Today everything has inflated prices, unless you want some old entry level crap.

Generally my experience is that it takes about 6-8 years for a graphics card to reach the bottom of it's price curve, it's about another 2-5 years that it spends on the bottom, then starts to pick up. So based on this, the from Geforce 9000 series (G92) up until about the Geforce 700 series (Maxwell) graphics cards should be the least inflated. But the market went crazy. Everything is more expensive than it has any right to be.

Also, it just happens to be that high-end Geforce 600 and HD7000 series grapics cards are still semi-compenent so their prices were especially sensitive to the GPU shortage.

Most demanding game I own is Farming Simulator 2019 ideally at 1600x900

Minimum system requirements:
"Nvidia Geforce GTX 650, AMD Radeon HD 7770 graphics card or better (min. 2 GB VRAM, DX11 support)"

You're pretty much out of luck.

I guess you can still get Radeon 5850/5870 for a reasonable price. Because it's absolutely worthless for modern games with only 1 Gb of VRAM and very outdated drivers without DX12 and Vulkan support.

So anything that is DX12 is insanely overpriced? Even if it is IGP/APU?

the3dfxdude wrote on 2022-01-27, 13:23:

So anything that is DX12 is insanely overpriced? Even if it is IGP/APU?

Anything that can handle DX11 is inflated a lot of DX 10 GPUs are too even tho they are less useful they can handle basic gaming, this is how it is with GPU shortages people are buying what's available and will run the games they want to play even if its old GPUs.

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-01-27, 13:40:

the3dfxdude wrote on 2022-01-27, 13:23:

So anything that is DX12 is insanely overpriced? Even if it is IGP/APU?

Anything that can handle DX11 is inflated a lot of DX 10 GPUs are too even tho they are less useful they can handle basic gaming, this is how it is with GPU shortages people are buying what's available and will run the games they want to play even if its old GPUs.

So basically in these modern times it’s like
we are back to playing Quake on 386sx25’s w/ 387 because that is what we own.

rmay635703 wrote on 2022-01-27, 14:28:

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-01-27, 13:40:

the3dfxdude wrote on 2022-01-27, 13:23:

So anything that is DX12 is insanely overpriced? Even if it is IGP/APU?

Anything that can handle DX11 is inflated a lot of DX 10 GPUs are too even tho they are less useful they can handle basic gaming, this is how it is with GPU shortages people are buying what's available and will run the games they want to play even if its old GPUs.

So basically in these modern times it’s like
we are back to playing Quake on 386sx25’s w/ 387 because that is what we own.

Basically.

rmay635703 wrote on 2022-01-27, 14:28:

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-01-27, 13:40:

the3dfxdude wrote on 2022-01-27, 13:23:

So anything that is DX12 is insanely overpriced? Even if it is IGP/APU?

Anything that can handle DX11 is inflated a lot of DX 10 GPUs are too even tho they are less useful they can handle basic gaming, this is how it is with GPU shortages people are buying what's available and will run the games they want to play even if its old GPUs.

So basically in these modern times it’s like
we are back to playing Quake on 386sx25’s w/ 387 because that is what we own.

It about deciding if you want that shiny new GPU and are you willing to pay the prices for it, I had to buy a 3080ti but I know that it will pay for itself over its life time so for me it was I dont like these prices but I can justify it for work. If you can live with what you currently have and it lets you play the games you want to play then it might serve you better to hold off on a new GPU for the next year or two, with how things are moving in the world chip shortages might be the least of our worries and even if we solve the shortages GPU prices are going to be sky high for quite a while.

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-01-27, 14:46:

rmay635703 wrote on 2022-01-27, 14:28:

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-01-27, 13:40:

Anything that can handle DX11 is inflated a lot of DX 10 GPUs are too even tho they are less useful they can handle basic gaming, this is how it is with GPU shortages people are buying what's available and will run the games they want to play even if its old GPUs.

