Tech Gaming Hardware discussion (& Hardware Sales) thread

[Gregolian]

I don't think Ebay is so bad because they are always on the buyers side. To the point that I'm scared to sell anything on that site because I don't want to get screwed. I had one guy claim a mobo I sent him didn't work even though I tested the whole system before I sent it to him. So I said that's find just send it back and I'll refund you. Never heard from him again. If you have issues with the GPU I firmly believe Ebay will back you and give you your money back. At worst you'll have to pay to send it back.

I might take the jump when I see a 3000 series card for near MSRP

 

[PEB]

Why would they start showing up on Ebay though? Miners offloading them for different cards?

A lot of miners dump their stuff when the money dries up. I posted some photos of miners with 72 or more 3080 cards. One guy bought a BNW i8 an filled it with 32 gpus with a sign that said suck it gamers.

 

[Gregolian]

A lot of miners dump their stuff when the money dries up.

Here's hoping something good drops I can grab.

 

[PEB]

Here's hoping something good drops I can grab.

It may bring new stuff down in price big time soon.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.te...ly-recovering-and-prices-could-come-down-fast

"Pricing for these Nvidia cards was treble (yes, three times) the recommended asking price in May, the report observes, and that has sunk to a 91% increase in June, or nearly double. So yes, in relative terms pricing is still massively inflated, but it’s dropping very fast – and obviously if this continues, the overall picture could come much closer to normal levels before too long."

 

[Gregolian]

It may bring new stuff down in price big time soon.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.te...ly-recovering-and-prices-could-come-down-fast

"Pricing for these Nvidia cards was treble (yes, three times) the recommended asking price in May, the report observes, and that has sunk to a 91% increase in June, or nearly double. So yes, in relative terms pricing is still massively inflated, but it’s dropping very fast – and obviously if this continues, the overall picture could come much closer to normal levels before too long."

I’m just going to sit on secondary markets to see if I can find something

 

[PEB]

OH I was worried Chinese internet cafes would not get enough 3060! That's a close one. Lol

"A revival of the Internet Cafe market in China is another indication that the GPU market is healing. We have just reported on a significant GeForce and Radeon graphics cards price decline in the last two months. A decreasing value of cryptocoins and the launch of a new GeForce RTX 30 LHR series have certainly had their impact on the GPU supply, which without a doubt are becoming cheaper, but still not as cheap as we would like them to see.

When it comes to the RTX 3060 though, NVIDIA had to release a new version of this SKU due to a simple mistake. The manufacturer ‘accidentally’ released a driver without a mining hash rate limiter in place. The RTX 3060 was the first model to debut with this feature back in February. In the end, NVIDIA had no choice but to launch the same graphics card but with a new GPU revision (GA106-302), new PCI Device ID, and new hash limiter. However this time RTX 3060 was joined by RTX 3080, RTX 3070, and RTX 3060 Ti Lite Hash Rate (LHR) series."


https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-...o-increase-in-july-focusing-on-internet-cafes

 

[Gregolian]

OH I was worried Chinese internet cafes would not get enough 3060! That's a close one. Lol

"A revival of the Internet Cafe market in China is another indication that the GPU market is healing. We have just reported on a significant GeForce and Radeon graphics cards price decline in the last two months. A decreasing value of cryptocoins and the launch of a new GeForce RTX 30 LHR series have certainly had their impact on the GPU supply, which without a doubt are becoming cheaper, but still not as cheap as we would like them to see.

When it comes to the RTX 3060 though, NVIDIA had to release a new version of this SKU due to a simple mistake. The manufacturer ‘accidentally’ released a driver without a mining hash rate limiter in place. The RTX 3060 was the first model to debut with this feature back in February. In the end, NVIDIA had no choice but to launch the same graphics card but with a new GPU revision (GA106-302), new PCI Device ID, and new hash limiter. However this time RTX 3060 was joined by RTX 3080, RTX 3070, and RTX 3060 Ti Lite Hash Rate (LHR) series."


https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-...o-increase-in-july-focusing-on-internet-cafes

Supposedly the 3070 Ti Founders Edition cards aren't hitting NA. Or if they are it is in such a limited amount that it doesn't make sense.

 

[PEB]

Supposedly the 3070 Ti Founders Edition cards aren't hitting NA. Or if they are it is in such a limited amount that it doesn't make sense.

Micro center had enough of AMD BS apparently lol.

