Why you can’t buy a high-end graphics card at Best Buy • Hacker News Board

Re: Why you can’t buy a high-end graphics card at Best Buy

#151

Post by leddt » Sun, Jan 21, 2018, 4:33 PM UTC

zawerf wrote: post #54

FLUX-YOU wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there any non-VR games that even push the 1080ti? It seems like you'd need some giant 4k monitor to make it sweat. But also Steam doesn't seem to be releasing a ton of graphics-intensive games. It seems much more cost effective to get away with a lower price and less intensive art requirements and focus on gameplay. And less graphics puts you in a safer place as far as ports to consoles and tablets/mobile (e.g. S…

I have a 4k monitor with two GTX 1080 in SLI and I usually don't get 60fps if I play on max settings. Annoyed by this I got another monitor at 2560x1440 @ 144hz and I can't max that out either. The games were stuff like rise of tomb raider or witcher 3. I think 1080ti situation is similar.

I have a gsync 1440p 144hz, running on a 980ti. IMHO, if you can get at least 90 FPS it's a great experience. I don't really see the need for faster frames.

Granted, I believe gsync does a lot to make it appear smoother so if you don't have that it may be more important to max the frame rate. I do see it though when I drop to 60 fps, it feels choppy.

Re: Why you can’t buy a high-end graphics card at Best Buy

#152

Post by bo1024 » Sun, Jan 21, 2018, 4:34 PM UTC

_coldfire wrote: post #73

jakebasile wrote: post #15

I'm legitimately worried about the long term future of my hobby (PC gaming) at this point. Prices like this have a cascade effect because when less people can afford to build a PC and/or upgrade there's less incentive for developers and publishers to spend time on the platform. Consoles are shielded by the ability of Sony and Microsoft to take losses which will be absorbed by online fees and higher game prices but no…

>I'm legitimately worried about the long term future of my hobby (PC gaming) The equipment required for gaming loses value very quickly. Old 7970's released in 2012 command amazing resale prices in 2018. Everything else in a rig back then is now worthless apart from scrap metal. GPU's are one of the biggest expenses for gaming, as a hobby it got far cheaper. The fear is unfounded and this is typical alarm-journalism.…

My i7 2600k from 2011 is still doing great now, even not overclocked. Maybe not much resale, but I would guess it would play almost all games today fine (not much of a gamer myself). Actually, the upgrade from DDR3 to DDR4 is probably as much of a factor.

Re: Why you can’t buy a high-end graphics card at Best Buy

#153

Post by cglace » Sun, Jan 21, 2018, 4:36 PM UTC

whatshisface wrote: post #60

owenversteeg wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep: atoms in general move more with more heat. In solids, the energy required for movement is higher, but it still happens. The more heat available, the more energy you have to break bonds, the more diffusion (movement) you have. I have a feeling that's not the main reason for heat failure of semiconductors though. (Not to put your comment down, it's an interesting fact and I'm glad you mentioned it.)

The weak link on a lot of hardware is the capacitors - I'm not sure about GPU cards, but if that's the case then you sure won't be replacing that surface mount stuff when it fails.

Why? All you need is a heat gun and some spare parts.

Re: Why you can’t buy a high-end graphics card at Best Buy

#154

Post by mozumder » Sun, Jan 21, 2018, 4:37 PM UTC

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #92

jakebasile wrote: post #15

I'm legitimately worried about the long term future of my hobby (PC gaming) at this point. Prices like this have a cascade effect because when less people can afford to build a PC and/or upgrade there's less incentive for developers and publishers to spend time on the platform. Consoles are shielded by the ability of Sony and Microsoft to take losses which will be absorbed by online fees and higher game prices but no…

Why do people still think you need a high-end rig updated every year or two just to be a PC gamer? Almost every game I want to play runs satisfactorily on a five-year-old machine. This is bad for the tech-obsessed top 10% of PC gamers. For the rest of us it's meaningless, and it's not going to last in any case.

A lot of those people are buying cards/systems for the next 5 years, replacing their 5-year-old setups.

Re: Why you can’t buy a high-end graphics card at Best Buy

#155

Post by TeMPOraL » Sun, Jan 21, 2018, 4:37 PM UTC

fermienrico wrote: post #40

inimino wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Proof of work is about consensus among mutually distrusting parties. It has approximately nothing to do with entropy. Of course there is some connection, but the simple "exchange" you're looking for does not exist.

>> Proof of work is about consensus among mutually distrusting parties. It has approximately nothing to do with entropy. Think more abstractly - at the end of the day, Energy is being consumed to compute some problem. That solution has intrinsic value precisely because it took energy to solve it. Extrinsic value is the market economy of CC, and that's where the 'proof of work' and 'consensus amongst distrusting parti…

> Imagine if Energy was free, despite of 'consensus', the supply of such currency would be virtually unlimited and it would be worthless.

