GPU Buying Guide - (Read first post)

Yeah, crypto mining profits have pretty much tanked along with BTC and everything else, so people are starting to low-key panic. It’s especially rough for those who bought GPUs at peak prices; they're trying to recoup their losses, but honestly, those cards aren't worth nearly what they paid.

They certainly thought they were being clever, but ultimately, they just ended up hanging themselves.

Picked up an RX580 8GB for about $800 and I've already broken even 🙂
Google, those people who dropped $500 on these things are totally underwater right now, though I guess they'll see their money back in a year or so 😉

If we're looking for the best bang for your buck—balancing raw power with a low price tag—I spotted someone on eBay selling an AMD Radeon R9 290 for $400. In my opinion, that’s easily the strongest deal on the market right now. Looking through Craigslist, it seems like there are plenty of them available, starting from $467

Timothy Kim60 said:If you're just looking for the best bang for your buck, there's some guy on eBay selling an AMD Radeon R9 290 for $400. Honestly, that's probably the strongest deal out there right now. From what I can see, they've got plenty of them sitting around for $467.

It's just crypto miners dumping their old hardware. Not long ago, those 290s and 390s were going for at least $667.

I’m honestly hoping that once this whole wave passes, the massive flood of used mining cards hitting the market will finally drag down the prices of everything else being sold second-hand. Right now, prices feel totally inflated—it's ridiculous—so maybe we'll see the opposite happen and things get insanely cheap. I guess the real headache is just figuring out how to spot a card that’s been hammered by crypto mining versus one that was actually treated decently, you know?

As long as people are selling these graphics cards individually, it is nearly impossible to be certain about their history. It is frequently quite obvious when a card has been used exclusively for mining, yet at the same time, it can often be incredibly difficult to make an accurate assessment. Personally, I would only consider purchasing such a card if it were priced at roughly 33% to 40% of its original retail value, provided that it still carries at least six months of remaining manufacturer warranty.

Honestly, you probably won't even find anything used that hasn't been mined on, so there's no way to tell what you're actually getting. It’s a bit of a mess, I guess.

Exactly, you simply can't prove otherwise.

I see an ASUS ROG Strix RX 480 on PCPartPicker without a box or any warranty—$600 and it’s just sitting there...



Look, I don't have any plans to buy anything this year, but things could definitely go sideways if I wait too long.

She really lost her cool 😁

Other competitors have also started hiking their rates, now asking for a 60-70% markup 😁

The 1060 6GB dropped from $290 to $700 in just a week. Pretty sweet 😬

Admittedly, it’s just a single-fan ITX model. Even if you go with a dual-fan setup for three years, you'll still need to run through $867, but either way, it's a massive step up from what we were dealing with before.

Let them come; honestly, it was high time the miners arrived to act as the plague of modern computing. I truly wish them nothing but massive deficits on their balance sheets. There are those of us here who aren't driven by pure materialism, yet we find our lives made difficult in so many ways because of them—between the constant push for new graphics cards, the endless cycle of buying and selling used hardware, and the relentless wave of viruses and other digital assaults. It seems like every third headline on American or international tech sites is some nonsense about crypto. Even people in my own neighborhood are chasing it like mindless sheep, talking about nothing else and trying to convert everyone else to their cause; I suspect we’ll see even more negative symptoms of this "crypto disease" affecting us mere mortals. We just want to enjoy a good game every now and then and occasionally read something genuinely interesting from the tech world. Instead, about 90% of all articles seem to revolve around crypto, smartphones, or social media—is this really what passes for progress in the 21st century? As Rambo Amadeus once noted, when everything is produced for the sake of the masses, and the masses are foolish, we inevitably end up with foolish content.

Timothy Kim60 said:I see an ASUS ROG Strix RX 480 8GB listed without a box or warranty— $600 and it’s just sitting there...



Look, I don't have any plans to buy anything this year, but things could get complicated if I change my mind.

There is an XFX card on eBay that was easily the best 480 model out there.

I also spotted a Sapphire 580 for $250 that still has 34 months of warranty left.

If I’m picking up used gear right now, my first choice would be a pre-owned NVIDIA GTX 1070 from Best Buy for around $300...☕

If I hadn't already dumped $1667 money into a FreeSync monitor, switching over to the green team might actually be an easier pill to swallow.🙄

Looks like prices are finally dropping, $1700 especially for the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 Pulse 🤣

truant said:Hey everyone,
could someone help me figure out the difference between these two cards?
The MSI one is looking a bit cheaper to pick up...

ASUS ROG GTX 1050 Ti, 4GB GDDR5, DirectX 12
EVGA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti OC, 4GB, DDR5, DVI, HDMI, DP

Thanks!

It's basically the exact same thing—just different packaging. Don't let all those fancy model names get in your head; one says "Gaming X" and the other says "OC," but it doesn't change much. Just grab whichever one is cheaper, or maybe take the one that comes with an extra year of warranty if that's an option.

Hey there.
Looking for some advice. Time caught up with me and my PC, but I still want to play.

I'm planning to pick up a GPU for about $833. Any recommendations?

I was browsing Best Buy and saw some 25% discounts on things like an RX 570, specifically this one:

But when I try to compare them on Google—trying to act like an expert—it seems like the 570 priced at $1133 versus the 1060 priced at $867 shows the 1060 is generally the better bet.

So, which way do I go?

Ultimately, I just need a solid recommendation for a card in the $833
range.

Current specs: i5 2500k
HD 7850
XFX 450W
8 GB RAM

Thanks.