You can occasionally stumble upon a GPU on sale right at MSRP here and there.
I ended up ordering an RTX 3060 12 through my cousin over in Germany.
If I recall correctly, the MSRP is roughly $1000, and my total landed around $1050, which is basically that plus shipping. Plus, it isn't exactly a bottom-tier cooler—it actually has more VRM phases and heat pipes than the cheaper models.
I had to sacrifice FreeSync on my monitor (since it only works via HDMI, and only AMD supports FreeSync over HDMI 2.0 on my specific screen), but I skipped the RX 6600 because of that x8 bandwidth issue. That’s likely going to be a headache for anyone on PCI-e 3.0 motherboards down the road, though it's fine on PCI-e 4.0. Right now, the only place I've noticed the hit is in Doom (about a 20% performance drop), but that trend will only increase.
Take a look at Best Buy—I haven't checked lately, but even their search filters aren't picking anything up. They used to be the go-to for the best deals, though.
That’s honestly pretty underwhelming. You should aim for something with a more capable GPU, like an RTX 2060 or even the Super version, or maybe an RX 5600XT. In my opinion, that really ought to be the baseline if you're looking to build a serious gaming PC.
To be honest, you might run into a wall; the shortages are massive right now and prices are sky-high. You could look into the used market, but even then, the situation isn't much better.
Jack Reed, Anthony Davis7, I don't want to leave you guys hanging without a solid recommendation—if we're sticking to the 24" requirement and that specific budget, a 24" 1080p Dell P series with an IPS panel is pretty much a safe bet.
But, just like what our colleague linked in the recent posts—it might be worth seeing if you can track down a 27" or even a 32" 1440p monitor for under $667
fadedlynx10 said:If crypto prices aren't making Mining profitable anymore, then what else would cause this massive shortage and these sky-high GPU prices? When can we actually expect things to stabilize?
Everyone seems to be predicting that 2021 will stay stuck like this, and honestly, it’ll probably drag on well into 2022...
And look... theoretically, it’s possible, even if there was a massive sale going on. I know that during major clearance events, competing RX 5700 and 5700XT cards could be picked up for $767 in the US or around $400 (maybe one or two specific 5700XT models at Best Buy)😁
Are you sure those are high-end? Because $767 cost about the same as a standard RTX 2060 6GB. As far as I can recall, the budget models were actually going for $933 (you can check the price history on Best Buy). The only other explanation is if they finally slapped the sales tax on it, then I guess that explains the jump.
Did you overpay for this card, or did you just miss out when they were at "normal prices"? You could find an RTX 2080 super 8gb for anywhere from $2,800-$$1067 if you were looking at the budget models—and those were brand new, obviously . Looking at the MSRP, in a normal market, an RX 6700 XT would be going for about $1333 here in the States. If you managed to snag one for $600 ($1500), then you actually landed a great deal; that’s almost what a standard price looks like .
Look, the thing is, the RX 6700 XT just hit the market right in the middle of all that madness, so it never actually had a reasonable price tag to begin with.
Kenneth Harris3 said:Prices have jumped again, so anyone who snagged an RX 6700 XT at the previous rates really scored big! They’re finally aligning themselves with the price of RTX 3060ti and RTX 3070 levels. It was honestly just a matter of time... ☕
What "previous rates"? Let's be real—no new GPU has ever actually had a reasonable price right out of the gate.
In my opinion, if you're dealing with components that are prone to failure—which, let’s be honest, applies to most electronics except for things like processors, cases, and coolers—you should just steer clear of Best Buy.
If you aren't planning on upgrading to K-series processors, overclocking, or anything fancy down the road, just grab the cheapest H410 motherboard you can find—as long as it actually supports NVMe SSDs, because believe it or not, some models don't. For example, check out : https://www.amazon.com/s?k=H410M-HDV%2FM.2
If you want something a bit more robust, I'd recommend looking at an MSI B460 model like the Bazooka or the Mortar.
Aaron Evans2 said:Can someone give me a quick rundown on what this card actually is?
The bottom line is that the newer models aren't worth nearly as much as the $400 (since that 1650 was a massive hit back in $433), yet you’re going to end up paying an absolute fortune for it 😁
We need to play the long game here. AMD’s priority should be dropping those mainstream RDNA 2 models—and I’m not talking about the upcoming RX 6700 XT, but rather the RX 6600 and potentially a 6500 if they even bother making one. Once that’s settled, they need to fast-track the next generation of both GPUs and Ryzen chips. Moving everything over to 5nm will free up enough 7nm capacity to crank out a massive volume of consoles and mainstream RDNA 2 GPUs. After that, they can just rebrand those new mainstream cards for another five years, much like how they handled Polaris 😁
wiredotter14 said:I don't get why AMD doesn't just keep pumping out Polaris 20 for miners. Using 14nm TSMC and GDDR5 should put way less pressure on them compared to 7nm and GDDR6. Polaris 20 delivers about half the hash rate of these newer cards like the RTX 3060 Ti, which is perfectly fine. AMD (or rather, their partners) used to sell those cards for around $150-$200 for a long time. Also, a massive pile of Polaris isn't going to be snatched up like it used to be because they aren't much of an upgrade anymore, whereas Big Navi and the RTX 3000 series will eventually flood the second-hand market once the bubble bursts.
Polaris and Vega were made by GlobalFoundries on 14nm, not TSMC...
But I see your point. That’s exactly why NVIDIA is moving toward making these "mining GPUs," which are basically Turing derivatives built on 12nm TSMC—and there isn't a shortage for that specific node.😁, You can call them mining GPUs, but they'll actually be worse for mining than the Ampere gaming cards.😁
So, they aren't doing this out of the goodness of their hearts to "save the gamers"; they're just looking for any way to dump more GPUs onto the market while demand is still hot.
Your requirements have one major flaw: a tempered glass panel—which is the modern standard—paired with a 5.25" drive bay, which is practically ancient history. You’ve narrowed the field so much that there's hardly anything left. To me, the only real contender that fits this specific profile is the Fractal Design Define R6.