Anyone just given up on looking for a new GPU?

[Odirse]

We can get an unrealustic view of PC gaming on these enthusiast forum. Tge vast majority of PC owners are not running even a 2060 Super yet. Game makers do cater for the lower-end (high streer pc) scene. To do otherwise is business suicide.

As you say, most of PCs end up with a low-mid range GPU, that is, a 50 or 60 series if we talk about nvidia cards really. For a brand new PC, this would mean going either for a 1660 super or 2060 super, as you said.. However, you can't really find any of that at all at the moment... I'm not even talking about the 3000 series, I'm talking about not being able to find a 2060, 1660, 1650 super, 1650, or even a 1050Ti anymore. This can only mean one thing really: PC enthusiasts, or people who would normally have no problems spending 500£, for argument sake, on a GPU, are not being able to buy what they expected and are buying even lower end GPUs than they would in normal circunstances, or at least were, because you can't really buy anything at all at the moment.

That was actually my case. I was considering buying a 3080 initially, as I was quite interested in getting a VR set, then decided a 3070 would be enough as I couldn't buy one of these, and finally decided I would go for a 3060Ti as I wasn't able to buy anything at all... I'm still using a 770, and I might decide to buy a 3050 when they come out, at a normal price and if I can buy any at all, that is... The problem is that there are many people just like me, and I'm still able to play most games at 1080, but there are a few now, that my PC struggles with... I normally play one or two hours a day after work, maximum, so I'm not considering paying 1000£ for a GPU with a RRP of 400... just not gonna happen. And it will get to a point, when I won't buy any of the latest games because I won't be able to play them even.

I just don't undestand this strategy on the long-term really. Having clients who were willing to spend their money and buy a medium-high end product from you buying entry level products for a quarter of the price instead, and probably hurting sales on the long term as well, doesn't make much sense to me. Especially if you're not benefiting from it, because scalpers and maybe retailers now are the ones who are actually reaping the benefits of this situation... unless they plan people to move to services like Geforce Now on the long term, that is... however I see that as a very risky move as well, taking into account they don't have any competency selling GPUs, apart from AMD, but there are a few other companies selling similar services as Geforce Now...

 

[Neutrino101]

Has anyone heard anything about when we can expect the great GPU drought to end?

Or do we need to keep watching the 3d printers section of the site as they are still worried about getting 1000+ orders every time they list a card for sale.

 

[dragos1977]

Any retailer can afford to price them as much as they want in the current climate as they can sell them anytime without any issues if they have to.The stock is scarce so holding them as much as they can for max profit is not a problem.The grim reality of today's PC environment.Hopefully when things will settle people will remember who took advantage od buyers the most and shop accordingly.

 

[dragos1977]

Has anyone heard anything about when we can expect the great GPU drought to end?

Or do we need to keep watching the 3d printers section of the site as they are still worried about getting 1000+ orders every time they list a card for sale.

I dont see anything changing this year.My brother in law is in the pc business and said things won't change till next year at least.

 

[Robotanv]

As you say, most of PCs end up with a low-mid range GPU, that is, a 50 or 60 series if we talk about nvidia cards really. For a brand new PC, this would mean going either for a 1660 super or 2060 super, as you said.. However, you can't really find any of that at all at the moment... I'm not even talking about the 3000 series, I'm talking about not being able to find a 2060, 1660, 1650 super, 1650, or even a 1050Ti anymore. This can only mean one thing really: PC enthusiasts, or people who would normally have no problems spending 500£, for argument sake, on a GPU, are not being able to buy what they expected and are buying even lower end GPUs than they would in normal circunstances, or at least were, because you can't really buy anything at all at the moment.

That was actually my case. I was considering buying a 3080 initially, as I was quite interested in getting a VR set, then decided a 3070 would be enough as I couldn't buy one of these, and finally decided I would go for a 3060Ti as I wasn't able to buy anything at all... I'm still using a 770, and I might decide to buy a 3050 when they come out, at a normal price and if I can buy any at all, that is... The problem is that there are many people just like me, and I'm still able to play most games at 1080, but there are a few now, that my PC struggles with... I normally play one or two hours a day after work, maximum, so I'm not considering paying 1000£ for a GPU with a RRP of 400... just not gonna happen. And it will get to a point, when I won't buy any of the latest games because I won't be able to play them even.

I just don't undestand this strategy on the long-term really. Having clients who were willing to spend their money and buy a medium-high end product from you buying entry level products for a quarter of the price instead, and probably hurting sales on the long term as well, doesn't make much sense to me. Especially if you're not benefiting from it, because scalpers and maybe retailers now are the ones who are actually reaping the benefits of this situation... unless they plan people to move to services like Geforce Now on the long term, that is... however I see that as a very risky move as well, taking into account they don't have any competency selling GPUs, apart from AMD, but there are a few other companies selling similar services as Geforce Now...

I'd argue the opposite. This is a manufacturers dream come true.
Demand is almost limitless now. Scalpers buy all the stock and sell on and manufacturers don't even need to honour a warranty at that point. Enthusiast purchases are probably insignificant compared to mainstream / miner purchases and the market is overwhelmingly willing to pay enthusiast prices for mid range hardware. The 'principled' purchaser is probably an even more insignificant number compared to these.

I'm going to suggest that the new bar has been set.

 

[Neutrino101]

I dont see anything changing this year.My brother in law is in the pc business and said things won't change till next year at least.

Sadly it does indeed look unlikely to change anytime soon. My few hours spent reading up on the issue today show that most of the things causing it don't look to be getting any better for at least 6 to 12 months, then you also have a lot of pent up demand which will keep prices high even after volume returns. Not a good year for PC enthusiasts.

