Question are video card prices headed down yet?

[DAPUNISHER]

I know I suck, but I cannot enjoy games below 100ish fps anymore. And I grew up playing games well below 30fps. I would consider 1080p144hz as budget now, with any entry level PC being able to run that. 60hz and 75hz needs to die.

Doesn’t matter if it is single player or multiplayer, low frame rate makes Jack a dull boy. Shoot, I don’t even like browsing this forum below 120hz.

Hey, you like what you like. More importantly, it is what you are used to.

I still spend the majority of my time on this decade plus old 1080 TV. Years of console gaming while my kid got older helped ruin me. Over 40yrs of throwing kicks and other lower body abuse, has also made it so sitting in front of the MSI 165Hz freesync monitor makes my knees start complaining with in the first hour. Typing on this ROCCAT SOVA with my feet up in a power recliner is therapeutic and relaxing.

I could buy a gaming TV, but not really interested in 4K at the distance I sit now. Or the increased demands it brings. Besides, I am completely comfortable with my current setup. That's what we are both talking about; what we are accustomed to. I play games on various levels of hardware, including APUs. After a few minutes, sub 60FPS is fine in a lot of games for me.

High refresh gaming does improve my aim enough that I am finally above Stormtrooper level inaccuracy, but meh. I'd rather play at locked 60 with my feet up, and my system often yawning at the workload.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

I could buy a gaming TV, but not really interested in 4K at the distance I sit now. Or the increased demands it brings.

I don't think a 4K TV is a major performance problem. Just use upscaling. The really, really good thing about 4K is that it'll upscale 1080p perfectly at 1:4 pixels. So there are no scaling artefacts.
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I don't really notice at any reasonable viewing distance (beyond a few meters). It's another thing with a monitor, because you're sitting much closer to it.

As for gaming TV, I'd much rather have an excellent monitor. At the distance you usually watch TV, most will be hard pressed to distinguish anything beyond 720p.

 

[igor_kavinski]

The really, really good thing about 4K is that it'll upscale 1080p perfectly at 1:4 pixels.

Well encoded 720p looks excellent on LG TVs. DVDrips also look not bad. It's the hastily encoded stuff that looks awful on a 4K TV.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Well encoded 720p looks excellent on LG TVs. DVDrips also look not bad. It's the hastily encoded stuff that looks awful on a 4K TV.

I'd much rather have a well encoded high bitrate 720p file, then a bad low bitrate 1080p.

DVD can look quite good even on larger TVs, but I find it depends on the DVD, what deinterlacer and which scaler you use. Some TVs do have excellent scalers built-in.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

I know I suck, but I cannot enjoy games below 100ish fps anymore. And I grew up playing games well below 30fps. I would consider 1080p144hz as budget now, with any entry level PC being able to run that. 60hz and 75hz needs to die.

Doesn’t matter if it is single player or multiplayer, low frame rate makes Jack a dull boy. Shoot, I don’t even like browsing this forum below 120hz.

But did you grow up playing them on a CRT? A while back I was playing GTA Vice City on my PS2 and it looked horrible on my main TV at 20-25 fps even though most PS2 games look really good on that TV over component (though most PS2 games are 60 fps). Plugged it into an old CRT I had in the garage and the motion looked fine, fluid as hell.

 

[ZGR]

But did you grow up playing them on a CRT? A while back I was playing GTA Vice City on my PS2 and it looked horrible on my main TV at 20-25 fps even though most PS2 games look really good on that TV over component (though most PS2 games are 60 fps). Plugged it into an old CRT I had in the garage and the motion looked fine, fluid as hell.

That would have been kinda fun to try! Around 20ish years ago I woke up in the night smelling smoke and saw my IBM CRT was smoking while in standby. Once I left CRT monitors I didn't look back. I definitely felt like my first flatscreen monitor was a downgrade.

 

[aigomorla]

That would have been kinda fun to try! Around 20ish years ago I woke up in the night smelling smoke and saw my IBM CRT was smoking while in standby. Once I left CRT monitors I didn't look back. I definitely felt like my first flatscreen monitor was a downgrade.

