Question Wow the GPU market is INSANE pricey and confusing. Poor man's value GPU?

markjs · Oct 30, 2024

It's been a LONG time since I bought serious GPUs and the market back when I did, they had cards right around $100 or just over that would play most modern games. I recall the TOP new cards going in the $500 range, now I see $1500?!?

In any case, I was hoping I could find such a gem, around $100 for a card that will play most games acceptably, if not super high res, but that seems impossible now. It was literally back in the "Skyrim just came out days" when I bought my last serious GPU.

Anyway I just got the base components for a new system cuz right now I'm running an Core2 Duo E8400 3Ghz CPU and a GeForce GT 1030, on 16mb of DDR3. Yeah an OLD system, but I haven't gamed in years. I'm not going hardcore gamer, but I want to be able to play some titles and hopefully the upcoming Elder Scrolls releases.

My new System will start out with a Intel Core i3-13100F, quad core "Raptor Lake" 3.4GHz CPU, on 16GB of DDR5.

Anyway, my maximum budget is like hopefully $150, with an absolute ceiling of $200. In what little I understand of my research into recent GPUs in that price range, it seems to me the only real choice would be a Radeon RX 6600? I don't see much else in that range that compares, but that's why I post this. Maybe some of you have other suggestions?

Thanks.

marees · Oct 30, 2024

markjs said:
It's been a LONG time since I bought serious GPUs and the market back when I did had cards right around $100 or just over that would play most modern games. I recall the TOP new cards going in the $500 range, now I see $1500?!?

In any case, I was hoping I could find such a gem, around $100 for a card that will play most games acceptably, if not super high res, but that seems impossible now. It was literally back in the "Skyrim just came out days" when I bought my last serious GPU.

Anyway I just got the base components for a new system cuz right now I'm running an Core2 Duo E8400 3Ghz CPU and a GeForce GT 1030, on 16mb of DDR3. Yeah an OLD system, but I haven't gamed in years. I'm not going hardcore gamer, but I want to be able to play some titles and hopefully the upcoming Elder Scrolls releases.

Anyway, my maximum budget is like hopefully $150, with an absolute ceiling of $200. In what little I understand of my research into recent GPUs in that price range, it seems tome the only real choice would be a Radeon RX 6600? I don't see much else in that range that compares, but that's why I post this. Maybe some of you have other suggestions?

Thanks.

For $200 it is purely the 6600

However if you increase budget by further $100, then you have more options

For a new card, try 6750 xt

See if you can get a used 6800 (subject to power supply & case size restrictions)

marees · Oct 30, 2024

Graphics card silicon has become very costly

Nvidia is too rich to cater to gamers & has its customers by their balls

AMD makes 6% of revenue from gaming (including consoles) at a 3% operating margin

Intel is still improving drivers. Especially for DX11 or DX9 games

Maybe you can also consider steam deck or asus rog ally or lenovo legion go

marees said:
AMD latest financials.

Gaming revenue is 6% of total
Operating margin from gaming revenue is negligible

View attachment 110561

DAPUNISHER · Oct 30, 2024

Black Friday-Cyber Monday is almost here. Wait and see if you can get better pricing. It is unlikely anything worthwhile, other than the RX 6600 is going to be under $200. A model or 2 has sold for $170 in the past. That's really all there is new.

Used market under $200 is garbage every time I look. 6-8yr old cards that probably mined crypto.

markjs · Oct 30, 2024

DAPUNISHER said:
Black Friday-Cyber Monday is almost here. Wait and see if you can get better pricing. It is unlikely anything worthwhile, other than the RX 6600 is going to be under $200. A model or 2 has sold for $170 in the past. That's really all there is new.

Used market under $200 is garbage every time I look. 6-8yr old cards that probably mined crypto.

Well it will be a month before I pull the trigger, as this new MOBO, CPU and memory are tapping me dry for now, so good idea there...

I wonder if my ancient CPU will perform better with just my GT 1030? I bought it well over a year back as something to play Skyrim with and was blown away and terribly confused by my choices back then. I'll have to use it to start my new system off. I suspect even this lowly 1030 card will play things a LOT better with so much more CPU and faster RAM.

