Hardware PC component prices are just stupid right now

Kioku · May 14, 2019

Nvidia has always been the high dollar option... The 2080ti is an amazing card, though. Don't knock it if you want high end performance. If you're aiming for 60FPS across the board, it's a bit too high.... but some of us have become more greedy for frames.

AMD is set to release a new lineup at some point this year. Also, RAM is dirt cheap right now. I've seen name brand 3200mhz 16GB as low as $70. GPUs you kind of just pay for what you need.

Foxi4 · May 15, 2019

Why are you looking at prices of new components for a rig when you're on a budget? And why do you need an RTX 2080ti? Grab a pre-owned 1080ti for $400-$500, or two for some sweet SLI action, slap a Ryzen 7 2700, 2700X, or better yet, wait for the next gen Zen2 Ryzens which are just around the corner and job done - you have a 12-24 TFLOP machine that will absolutely destroy any video game you throw at it for under $1500 - lower than the cost of just an RTX alone. You won't get "wicked RTX technology" supported by next to no games at present, but you have a solid piece of hardware you can upgrade later down the line. In fact, chances are that you will get better results in many games this way because RTX is a brand-new technology and you're paying a premium just for the bragging rights of being on the bleeding edge. Here's Shadow of the Tomb Raider, one of the few RTX Enabled titles:

You can see the RTX 2080ti getting absolutely smoked by the twin 1080ti's, no contest, and at 1/3rd of the cost. It's actually a great time to build a rig right now due to the recent mining crash which flooded eBay with cheap GPU's. You can get quality hardware for a fraction of the price you'd pay at a store.

Tom Bombadildo · May 15, 2019

Foxi4 said:
Why are you looking at prices of new components for a rig when you're on a budget? And why do you need an RTX 2080ti? Grab a pre-owned 1080ti for $250, or two for some sweet SLI action, slap a Ryzen 7 2700, 2700X, or better yet, wait for the next gen Zen2 Ryzens which are just around the corner and job done - you have a 12-24 TFLOP machine that will absolutely destroy any video game you throw at it for under $1000 - lower than the cost of just an RTX alone. You won't get "wicked RTX technology" supported by next to no games at present, but you have a solid piece of hardware you can upgrade later down the line. In fact, chances are that you will get better results in many games this way because RTX is a brand-new technology and you're paying a premium just for the bragging rights of being on the bleeding edge. Here's Shadow of the Tomb Raider, one of the few RTX Enabled titles:

You can see the RTX 2080ti getting absolutely smoked by the twin 1080ti's, no contest, and at 1/3rd of the cost. It's actually a great time to build a rig right now due to the recent mining crash which flooded eBay with cheap GPU's. You can get quality hardware for a fraction of the price you'd pay at a store.

I would love to see a used 1080ti for $250. They're still $600 at best, at which point you might as well just buy a 2080.

Also, SLI is shit, not even remotely worth the extra cost at any price point. It's buggy at the best of times, and offers so little benefit in actual gameplay you might as well spend the money you would've spent on a second GPU for something higher powered.

coppertj · May 15, 2019

raytracing is good but unless developers make use of it, it's nothing more than nvidia 3d vision...
Lets be happy that ssd prices are finally decreasing in price after samsung's bullshit.
Also monitors are on the decrease because benq and samsung finally decreased their value to 3rd parties and such.
DDR4 is on the decrease little by little recently I remember back in 2018 ddr4 was too god damn expensive for literally no reason other than samsung was manipulating market.

Foxi4 · May 15, 2019

Tom Bombadildo said:
I would love to see a used 1080ti for $250. They're still $600 at best, at which point you might as well just buy a 2080.

Also, SLI is shit, not even remotely worth the extra cost at any price point. It's buggy at the best of times, and offers so little benefit in actual gameplay you might as well spend the money you would've spent on a second GPU for something higher powered.

It's working significantly better than it used to, but yeah, it's additional bells and whistles that, much like RTX, don't always give you the return you expect. I accidentally looked up pricing in British pounds instead of the dollar, so I adjusted it, but I have seen 1080ti's going for even that low from former mining farms. You just need to get lucky and snipe auctions like a pro - it can be done.

EDIT: Random example from eBay, 3 days to go. Set up that sniper, cross your fingers, right now it's at $160. I suspect it will ultimately sell for $300 or so, and it's a Palit, but are you going to complain about a 1080ti for that price? I wouldn't.

