6700k). Gonna wait till things calm down and go for a full build.

[BMWdmk]

Sign up for the Newegg shuffle

They have it everyday. There is a list of various cards and PC components that you would select for an "opportunity" to purchase. Several hours after the shuffle ends, you may get chosen to purchase one of your selections (maybe more). I've successfully got my card but it took a while. They also shuffle in some PS5 and Xbox from time to time as the list changes everyday.

[3.0L]

My ASRock Radeon RX 6900 XT Phantom Gaming OC Edition video card arrived from NewEgg yesterday. I'm pleased to say that it is factory-new and unmolested.

Since this video card is the OC Edition (Over Clocked), it has three 8-pin power sockets as opposed to two 8-pin power sockets on the standard Radeon 6900 XT. I didn't have enough cables in my stash of computer goodies, so I had to order more cables. I do have a daisy-chain cable, but that is not recommended. It is preferable to have one cable per power supply socket. My Corsair 850w power supply has plenty of ports for the extra cables.

So, to be continued on Monday.

[oVeRdOsE.]

1st , prices makes no sens, even on reputed seller. If cost/value ratio matter for you, keep the 1080, this card still awesome.
If cost dont matter, well 4 way :

- EVGA queue list, got mine in 9-10 months.

- Go out in a sotre, find's out near my place they don't send stock notice on their website, nor ship. So went for a HDD, and there was 20 GPU , 3080ti, 3060, 3060ti, 3090, and few AMD.

Bought a 3060 for my bro, back in september

- Get a built PC with a 3080 and see if someone around you need a new PC with a 1080, so you can sell it.

- local store per-purchace waiting list; here there's a 3-4 month waiting, faster than EVGA tho





At the end, it still make no sens, back in the days I bought a gtx960 4gb strix, for 220$ new at the store.

And now, the MSI 3060 cost me 715$ new , at the store.

3060 are selling around 950$ on FB.

(cad $)

Year to Year comparison, 960 and 3060 bring you the same gaming experience, and inflation is way way way out.


at least the 1080 has some value (here is around 800-900$ used), so you can cut the cost a bit.

[3.0L]

Originally Posted by oVeRdOsE.

1st , prices makes no sens, even on reputed seller. If cost/value ratio matter for you, keep the 1080, this card still awesome.
If cost dont matter, well 4 way :

- EVGA queue list, got mine in 9-10 months.

- Go out in a sotre, find's out near my place they don't send stock notice on their website, nor ship. So went for a HDD, and there was 20 GPU , 3080ti, 3060, 3060ti, 3090, and few AMD.

Bought a 3060 for my bro, back in september

- Get a built PC with a 3080 and see if someone around you need a new PC with a 1080, so you can sell it.

- local store per-purchace waiting list; here there's a 3-4 month waiting, faster than EVGA tho





At the end, it still make no sens, back in the days I bought a gtx960 4gb strix, for 220$ new at the store.

And now, the MSI 3060 cost me 715$ new , at the store.

3060 are selling around 950$ on FB.

(cad $)

Year to Year comparison, 960 and 3060 bring you the same gaming experience, and inflation is way way way out.


at least the 1080 has some value (here is around 800-900$ used), so you can cut the cost a bit.

I tried that approach. I ordered an entry-level Omen gaming computer at HP with the optional upgrade to an RTX 3080. Everything seemed to progress until 2 days before the build and ship date. HP cancelled my order citing, "material shortages." They didn't specify, but my guess it was the RTX 3080 shortage.

I'm running Microsoft Flight Sim 2020 and it requires a beefy video card to get the details. With my GTX 1080 video card, I have to run all of the detail settings on low to get decent frame rates. I think the Radeon RX 6900 XT will solve that problem very nicely.

[Crazyprac]

Newegg shuffle and microcenter. When I finally decided to upgrade my 1080 a few month back I thought it would take me awhile to find a 3080 and above. Took me 3 days with Newegg shuffle. My local microcenter has them in stock early morning most weeks.

[3.0L]

Originally Posted by Crazyprac

Newegg shuffle and microcenter. When I finally decided to upgrade my 1080 a few month back I thought it would take me awhile to find a 3080 and above. Took me 3 days with Newegg shuffle. My local microcenter has them in stock early morning most weeks.

Nice! Get a grip on your wallet!

[M-technik-3]

Originally Posted by dmkaldas

Sign up for the Newegg shuffle

They have it everyday. There is a list of various cards and PC components that you would select for an "opportunity" to purchase. Several hours after the shuffle ends, you may get chosen to purchase one of your selections (maybe more). I've successfully got my card but it took a while. They also shuffle in some PS5 and Xbox from time to time as the list changes everyday.

Buddy got a 3080 last week that way plus a mother board.

[///d]

I'm not sure what the prices were because they weren't listed, but here in Kuwait I was surprised to find multiple 3060s and 3080s available on the shelf at a few stores. They also have multiple PS5 and Xbox X on shelf and the prices aren't inflated. They actually have a pretty good bundle package for the PS5, one of the guys here picked up a PS5, headset, extra controller, and a couple games for just under $500.

[BMWdmk]

Originally Posted by M-technik-3

Buddy got a 3080 last week that way plus a mother board.

I did notice they had great motherboard + RTX card combos

I was just selected last week for a new xbox. Unfortunately the meeting I was in at the time ran long and I missed my window to purchase. Next time...

[3.0L]

I installed my new video card yesterday, along with the required additional power cable (three 8-pin power cables). It launched just fine, but my 2nd monitor wasn't responding. So, I installed AMD's latest video drivers and bingo, 2nd monitor comes to life.

