Question are video card prices headed down yet?

[Ranulf]

I think the nvidia rumors about less cards being produced two weeks or so ago got a buddy to finally buy a new card. I'd been telling him to seriously think about it for a couple months, especially after AMD's statement on raising prices in '26.

 

[MoragaBlue]

I think the nvidia rumors about less cards being produced two weeks or so ago got a buddy to finally buy a new card. I'd been telling him to seriously think about it for a couple months, especially after AMD's statement on raising prices in '26.

Yeah, seriously, if I weren't already set, I would've picked up the 5070 Best Buy sale for $399 on the spot. Great deal, in my view, especially under our current environment.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

The cause for our rising electricity costs here in CA is above my pay grade, but what isn't is my response to it as a consumer. It's irrelevant to me what's causing it (myriad of reasons which I won't go into here), and negative externalities, both private and public notwithstanding, are a part of American life--like my taxes, I've come to accept it. I don't like it, but it is what it is.

What, in my personal view, is unacceptable is this. While the supply and demand have dictated my costs per wattage increase YOY for the past decade, I accept paying my units of consumption based on rate per kilowatt. What I find unacceptable is above and beyond what I and my family consume, they, form time to time, add or sneak in a surcharge (a tax which no one ever voted for or approved of), and demand I pay it. At some point, they'll credit my bill with some fancy rubbish called a "green energy credit" to keep my pitchfork from leaving my garage. In the end, this "credit" is spread amongst CA taxpayers, and I wouldn't be surprised if you in Texas are paying for some of it too.

This is where I find unacceptable, because I have no choice but to consume and pay for my electricity. I suppose, if it the demands become intolerable, I can move to another state, which is something I'm hoping to avoid over escalating electricity costs.

I get to pay a surcharge in Texas because they never winterized any of the electric grid so prices went to hell and there were rolling blackouts all over the state when we had five days of temps in the 20s. So I get to pay the costs without getting any of the winterization. Yay Texas. Our half a governor's response to his failure on the grid (TX Gov directly appoints every member of the TX Public Utility Commission in charge of our 3rd world grid) was to ban cities from enforcing mask mandates in the pandemic.

 

[manly]

You're paying for AI right now in your ridiculous electric bill. Privatized profits with socialized costs is as American as apple pie and school shootings. Ugh I'm at ground zero of crypto and AI in shithole Texas.

Be that as it may, I thought TX has some of the lowest electricity rates in the country?

SCE's rates here are disgusting. The lowest tier is like 24c/kWh but it can spike as high as 74c for summer, "On-Peak."
(IIRC for the longest time, the "national average" was quoted as 11c/kWh but it has to be higher now.)

Edit (forgot the link):

https://www.sce.com/save-money/rates-financing/residential-rate-plans/time-of-use-plans

 

[Artorias]

Hold up.

Is my 11GB GDDR5X 1080TI worth more now than it was in 2017?

Memory being 80% of the cost of a GPU is insane.

 

[jpiniero]

Hold up.

Is my 11GB GDDR5X 1080TI worth more now than it was in 2017?

Memory being 80% of the cost of a GPU is insane.

GDDR5 probably not worth much.

 

[Artorias]

Is memory format a significant bottle neck to GPU performance? I haven't kept up with technical advances for a few years.

Can a slower memory GPU be viable for a mass market GPU?

These days I don't play modern games, most AAA are trash, while the indie scene produces the best.

Not sure what to upgrade going from a 8700K/1080TI.

 

[jpiniero]

Is memory format a significant bottle neck to GPU performance? I haven't kept up with technical advances for a few years.

Can a slower memory GPU be viable for a mass market GPU?

GDDR5/X is probably out of production.

 

[jdubs03]

I get to pay a surcharge in Texas because they never winterized any of the electric grid so prices went to hell and there were rolling blackouts all over the state when we had five days of temps in the 20s. So I get to pay the costs without getting any of the winterization. Yay Texas. Our half a governor's response to his failure on the grid (TX Gov directly appoints every member of the TX Public Utility Commission in charge of our 3rd world grid) was to ban cities from enforcing mask mandates in the pandemic.