 

[roadie]

I think even if supply increases, AMD and nvidia have succeeded in distorting prices. Are cards ever going to be good value again?

 

[pugheaven]

Yep, I'm sticking with the 5700XT this year now, I was willing to throw some coin AMD's way but the way all these releases have been handled, ****** to them tbh. I'll stick with what I have which plays everything I need.... it's a joke this year and will continue this way as well so.

 

[Neutrino101]

I think even if supply increases, AMD and nvidia have succeeded in distorting prices. Are cards ever going to be good value again?

The only good thing at the moment is that the £ is going up again against the $. Most analysts expect this to continue for the year, as all PC parts are priced in $ this will help us in the UK get slightly better prices if it continues.

 

[Naff8000]

Could ocuk say forum users who joined before x date or have x posts can apply to buy the cards rather than hiding them in 3d printers? It seems like many long-time users on this forum still don't have a card yet and I expect most of them wouldn't be reselling them and would be using them for gaming or production.

 

[4k4uNuNu]

The only good thing at the moment is that the £ is going up again against the $. Most analysts expect this to continue for the year, as all PC parts are priced in $ this will help us in the UK get slightly better prices if it continues.

Give retailers more profit you mean?

Part of me wouldn't blame them, they are taking a financial and PR hit at the moment. It mustn't be easy, implementing tech to stop scalpers but people are pretty much demanding it now.

 

[rallyslag]

I'd argue the opposite. This is a manufacturers dream come true.
Demand is almost limitless now. Scalpers buy all the stock and sell on and manufacturers don't even need to honour a warranty at that point. Enthusiast purchases are probably insignificant compared to mainstream / miner purchases and the market is overwhelmingly willing to pay enthusiast prices for mid range hardware. The 'principled' purchaser is probably an even more insignificant number compared to these.

I'm going to suggest that the new bar has been set.

Talk about living in a bubble! All,and i mean all of my normal friends would not even contemplate a gaming pc now. All are still on old gen consuls,and will only upgrade that when prices normalise . They all have laptops/old pc's for normal stuff and laugh at component prices now . it's not even a consideration for them now.. How long do you think AAA games will bother to port to pc just for a small amount of elite gamers ? unless of course you are willing to pay £200+ for an elite pc port .. Its like being locked in a walk in freezer and saying all is fine. The air will soon run out!!!!

 

[Odirse]

I'd argue the opposite. This is a manufacturers dream come true.
Demand is almost limitless now. Scalpers buy all the stock and sell on and manufacturers don't even need to honour a warranty at that point. Enthusiast purchases are probably insignificant compared to mainstream / miner purchases and the market is overwhelmingly willing to pay enthusiast prices for mid range hardware. The 'principled' purchaser is probably an even more insignificant number compared to these.

I'm going to suggest that the new bar has been set.

We'll see... I actually agree it must be a dream come true on the short term, but would you be willing to gamble your business model on the long term to just make some more profits on the short term? Don't forget gamers keep buying GPUs every four years or so, no matter what really, but would all these miners buy a single GPU if there is a sudden drop in the cryptocurrency market? And about the warranty, sure any manufacturer would be willing to not have to offer any warranty at all, but I'm sure they would do rather benefit from higher prices instead.

The question here really is what is gonna be AMD move really... because it seems Nvidia is focused on other areas apart from selling Hardware, it might be that they want us all move into Geforce Experience on the long term indeed, who knows. But AMD? Sure they want to keep selling GPUs and CPUs... and they have to remain competitive in both areas for that.

We are gonna "enjoy" of much more expensive GPUs, that's for sure and beyond discussion, no matter what happens... unless there is a crash in the crypto market, to the point of mining not being profitable again...

 

[craigyhay]

prices for gpu's are crazy inflated at the moment, hoping to pick an rtx 3060 up for rrp at launch otherwise i will be picking up a series x

 

[dragos1977]

i guess i have to consider myself lucky being able to grab a brand new 1660TI for £265 recently.

 

[fs123]

I've been looking at some mining reddits and it looks like most of the cards are being bulk bought direct from the wholesalers hence why there is only a trickle getting to retail.

The only positive on the horizon is that Ethereum is switching to POS which should put a stop to the profitability of gpu mining but that could take a year.

 

[Sleepy Stu]

I've been looking at some mining reddits and it looks like most of the cards are being bulk bought direct from the wholesalers hence why there is only a trickle getting to retail.

The only positive on the horizon is that Ethereum is switching to POS which should put a stop to the profitability of gpu mining but that could take a year.

More than that, there is still at least 2 years or more in ethereum mining!!

 

[hobib_ali]

This is a fact:

If mining was eradicated overnight then:

GPUs would flood the market like crazy
The price of cards would be slashed
Scalping would be a thing of the past
The power draw from power stations would reduce the carbon footprint
Funds would be allocated to proper regulated investments that would benefit the local and international economy
All the PC gamers would be very happy

 

[chrcoluk]

The only thing bringing prizes down any significant way is either a huge reduction in manufacturing costs that allows them to maintain profits with price drop or a huge shift in supply and demand where we see a big crash in the market.

 

[McPhee]

Has anyone heard anything about when we can expect the great GPU drought to end?

It'll ease when the current Crypto bubble bursts.

Until then, miners are going to buy every card they can get their hands on, providing it's at a price which allows them to turn a profit.

It's almost worth just joining them at this point, especially if you have a reasonably good card to sell on. 5700 XT to 6800 XT would cost about £300. If current Crypto prices hold, that's around two months of mining...