• Is the price of graphics cards finally coming down?

    From David@21:1/5 to All on Sat Jul 2 18:27:16 2022
    This PC currently has an Nvidia GeForce GT 710 which in modern graphics
    terms couldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding.
    Couldn't even play video from my camera.

    However up until recently graphics cards were both scarce and expensive.

    Just started comparing the 710 to 730 (which I have seen around £50) and
    the review was flattering to neither.

    Any idea of the lowest spec which would drive a 4K screen, cost under £100?

    I've realised how long it is since I looked at all this and last time I
    looked it took quite a bit of searching to work out what was (possibly)
    what.


    Cheers



    Dave R



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  • From Andy Burns@21:1/5 to David on Sun Jul 3 07:00:45 2022
    David wrote:

    This PC currently has an Nvidia GeForce GT 710 which in modern graphics
    terms couldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding.
    Couldn't even play video from my camera.

    Most on-board graphics can H/W accelerate video playback, depending on what codec the file is using, my oldish laptop skips frames when attempting 4K from youtube, but is fine for 2K

    However up until recently graphics cards were both scarce and expensive.

    Just started comparing the 710 to 730 (which I have seen around £50) and
    the review was flattering to neither.

    Any idea of the lowest spec which would drive a 4K screen, cost under £100?

    GT 1030 and 1050 seem to be in price range, and I'd expect could cope with the video

    I've realised how long it is since I looked at all this and last time I looked it took quite a bit of searching to work out what was (possibly)
    what.

    Certainly the crypto crash has brought GPU prices down, and there seems to be a bit of a lull where gamers are waiting for a better generation of products to be
    released soon following some pretty crappy fayre released over the last few months.

    I'm not a gamer, but you could look at some recent youtube videos from Hardware Unboxed or Gamer's Nexus ..

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  • From Chris@21:1/5 to David on Sun Jul 3 12:33:23 2022
    David <wibble@btinternet.com> wrote:
    This PC currently has an Nvidia GeForce GT 710 which in modern graphics
    terms couldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding.
    Couldn't even play video from my camera.

    However up until recently graphics cards were both scarce and expensive.

    Just started comparing the 710 to 730 (which I have seen around £50) and
    the review was flattering to neither.

    Any idea of the lowest spec which would drive a 4K screen, cost under £100?

    Probably a 10 series nVidia card. You'll need to check your power supply to
    see if it's capable. A 1030 or a 1050, which may be a little over budget.

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  • From Jaimie Vandenbergh@21:1/5 to David on Sun Jul 3 13:02:44 2022
    On 2 Jul 2022 at 19:27:16 BST, "David" <wibble@btinternet.com> wrote:

    This PC currently has an Nvidia GeForce GT 710 which in modern graphics
    terms couldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding.
    Couldn't even play video from my camera.

    However up until recently graphics cards were both scarce and expensive.

    Just started comparing the 710 to 730 (which I have seen around £50) and
    the review was flattering to neither.

    Any idea of the lowest spec which would drive a 4K screen, cost under £100?

    Friend of mine just got a 1070 for £125 off ebay, if that price point is useful to know.

    Cheers - Jaimie
    --
    "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we
    grow old because we stop playing"
    -- George Bernard Shaw

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  • From Theo@21:1/5 to Jaimie Vandenbergh on Sun Jul 3 15:06:35 2022
    Jaimie Vandenbergh <jaimie@usually.sessile.org> wrote:
    Friend of mine just got a 1070 for £125 off ebay, if that price point is useful to know.

    Be wary of used cards, as they might be ex-mining GPUs that have been
    thrashed 24/7. There's a higher risk of failure with those, and you have no warranty.

    Depends if you want to take that risk, but I'd be tempted to use the drop in price to snag a new one. Or maybe you know somebody who has a spare GPU you can buy that you're sure hasn't been used for mining.

    (or maybe there's some other way to tell if an ebay GPU has been used for mining? There are some red flags, like the seller listing multiple GPUs,
    but I'm not sure if eg the presence of a box makes it less likely to be a
    miner cashing out?)

    Theo

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  • From Chris@21:1/5 to Theo on Sun Jul 3 14:34:45 2022
    Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:
    Jaimie Vandenbergh <jaimie@usually.sessile.org> wrote:
    Friend of mine just got a 1070 for £125 off ebay, if that price point is
    useful to know.

    Be wary of used cards, as they might be ex-mining GPUs that have been thrashed 24/7. There's a higher risk of failure with those, and you have no warranty.

    Mining cards tend to be the top of the range cards i.e. 980, 1080 Ti. A
    low-mid range cards like a 1060/1070 is unlikely to have been used that
    way.

    Also, I've heard an argument that mining cards aren't that badly treated.
    24/7 reliability is more important than outright speed so they are rarely overclocked (underclocked if anything), usually well cooled and duff cards
    will be filtered out pretty quickly.

    If you can get a good price on one, I'd go for it. I tried myself recently,
    but they were still too expensive for me. Got a 1660 Super for £200 in the end.

    Sold my 1060 for £80 which I was a bit disappointed about, but hey ho. The going price at the time was a lot nearer to £100.

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  • From Koopa@21:1/5 to Chris on Sat Jul 9 08:50:50 2022
    Chris <ithinkiam@gmail.com> wrote:

    Sold my 1060 for £80 which I was a bit disappointed about, but hey ho. The going price at the time was a lot nearer to £100.

    Last week I sold my RX580 for £98.49 ex VAT my Ryzen 5 2600 CPU without
    cooler for £37.94 ex VAT and 2x 16GB 2133 MHz micron memory for £27.55 ex VAT.

    VAT was £32.79 and signed for delivery £12.05.

    Had to pay VAT to customs as they were sent from Jersey, buyer has since received and tested and is happy with them.

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