So basically in these modern times it’s like
we are back to playing Quake on 386sx25’s w/ 387 because that is what we own.

It about deciding if you want that shiny new GPU and are you willing to pay the prices for it, I had to buy a 3080ti but I know that it will pay for itself over its life time so for me it was I dont like these prices but I can justify it for work. If you can live with what you currently have and it lets you play the games you want to play then it might serve you better to hold off on a new GPU for the next year or two, with how things are moving in the world chip shortages might be the least of our worries and even if we solve the shortages GPU prices are going to be sky high for quite a while.

As you probably know since I broadcast it all over the forums.. I pay dumb prices for hardware, but I draw the line at these recent GPUs. I pay stupid prices for old hardware I missed out on owning. There is no way am I paying these crazy prices. They will come back down to earth, eventually, and a 2080 Ti (FTW3) can hold its own for many more years. Of course, it if was work related, as you mention, this is a different story.

Meatball wrote on 2022-01-27, 15:01:

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-01-27, 14:46:

rmay635703 wrote on 2022-01-27, 14:28:

So basically in these modern times it’s like
we are back to playing Quake on 386sx25’s w/ 387 because that is what we own.

It about deciding if you want that shiny new GPU and are you willing to pay the prices for it, I had to buy a 3080ti but I know that it will pay for itself over its life time so for me it was I dont like these prices but I can justify it for work. If you can live with what you currently have and it lets you play the games you want to play then it might serve you better to hold off on a new GPU for the next year or two, with how things are moving in the world chip shortages might be the least of our worries and even if we solve the shortages GPU prices are going to be sky high for quite a while.

As you probably know since I broadcast it all over the forums.. I pay dumb prices for hardware, but I draw the line at these recent GPUs. I pay stupid prices for old hardware I missed out on owning. There is no way am I paying these crazy prices. They will come back down to earth, eventually, and a 2080 Ti (FTW3) can hold its own for many more years. Of course, it if was work related, as you mention, this is a different story.

Yea there wasn't any way I would have paid 2600 AUD for a GPU unless it was going to make it back, im crazy not stupid 🤣. I did make one really good mistake by buying a Radeon VII back at release, its now worth three times what I paid for it and if I put it up for auction on eBay it would likely sell for more, all due to its compute power(hash rate). Only the 3090 matches it in consumer cards, 3090 however is expensive, hot, power-hungry and its Vram sucks for overclocking, pretty much a terrible GPU for mining.

RandomStranger wrote on 2022-01-27, 12:16:

Today everything has inflated prices, unless you want some old entry level crap.

i think that sums it up!

if we're playing any game released in the last 7-8 years and we want to play that at 'modern' resolutions with settings medium to high, then its going to cost

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-01-27, 14:46:

It about deciding if you want that shiny new GPU and are you willing to pay the prices for it,

Nope. Shiny 5 years old GPUs cost more than when they were new. It's about deciding if you want to play anything released in the past half decade in anything higher than 1080p medium.

I been "doin' ma resurch" on cheapest GCN cards and R7 240 and 250 are dropping "cheap" but they're crap, the HD7770 is faster. There's one or two FirePro cards, like W4100 Dell OEM that are getting dumped and can be seen around $50, but they're not so great either. (All the cheap ones I've seen have mini display ports, ewww, okay if you've got a bunch of adapters kicking round)

As I said before, Radeon 5870 can be bought on ebay for 50-60 bucks or cheaper locally. Reason - they don't handle modern DX11 games well and can't work with DX12 at all, so there's not huge market for them even in these dark times. If you're lucky, you can snag GTX480/570/580 for that price. These cards have most basic DX12 support and somewhat decent drivers, way better than Radeon 5xxx series anyway, but still very much limited by small VRAM amount. GTX580 probably could handle Farming Simulator 2019 well enough.

