Replacing video card - thoughts?

[ClassicGMR]

Yeah... before I get all the laughs and guffaws and you feel the need to reply "Dudez yur card is teh olde" I know that.

 

The installed card I have now is the nvidia GeForce GT 240 1gb. I have it installed in an AMD A10-6800 Quad Core @ 4.1 GHZ system that I built maybe a year and a half or two ago out of spare/return parts in my shop. The only card I had at the time was the 240 so in it went. This has been my (extremely) overpowered emulation cabinet PC for the last 2 years so I didn't care.

 

My son needs a computer. I have 3 Raspberry Pi 3B and 3B Plus in the house. I feel I can easily swap one of these in and still have an emulation cabinet so I'm going to do that next.

 

I'm looking for a budget card (>$100) to replace the 240. I don't have a lot of cash unfortunately and he just had my grand-daughter (WOOHOO) so he's broke as hell.

 

Any recommendations?

[discgolfer72]

right now is a really bad time for buying a card the bit miners are buying everything up , driving the price up

for a cheap card id look on ebay for a used gtx750 or 950 they should be in your price range

or even a ati r7x270 (should crossfire with the a10s gpu if I remember )

[NE146]

I was going to say.. this is probably the wrong time to be shopping for a GPU. I'd snag an old used one if you can find one, and then just wait around.

Edited April 25, 2018 by NE146

[Keatah]

right now is a really bad time for buying a card the bit miners are buying everything up , driving the price up

Miners have been buying them up for the last 2 years.

[spacecadet]

Miners have been buying them up for the last 2 years.

 

Watch for a flood of used cards on the market pretty soon, because GPU mining is all but dead at this point. It's no longer cost effective. Some people apparently don't realize this yet, but everybody will within the next 3-6 months. At that point, prices are going to fall through the floor as these guys try to get their money back en masse.

[ClassicGMR]

right now is a really bad time for buying a card the bit miners are buying everything up , driving the price up

for a cheap card id look on ebay for a used gtx750 or 950 they should be in your price range

or even a ati r7x270 (should crossfire with the a10s gpu if I remember )

 

I took a look at the 950 and it seems to be what I would be looking for.

 

 

 

Watch for a flood of used cards on the market pretty soon, because GPU mining is all but dead at this point. It's no longer cost effective. Some people apparently don't realize this yet, but everybody will within the next 3-6 months. At that point, prices are going to fall through the floor as these guys try to get their money back en masse.

 

Yeah but do I really want a card that has been overclocked and run 24/7 for God knows how long?

[discgolfer72]

 

Watch for a flood of used cards on the market pretty soon, because GPU mining is all but dead at this point. It's no longer cost effective. Some people apparently don't realize this yet, but everybody will within the next 3-6 months. At that point, prices are going to fall through the floor as these guys try to get their money back en masse.

lol every time I'm at my local microcenter

what used to be talk about "what's the best card for this game "

is now "what 7 of this graffix card do I needs so I cans gets rich"

its still going strong the dummies thinking they can get rich quick mining

was in yesterday and 3 groups were asking the same stupid mining info

 

argggggg I want my cheap cards and memory back

 

 

I do like that microcenter has a policy 1 card normal price , 2 cards normal price , every one after double price lol

Edited April 25, 2018 by discgolfer72

[Tanooki]

If you could step up to it a bit more a 970 or 980 is an amazing card that even at being like 3 years and some old still can blow out the best in most cases when it comes to games. But as was said, if the bottom is going to hit the bricks on value with mass sell outs, just wait until summer time and take advantage of a panicking idiot that overspent on a card trying to make some bitcoinage. They'll be desperate to move knowing others will do the same lowering values further.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

I will believe the market collasping on using Vid cards for mining when I see it. They have been saying that would happen since January. Here we are now almost into May and it doesn't seem to be slowing down. I upgraded to my 1070 about a year ago and I'm glad I did since the prices were still at least at MSRP back then. I then sold my older 970 for about $150 to a local co worker. Kinda sorry I didn't hold onto that 970 LOL. But I also wasn't aware of the mining boom starting to take shape then either.

 

But yeah, until the cards start to come down in price more, I don't see a stop to this just yet.

[+poobah]

The market will have to collapse soon. Each card that gets added to the mining pool reduces the profitability of all existing cards, soon they wont be able to cover the cost of the electricity to run them.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

I did read somewhere that shops are putting limits of 2 vid cards when new stock comes in. Well..let me rephrase, limit 2 at msrp. You can then buy more beyond that for double the price of msrp. Apparently that has only stalled it a little. But it does look like on newegg that some of the cards are down a few hundred from sky high prices they were still at. They are still too expensive for the hobby PC builder, but perhaps....perhaps.

[Austin]

This is only the wrong time to be buying a GPU if you are buying something current. I don't think $~100 cards are really being affected by price gauging at the moment--I see them at my local Microcenter all the time, while everything in higher price ranges are cleared out, or marked up way past what they were a year ago.