And yet Texans continually vote these dipshits into office. You’d think they’d wise up and vote Abbott and Paxton out.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Is memory format a significant bottle neck to GPU performance? I haven't kept up with technical advances for a few years.

Can a slower memory GPU be viable for a mass market GPU?

These days I don't play modern games, most AAA are trash, while the indie scene produces the best.

Not sure what to upgrade going from a 8700K/1080TI.

If you are not itching to play the last couple of years of AAA slop, no need to upgrade at all. That's a solid combo for most everything else. Even some of the new games like ARC Raiders and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II will run fine on it.

 

[Thunder 57]

And yet Texans continually vote these dipshits into office. You’d think they’d wise up and vote Abbott and Paxton out.

FFS this isn't P&N.

 

[jdubs03]

FFS this isn't P&N.

No it isn’t but my comment is relevant to the posts that were made discussing electricity prices which had political context to it.

 

[EXCellR8]

Yeah, seriously, if I weren't already set, I would've picked up the 5070 Best Buy sale for $399 on the spot. Great deal, in my view, especially under our current environment.

That is a great deal imo. I grabbed a 5070 Ti for just under $700, which I think is all I'm willing to part with currently. I've got a 4080 super too that I'm re-pasting, but I may end up trading that away.

I don't know how much gaming I'll do over the next 6-9 months tbh. My year is chock full of home and auto projects, vacations, weddings, and most likely lots of OT. Market can do whatever it wants in that regard, as I'll likely be on the sidelines for awhile anyway. #adulting

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Stopped by the semi-local microcenter today and picked up a PC Reaper 9070xt open box that they had for $602. This is the most I've ever spent on a video card ever, in my entire life but by modern standards in both the new and used market, the thing is a steal (esp. given I snagged my 6800xt used 3+ years ago for $450 all in).

I was really hoping to switch back to Nvidia this round, I've gone back and forth between the brands every upgrade cycle with the exception of one of the first (GeForce 2 MX200 to a GeForce 4 4600ti wayyyyyyyy back in the day) but good lord Nvidia options are sofa king out of touch expensive for similar performance... I assume simply due to feature and mind share dominance.

So for the second time in my life I am upgrading from the same brand to the same brand.

Everyone wanted $550+ for their 4070ti Supers or $450 for their 4070's... Even 7800xt seemed to command $400+ pricing which was ridiculous IMO given what I paid for my 6800xt.

They also have ASRock Challengers for $599 brand new, but I've always been a little skeptical of ASRock as a brand (not entirely fair) and lawd the card is ugly (also not fair, it would be in my case the whole time and I'd never look at it but still).

Anyhow, putting the card through it's paces on 3DMark purely for stability testing purposes, and will download and run more graphically demanding games after I wrap up DOW2 Retribution to see how the thing does in the "real world".

So far so good though *knocks on wood*.

 

[CP5670]

I didn't even notice Asrock made video cards. I have just used whatever brand I could find in stock or had a good price, have used Asus, MSI, PNY, Gigabyte, XFX, EVGA, BFG, AMD, Sapphire, Elsa, 3dfx and Diamond over the years. They all worked well with no major issues.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Anyhow, putting the card through it's paces on 3DMark purely for stability testing purposes,

First thing I do with every card.

It is also a great tool for quickly making certain a card is performing as it should. Back around 2020 during the first great derpression, I posted about swapping Nvidia cards without wiping and reinstalling drivers. They both used the same drivers. The 3DM scores were half of what they should be. After manually deleting everything, even the reg entries, rebooting offline, and installing drivers fresh, the performance was normal. I've swapped cards like that dozens of times with no issues for both AMD and Nvidia, but that particular time, it reminded me to follow best practices.

I do use DDU sometimes, but I still like to do it old school, too.

