Tech Gaming Hardware discussion (& Hardware Sales) thread

[The Sole Survivor]

Don’t Buy the Ray-Traced Hype Around the Nvidia RTX 2080

Don't buy into this shitty hype marketing until you see benchmarks. Frankly, to me, just looking at disclosed pipelines, I'm siding with those whose Spidey Senses are detecting the grand bamboozle of our times. NVIDIA liked the taste of those cryptominer prices. They aren't interested in returning to previous meals.

The preliminary indications are that the $1200 RTX 2080 won't provide unprecedented leaps and bounds over the GTX 1080 in terms of raw performance; in fact, it looks like it may actually improve less over the GTX 1080 than the GTX 1080 improved upon the GTX 980, or the GTX 980 improved upon the GTX 780, and so on. They're just throwing out the Ti card with the launch release to obscure the fact they're perpetrating this reckless price hike.

MSRP

• RTX 2080 = $799 (September, 2018: +28 months)
  
• GTX 1080 = $599 (May, 2016: +20 months)
  
• GTX 980 = $549 (September, 2014: +16 months)
  
• GTX 780 = $499 (May, 2013: +14 months)
  
• GTX 680 = $499 (March, 2012: +16 months)
  
• GTX 580 = $499 (November, 2010)

They've taken nearly twice as long to release this update as the past four updates, with what appears will be probably an inferior improvement upon its predecessor that each of those provided, when greater improvement is increasingly demanded for meaningful improvement to graphics as the eye perceives it, in the middle of a PC gaming market that no longer gives a shit about pressing the boundaries of hardware, and they think NOW is the right time to levy this price hike?

Holy crapola, and to think I was sitting there and sweating for AMD's stock future. Screw ARM. Screw CPUs and APUs. AMD is poised to fucking crush these out-of-touch nincompoops when they release their next line of GPUs. If they can repeat their same strategy with the RX 480/580, I'm not sure there will be any reason to buy an NVIDIA GPU until the market responds with an absolute collapse around these MSRPs. That's assuming AMD doesn't bungle their response with more overpriced cards like the Vega GPUs that nobody can actually even find to buy. In other words, if the RTX 2080 is selling for ~$450-$500 around 6 months after launch, and NVIDIA can turn a profit on that price, then I see a future that is okay for them. Otherwise, this is deep, muddy water.

Because at these price points, with this graphical software market...who needs new hardware?

You will sadly still have dunces rush out to buy these cards sadly. Good read. Thanks for the info.

 

[jefferz]

GlobalFoundries is stopping all 7nm development.
GlobalFoundries on Monday announced an important strategy shift. The contract maker of semiconductors decided to cease development of bleeding edge manufacturing technologies and stop all work on its 7LP (7 nm) fabrication processes, which will not be used for any client. Instead, the company will focus on specialized process technologies for clients in emerging high-growth markets. These technologies will initially be based on the company’s 14LPP/12LP platform and will include RF, embedded memory, and low power features. Because of the strategy shift, GF will cut 5% of its staff as well as renegotiate its WSA and IP-related deals with AMD and IBM. In a bid to understand more what is going on, we sat down with Gary Patton, CTO of GlobalFoundries.
https://www.anandtech.com/show/13277/globalfoundries-stops-all-7nm-development

 

[Woldog]

Glad I bought my 1080ti now, I can't see any reason to upgrade to these new cards if I'm only gaming at 1440p Maybe towards the end of the cycle I will upgrade but no point right now.

 

[xcvbn]

It was funny watching that RTX presentation and wondering what the big fucking deal with ray tracing was. Sure, it looks nice but it doesn't make competitive games play better and requires massive amounts of GPU power for that single effect.

Although I'll bet the new RTX cards mine crypto like absolute beasts which would explain the relatively insane prices.

Was going to grab the 2080Ti if it were priced at <$1k and massively outperformed the old tech but I think I'll pick up a 1080 Ti and sell my Vega 64

 

[RockstarChris]

Im stll trying to figure out what "super HD" is, which was advertised at Walmart when I was buying gaming supplies (beef jerky and sour patch kids). I have no clue but im gonna go get a super HD tv.

The problem with technology is they outpaced themselves.

In 50 years, will you be buying a 50k television? Probably. because they will tell you it is better.

 

[Madmick]

Coincidence?

 

[HeLLMuTT]

Coincidence?

 

[jefferz]

Coincidence?

AMD could be in for tough times. Nvidia has way more cash to convince TSMC to get priority.

