Once upon a time on usenet Paul wrote:
~misfit~ wrote:
I'm running an ATI HD7770 (with a QX9650 CPU) but the game I play is
getting more and more complex. Also apparently it's better optimised
for nVidia cards rather than ATI / AMD.

So I need an affordable card that doesn't draw (much) more power
than the HD7770 (~120w). Obviously it should be considerably more
powerful than the now quite old HD7770. I can't afford the latest
gaming cards nor can I afford to replace my PSU. I'd even consider a
second-hand card if there's something that's likely to fit my needs
and price bracket. Thanks in advance for reccomendations. I'm quite out
of touch with
GPU development lately.

Coin mining (Ethereum) has wiped out both the used
market and the new market. Bitcoin, on the other hand, is
done with AntMiners (ASIC).

The computer store has poor stock levels on a number of cards.
They did have good stock on just one card... selling for $600 CDN.

And there's an additional development. Cards with VGA connectors
have disappeared. The DVI connector on the video card is
DVI-D, so there's no longer DVI-I either. To get a VGA output,
you have to buy an additional DisplayPort to VGA adapter.
Even if you were after a bargain card (a $50 card selling for
$145 CDN), you'd have the added insult of throwing an adapter
cost on top of it.

It's a *hell* of a good time to be buying a video card.

*******

https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu_list.php

Radeon HD 7770 2,208

https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 13,774 Too much power up here... 250W
Radeon RX Vega 64 11,709 And too expensive ($1000 ???) 295W+
You can't get those anyway...
Unobtainium.

GeForce GTX 1070 11,076 150W *Wikipedia
GeForce GTX 1060 3GB 8,809 120W *Wikipedia $400CDN 3GB
$530CDN 6GB Radeon RX580 6,939 185W *Wikipedia
Radeon RX 570 6,785 150W *Wikipedia
GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 5,827

Radeon RX560 4,498 80W *Wikipedia $350 (the one for
$230 unavailable)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMD_Radeon_500_series

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_10_series

A GTX 1060 3GB isn't much good for coin mining, as the
memory footprint for Ethereum is currently 3GB. The
GTX 1060 6GB card should be in higher demand.

Thanks for the reply Paul. It seems that the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB would be
good for my needs. However at ~NZ$480 and up it's a bit out of my reach
currently (and likely for the forseeable future). I'll have to stick with
the HD 7770 for a while longer and play with all options at minimum (or
turned off).

I was hoping that the development of technology would have made it more
affordable to get a reasonable graphics card...

I have no idea what the texture memory footprint on modern
games is. I haven't played a 3D game in a couple years.

The largest memory on video cards, comes with things like
a Frontier Edition card, at around 16GB. So that's the
largest texture memory you can get. Or Coin Mining memory,
as your preferences dictate.

I bet a few people in the gaming industry are ****ed, as
it kinda puts a damper on their market. This will have the
unintended consequence of people walking away from gaming,
since they can't get a decent card.

A couple developments are on the memory front. Time was,
you put crappy (regular) DDR2 or DDR3 memory on the low end
cards. You put GDDR5 on the mid-range and up cards. Now,
the industry seems to have dumped DDR3 and the cards all
seem to have GDDR5.

On the other hand, cards like VEGA 64, have an HBM2 memory
stack, inside the GPU package. This means there are *no* memory
chips clamshelled and distributed around the GPU. The video cards
are still long, but underneath, the space is taken by power
converters. And the space above, perhaps by a vapor chamber
and multiple fans (in an attempt to keep the GPU cool). The
designs are really lunacy now. And by using HBM2, with limited
supplies of HBM2, they're shooting themselves in the foot.

So two memory developments, the concentration on GDDR5 and
the introduction of HBM2 and silicon substrates+MCM packaging,
are making a shambles out of video card production. Meanwhile,
the claim is (I don't believe it), that memory makers are
switching to making Flash. I instead believe there's a lot
of supply manipulation going on, to raise prices. Just
as local grocery stores here were caught price fixing...
bread. Of all things. Bread. Bread has been a favorite
of this kinda crap - you can find references to a hundred
years ago, to the manipulation of bread. It's a historical
tradition. If you're not manipulating the price of bread,
what the hell kind of businessman are you, anyway ? :-/

Hehee! I couldn't agree more.

Ever since I've been messing around with computers (more than 20 years) it
seems that high-end gaming cards have been ~NZ$1,000 and up, midrange cards
have been ~NZ$500 and 'entry level gaming' cards with have been ~NZ$250.
It's almost like the sellers see no reason to reduce those price levels.

I see that the GTX 1050 is available locally for less than NZ$300 but at
4,466 passmark score it's not hugely powerful. That said it's twice the HD
7770s score and only 75w....

Thanks for giving me a headstart on the subject. Financially the GTX 1050 is
my only option now or in the near future. I'll think on it, normally I won't
upgrade unless the new card is at least twice as powerful. The 1050 just
squeaks in.
--
Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has a cozy
little classification in the DSM*."
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1)
(*Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)