And DX10 GPUs just don't have huge market, because nowadays you can't launch anything on them, outside of Counter-Strike or Dota 2. Basically they are in limbo, mostly not huge interest for collectors and useless even in such dire situation, because AMD APUs are better.

Uninflated prices sounds like 2014-2015 to me. I don't recall exactly when I got my 6GB 1060, but I remember not paying an inflated price for it.

Having recently scored an R9 280x for free, I was a bit surprised to see even this old of a card going for $100.00 + on Ebay.

I was a bit surprised to see even this old of a card going for $100.00 + on Ebay.

Of course it is. It has DX12, Vulkan and can play any modern competitive game (Overwatch, Fortnite, etc) with good framerate.

What about an HD6970. They can be had for less than $100 and have 2GB of RAM and are going to be a decent amount faster than an HD5870.

If you want a newer card and are running Windows 10, look at the slightly older Nvidia Tesla cards. The newer Windows drivers allow you to set the low power and performance GPUs.

You just have to either have onboard video or a lower end Nvidia card for the actual video output.

rmay635703 wrote on 2022-01-27, 14:28:

So basically in these modern times it’s like
we are back to playing Quake on 386sx25’s w/ 387 because that is what we own.

The very reasonable alternative is to *give up* modern gaming because it's no longer a "fun" hobby, but has now become too expensive, and a 'chore' to justify the outrageous expense. And just because you have a subjectively deficient video card for modern gaming doesen't mean that there aren't still thousands of older games which will work -- outstandingly fast -- on your card. I got to this point long ago, and am very happy there. It really is pretty stupid to spend crazy amounts of cash (that you probably can't afford) on mere video cards. When -- if ever -- prices drop to something more reasonable, not as egregrious, then spend your money more wisely and not enable scalpers, scammers, and artificial price inflations as are so much in vogue at the current moment.

zyzzle wrote on 2022-01-28, 02:04:

rmay635703 wrote on 2022-01-27, 14:28:

So basically in these modern times it’s like
we are back to playing Quake on 386sx25’s w/ 387 because that is what we own.

The very reasonable alternative is to *give up* modern gaming because it's no longer a "fun" hobby, but has now become too expensive, and a 'chore' to justify the outrageous expense. And just because you have a subjectively deficient video card for modern gaming doesen't mean that there aren't still thousands of older games which will work -- outstandingly fast -- on your card. I got to this point long ago, and am very happy there. It really is pretty stupid to spend crazy amounts of cash (that you probably can't afford) on mere video cards. When -- if ever -- prices drop to something more reasonable, not as egregrious, then spend your money more wisely and not enable scalpers, scammers, and artificial price inflations as are so much in vogue at the current moment.

Its not that they are in vogue its that the worlds supply chains are fucked six ways from Sunday due to a certain virus, you only have to look at the monumentally massive backlog of ships trying to enter/leave load/unload at Chinese ports to understand just how bad its become, the prices are a response to this. do you really think Sony likes not being able to supply PS5's ? or that nVidia likes not having product to send to market ? they dont, its bad for business. All that aside its the retailers setting the stupid prices they could just add their costs to the MRSP but they dont they add a 200% mark-up because people WILL and do pay it. Fabricators cannot enforce the MRSP and if you buy direct from say AMD you do actually pay MRSP so its clearly not the FABs setting retail prices.

Consumers are also partly to blame here if they refused to pay the stupid mark-ups the retailers would be forced to lower them back to reasonable levels just to move stock but guess what . .consumers are stupid pack animals and will buy things they dont need at prices they wouldn't normally pay because FOMO .. just look at black Friday sales to get a good example of stupid pack animal behaviour.

There isn't an easy road out of this and honestly its getting worse, even super markets here in Australia are unable to get stock and there are a lot of empty shelves, so all we can really do is sit back and wait, things will eventually return to normal but as with all things retail prices likely wont go back to pre pandemic levels.

I agree with what you are saying, its a shit situation to be in.