GPU Buying Guide - (Read first post)

Prices have finally dipped enough for miners to take notice, and suddenly there’s stock on the shelves again—but don't hold your breath waiting for a bargain. I haven't seen a single decent deal yet. If they actually dropped prices closer to MSRP, those shelves would be empty before you could blink, just like before.
The market is incredibly touchy right now because everything is still so overpriced.
And who exactly do you think someone is trying to manipulate?

The profitability of mining hasn't budged an inch compared to where we were three weeks ago. Here’s the reality: those new LHR cards have finally hit the market, but nobody in the mining community is touching them. It’s pure madness to pay a premium for hardware only to see your hash rate slashed by half—especially with the eip-1559 update looming next month, which is just going to squeeze our margins even further. So, we're stuck in this awkward limbo where miners won't buy at the old price points, and most gamers find these prices way too steep to justify a purchase anyway. On top of that, the scalpers are starting to sit on their inventory because they've realized the same thing I just said. We're looking at a slow, inevitable slide in prices until they finally hit a level that people are actually willing to bite on.

goldencanyon89 said:Mining profitability hasn't changed at all compared to three weeks ago.

Not quite. It took a dip. Compared to the peak when I was pulling in about $3 a day on an RX580, I'm seeing closer to $1.5 now—and that’s before electricity costs. Honestly, I think it's just the market trend; miners are driving down card prices because they're spooked by the risk.

LogicMaster said:Sure, but those non-LHR cards were flying off the shelves just a few weeks ago. Now, suddenly, stores are practically tripping over them.

About four weeks back, I managed to move seven RX 6700 cards in what felt like a heartbeat. Fast forward to today, and every single retailer—whether they’re local shops here in the States or major online giants—is suddenly flooded with stock. Prices have even dipped below what I originally paid when importing them. It's like there was this sudden, inexplicable market boom. Everything is available all of a sudden, from the LHR versions to the non-LHR ones, covering everything from RX series to even the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 6.

Back then, they had only just hit the market; you have to give the average Joe some time to actually wrap his head around the shifting tides of the market. You also have to consider the sheer volume of miners who jumped in hoping for some miracle software patch, only to find themselves stuck with hardware they can't flip, so they're dumping it all now. As for Intel regarding their cards, there's always plenty of stock to go around; I haven't been tracking the overseas markets closely enough to say much, but locally, nothing has really shifted except for a very slight dip in pricing.

wiredotter14 said:Not quite; the drop was actually somewhat significant. Compared to the peak when I was pulling in about $3 a day on an RX580, I'm seeing closer to $1.50 now—and that's before even touching the electric bill. Honestly, I think it's just a matter of trends; miners have lowered their maximum bid for hardware because they're spooked by the perceived risk.

I wrote to you three weeks ago, and I highly doubt you were seeing $3 back then, because that's what I was getting on an RTX 3060, in my opinion. That massive spike we saw when gas prices went through the roof finally tapered off somewhere around May 20th.

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I mentioned when things hit their peak—can't recall the exact date, but back when gas prices were absolutely insane
That’s without even counting electricity

ASUS NVIDIA GTX 1660 Super 6GB 256-bit

or maybe

ASUS NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 6GB OC Edition Evo

Which one of these should I actually go for?

The second one is way more expensive—I mean, literally double the price! But honestly, people rave about both of them, saying they absolutely crush it in benchmarks.

What I really care about is longevity, you know? Like, which one is going to keep pushing upcoming games on High or Ultra settings—or even just Medium—for as long as possible? I read somewhere that the 2060 might still be able to handle big AAA titles on High/Max settings for another couple of years.

I'd love to hear what you guys think about this.

By the way, I'm putting together a brand new PC in about ten days. I've got two different builds ready to go, so if anyone wants to see the full specs, just let me know and I'll drop them here!

The 2060 is definitely the superior choice here, especially since you get that sweet DLSS support, though I’ll be honest—I highly doubt you’ll still be cranking everything to the absolute max settings in two years, even at 1080p. Unless, of course, you're perfectly content playing everything at a breezy 30fps.

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I guess it might be smarter to hold off for a bit; GPU prices are finally starting to trend downward. Right now, everything seems to be priced at nearly double what it should be. You’ll probably be able to snag an RTX 3060 for what people are currently paying for a 2060 before you know it.

Thanks for all the input, guys.

crimsonstag84 said:Honestly, I think it's better to hold off for a bit since GPU prices are finally starting to dip. Right now, everything feels like it's nearly double what it should actually cost. You'll probably be able to snag an RTX 3060 for what people are currently paying for a 2060 pretty soon.