What shocked the hell out of me was in that year plus, the GT 1030 has not gone down in price at all really! Some versions were close to as much as an RX 6600!

Seba · Oct 30, 2024

markjs said:
My new System will start out with a Intel Core i3-13100F, quad core "Raptor Lake" 3.4GHz CPU, on 16GB of DDR5.

You will buy into a dead platform (LGA1700 motherboard).

A better choice would be to go for a AM5 motherboard (with B650 chipset or better), a Ryzen 5 7600 CPU (or maybe 7500F if considerably cheaper; this one does not have integrated graphics) and, if possible, 32GB RAM (DDR5 6000 at least).

Use the existing GT1030 graphics card until you can buy something better.

gdansk · Oct 30, 2024

Seba said:
You will buy into a dead platform (LGA1700 motherboard).

A better choice would be to go for a AM5 motherboard (with B650 chipset or better), a Ryzen 5 7600 CPU (or maybe 7500F if considerably cheaper; this one does not have integrated graphics) and, if possible, 32GB RAM (DDR5 6000 at least).

Use the existing GT1030 graphics card until you can buy something better.

If OP only updates every 15 years I don't think dead platforms are a concern.

Seba · Oct 30, 2024

He did not say when his next upgrade might be. Only when the last one was.

But if he indeed will keep this one for 15 years, do you think that a 4 core CPU for 15 years is a good idea?

gdansk · Oct 30, 2024

Seba said:
But if he indeed will keep this one for 15 years, do you think that a 4 core CPU for 15 years is a good idea?

If an E8400 made it to 2024... possibly.

markjs · Oct 30, 2024

Seba said:
You will buy into a dead platform (LGA1700 motherboard).

A better choice would be to go for a AM5 motherboard (with B650 chipset or better), a Ryzen 5 7600 CPU (or maybe 7500F if considerably cheaper; this one does not have integrated graphics) and, if possible, 32GB RAM (DDR5 6000 at least).

Use the existing GT1030 graphics card until you can buy something better.

I realize that, but "sockets" or platform changes at least for intel are an every two year event or less. I'm poor, and I pushed my budget to get DDR5, knowing I don't want to upgrade for at least 2-4 years. Thing is, all I do is watch videos, browse the web, and wanna do light gaming and I'm dirt poor. I don't need the ultra power system, just on e I can afford that does what I need.

At last check, the latest AMD socket was still so new Motherboards were like $150 and up, with little in the way of refurbnished or "open box" and I just couldn't afford that.

In another year the AMD latest socket board will come down to $75 and up with plenty of refurbished and "open box" possibilities and I may upgrade then. I don't worry about platform much, just that it's close to current, and I don't upgrade on any schedule, just when I can afford to and desire to. Could be next year or maybe 5 years. I just don't know.

Anyway I got a nice open box MB, cheap memory and the CPU is a send back I guess (says "refurbished from Newegg"), so I'm guess one was bought, run briefly then returned and tested?

Anyway the whole package was about $200. No way in hell I coulda done that with an AMD setup without going back a socket generation and with DDR4, and even then $200 might have been a hard mark to hit. So weird how AMD chips have such a tiny market slice and steep price.

Used to be AMD was way more poor guy and entry level friendly. Now it's intel by a mile on affordability as far as I can tell.

markjs · Oct 30, 2024

What blows me away is that most folks are TERRIFIED to build their own desktop machine. Now I get being fearful of understanding the market, and what you're buying, but slapping it together and installing and OS is generally so "piece of cake" in my opinion, that I'd feel like an idiot and a sucker getting ripped off to buy a prebuilt, or have someone else assemble it for me, but I do fully realize that for YEARS now, since we broke the Gigahertz speed barrier, with enough memory, for most tasks, very few folks actually need high end CPU/Chipset machines. You can do SO much still with a 10 year old PC with enough memory and running decently. Most people buy WAY more computer than they will ever use, much less need.

Seba · Oct 30, 2024

If you are not bothered by platform longevity, AM4 is not bad either.

markjs said:
I pushed my budget to get DDR5

Why?

WelshBloke · Oct 30, 2024

GPU prices are insane. The 5090 is rumoured to sell at $2000! That is mental.
I get that that is the flagship and has no competition but $2k for one PC component?!