Another executive left
As AMD moves into the next phases of its Threadripper and Vega chip architectures, it has made two key business changes as well: Jim Anderson, who oversaw AMD’s Computing and Graphics Group, has left the company. In addition, AMD has shifted its leading-edge manufacturing to TSMC, and away from GlobalFoundries.
Anderson, who appeared on PCWorld’s The Full Nerd podcast just two weeks ago to explain the ins and outs of AMD’s new 2nd Gen Threadripper chip, has left to become chief executive of Lattice Semiconductor, an FPGA maker. Anderson will be paid several million dollars in stock and incentives, according to a Lattice statement. An AMD spokesman said that it was always Anderson's career ambition to eventually become a chief executive.
Saeid Moshkelani has been named in Anderson’s stead as senior vice president and general manager of the Client Compute Group, overseeing AMD’s CPUs and integrated APUs. Moshkelani was responsible for the semi-custom APU wins into the Microsoft Xbox and Sony Playstation, AMD said. Both of those design wins were critical for keeping AMD afloat while it developed its current Ryzen chips.
https://www.pcworld.com/article/330...erson-as-it-shifts-manufacturing-to-tsmc.html

 

[PEB]

I need to learn Mandarin and run around with a pile of cash here in this mall.

 

[jefferz]

I need to learn Mandarin and run around with a pile of cash here in this mall.

If you haven't watched Scotty's channel, I'd highly recommend it. He mainly does cell phone stuff, but it's still neat to see the markets.

 

[RockstarChris]

I need a processor that can run 20 instances of GTA 5 with the realistic mod and at super high settings in first person while also editing/rendering video and defragging my drive.

Is this the processor for me?

 

[90 50]

I need a processor that can run 20 instances of GTA 5 with the realistic mod and at super high settings in first person while also editing/rendering video and defragging my drive.

Is this the processor for me?

If you get a 2nd gen ripper don’t cheap out on a 2950, make sure to go for the gusto and get the 2990(I assume that’s what’s in the video)

It shouldn’t have any problems rendering and color correcting nextel flip phone videos at the same time.

 

[90 50]

It was funny watching that RTX presentation and wondering what the big fucking deal with ray tracing was. Sure, it looks nice but it doesn't make competitive games play better and requires massive amounts of GPU power for that single effect.

Although I'll bet the new RTX cards mine crypto like absolute beasts which would explain the relatively insane prices.

Was going to grab the 2080Ti if it were priced at <$1k and massively outperformed the old tech but I think I'll pick up a 1080 Ti and sell my Vega 64

Miners don’t use gpu’s anymore, the complexity outgrew them, this is why there are thousands of used gpu’s flooding the used market right now.

Miners are switching over to these purpose built mining boxes now, I’m sure in a few months that shit won’t be fast enough either and people will be offloading those and buying something else new.

The hardware makers are the real winners in this mining craze.

The early adopters made some money, mining is getting too expensive and the hardware is getting outdated too fast.

Mining will come to an end soon.

 

[Madmick]

WCCF Tech > NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 3DMark TimeSpy Score Leaked – Clocked At 2GHz And Beats A GTX 1080 Ti Without AI Cores
The RTX 2080 is beating the GTX 1080 Ti by 6% and the GTX 1080 by 37% in traditional performance which are the pipelines that every game out there right now are coded to utilize.

The author here is trying to make a big deal of the fact that it is doing this without "2/3 of its cores", but you can expect those cores' contribution to be about as meaningful as Hairworks and PhysX advantages were in the past for NVIDIA, or as meaningful as DX12/Vulkan have been so far. I guess if you're excited about cryptomining, A.I. tasking, or a VR market that doesn't exist, those cores should excite you, but for gamers, expect what you see below to be what you get. It's going to be years and years before gaming takes advantage of this technology if it ever does; the next big thing might arrive and actually motivate developers before this ever gains a foothold in gaming.

Judging by what I saw from the "Ray-Tracing" improvements, there's no way in hell developers are going to go out of their way to learn all that new coding, and spend the money and time to develop for it, just to achieve the barely noticeable "improvements" we were seeing in the Launch Demo.

One of the more reliable twitter accounts, TumApisak, has leaked what appears to be the 3DMark TimeSpy score of the upcoming NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 benchmark and its very impressive – it beats out a GTX 1080 Ti. Please do heed the rumor tag and take this with a grain of salt – we do not know if the test was done using final drivers (which in the Turing’s case can make a world of difference) and the run is almost certainly not using the Tensor Cores – which constitute almost 1/3 of the die space.

NVIDIA RTX 2080 Time Spy preliminary benchmark leaked – 37% faster than a GTX 1080 and 6% faster than a GTX 1080 Ti without using AI core (DLSS)
This initial benchmark showcases the rawest conventional increase in shader performance and has probably been done using preliminary drivers. Since synthetics cannot at this time take advantage of DLSS, it is worth noting that a very large part of the die (namely the Tensor cores) are not being used during this run. This means that what you are looking at is probably the lower bracket of performance uplift you can expect using Turing. With that said, and without any further ado, here is the benchmark:


NVIDIA’s RTX 2080 can beat out a GTX 1080 Ti without using 2/3rds of its cores.