"

Here's the excerpt from the post:

"Typically AMD graphics cards are more affordable but can require some modification or regular maintenance to keep working as intended. On the other hand, Nvidia graphics cards function much like video game consoles and essentially work in a plug-and-play fashion. The ease of use and stability of Nvidia GPUs have made them the most popular choice among gamers and streamers. Nvidia cards also support Ray Tracing and DLSS, which work together to provide gamers the highest quality graphics possible without sacrificing frame rates.""

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/micro-center-slams-amd-gpus-ceo-issues-apology

 

[method115]

Micro center had enough of AMD BS apparently lol.

"

Here's the excerpt from the post:

"Typically AMD graphics cards are more affordable but can require some modification or regular maintenance to keep working as intended. On the other hand, Nvidia graphics cards function much like video game consoles and essentially work in a plug-and-play fashion. The ease of use and stability of Nvidia GPUs have made them the most popular choice among gamers and streamers. Nvidia cards also support Ray Tracing and DLSS, which work together to provide gamers the highest quality graphics possible without sacrificing frame rates.""

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/micro-center-slams-amd-gpus-ceo-issues-apology

lol damn that's brutal. With that said I had a 290 and that's the last AMD GPU I will ever buy unless Nvidia seriously drops the ball.

 

[jefferz]

Micro center had enough of AMD BS apparently lol.

"

Here's the excerpt from the post:

"Typically AMD graphics cards are more affordable but can require some modification or regular maintenance to keep working as intended. On the other hand, Nvidia graphics cards function much like video game consoles and essentially work in a plug-and-play fashion. The ease of use and stability of Nvidia GPUs have made them the most popular choice among gamers and streamers. Nvidia cards also support Ray Tracing and DLSS, which work together to provide gamers the highest quality graphics possible without sacrificing frame rates.""

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/micro-center-slams-amd-gpus-ceo-issues-apology

But was the CEO wrong?

 

[rob mafia]

Nvidia graphics cards function much like video game consoles

<[analyzed}>

 

[My Spot]

It amazes me how AMD/ATi has had driver issues for over 20 years now.

 

[PEB]

It amazes me how AMD/ATi has had driver issues for over 20 years now.

I believe AMD's issue is fighting two heavyweight opponents at 155 lbs at the same time.

 

[jefferz]

It amazes me how AMD/ATi has had driver issues for over 20 years now.

And that's why "AMD products age like fine wine". It's usually because all that work Roger does on his spare time Thursday afternoons finally pays off.

 

[Madmick]

So some NVIDIA fanboy at Microcenter gets cute with a prank, leaving the big brass to trip over himself apologizing, and we're impressed by that? As previously posted:

DRIVER STABILITY
This isn't for Navi, but anecdotally across user forums, and in the test cited below run by an independent lab over two years ago, paid for by AMD, AMD's drivers had surpassed NVIDIA in driver stability at that point:
AMD Radeon GPUs outperform Nvidia cards over 288 hours of stability stress testing (July 16, 2018)
Radeon Clobbers GeForce In AMD-Commissioned Audit Of Driver Stability

Fast forward. More recently and relevant to this matchup, per Navi's issues, I suspect the research by Hardware Unboxed is what is being referenced (Gamers Nexus and others followed suit).

Indeed, the first poll they ran, with 64K responses, showed 48% of AMD owners vs. 22% of NVIDIA owners testifying they had experienced serious driver issues. However, that was before the major 20.20.2 update released specifically to address those issues, discussed in Hardware Unboxed's follow-up video, with AMD estimating 90% of issues would be resolved. As he noted, on Reddit, the vast majority of responses indicated this was true, and the issues were resolved. In a follow-up poll specifically for this driver update, wherein AMD Navi RX owners were isolated, only 20% of them responded they still had issues: lower than the original NVIDIA figure.

Spoiler: AMD Navi Driver Stability Analysis

February 13, 2020


Follow-up
March 5, 2020

AMD 20.20.2 Reddit Thread

A recent Tom's Hardware article (Mar-30, 2021):

AMD vs Nvidia: Drivers and Software
Trying to determine a clear winner in the drivers and software category is difficult. Quite a few people previously encountered black screen issues with AMD drivers on RX 5000 Navi series GPUs, while others didn't have any difficulties. Newer drivers have fixed these problems, but some user complaints continue. Nvidia drivers aren't foolproof either, and depending on the game and hardware, issues crop up for both companies. But is one company doing better with drivers?