Tom Bombadildo · May 15, 2019

Foxi4 said:
It's working significantly better than it used to, but yeah, it's additional bells and whistles

No, it really isn't. Most games still don't even support SLI and the ones that do still have issues with micro stuttering and shit scaling, you might get maybe a 30% bonus in real world performance with SLI which is shit for the money you're spending. Especially when you're talking VR (which we would be in this thread), since a whopping 10-15 VR games actually support SLI at this point, and that doesn't really seem to be increasing at this point.

SLI is good if you like to jerk it to benchmarks, but in the real world you're almost always better off just buying a higher end single GPU.

Foxi4 · May 15, 2019

coppertj said:
raytracing is good but unless developers make use of it, it's nothing more than nvidia 3d vision...
Lets be happy that ssd prices are finally decreasing in price after samsung's bullshit.
Also monitors are on the decrease because benq and samsung finally decreased their value to 3rd parties and such.
DDR4 is on the decrease little by little recently I remember back in 2018 ddr4 was too god damn expensive for literally no reason other than samsung was manipulating market.

It was partially market manipulation, but primarily an increased demand due to the implementation of DDR4 in data centers and mobile phones as well as a couple natural disasters in the region. All of these factors also affected the supply of NAND and hard drives - it's easy to blame one company for the high prices, but there are multiple factors contributing to the issue. We saw the same thing play out last generation with GPU's when everyone and their dog still used them for mining, making high-end chips unavailable to the average consumer.

Tom Bombadildo said:
No, it really isn't. Most games still don't even support SLI and the ones that do still have issues with micro stuttering and shit scaling, you might get maybe a 30% bonus in real world performance with SLI which is shit for the money you're spending. Especially when you're talking VR (which we would be in this thread), since a whopping 10-15 VR games actually support SLI at this point, and that doesn't really seem to be increasing at this point.

SLI is good if you like to jerk it to benchmarks, but in the real world you're almost always better off just buying a higher end single GPU.

I'm hearing that high speed NVLink is going to change that this generation - it effectively pools both cards together, memory included, as opposed to using one card as a master and the other as its computational slave. That's one of the reasons why RTX is somewhat exciting, besides the ray tracing... which is weird since NVidia is de-emphasising dual GPU use, restricting it to the top end cards. I'm by no means recommending an SLI setup, I merely wanted to point out that you can get way more bang for the buck using last gen parts. I don't see a reason why anyone who doesn't bleed dollar bills should go for a 2080ti, even an RTX 2070 is a more reasonable choice here.

gohan123 · May 15, 2019

I think the prices are fine, if not cheaper than ever, aslong you actually want a pc for 1080p / 60hz like it was standard for many years. everything above that 1440p, 4k, 144hz, vr well it's like a premium segment and shouldn't be compared to past prices.

Foxi4 · May 15, 2019

gohan123 said:
I think the prices are fine, if not cheaper than ever, aslong you actually want a pc for 1080p / 60hz like it was standard for many years. everything above that 1440p, 4k, 144hz, vr well it's like a premium segment and shouldn't be compared to past prices.

Going above 1080p is perfectly reasonable nowadays, even at 60FPS, unless you intend to push all those sliders past Ultra settings. 1080p is considered to be the bare minimum, not something to shoot for.

Hanafuda · May 15, 2019

Foxi4 said:
Why are you looking at prices of new components for a rig when you're on a budget?

Who said I was on a budget? I just don't like the price / value ratio.

Silent_Gunner · May 15, 2019

zomborg said:
Yes sir. I've never been able to pay the whole price of a car up front. Lots of payments lol.

Speaking of video cards, mine is a
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Windforce OC Video Card
Can it still keep up with today's games?

Well, what I can say is that Yakuza Kiwami 2, according to the Steam page, actually recommends your video card for the High preset. Can't say how demanding it is on my PC as I've been broke for the past two weeks until I get paid this Thursday, and then I have other expenses as well. #AdultingSucks #FirstWorldProblems

Delerious said:
Makes me glad I got my GTX 1080 when prices finally tamed after the mining craze. PC hardware pricing has been all over the place over the last couple years, between the mining craze and demand for Nand leading to RAM price hikes. Thankfully, RAM prices are finally coming down, and SSD prices are at an all-time low, and SSDs are only expected to get lower. It's just a damn shame that there's always something that drives up the overall cost for enthusiast-level systems.

Don't ever expect AMD to pull miracles out of their asses on the GPU end. Their focus on video is limited to mid-range and custom APUs for consoles (Playstation, XBox). The day AMD releases enthusiast GPUs that compete with NVidia will be the day man lands on Jupiter without getting crushed. And I imagine that whenever Intel does release their GPUs, while it will bring competition, Intel is not exactly known to be generous in their pricing.