[ClassicGMR]

This is only the wrong time to be buying a GPU if you are buying something current. I don't think $~100 cards are really being affected by price gauging at the moment--I see them at my local Microcenter all the time, while everything in higher price ranges are cleared out, or marked up way past what they were a year ago.

 

Right... I'm not looking for a GTX1080ti Holy Hell Awesome I Can Count The Hairs In Kratos' Nose ® card... just something closer to 2018 than 2008.

 

Been keeping my eye on the GTX 950 that discgolfer recommended. I'm almost ready to pull the trigger.

Edited May 2, 2018 by ClassicGMR

[Keatah]

Integrated graphics for the win. Immune to bitcoin mining overpricing.

[spacecadet]

I will believe the market collasping on using Vid cards for mining when I see it.

 

It's already happening. I mean I think literally since this thread started.

 

Go to Ebay and look at the "sold" prices on cards like the GTX 970 and GTX 1070 (I mention those only because I have one and have been wanting to upgrade to the other myself). The 970, which is still a fully capable card for 1080p gaming, was going for about the MSRP of a 1070 last time I looked ($400-$450), but now they're almost always selling for under $200, and often around $150!

 

1070's were at around $700 for a while - now they're going for right around MSRP; sometimes a little above, sometimes below. But they're already no longer crazy ridiculous.

 

As for whether you'd want a card that's been used for mining, well, two points I'd make:

 

1) It's more about what the crash of the used market will do to the new market. Once prices fall on used cards, sales of new cards will drop too, as will prices on those.

 

2) Even so, I wouldn't have much of a problem buying a used card because first, you don't even know if it was used for crypto, but even if it was, I don't see why that would cause problems. In fact, Linus of Linus Tech Tips tested this a while back, not specifically about crypto but just seeing if there was any truth to the urban legend about old cards being slower or less reliable than new ones of the same model. And his tests showed that no, there's no difference.

 

Modern cards all have various throttling methods to keep them in safe territory. So unless they've been modified in some way to avoid those (I'm not even sure this is possible, or why even a crypto miner would want to do that), or they've just been used or stored in a particularly bad environment, I'd feel fine buying a used card. The latter is basically just the chance you take with any used product anyway. I think a card that's boxed and *looks* good is probably going to turn out fine. (That's how I sell mine when I buy new ones.)

[ClassicGMR]

 

Right... I'm not looking for a GTX1080ti Holy Hell Awesome I Can Count The Hairs In Kratos' Nose ® card... just something closer to 2018 than 2008.

 

Been keeping my eye on the GTX 950 that discgolfer recommended. I'm almost ready to pull the trigger.

 

Here it is 6 months later and I finally upgraded to the GTX 950 mini. Got my hands on one for $65 and works so much better than the ancient card I had. I'd still like to get something high end but for now this is great.

[Keatah]

Watch for a flood of used cards on the market pretty soon, because GPU mining is all but dead at this point. It's no longer cost effective. Some people apparently don't realize this yet, but everybody will within the next 3-6 months. At that point, prices are going to fall through the floor as these guys try to get their money back en masse.

 

Just recently I picked up a carton of GTX 1080 boards at firesale prices.

 

Bitcoin Shitcoin.. the whole cryptocurrency thing stinks of a pyramid scheme or something like it. Exactly what I do not know. But someone is profiting big-time for sure.

 

I also took a disliking to nvidia and all other gpu makers (not that there is anyone besides 2nd rate AMD). They did nothing to protect their gamer's market. Nothing whatsoever. No loyalty coming my way, so, no loyalty going their way. And because of that I reaffirmed my vow to always buy 2nd hand 1 generation behind. Like I recently built 2 gaming rigs for buddies and firmly stayed away from RTX - till it gets software support. By the time that happens they'll be popping up on ebay. So for the GPU I pulled from my supply of used 1080 cards. heh!

 

---

 

Besides, Nvidia is so full of shit.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/nvidia-faces-class-action-lawsuit-over-losses-after-diminished-mining-gpu-demand

 

They say their profits would remain steady despite the drop in demand from cryptocurrencies. Yah, uh-huh, float me another one!

 

I say as the prices in GPUs rose, they went way above what the average gamer could afford. And therefore the average gamer took to alternatives like the 2nd hand used market. Now the bottom of the dropped out, Nvidia lost 54% stock price, and gamers are soured toward the brand that dropped them like hotcakes.

 

Fuck it all I say!

Edited February 16, 2019 by Keatah

[Keatah]

Yeah but do I really want a card that has been overclocked and run 24/7 for God knows how long?

 

It's a misconception that miners overclock their boards. Some might, but the experienced majority do not. They undervolt them to get major savings on electric bill. Overclocking generates more heat which requires more cooling and results in higher power consumption in the GPU itself and the fans needed to cool it. Undervolting results in significant cooling and longevity improvements all by itself.