AMD makes a lot of noise about its yearly driver overhaul. The Radeon Adrenalin 2020 drivers consolidated everything under one large umbrella, aiming to simplify things, though it can be confusing at first if you're used to the older drivers. AMD tends to skip WHQL (Windows Hardware Quality Labs) testing, which means fewer hoops to jump through and potentially more bugs slip through, but Microsoft's ensurance of a minimum level of functionality doesn't really mean much for gaming purposes. You can generally count on at least one new AMD driver per month, often more if there are major game launches.

Nvidia's driver schedule follows a similar cadence. You'll get new drivers for major game launches or new graphics card hardware. Nvidia's releases (outside of hotfixes) are all WHQL certified, and Nvidia also has a separate Studio Driver branch for content creators.

One of the big differences between AMD and Nvidia drivers is that Nvidia has two separate user interfaces. The Nvidia Control Panel handles things like resolutions and certain graphics settings, while GeForce Experience tackles game optimizations, driver updates, and extra features including ShadowPlay, Ansel, and more. Annoyingly, you have to log in and solve a captcha prompt to use GeForce Experience, which is something I've done more times than I’d ever want to count. Just say no to data mining plus drivers.

Winner: Tie We prefer AMD's unified driver approach, as it's one less interface to navigate, but there's just so much stuff in the current releases. Nvidia's Q&A is arguably better, though plenty of bugs and issues end up slipping through on both sides. Quantifying drivers ends up being an incredibly subjective affair, however, so we're calling this one a draw.

I don't know wtf he's talking about with the log-in and captcha solve to use GeForce Experience, I've never had to do that, but the fact AMD has simplified their management software into a single interface is relevant to the "plug n' play" argument.

I don't see any of our resident AMD users complain about a bad user experience. I see our resident NVIDIA users make a really big deal out of the presumed problems that AMD users experience.

 

[Slobodan]

So some NVIDIA fanboy at Microcenter gets cute with a prank, leaving the big brass to trip over himself apologizing, and we're impressed by that? As previously posted:


A recent Tom's Hardware article (Mar-30, 2021):

I don't know wtf he's talking about with the log-in and captcha solve to use GeForce Experience, I've never had to do that, but the fact AMD has simplified their management software into a single interface is relevant to the "plug n' play" argument.

I don't see any of our resident AMD users complain about a bad user experience. I see our resident NVIDIA users make a really big deal out of the presumed problems that AMD users experience.

Never had any driver issues with my RX 5700XT or my current RX 6800XT.

 

[PEB]

 

[WhiteMousse]

Prices are definitely coming down. At this rate I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing retail RTX 30 series at retail in a few months.

With that in mind, I want to build a rig that can run Cyberpunk maxed at 1440p with ray tracing on, while never dipping below 60FPS. Here's what I'm thinking. Any criticisms or advice welcome, I'm looking to reduce bottleneck wherever possible.

Ryzen 7 5800X
2x32GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4
Gigabyte Aorus X570 Elite WiFi
Gigabyte Aorus Xtreme RTX 3090

https://www.newegg.com/amd-ryzen-7-5800x/p/N82E16819113665
https://www.newegg.com/corsair-64gb-288-pin-ddr4-sdram/p/N82E16820236601?quicklink=true
https://www.newegg.com/gigabyte-x570-aorus-elite-wifi/p/N82E16813145165
https://www.newegg.com/gigabyte-geforce-rtx-3090-gv-n3090aorus-x-24gd/p/N82E16814932340

 

[jefferz]

For $42 more you can get a brand new 3900x with a warranty.

 

[Gregolian]

Prices are definitely coming down. At this rate I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing retail RTX 30 series at retail in a few months.

With that in mind, I want to build a rig that can run Cyberpunk maxed at 1440p with ray tracing on, while never dipping below 60FPS. Here's what I'm thinking. Any criticisms or advice welcome, I'm looking to reduce bottleneck wherever possible.

Ryzen 7 5800X
2x32GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4
Gigabyte Aorus X570 Elite WiFi
Gigabyte Aorus Xtreme RTX 3090

https://www.newegg.com/amd-ryzen-7-5800x/p/N82E16819113665
https://www.newegg.com/corsair-64gb-288-pin-ddr4-sdram/p/N82E16820236601?quicklink=true
https://www.newegg.com/gigabyte-x570-aorus-elite-wifi/p/N82E16813145165
https://www.newegg.com/gigabyte-geforce-rtx-3090-gv-n3090aorus-x-24gd/p/N82E16814932340

Is Cyberpunk even a real CPU intensive game? I feel like it's primarily a GPU intensive game as my damn 1070 can somehow run it with frame drops.