The RTX 2080 manages to score more than 10,000 points on the 3DMark Time Spy benchmark. To put this into perspective, the GTX 1080 Ti achieves 9508 points in the same test while the GTX 1080 achieves a mere 7325 points. This means the RTX 2080 is 37% faster than the GTX 1080 and 6% more than a GTX 1080 Ti at conventional shading performance. I am fairly certain actual games with optimized drivers will be able to hit the 40% to 50% performance improvement sweet spot once these things actually hit the shelves.

Also, can we talk about the clocks? This appears to be a standard variant of the RTX 2080 and its clocked at 2025 MHz. This is much faster than the GTX 1080 and if this is true then we are looking at a performance boost. The Turing SMs also showcase their improved design here (based on the core count increase and clock speed increase, you should theoretically only get a 13-17% uplift).


NVIDIA’s Turing GPUs contain two brand new segments: the Tensor Core and the RT Core.

Considering the price is almost twice that of the GTX 1080, does it justify it? Well, that is something only the buyer can decide, but it is worth mentioning at this point that the real selling point of Turing isn’t the conventional shader engine, it’s actually the AI core and the ray tracing cores which have been added in this generation. While older GPUs only had a shader core, the Turing has 3 different engines and in this test, only the shader engine is being used.

The AI core will allow NVIDIA to hit performance levels that were physically impossible under the shader count spec before. With DLSS, NVIDIA can use deep learning to accelerate FPS and performance to ridiculous levels and can prove to be the single biggest selling point of the graphics card series. Opinion about RT is conflicted right now, but I personally feel that a 40%-100% performance uplift with AI and RTX tech is a good value proposition for the company.

*Edit*
Forbes: Did Nvidia Just 'Leak' This RTX 2080 Ti Benchmark Result?(September 3rd)
GTX 2080 Ti vs. GTX 1080 Ti

Videocardz received a screenshot showing the RTX 2080 Ti scoring 12,825 in 3DMark Time Spy, a demanding benchmark that tests DirectX 12 performance. By comparison, the GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition (that's Nvidia's in-house reference design) posts a Time Spy score of about 9500. That's 35% lower, or a generational increase of 35% in DirectX 12 performance.

If this is a valid result it means performance could be higher than the skeptics (including myself) anticipated, but far lower than the impressive jump between prior generations of flagship Nvidia GPUs. As WCCFTech observes, the performance increase between the GTX 980 Ti and the GTX 1080 Ti was roughly 79%.

And this was likely self-leaked by NVIDIA themselves, so expect it to be optimistically misleading. If the real-world performance gains of the GTX 1080 Ti over the GTX 980 Ti stand around 60%, then expect an incoming ~25% real world gains from the RTX 2080 Ti over the GTX 1080 Ti. Meanwhile, reminder:

• GTX 980 Ti = $649
• GTX 1080 Ti = $699
• RTX 2080 Ti = $1199

 

[Madmick]

BTW, were any of you bastards fast enough to get one of these?
AMD’s 12 Core 1920X Gets Insane Price Cut Down to $249 – Inventory Runs Out Within Hours

AMD appears to have taken an axe to the price of its 1st generation 1920X Threadripper CPU, delivering the most insane CPU clearance deal we have ever seen, no doubt in preparation for the impending arrival of its 2nd generation Threadripper processors next Monday.

AMD’s 12 Core Ryzen Threadripper 1920X Leads Amazon’s Best Sellers List Momentarily as Insane $249 Clearance Deal Takes Effect
The 1920X took the number one spot on Amazon’s best sellers list in the processors category just yesterday as it saw its price drop by more than half in perhaps the craziest CPU clearance deal we have ever seen.



If you told anyone last year that they would be able to buy a brand new 12 core CPU for less than $250 they would’ve nodded politely and taken you to a psychiatrist, thinking you were absolutely bonkers. But no, you’re not crazy and it actually happened. Inventory in fact didn’t last more than a day, but does that really surprise you?

Don't fret. Still good news:
AMD’s First Gen Ryzen Threadripper CPUs Get Insane Price Cuts – 12 Core 1920X For Just $400 US, 8 Core 1900X For $300 US

The second generation Ryzen Threadripper CPUs launched last month and while the rip apart the performance benchmarks in multi-threaded workloads, their predecessors have received some insane price cuts over the course of this entire year. Right now, the first generation Threadripper CPUs are available at such fantastic price points that even some heavy HEDT users would find more value in going for a 1st generation over the 2nd generation series.