I actually got mine at a local Best Buy. It was a Founder's Edition, and I think it was towards the end of the bitcoin mining boom. I figured it'd go well with my i7-8700k as opposed to my Zotac GTX 1060 AMP! (who's fan actually fucking came off, which I ziptied to the metal and it seemed to work, but still!). Needless to say, I have enjoyed its power in all my time that my PC is still alive and kicking and not giving me a middle finger with a dead mobo while I'm not earning money going to college!

Foxi4 said:
Why are you looking at prices of new components for a rig when you're on a budget? And why do you need an RTX 2080ti? Grab a pre-owned 1080ti for $400-$500, or two for some sweet SLI action, slap a Ryzen 7 2700, 2700X, or better yet, wait for the next gen Zen2 Ryzens which are just around the corner and job done - you have a 12-24 TFLOP machine that will absolutely destroy any video game you throw at it for under $1500 - lower than the cost of just an RTX alone. You won't get "wicked RTX technology" supported by next to no games at present, but you have a solid piece of hardware you can upgrade later down the line. In fact, chances are that you will get better results in many games this way because RTX is a brand-new technology and you're paying a premium just for the bragging rights of being on the bleeding edge. Here's Shadow of the Tomb Raider, one of the few RTX Enabled titles:

You can see the RTX 2080ti getting absolutely smoked by the twin 1080ti's, no contest, and at 1/3rd of the cost. It's actually a great time to build a rig right now due to the recent mining crash which flooded eBay with cheap GPU's. You can get quality hardware for a fraction of the price you'd pay at a store.

Be careful with getting some of those. I've heard that some of the video cards that have been previously used for mining that are being sold on eBay (sometimes as being "LIKE NEW!!!!!!" in the box with everything included) have been running to the absolute limit, weakening the thermal paste and just the general longevity of the card itself. The Bitcoin bubble burst flooded the market with these when mining farms, sometimes using components that were made JUST for mining (that didn't cost as much as regular video cards if I remember the deets correctly), replaced the need for dedicated video cards for those just looking to mine as opposed to the miners making supply limited for those of us who just want more graphical computational power.

Xzi · May 15, 2019

Hanafuda said:
Who said I was on a budget? I just don't like the price / value ratio.

Yeah, the jump from the 900 series to the 1000 series was about the same as the jump from the 1000 series to the 2000 series, performance-wise. Initial MSRP was still pretty consistent between 900 and 1000, but they marked up the initial MSRP for the 2000 series way too much. I got my 1080ti from ebay for near $500 some months ago, that'll barely get you an RTX 2070 new. Which is a card that can't even use ray-tracing without a massive performance hit. Better to wait for next gen when GPUs can deliver ray-tracing AND good FPS.

zomborg · May 15, 2019

Silent_Gunner said:
Well, what I can say is that Yakuza Kiwami 2, according to the Steam page, actually recommends your video card for the High preset. Can't say how demanding it is on my PC as I've been broke for the past two weeks until I get paid this Thursday, and then I have other expenses as well. #AdultingSucks #FirstWorldProblems

I actually got mine at a local Best Buy. It was a Founder's Edition, and I think it was towards the end of the bitcoin mining boom. I figured it'd go well with my i7-8700k as opposed to my Zotac GTX 1060 AMP! (who's fan actually fucking came off, which I ziptied to the metal and it seemed to work, but still!). Needless to say, I have enjoyed its power in all my time that my PC is still alive and kicking and not giving me a middle finger with a dead mobo while I'm not earning money going to college!

Be careful with getting some of those. I've heard that some of the video cards that have been previously used for mining that are being sold on eBay (sometimes as being "LIKE NEW!!!!!!" in the box with everything included) have been running to the absolute limit, weakening the thermal paste and just the general longevity of the card itself. The Bitcoin bubble burst flooded the market with these when mining farms, sometimes using components that were made JUST for mining (that didn't cost as much as regular video cards if I remember the deets correctly), replaced the need for dedicated video cards for those just looking to mine as opposed to the miners making supply limited for those of us who just want more graphical computational power.

Thank you for the reply. I underst what it's like when you don't have a lot of money to spend. Glad to know my card still rocks.

Foxi4 · May 15, 2019

Hanafuda said:
Who said I was on a budget? I just don't like the price / value ratio.

The xx80ti/Titan cards have never been about good value, they're about squeezing every last FLOP out of the silicon by any means necessary with price never entering the equation. If you want good value for money, you have to either look at last gen hardware or you pick the enthusiast models, like the xx70.