I have used PowerColor cards going back a good ways. Always been reliable for me. The Vega 56 Red Devil is maybe my all time favorite card. Build quality on par with modern high end cards. 3 bios. Could match or beat the flagship's stock performance.

EDIT: BFG also gives me warm feels. I think they had the double lifetime warranty.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

First thing I do with every card.

It is also a great tool for quickly making certain a card is performing as it should. Back around 2020 during the first great derpression, I posted about swapping Nvidia cards without wiping and reinstalling drivers. They both used the same drivers. The 3DM scores were half of what they should be. After manually deleting everything, even the reg entries, rebooting offline, and installing drivers fresh, the performance was normal. I've swapped cards like that dozens of times with no issues for both AMD and Nvidia, but that particular time, it reminded me to follow best practices.

I do use DDU sometimes, but I still like to do it old school, too.

I have used PowerColor cards going back a good ways. Always been reliable for me. The Vega 56 Red Devil is maybe my all time favorite card. Build quality on par with modern high end cards. 3 bios. Could match or beat the flagship's stock performance.

EDIT: BFG also gives me warm feels. I think they had the double lifetime warranty.

-Happy to say the card burned through the 3d mark testing just fine, and a little shy of the average but within the range of similar systems so all is well there.

When I first took it out of the box I thought "jezzus that's a huge card" but funny enough when I put it next to the 980ti it's replacing its really only about 1/2" longer while also being 1/2" narrower.

Mildly annoying that the PCB is really only about 7" and then there is just a ton of extra cooler overhang. Would have loved to see a 2 fan "ITX" version of the card.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

Stopped by the semi-local microcenter today and picked up a PC Reaper 9070xt open box that they had for $602. This is the most I've ever spent on a video card ever, in my entire life but by modern standards in both the new and used market, the thing is a steal (esp. given I snagged my 6800xt used 3+ years ago for $450 all in).

Ugh most we've ever spent on a video card is probably here to stay any time we upgrade these days. $380 for my RX 6700 XT in 2022 was the most I had ever spent on a gpu. Then $440 for my RTX 5070 a couple of months ago took the crown. Probably doubtful my next card is less than $600.

 

[coercitiv]

These guys are pros, I just uninstalled the driver, put the new card in, installed new driver and was back to gaming. My sensometer says the 9070 XT uses about 50W less than the 6800 XT at ISO settings and same framecap. I was very scientific about it, as you can imagine.

Card seems fine, though I should indeed run some stress tests in the coming days. It's the cheapest XFX, the Swift.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

These guys are pros, I just uninstalled the driver, put the new card in, installed new driver and was back to gaming. My sensometer says the 9070 XT uses about 50W less than the 6800 XT at ISO settings and same framecap. I was very scientific about it, as you can imagine.

Card seems fine, though I should indeed run some stress tests in the coming days. It's the cheapest XFX, the Swift.

-Yes the tingling at the base of my balls tells me I'm looking at a roughly 50% performance improvement over my 6800xt in demanding games I haven't played and don't even own yet.

 

[Stg-Flame]

Majority of CEOs report zero payoff from AI splurge

: PwC survey finds more than half of 4,500+ biz leaders see no revenue growth nor cost savings

www.theregister.com

I've been seeing a lot of articles like this one stating that AI investments aren't paying off and while I understand that this is mostly for your everyday corporation trying to find a way to implement AI to reduce the overhead cost (ie. replacing their customer service department with AI chatbots), I'm wondering if companies like Nvidia are seeing the same flatlined returns despite their massive investments. I'm probably getting my hopes up for no reason, but if these PC hardware giants aren't seeing sizable returns on their investments, I'm wondering if they'll start backing off sooner rather than later and trying to get back into the consumer's good graces.

Something tells me the AI fanboys won't let go that easily, but I'm hoping that some of these companies will try to jump ship before it collapses to get ahead of the massive consumer demand for new GPUs/RAM/etc. Imagine the sales AMD could make if they corner the GPU market while they leave Nvidia jerking off their Silicon Valley overlords for little to no financial returns.