DaaQ · Oct 30, 2024

markjs said:
What blows me away is that most folks are TERRIFIED to build their own desktop machine. Now I get being fearful of understanding the market, and what you're buying, but slapping it together and installing and OS is generally so "piece of cake" in my opinion, that I'd feel like an idiot and a sucker getting ripped off to buy a prebuilt, or have someone else assemble it for me, but I do fully realize that for YEARS now, since we broke the Gigahertz speed barrier, with enough memory, for most tasks, very few folks actually need high end CPU/Chipset machines. You can do SO much still with a 10 year old PC with enough memory and running decently. Most people buy WAY more computer than they will ever use, much less need.

You may be able to find some Titan Black cards, for under 100, you will be game and driver limited.
My sig shows current and I ran D4 and BG3 off a GTX780 3GB, Titan Black is full chip with 6GB vram. I mean if you can get for 75 bucks, they got legs.

DAPUNISHER · Oct 31, 2024

markjs said:
I realize that, but "sockets" or platform changes at least for intel are an every two year event or less. I'm poor, and I pushed my budget to get DDR5, knowing I don't want to upgrade for at least 2-4 years. Thing is, all I do is watch videos, browse the web, and wanna do light gaming and I'm dirt poor. I don't need the ultra power system, just on e I can afford that does what I need.

At last check, the latest AMD socket was still so new Motherboards were like $150 and up, with little in the way of refurbnished or "open box" and I just couldn't afford that.

In another year the AMD latest socket board will come down to $75 and up with plenty of refurbished and "open box" possibilities and I may upgrade then. I don't worry about platform much, just that it's close to current, and I don't upgrade on any schedule, just when I can afford to and desire to. Could be next year or maybe 5 years. I just don't know.

Anyway I got a nice open box MB, cheap memory and the CPU is a send back I guess (says "refurbished from Newegg"), so I'm guess one was bought, run briefly then returned and tested?

Anyway the whole package was about $200. No way in hell I coulda done that with an AMD setup without going back a socket generation and with DDR4, and even then $200 might have been a hard mark to hit. So weird how AMD chips have such a tiny market slice and steep price.

Used to be AMD was way more poor guy and entry level friendly. Now it's intel by a mile on affordability as far as I can tell.

You have been out of the scene a long time; things have changed. AMD is not a tiny slice of the CPU market anymore. In fact, they dominate retail/DIY. And are steadily gaining share in every other CPU market.

That combo will suffice for light gaming, but there are reasons it was so cheap. 4 core CPUs are riding the struggle bus and missed their stop, so they won't be getting off. The board is, I presume, a cheap B or H series that would throttle faster K SKUs seriously limiting their performance potential. Stability and longevity issues with raptor lake CPUs are impacting pricing as well. You have no concerns there, the i3 is Alder lake, which is rock solid.

About AM4: it is ubiquitous, resulting in the used market being robust. I can put together a Ryzen 5600X combo with board and ram for $200 at the moment. It'll be significantly faster, and have a functionally better upgrade path for gaming. As the 5800X3D flagship will run full tilt in a $50-$60 used board.

But what's done is done. On the video card: I have an MSI Aero ITX RX 560 4GB I can send you. I'll even cover shipping so it won't cost you anything. I will also leave you some good heat to get you back in that game too. Speaking of which, you need to update your heatware link, they updated the site and your current link is dead. I found you by username.

EDIT: The AERO is not the LP model in the video. It runs extremely cool and quiet.

Shoot me a private message if you want it, including your shipping address info, and I'll box it up and send it your way. U.K. Steve has a good vid on how to use it with upscaling for more modern games, along with performance in them -

markjs · Oct 31, 2024

Just got my CPU and already pretty unhappy. The CPU was listed, and CLEARLY states in the ad that it comes with a heatsink and fan, which it did not!

I hope Newegg is as good at making things right as in the past. I should get sent a free heatsink/fan combo. Just intel basic OEM is fine, but if it's listed, then I should get it. The part that sucks is having to wait an additional week to build my new machine.

DAPUNISHER · Oct 31, 2024

Have you checked the board for bent CPU pins? Newegg refurbs can be sketchy.

markjs · Oct 31, 2024

markjs said:
Just got my CPU and already pretty unhappy. The CPU was listed, and CLEARLY states in the ad that it comes with a heatsink and fan, which it did not!