Xzi said:
Yeah, the jump from the 900 series to the 1000 series was about the same as the jump from the 1000 series to the 2000 series, performance-wise. Initial MSRP was still pretty consistent between 900 and 1000, but they marked up the initial MSRP for the 2000 series way too much. I got my 1080ti from ebay for near $500 some months ago, that'll barely get you an RTX 2070 new. Which is a card that can't even use ray-tracing without a massive performance hit. Better to wait for next gen when GPUs can deliver ray-tracing AND good FPS.

They use the excuse of built-in AI fairies and ray tracing hardware to justify the price, but I just don't see it as a good proposition at this point in the game, not when there's barely any software taking advantage of the extra features RTX offers. The 2070 is a reasonable choice for a gaming build because it narrowly edges out the 1080ti or is on par with it (depending on the clock and application) while offering extra features.

Silent_Gunner · May 15, 2019

zomborg said:
Thank you for the reply. I underst what it's like when you don't have a lot of money to spend. Glad to know my card still rocks.

I can only imagine how demanding games made exclusively for the PS5/WindowsBox or whatever they call the next Xbox will be, though. Not to mention whatever the demands for RAM could end up looking like!

Captain_N · May 15, 2019

i expect the prices to rise. These cards are manufactured in china. There is now a 25% import tax in place. The retailers will pass that on to the customer...
id also expect good vr to use dual graphics cards. one card for each eye.

Foxi4 · May 15, 2019

Captain_N said:
i expect the prices to rise. These cards are manufactured in china. There is now a 25% import tax in place. The retailers will pass that on to the customer...
id also expect good vr to use dual graphics cards. one card for each eye.

This is only partially true. While additional taxes, duties and levies are mostly passed on to the consumer, there is an upper limit in terms of pricing that people are willing to pay for hardware, and RTX is already a shaky proposition given the uncertain benefits at a very high premium. If prices do increase, it will not be by a significant margin or they'll simply remain stagnant for longer than they normally would.

Silent_Gunner said:
Be careful with getting some of those. I've heard that some of the video cards that have been previously used for mining that are being sold on eBay (sometimes as being "LIKE NEW!!!!!!" in the box with everything included) have been running to the absolute limit, weakening the thermal paste and just the general longevity of the card itself. The Bitcoin bubble burst flooded the market with these when mining farms, sometimes using components that were made JUST for mining (that didn't cost as much as regular video cards if I remember the deets correctly), replaced the need for dedicated video cards for those just looking to mine as opposed to the miners making supply limited for those of us who just want more graphical computational power.

Mining is very unlikely to damage a card and, if the paste requires changing, it's trivial. You obviously have to know the SKU's, you don't want to randomly pick up a dedicated mining card, but we're operating under the assumption that you know what you're looking for. The scaremongering is mostly unfounded unless you really don't know what you're doing and have no idea how to diagnose and resolve possible faults. Every money saving method has its drawbacks - you're potentially saving hundreds of dollars here, but you have to be prepared in case you run into trouble.

zomborg · May 15, 2019

Silent_Gunner said:
I can only imagine how demanding games made exclusively for the PS5/WindowsBox or whatever they call the next Xbox will be, though. Not to mention whatever the demands for RAM could end up looking like!

I'm actually rocking 16gb of G.SKILL TridentZ RGB Series (2 x 8GB) DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3000.
But I've got room on my mobo for 2 more if needed.

Silent_Gunner · May 15, 2019

zomborg said:
I'm actually rocking 16gb of G.SKILL TridentZ RGB Series (2 x 8GB) DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3000.
But I've got room on my mobo for 2 more if needed.

I'm actually thinking the RAM requirements/recommendations may rise to 32GB. I have 16GB myself, but you have to remember that what we once thought was a lot of power will be outdone in the future, always. Not that you should go and pursue always being at the top spec-wise when it comes to building a PC, of course! XD

Hanafuda · May 15, 2019

gohan123 said:
I think the prices are fine, if not cheaper than ever, aslong you actually want a pc for 1080p / 60hz like it was standard for many years. everything above that 1440p, 4k, 144hz, vr well it's like a premium segment and shouldn't be compared to past prices.

Good point. Prices aren't bad, if you're not dedicated to some niche shit (like I'm thinking about). Our home desktop is a i5-7400@3ghz, 16GB RAM, GTX1060 3GB. For a 'serious' gamer, it's subpar. But as a family PC, it's great. It's plenty. Handles 4K vid, runs Dolphin @ 1080p nicely, has wifi and bluetooth and included Win10. It's a competent PC, for anything but maxed out gaming and studio-grade vid editing I guess. And it was cheap. About $600, and that was a year ago.

Maybe that's why I'm having the sticker shock on the vid cards.

Hardware PC component prices are just stupid right now

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