Edit: The worldwide corporation I work for has tried to implement AI multiple times and it's failed spectacularly every time. First it was that AI were going to watch all Transport & Rail Drive Cams to watch for violations, then it was AI would be responsible for division security (new personally-coded keycards with face recognition required just to enter the building), then it was forcing copilot on every computer (which lasted less than a week), then it was AI-controlled inventory, and now they're trying to force AI into our pipeline systems to not only monitor all the systems, they want it to be responsible for regulating pressures and valves on national oil and gas pipelines that feed straight to refineries. Every single AI venture has failed and yet they're still pushing it. Last I heard, their testing runs were catastrophic for pressure regulation, so they're bringing in a bunch of experts to "teach" the AI how to regulate the pipelines. I don't see this getting greenlit anytime soon, but if it does, don't be surprised if you see oil and gas explosions in the news.

 

[jpiniero]

I've been seeing a lot of articles like this one stating that AI investments aren't paying off and while I understand that this is mostly for your everyday corporation trying to find a way to implement AI to reduce the overhead cost (ie. replacing their customer service department with AI chatbots), I'm wondering if companies like Nvidia are seeing the same flatlined returns despite their massive investments. I'm probably getting my hopes up for no reason, but if these PC hardware giants aren't seeing sizable returns on their investments, I'm wondering if they'll start backing off sooner rather than later and trying to get back into the consumer's good graces.

stonks tho.

 

[marees]

Majority of CEOs report zero payoff from AI splurge

: PwC survey finds more than half of 4,500+ biz leaders see no revenue growth nor cost savings

www.theregister.com

I've been seeing a lot of articles like this one stating that AI investments aren't paying off and while I understand that this is mostly for your everyday corporation trying to find a way to implement AI to reduce the overhead cost (ie. replacing their customer service department with AI chatbots), I'm wondering if companies like Nvidia are seeing the same flatlined returns despite their massive investments. I'm probably getting my hopes up for no reason, but if these PC hardware giants aren't seeing sizable returns on their investments, I'm wondering if they'll start backing off sooner rather than later and trying to get back into the consumer's good graces.

Something tells me the AI fanboys won't let go that easily, but I'm hoping that some of these companies will try to jump ship before it collapses to get ahead of the massive consumer demand for new GPUs/RAM/etc. Imagine the sales AMD could make if they corner the GPU market while they leave Nvidia jerking off their Silicon Valley overlords for little to no financial returns.

Edit: The worldwide corporation I work for has tried to implement AI multiple times and it's failed spectacularly every time. First it was that AI were going to watch all Transport & Rail Drive Cams to watch for violations, then it was AI would be responsible for division security (new personally-coded keycards with face recognition required just to enter the building), then it was forcing copilot on every computer (which lasted less than a week), then it was AI-controlled inventory, and now they're trying to force AI into our pipeline systems to not only monitor all the systems, they want it to be responsible for regulating pressures and valves on national oil and gas pipelines that feed straight to refineries. Every single AI venture has failed and yet they're still pushing it. Last I heard, their testing runs were catastrophic for pressure regulation, so they're bringing in a bunch of experts to "teach" the AI how to regulate the pipelines. I don't see this getting greenlit anytime soon, but if it does, don't be surprised if you see oil and gas explosions in the news.

except for Oracle & open AI the other companies have lots of cash in hand that they can keep burning

it is not limitless tho

at some point oracle & open ai will have to go to their backers / govt for bailout

 

[coercitiv]

except for Oracle & open AI the other companies have lots of cash in hand that they can keep burning

You forgot other big names like MS and Amazon. Both companies underwent job cuts to afford the new round of expansions.

Mark Zuckerberg argued a while ago that unlike other players like Open AI, they have a massive and steady income they can invest into AI indefinitely. What he didn't mention, and we can see even more clearly now, is that OpenAI and other are coming for Meta's lunch.

Nobody has the money, nobody is safe, at this point they're all running and hoping the others chicken out.

 

[jpiniero]

5060 Ti 16 GB is now more expensive than the 5070.