I hope Newegg is as good at making things right as in the past. I should get sent a free heatsink/fan combo. Just intel basic OEM is fine, but if it's listed, then I should get it. The part that sucks is having to wait an additional week to build my new machine.

Even MORE unhappy.

Newegg has gone WAY downhill IMO. I contacted them, waited over 40 minutes for what was supposed to be a 20 minute call back time. Then they tell me the ONLY way they can fix the problem is if I send the entire order back and after they get everything, they will send it like it should have been in the first plaice.

I'm not about to wait another two weeks for them to sort all this out, so I told them I'll just keep stuff, but am very unhappy and they're not getting the usual good review.

Now I have to order on Amazon if I want something quickly, still have to wait at least an extra day, spend even more money, and worst of all, I have NO IDEA what I need to get.

I type in LGA 1700, and I get stuff that does not look like it fits. I guess I'll have to check here first before I pull the trigger too. I hate delays!

markjs · Oct 31, 2024

DAPUNISHER said:
Have you checked the board for bent CPU pins? Newegg refurbs can be sketchy.

I've only received the CPU so far. Ten years ago Newegg was tops, now I'm not so impressed, what happened?

I know about "Newegg Marketplace" so I always click the option switch for the, "Sold By Newegg", option, so this is THEIR fault, and yet they're unable or unwilling to do a simple fix. They also want me to pay shipping twice to get all this done!

Really unimpressed by Newegg so far, which sucks because up until now, I've had nearly a flawless experience for years with them.

In2Photos · Oct 31, 2024

markjs said:
Even MORE unhappy.

Newegg has gone WAY downhill IMO. I contacted them, waited over 40 minutes for what was supposed to be a 20 minute call back time. Then they tell me the ONLY way they can fix the problem is if I send the entire order back and after they get everything, they will send it like it should have been in the first plaice.

I'm not about to wait another two weeks for them to sort all this out, so I told them I'll just keep stuff, but am very unhappy and they're not getting the usual good review.

Now I have to order on Amazon if I want something quickly, still have to wait at least an extra day, spend even more money, and worst of all, I have NO IDEA what I need to get.

I type in LGA 1700, and I get stuff that does not look like it fits. I guess I'll have to check here first before I pull the trigger too. I hate delays!

Here you go: https://www.amazon.com/sspa/click?ie=UTF8&spc=MTozMTA3Njg3MzMzNjUzOTUyOjE3MzAzOTcxMDk6c3Bfc2VhcmNoX3RoZW1hdGljOjMwMDE5ODk5NTg3ODQwMjo6Mjo6&url=/ID-COOLING-SE-214-XT-Configuration-Noninterference-Compatible/dp/B0CY213WMJ/ref=sxin_16_pa_sp_search_thematic_sspa?content-id=amzn1.sym.76d54fcc-2362-404d-ab9b-b0653e2b2239%3Aamzn1.sym.76d54fcc-2362-404d-ab9b-b0653e2b2239&crid=1664TPS0JXKT0&cv_ct_cx=lga1700+cpu+cooler&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.MywpyK0KN_-mKyuj4KtX8llpOGV_TQP385l_z93fQaNuKBRB_m7xZoBJUEZdWnO9cS-YKjBU8LLvsV6CnLa7vQ.yHq7tFPuKP6kGpW-G_Cx5rErAVISRRsmiDJbcdJl1Ik&dib_tag=se&keywords=lga1700+cpu+cooler&pd_rd_i=B0CY213WMJ&pd_rd_r=5f6a3eed-6e79-49ed-9348-4196fbfdb0b1&pd_rd_w=rzf7w&pd_rd_wg=8H7H3&pf_rd_p=76d54fcc-2362-404d-ab9b-b0653e2b2239&pf_rd_r=TRGRHSSSJY26TXQHYT5Q&qid=1730397109&sbo=RZvfv%2F%2FHxDF%2BO5021pAnSA%3D%3D&sprefix=lga1700%2Caps%2C153&sr=1-3-6024b2a3-78e4-4fed-8fed-e1613be3bcce-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9zZWFyY2hfdGhlbWF0aWM&psc=1

All black version is a few bucks cheaper: https://www.amazon.com/ID-COOLING-S...id=1730397109&sprefix=lga1700,aps,153&sr=8-18

Just make sure it fits in your case. You can put your parts into PC Part Picker.com to check compatibility.

markjs · Oct 31, 2024

I might should make another thread, but regarding my GeForce GT1030, I recently upgraded my Skyrim install from Legendary edition to anniversary edition.