Man, I've been saving up for a whole year just to build this new rig. What if I just make this setup last me a year running everything at Full HD High/Ultra settings, and then maybe another two or three years on Medium/High for the big upcoming releases? Would I be okay just riding it out like that before upgrading to something beefier later? What do you guys think about that plan?
I could always just buy a different one in a year and sell this one. I’m basically doing the same thing I’m doing with my PC right now—just tucking cash away on the side until I've got enough to pull the trigger.

I'm probably going to go with a build featuring an ASUS NVIDIA GTX 1660 Super 6GB 256-bit.

I know everyone says GPUs are overpriced right now, but hey, I've got games to play and honestly, I'm bored out of my mind with nothing else to do.🤣

And how much are you dropping for that 1660S over there?

wiredotter14 said:So, how much are you actually shelling out for that 1660S?

Around $450

And the 2060 is sitting at about $700.

New or used? And what's the damage in USD?

wiredotter14 said:New or used? And how much is that in USD?

Reseno, 2060 👍 Thanks for all the help, everyone!

I'm never touching used gear—it's always gotta be brand new for me. Honestly, I have no clue what the price is in USD since I don't follow those damn price lists at all.

cosmiclynx57 said:I'm really not sure what the conversion looks like in USD, since I don't follow exchange rates much at all.

I suppose I see where everyone is coming from, especially regarding the 5th. But, I guess when you're reaching out to someone outside of the US about pricing—especially when dealing with different exchange rates—it feels like common courtesy to convert those values into their local currency, or perhaps just use something universal like USD.

I’m certainly not trying to act like a know-it-all here, I guess; I'm just pointing out that, in my view, that's how things tend to work in both life and business—you try to do your absolute best to gather as much information as possible on your own first, and then, once you hit that wall where things are unknown, you approach others to ask for help.

If you aren't keeping an eye on the current exchange rates and you find yourself needing my assistance, I suppose it's a bit of a question of why I should be the one tasked with tracking those rates just for your benefit, right? 😁

I registered for the RTX 3080 about five months ago, so maybe I'll actually get it this year.
When I got the email yesterday, I thought I was finally up for shipping, but it looks like there's more waiting ahead.

Hello ________,

e-mail we would like to inform you that Your status in the notification waitlist has changed. You originally signed up to be notified when 10G-P5-3881-KR becomes available. Due to the ongoing availability situation, you have now been placed on the notification waitlist for model 10 G-P5-3881-KL, which Nvidia LHR features. These cards offer the same gaming performance, though they have reduced Cryptomining performance (Ethereum). Otherwise, the products are identical. To learn more about Nvidia LHR, click here.

EVGA made this move to increase availability and the waiting time for gamers looking to buy a GPU. Your position in the notification waitlist remains unchanged. If, however, you are in the notification waitlist for 10G-P5-3881-KR and want to stay there, you can "unsubscribe" from the new list; You will then be reset to the original notification waitlist with your original registration time. Note that EVGA strongly advises against unsubscribing, as there is no ETA for availability and provides no guarantee for it that your order for the original part number can be fulfilled. Additionally, once you unsubscribe, you can neither apply to be put back in the Queue for 10 G-P5-3881-KL nor request a notification for 10 G-P5-3881-KL, because you can only be in one waitlist per model.

If you still wish to switch to 10 G-P5-3881-KL, please click here. If you have questions regarding this e-mail, please you contact EVGA customer service before taking any action.

Did they move you over to the LHR-limited list?

Sure, but they claim there’s no actual loss in card performance; it’s just being throttled specifically for mining. I don't even care about mining—I just need it for video editing.

Edward Thompson86 said:Sure, but their argument is that you aren't actually losing any raw hardware performance; they're just throttling it specifically for crypto mining, which isn't even my concern since I'm strictly focused on video editing.

I suppose we can only hope the algorithm doesn't mistake heavy video rendering for a false positive and flag it as mining activity. 😁

wanderingbison9 said:Hopefully the algorithm doesn't flag the video processing as a false positive for mining. 😁

Hmm, you've given me something to think about, I guess.

I suppose I hope that doesn't happen.

It seems to me that none of you actually have the slightest clue what an algorithm even is. Nothing catastrophic is going to happen; not only are you not going to see some massive performance hit during your renders or whatever heavy lifting you're doing, but you can actually still mine algorithms that aren't Ethash or Etchash at maximum hashrate, just like those LHR cards.