AMD’s First Generation (The Originals) Ryzen Threadripper CPUs Now Available At An Insane Value – $400 US For 12 Core 1920X, $300 US For 8 Core 1900X, 16 core 1950X Reaching The $600 US Levels
We all love Ryzen Threadripper CPUs, they brought extreme levels of performance, tons of cores and threads and above all, a price domination which we hadn’t seen in the market for a long time. The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1st Generation processors started it all on the X399 platform and it is the DNA which the 2nd Generation is built upon.

While AMD 2nd Generation Ryzen Threadripper CPUs improve upon all ways over their last year’s predecessor, the thing for users who want more cores at the best value would still be interested in the first generation Threadripper series. The reason for that is the ever dropping prices on the 1st Gen parts.



Anandtech reports that since there’s still a good amount of 1st Gen stock in retailers end and with the launch of 16 and 12 core 2nd Gen parts soon approaching, it’s best to cut the prices to increase consumer interest, especially those who want to play around with more cores while not spending a ton of cash. We have already seen some massive price cuts on the 1st Gen Threadripper CPUs but the more recent one takes the thing to insane levels.

We are talking about a 12 core AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1920X with an official retail price of $399 US, as suggested by AMD. Bear in mind that this is the same chip that was once available for $799 US. In similar fashion, the Ryzen Threadripper 1900X, an 8 core part, is now available for $299 US (SEP) while it officially launched for $599 US. This was one of the better of 8 core parts under the 1st generation family, even when compared to the Ryzen 1800X. Lastly, we have the Threadripper 1950X, the flagship 16 core part under the 1st Gen Threadripper family. This chip can now be found around $799 US (SEP), however, we have seen online retailers listing it for much under that. We can see the price of this part to come close to the $500-$600 US levels very soon.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper Processors Listing (Amazon):

• AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1900X 8 Core CPU at $308 US
• AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1920X 12 Core CPU at $449 US
• AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X 16 Core CPU at $718 US

AMD Ryzen Threadripper Processors Listing (Overclockers.co.uk):

• AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X (£689.99)
• AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1920X (£359.99)
• AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1900X (£259.99)

AMD Ryzen Threadripper Processors Listing (Newegg):

• AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X ($749.99)
• AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1920X ($588.87)
• AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1900X ($319.99)

Spectacular time to be in the photo editing CPU market.

 

[jefferz]

BTW, were any of you bastards fast enough to get one of these?
AMD’s 12 Core 1920X Gets Insane Price Cut Down to $249 – Inventory Runs Out Within Hours

Don't fret. Still good news:
AMD’s First Gen Ryzen Threadripper CPUs Get Insane Price Cuts – 12 Core 1920X For Just $400 US, 8 Core 1900X For $300 US

Spectacular time to be in the photo editing CPU market.

Good lord, that was an insane deal. AMD has really been hitting the sales hard with their first gen Ryzen stuff.
The 1700 is still an insane deal imo. It regularly hits sub $200, has 8 cores 16 threads, includes a more than suitable cooler, and can be put in a less expensive B series mobo while still retaining overclocking. A little over a year ago before Ryzen's release, the i5-7400 was the $200 cpu to get and was only 4/4 cores . We're getting double the cores and SMT for the same price.

 

[90 50]

BTW, were any of you bastards fast enough to get one of these?
AMD’s 12 Core 1920X Gets Insane Price Cut Down to $249 – Inventory Runs Out Within Hours

Don't fret. Still good news:
AMD’s First Gen Ryzen Threadripper CPUs Get Insane Price Cuts – 12 Core 1920X For Just $400 US, 8 Core 1900X For $300 US

Spectacular time to be in the photo editing CPU market.

Fak!!!

Newegg had the 1900x for 300, and I was considering it since it’s roughly the same price as a 2700x and I am trying to build something that can handle 4K editing better

1920x for 249 I would have order d in a heartbeat.

How long till the 1950x is 300 lol!

 

[90 50]

Still 588.99 on Newegg though.

 

[Madmick]

Fak!!!

Newegg had the 1900x for 300, and I was considering it since it’s roughly the same price as a 2700x and I am trying to build something that can handle 4K editing better

1920x for 249 I would have order d in a heartbeat.

How long till the 1950x is 300 lol!

As you can see from the screenshots in that article the sale (as registered on PCPP price history) was an Amazon sale, and quite real, but even the author of that article wasn't fast enough to screencap it while it was still in effect. The internet is a thirsty horde.

 

[jefferz]

AMD announced a new Athlon, the 200GE for $55. 2/4 Ryzen cores 3.2ghz locked. 2 more SKU's, 220GE and 240GE, where announced but no detailed specs were released on those.
Performance levels are about on par with a Pentium G4560.
https://globenewswire.com/news-rele...-Generation-Ryzen-PRO-Desktop-Processors.html