Ahhh i also remember the burning dust smell CRT monitors would give off.
Also how they looked funny when you were watching them though a video recording in how they scan.

I had a super large Sun CRT monitor before i went LCD.
It was the GDM-5410. The CRT of all CRT monitors... 21 inches of badness, with a Trinitron tube on top.
Looked like this:



I do not think i could lift that monitor anymore, i remember it being obnoxiously heavy.
Also required a special cable adapter to connect to a regular PC graphics adapter, and not a sun.
It also heated my room til no tomorrow, that i would be cooking in my room even during winter.

 

[wasabiman123]

Well I got an EVGA B Stock RTX 3060 12GB for $271 pre-tax. Will work for a build targeting 1080p 75hz until games get more demanding or I get a fancier monitor. So that's a nice price dip, prefer it from EVGA and 1 year warranty, than trying luck buying used from a private seller.

 

[aigomorla]

Will work for a build targeting 1080p 75hz until games get more demanding or I get a fancier monitor.

uhh... its overkill for 1080p

 

[DAPUNISHER]

uhh... its overkill for 1080p

3060 is definitely not overkill for 1080. There are new games it can't hold 60fps in with higher settings, even without ray tracing. Games like Plague Tale Requiem, Hogwarts Legacy, Callisto Protocol, to name a few, already require compromises.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Well I got an EVGA B Stock RTX 3060 12GB for $271 pre-tax. Will work for a build targeting 1080p 75hz until games get more demanding or I get a fancier monitor. So that's a nice price dip, prefer it from EVGA and 1 year warranty, than trying luck buying used from a private seller.

Getting 12GB for under $300 with warranty makes it a damned solid value.

I recently RMA'd a semi modular 850W PSU that's almost 5yrs old, back to EVGA. It had a bad fan is all. They sent me a BNIB, fully modular replacement that's a better model. All done expeditiously and painlessly.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I don't think a 4K TV is a major performance problem. Just use upscaling. The really, really good thing about 4K is that it'll upscale 1080p perfectly at 1:4 pixels. So there are no scaling artefacts.

Don't encourage me to spend money. Because I'll do it man! I'll do it!

Good point about using FSR at 4K, it can look better than native 1080.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Don't encourage me to spend money. Because I'll do it man! I'll do it!

Get down from there! I retract my statement, I retract my statement...!

 

[sham63]

I know I suck, but I cannot enjoy games below 100ish fps anymore. And I grew up playing games well below 30fps. I would consider 1080p144hz as budget now, with any entry level PC being able to run that. 60hz and 75hz needs to die.

Doesn’t matter if it is single player or multiplayer, low frame rate makes Jack a dull boy. Shoot, I don’t even like browsing this forum below 120hz.

60 and 75 hz are fine and don't need to die. My son always tells me that I need to upgrade my old 1080p 60 hz monitor to 144hz. He says it makes a big difference and he can't go back. I just tell it still works fine, and if I don't use high refresh rate I can't miss not having it. I just bought my 2060 Super from his friend late last year when he was upgrading to a 6750XT. It replaced my old 1060 and should give me several years of 1080p 60hz use. Especially when turning down the graphics settings as needed. Btw I am a tail end boomer, so I have played quite a bit at 30 or even less fps.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

60 and 75 hz are fine and don't need to die. My son always tells me that I need to upgrade my old 1080p 60 hz monitor to 144hz. He says it makes a big difference and he can't go back. I just tell it still works fine, and if I don't use high refresh rate I can't miss not having it. I just bought my 2060 Super from his friend late last year when he was upgrading to a 6750XT. It replaced my old 1060 and should give me several years of 1080p 60hz use. Especially when turning down the graphics settings as needed. Btw I am a tail end boomer, so I have played quite a bit at 30 or even less fps.

If I was competitive, I am certain I'd feel like your son, and mine too. But I stick to single player at this point in my life, and playing on the 165Hz doesn't do much for me. As in no WOW factor. I am older GenX and wear reading glasses, perhaps some of the effect is lost on me? Locked 60 on the TV, or 75 on my 1440p setup seems great to me.

