My turn for video card advice
kaotkbliss
Posts: 2,914
First off, I know I'm not going to be able to get a top-notch card with my budget, just looking for a little upgrade (mostly in amount of video ram)
I currently have a 4GB gtx 970, my wife's pc is starting to die (it was periodically shutting down and after checking and fixing system files and removing an old un-supported device (wireles card) it was fine for 2 weeks, but then yesterday it powered off 2x and already once today within the hour of use.
I'm pretty sure it's the motherboard as it was defective when I got it (only 3 of the 4 ram slots could be used, anyhting in the 4th slot caused the pc to not boot) I RMa'd it back to MSI and they sent the board back in the same condition.
Anyways, Since I am buying her all new parts, I figured I would update my card a little then give her my 970. Because of this, my budget to update is only max of $250 so I'll still be behind the times. I was hoping for an 8GB card but the prices I've seen place them at $400+ so it looks like I'll have to go with a 6GB card.
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Comments
For Iray the cheapest 6GB options I've seen right now are GTX 1660 Super or GTX 1650 Super, or if you can go in the $300 range the RTX 2060.
If you can swing it the RTX 2060 KO
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1452927-REG/evga_06g_p4_2063_kr_geforce_rtx_2060_xc.html?ap=y&smp=y
is a great rendering card as its actually a 2080 with some of the GPU turned off, but not some of the 2080's CUDA so you'll get much better iRay performance out of it.
But if $250 is a hard cap you'll probably be better off on the used market TBH. See what you can find on eBay or Craigslist. You might find a 2070 or something like that.
Is that specifically the KO? (You linked to the XC and so far I'm not seeing a KO on that site)
Searching newegg the cheapest KO came up at $330 which I could get an 8GB 1070 for the same price (skipping past the MSI cards)
I linked without double checking. Yes specifically the KO. No one seems to actually have it at list price. The lowest I could find was this:
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/evga-ko-ultra-gaming-nvidia-geforce-rtx-2060-6gb-gddr6-pci-express-3-0-graphics-card-black-gray/6403801.p?skuId=6403801&ref=212&loc=1
The 1070's at $330 is a massive ripoff at this point. Do not buy it. While you'd like the 8Gb the performance difference is massively in the RTX cards favor.
I guess I'll just skip the new card for now then. $330 is pushing to total up too much for now. I'll wait until it's more easily affordable to get a decent 8GB card, whichever one that might be...
Always check the Renewed (means refurbished) section at Amazon. I grabbed a 6GB GTX 1060 just last week for $199.
In fact just looked and there's an Nvidia Quadro M4000 8gb GPU onsale there for $265...... wich I'd seen that last week lol.
I would look at ebay for a used GTX 1070 or 1070 ti.
The buy it now prices on GTX 1070 start around $200 and the GTX 1070 ti starts around $250
Either of these will be a huge performance boost going from the GTX 970 and you will be doubling your VRAM going from 4GB to 8GB.
Just looked up the quadro, too big for my case by about 2 inches :(
My current card is 10.10 inches (according to amazon's specs) and it just fits in may case.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00R3NK2LE/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
There are plenty of smaller form factor GTX 1070, 1070 ti, 1080 and 1080 ti cards out there that are designed with the Mini ITX crowd in mind.
Try searching with the word mini or itx in the search.
Thanks, I saw the minis as I was looking around but I wasn't sure if they had lesser specs or something due to being a smaller size
Zotac in particular makes a line of smaller cards.
They should be the same specs as any other card but since the coolers are smaller you should take care not to push them as hard. Don't try to fit multiples in one rig or stuff like that.
Yeah, it's looking like my options at some point are get a roomier case and a vid card, or get a mini
I though when I picked up my 970 at the time and saw how big it was, and that it just barely fit my caase, that somehow vid cards wouldn't be any biggre than that LOL
With the mini cards you can always install a program like MSI Afterburner and set a more agressive fan curve, or set a lower power limit to keep the card running cooler in the smaller space. On the other hand at the reference clock speed the GTX 1070 is only rated to use 150w, so the mini cards shouldn't have any trouble cooling it.
Figures, since I flipped the switch and ordered the parts for my wife's computer (minus a video card) it has been fine with no unexpected shutdows for the past 3 days LOL
So I've been trying to keep my eyes on 8GB nvidia cards on ebay, but I'm not sure at what point would be over-spending.
Been keeping my eyes open for the gtx 1070, gtx 1080, and rtx 2070 (all minis)
All the prices I found on eBay were higher than I'd pay TBH.
This thread got me thinking, what are GPU prices like right now? Quick newegg search later... wtf? My card I bought 5 months ago (GTX 2070 Super) is more expensive than when I bought it and generally unavailable. 3000 series? Good luck, which I expected with the 3000s but I didn't know there was such a 2000 series shortage. What is going on with the GPU market? It feels like the first cryptocurrency GPU run. Looks like a good time to wait and save.
The 2000 series manufacturing has been discontinued by NVidia, so availability is going to be increasingly (if not exclusively) second hand cards. It appears the stay at home orders for much of 2020 has led to a run on PC Hardware in general as folks who normally would do various things out and about focus on upgrading their systems (some for remote work purposes, others to have something to do while at home). How long this will last is anyone's guess but all tight markets eventually settle back to equilibrium in the long run.
What's really aggravating is Nvidia could have kept the 2000 chips in production at least for a while since it was on TSMC 12nm which isn't otherwise in heavy demand and its not like there's any chance they wouldn't still sell all the Ampere cards they can make at least through Xmas.
I've had to turn away 5 customers in the last 2 months becuase I could not get any GPU at all, at MSRP, for systems.
Now even CPU's and other components are getting short as well. the Ryzen 5000 was never available after launch day but now the 3000 CPU's are pretty much sold out as well. The Intel 10000 CPU's are in short supply as well and PSU's are getting scarce too from what I can see.
My wife's graphics card (my old gtx 640) died the other day and needed one asap. Couldn't find a single card anywhere local, not even a basic card. Ended up having to borrow one from work until her card comes in from Amazon. Picked her up a GTX 1050 (she does some gaming on the PC, but not as much as on the PS4)
@kenshaw, can I ask what you believe would be a fair price for the 3 cards would be (the 1070, 180 and 2070)?
1070 ~$250
1080 ~$300
2070 ~$300
Thanks :) Gives me a better idea what to shoot for when bidding so I don't end up going way over at some crazy price (I do that sometimes)