So now the acid test: Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020. I'm delighted to report that the Frame Rates are running between 100 and 125 FPS with the sim settings on "High End", meaning video details are increased.

My out-going GTX 1080 card really struggled with FS 2020 and could barely hit 30 FPS with details turned down. Also, the 1080 fans really cranked up (I could feel much heat coming out of the computer case). Not so with the new RX 6900 XT - the fans are real quiet.

So all in all, I'm really stoked with this upgrade and now butter-smooth sim performance!

[///d]

Originally Posted by 3.0L

I installed my new video card yesterday, along with the required additional power cable (three 8-pin power cables). It launched just fine, but my 2nd monitor wasn't responding. So, I installed AMD's latest video drivers and bingo, 2nd monitor comes to life.

So now the acid test: Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020. I'm delighted to report that the Frame Rates are running between 100 and 125 FPS with the sim settings on "High End", meaning video details are increased.

My out-going GTX 1080 card really struggled with FS 2020 and could barely hit 30 FPS with details turned down. Also, the 1080 fans really cranked up (I could feel much heat coming out of the computer case). Not so with the new RX 6900 XT - the fans are real quiet.

So all in all, I'm really stoked with this upgrade and now butter-smooth sim performance!

Off topic, kind of, but in MS Flight Sim what kind of difference does it make when using the high bandwidth sat imagery vs the low bandwidth? I don't have high speed where I'm at so I can't try the sat imagery yet, but even the low bandwidth stuff is pretty good considering it's all AI generating everything as you fly.

[3.0L]

If I'm following you, I'm seeing virtually stutter-free terrain updates when in the "High End" settings, even when flying fighter jets going mach-snot. The details are fantastic. Also, I have a cable modem that is providing ~115 MBs, if that helps, too.

[Ghilou]

Prices are ridiculous for GPU. My mobo fried right when i started to get more time playing so i figured i was due for a rig update.

I could get a decent cpu upgrade which would bring next to nothing to the table (even though i run a 8yo i5 cpu) but upgrading my GPU would set me back 2000€ and I'm not even getting anything super high end.

Instead of doing a system upgrade and keeping my 1080ti, which would have been a costy business for no performance improvement, i went cloud gaming.

No cloud gaming solution is a clear winner right now. I went for Shadow, because it could play all the games i wanted to play, albeit with poorer performances (1080 gpu and old cpu). Also shadow has the best streaming experience. No perceptible latency (don't try to play competitive fps though) and perfect image quality.

Geforce now was a good choice, but no support for >1080 gaming make it sucks on my screen. I felt there was a latency in inputs but it might warrant further testing. Most importantly you are very limited in what you can play, so I'll go gforce now when there's a clear AAA i want to play with best visual quality. CP77 was supposed to be it, but i had other stuff to do when it released so now it's lost its appeal.

Stadia was supposed to be the second coming of christ if you listen to its supporters, but even under ideal conditions (very good bandwidth/latency, playing with the stadia controller) i never could have a gaming session that was not laggy or blurry or both. And the business model is lame.

And then there's xbox cloud or whatever its called these days. Its very promising because the idea of streaming the xbox catalog from a single subscription is nice. But its still lacking technically, probably because its actual xboxes in a data center streaming games. I'm using my game pass subscription to play octopath traveller and its much much better being installed in the Shadow VM than streamed directly from xbox cloud.

[oVeRdOsE.]

cloud gaming is the future, and will become better with quantum PC and wifi remote controls.

even without crypto, I believe gaming rig will be mopre expensive, since demand will decrease, people are more into tablets, consoles and laptop now.

I was surprised that the other PC component didn't got a major price increase.
ssd, psu, cpu ; still about the same , including the normal inflation.
Mobo increased a bit, but not by much. Only ITX mobo double in price for an unknown reason .

I hit a 12600k, micro atx asus mobo, 32gb ddr4 3600 and 970 evo 1TB ssd : only this was about 950$ cad.
Then 770$ cad for a 3060ti.

I would say, med speced pc.

Roll back 3-4 years from now, and for that kind of money you'll be near the top-end PC available for general consumers.

Great upgrade over my 2012, 3770k, 16gb ddr3, old PC. back then it was the top PC money can buy....

[stevenc]

Pretty much given up looking. Sticking with my 1080 for now. Even reputable places when they have them, they sell them for 2-3x MSRP. On principal i dont think a reputable retailer should be selling them for such huge mark ups.

[Torgus]

You don't have sli 3090s on a g sync monitor? Peasant.

[oVeRdOsE.]

since september we have plenty of GPU here, what store do, is to fill their shelves without updating the stock online.

went friday to my local pc part store, and they had at least 35 gpus AMD, from 6600 to 6900, xt and non xt variant.

Same for nvidia few weeks ago, my bro had choices and buy what he need

[Ghilou]

Originally Posted by oVeRdOsE.

Roll back 3-4 years from now, and for that kind of money you'll be near the top-end PC available for general consumers.

Great upgrade over my 2012, 3770k, 16gb ddr3, old PC. back then it was the top PC money can buy....

Roll back 10 more years and this kind of money would have gotten you a completely over the top SLI configuration with a top end monitor, a stack of purchased games to play on it and probably some money to spare.

I couldn't afford it at the time and now i could I'm kinda pissed. I'm not throwing this kind of money in an average gaming rig.

[ky0u]

Jeez I'm so glad at the timing of my current build. Sourced for a full build from scratch around ~'19/'20 and remembered complaining to myself about the price of RAM (2 x 16gb = $180). Now everyone is scrambling for GPUs and im (hopefully) set for the next few years