 

[ZGR]

Btw I am a tail end boomer, so I have played quite a bit at 30 or even less fps.

I am older GenX and wear reading glasses, perhaps some of the effect is lost on me? Locked 60 on the TV, or 75 on my 1440p setup seems great to me.

Age and glasses has no effect for this in my opinion. I am mostly single player but I love playing games like Fallout 4 at 144hz. I would try staying on high refresh rate for a week and then switch back to low refresh rate. At end of the day, it is just a QoL improvement to interacting with the computer. I do feel like it is nearly as significant as switching from a hard drive to a SSD.

I do think 60hz and 75hz need to phase out kinda like how 1366x768 laptop displays lasted for way too long. In USA, 1080p144hz displays are extremely affordable; making 60hz and 75hz simply not worth the savings. On Amazon, we can buy a 1080p144hz for $120 with free shipping. I cannot imagine saving $20 to drop my refresh rate in half.

But in other parts of world monitor prices are insane, so it does make 60hz and 75hz have a place.

 

[Ranulf]

uhh... its overkill for 1080p

In theory but not really. Maybe for most games at 60hz up until this year. Then you get games that are buggy or have some engine issue that no matter the settings it pushes the gpu to max with loud fans. No matter the gpu performance capability.

Slightly salty with TW War3 at the moment. Fixed the gpu noise problem but stuck at 30fps.

 

[DeathReborn]

Prices headed down, how does $60 for a 2GB, 32bit Radeon RX 6300 sound for value for money?

Low-profile, Single-slot AMD Radeon RX 6300 Graphics Card Hits the Chinese Grey Market

A curious OEM-only AMD Radeon RX 6300 desktop graphics card surfaced on Chinese peer-to-peer marketplaces. The card is a true single-slot, half-height (low-profile) graphics card, with an active fan-heatsink based cooling; and two display outputs—a pair of HDMI 2.1 ports. The card draws all its...

www.techpowerup.com

 

[Aapje]

Prices headed down, how does $60 for a 2GB, 32bit Radeon RX 6300 sound for value for money?

It's just a single card sold on a consumer marketplace. Has nothing to do with market prices going anywhere.

 

[Zepp]

Prices headed down, how does $60 for a 2GB, 32bit Radeon RX 6300 sound for value for money?

with those specs is this even worse than a 1030? is it even RDNA2?

 

[GodisanAtheist]

I play 144Hz on my sig rig, but have been playing a lot of HWL on my HTPC which is a 2200G + 980Ti.

I honestly thought the game was running at 30 FPS for a while, finally turned on the Steam FPS counter overlay to tweak settings to get more frames... turns out its been running 60FPS indoors and ~45FPS outdoors this whole time...

My baseline has definitely shifted.

 

[MrTeal]

I just picked up a 32" 114lbs CRT off Facebook Marketplace for free a couple weeks ago. It's been getting a lot more use in March playing PS1 games than my 5900X/3080 PC is.

 

[igor_kavinski]

32" 114lbs CRT

I didn't even know that CRTs went that big. You mean a monitor or a CRT TV? Pics?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I didn't even know that CRTs went that big. You mean a monitor or a CRT TV? Pics?

I had a 36" JVC with built in surround sound and big boom box style speakers. It weighed about 220lbs. Bit of bragging here, but having a big wingspan I could grip the handles with the tube facing me and move it alone no issues. Replaced it with a 55" rear projection CRT HDTV. They both had a great picture. Wish I had either back sometimes for my modded OG Xbox and PS2 slim. They were power hungry beasts though, with huge footprints; don't miss that.

 

[igor_kavinski]

It weighed about 220lbs. Bit of bragging here, but having a big wingspan I could grip the handles with the tube facing me and move it alone no issues.

Now I can kinda imagine your size. I sold my 55 inch LG 4K HDR TV in 2018 to this big guy and he lifted the TV right up in the air like it weighed 5 KG (it had a lot of metal in it with a premium feel so it was easily 25 KG minimum). And he was just big. Didn't look like he worked out.