For 95 percent of the game so far, everything is fine, seems to run as well as the last version. That said it bugs out in certain locations. First it was a house, then in another indoor map. The second time I saved and rebooted and the issue seemed to be gone, but anyone have an idea why it might do that?

DAPUNISHER · Oct 31, 2024

Others doing it is thread hijacking, but it's your thread so not really applicable and you can discuss ancillary issues.

If you are running the latest drivers I'd lean toward the explanation of - It's a Bethesda game.

igor_kavinski · Oct 31, 2024

https://www.newegg.com/amd-ryzen-7-5700x3d-ryzen-7-5000-series-vermeer-zen-3-socket-am4/p/N82E16819113812

https://www.newegg.com/p/2MG-007Z-00004

The above two will serve the OP in terms of performance a lot more than the 13100F ever could. Not to mention the "free" 32GB kit which brings the 5700X3D price down to pretty reasonable. I would recommend sending back the purchased items and going with the above as that would pay back its price a lot more in terms of longevity and ROI.

EDIT: For slightly more, OP can get the reliability of ASROCK: https://www.newegg.com/asrock-b550m-pro-se/p/N82E16813162138

markjs · Oct 31, 2024

DAPUNISHER said:
Others doing it is thread hijacking, but it's your thread so not really applicable and you can discuss ancillary issues.

If you are running the latest drivers I'd lean toward the explanation of - It's a Bethesda game.

Well when I say "bugs out" I don't mean crash, just the video gets almost unplayably choppy unless you're still. Goes away if you leave the location. IDK if it would have gone away just restarting the game, but when it did the same thing in another dungeon (again it doesn't usually do this anywhere), it did work to just restart the game, then it played normally despite being same location that was choppy before I restarted the game.

I used to just leave my browser and 20 tabs all going and play, but I did notice that increases the laggy framerate and bug issues by a lot.

The Geforce GT 1030 was a cheap card, not even a fan on it, but it's surprisingly able for such an ancient crap car. At least it is with old games that I never played, are still pretty good and can just be downloaded free or nearly free.

Just a suggestion, download "No One Lives Forever" some time, I think you can get #2 as well. Old game, but decent graphics (for it's age), a lot of fun and really funny/witty, and fee (public domain for some reason). Well worth downloading and playing through!

markjs · Oct 31, 2024

igor_kavinski said:
https://www.newegg.com/amd-ryzen-7-5700x3d-ryzen-7-5000-series-vermeer-zen-3-socket-am4/p/N82E16819113812

https://www.newegg.com/p/2MG-007Z-00004

The above two will serve the OP in terms of performance a lot more than the 13100F ever could. Not to mention the "free" 32GB kit which brings the 5700X3D price down to pretty reasonable. I would recommend sending back the purchased items and going with the above as that would pay back its price a lot more in terms of longevity and ROI.

EDIT: For slightly more, OP can get the reliability of ASROCK: https://www.newegg.com/asrock-b550m-pro-se/p/N82E16813162138

I can't even afford to do that. This is really fine for now, I am one who will likely upgrade in a year or two again. Thing is what I already bought was super affordable. Like $50 for the Mobo, and $75 for the CPU and $80 for the memory. I did go ahead and order a second dual channel kit, so I'll have 32MB of Ram, double what I have now (and this is DDR3). So basically Yeah I'm getting a slightly less long term machine, but for the price it should be enough for a year or two. I really don't expect to go much longer than that. this is just sort of an early b-day present to myself.

Hopefully by the time I do upgrade to an AMD system I will be able to afford an AM5 board so I can use the DDR5 I have now.

Pretty excited, should be able to get it running Saturday. I got a cooler for the CPU coming, so that's the hold up.

Question Wow the GPU market is INSANE pricey and confusing. Poor man's value GPU?

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