They would just ramp up the network difficulty. Soon mining would be counted in exhausted stars per second.

Cryptocurrencies are the perfect example of the maxim that "just because you can, doesn't mean you should". They're funny in theory, proof of work being an interesting solution to a particular mathematical problem. In the real world, with problems determined by laws of physics and (in consequence) the structure of human minds, this is about the worst imaginable way to run the economy. The constraints of the problem solved by cryptocurrencies are not very meaningful in reality.

Re: Why you can’t buy a high-end graphics card at Best Buy

#156

Post by tyfon » Sun, Jan 21, 2018, 4:54 PM UTC

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #92

jakebasile wrote: post #15

I'm legitimately worried about the long term future of my hobby (PC gaming) at this point. Prices like this have a cascade effect because when less people can afford to build a PC and/or upgrade there's less incentive for developers and publishers to spend time on the platform. Consoles are shielded by the ability of Sony and Microsoft to take losses which will be absorbed by online fees and higher game prices but no…

Why do people still think you need a high-end rig updated every year or two just to be a PC gamer? Almost every game I want to play runs satisfactorily on a five-year-old machine. This is bad for the tech-obsessed top 10% of PC gamers. For the rest of us it's meaningless, and it's not going to last in any case.

It's kind of funny when 99% of the games are optimised for PS4 or maybe xbox, and both run the Jaguar cpu and 1.8 tflops cpu (xbox slightly lower)

My i7 4770k with a gtx 670 is still running all the games i throw at it, even if i might have to go down from ultra high effects in some.

However I have to admit I play mostly on PS4/switch now a days.

Re: Why you can’t buy a high-end graphics card at Best Buy

#157

Post by mamcx » Sun, Jan 21, 2018, 5:12 PM UTC

JudasGoat wrote: post #108

It seems as though the large PC companies like Dell are still getting high end graphics cards. Ironically It's probably cheaper to buy an Alienware right now, as opposed to making a PC from parts.

I was this close to buy a hackintosh with high end parts (before this help me in save a lot) and now the iMac 27 5k not look bad..

If only Apple put bigger ssd at lower prices...

Re: Why you can’t buy a high-end graphics card at Best Buy

#158

Post by skybrian » Sun, Jan 21, 2018, 5:16 PM UTC

pcr0 wrote: post #83

icelancer wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 1050 and the 1060 3GB GPUs are more than good enough to run any tier one game on nearly the highest graphics on a 24" monitor. Everything above it is just ridiculousness for the sake of being absurd in the gaming industry, and for benchmarks that don't reflect real usage - unlike GPU mining, where the cards are actually pushed to their maximums.

I have the 1060 6GB. It can max out any game on my 1080p 60hz 24" monitor. However, that's table stakes these days. 1440p monitors are gaining ground as people realize the DPI difference between their PC monitor and their smartphone. Moreover, most people can also notice the difference between 60hz and 100hz monitors.

Why is a noticeable difference considered meaningful? It won't make the gameplay any better.

(Asking as a Luddite who doesn't see the point of Retina displays.)

Re: Why you can’t buy a high-end graphics card at Best Buy

#159

Post by xur17 » Sun, Jan 21, 2018, 5:36 PM UTC

JohnStrangeII wrote: post #126

jakebasile wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Gamers are complaining about why can't nVidia just ramp up their production. I don't see too much of that in gaming circles. It's understood that it would be risky as crypto will crash sooner than later. The anger in the PC community is almost exclusively directed at miners. Threads about it pop up on the daily, but what can we do? We could lobby NVIDIA/AMD to somehow implement restrictions on what the Gaming SKUs…

I don't understand why companies like Nvidia don't adopt to the market and offer cards that are specifically designed for miners. Wouldn't that be possible and make them potentially more useful than mere graphics cards?

There is at least one [0], but I'm frankly not sure where you can buy it.

[0] https://www.asus.com/Graphics-Cards/MINING-P106-6G/

Re: Why you can’t buy a high-end graphics card at Best Buy

#160

Post by Joeri » Sun, Jan 21, 2018, 5:45 PM UTC

jakebasile wrote: post #15

I'm legitimately worried about the long term future of my hobby (PC gaming) at this point. Prices like this have a cascade effect because when less people can afford to build a PC and/or upgrade there's less incentive for developers and publishers to spend time on the platform. Consoles are shielded by the ability of Sony and Microsoft to take losses which will be absorbed by online fees and higher game prices but no…

Let’s add some perspective. The average price of a PC in 1995, right in the middle of PC gaming’s glory years, was $1500 which is $2500 in today’s currency. That’s an average pc, not top of the line, which went a multiple of that. Unless average graphics cards start costing $1000 we’re nowhere near 90’s prices.

PC gaming will do fine. Don’t worry. Maybe game makers will be a little slower to move to higher end specs, and that’s about all it will amount to.