Idiotic tariffs, indifferent retailers, depraved flippers and AI mania are making the simple act of buying a graphics card the defining misery of PC gaming in 2025.
  • Stovetop@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    6 days ago

    Yep, this basically sums up my experiences a couple months ago. I’ve been telling myself since about 2016 that I would save up to go all in and build a solid gaming desktop.

    But then there were floods in southeast Asia hindering supplies where I lived. No biggie, they’d recover quick.

    Then crypto took off and GPUs and some other hardware tripled or quadrupled in price. No biggie, it’s a fad that will go away quick.

    Then COVID destroyed production and distribution of computer hardware. No biggie, gives me time to save up more to afford these new crazy prices.

    Then everyone needs GPUs for the AI craze, and prices went up even more. No biggie, I’ll just…cope?

    Finally, I was at the point of “Fuck it, I’m tired of waiting. I’m buying a 5080, even if it costs as much as 2 PS5s.”

    So I planned it out, made sure I had everything lined up to immediately snag one once they were available. And then day of:

    • Nvidia’s store: Never had any in stock at any point.

    • Microcenter: In-store purchases only, and stores were given single-digit stock while hundreds of people queued up for days.

    • Newegg: Never loaded until their stock was all gone.

    • Best Buy: Had a very attractive “Add to Cart” button display for a period of about 10 minutes at random intervals throughout the day, which placed me into queues that all ended with me getting kicked out after a few minutes.

    • Amazon: Well, fuck Amazon, but they didn’t have any either.

    So then I thought, forget Nvidia. Just because their cards are dropping earlier in the year doesn’t mean it’s them or nothing. I’ll just get an AMD card if Nvidia doesn’t have stock by then.

    And, well…here we are in this article.

    PC gaming is the best deal, eh?

    • WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      0·
      6 days ago

      if you have been waiting since 2016, why do you want an 5080, though? 2-3 gens earlier will be a large improvement too, with half or even lower a price.

      I did the same, but with AMD. I’m going Linux, and everything is good except nvidia’s utterly broken drivers. I mean, they always improve, today it’s usable if you don’t want to sleep/hibernate your PC, if you are sure you won’t run out of video memory (nvidia drivers are the only one in linux that can’t transfer some memory to system ram when it’s really needed), if you don’t need gamescope, and so on…

      • Stovetop@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        5 days ago

        I expanded elsewhere in this post, but basically it’s a combination of:

        1. I do own a laptop I bought in the pandemic which has a 2070 mobile GPU, and between that and my PS5, I am not truly in a rush.

        2. Older hardware is also being price gouged. If I do buy something, I don’t want it to be more than 1 gen old, but at current prices I’d be paying more than the new stuff goes for at MSRP.

        3. I budgeted to be able to buy something good, not just good enough. Since I’m not in a rush, I’m willing to wait and keep trying to buy something closer to top-of-the-line. I can afford scalper prices, but I just refuse to support scalping out of principle.

        • WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          1·
          3 days ago

          I budgeted to be able to buy something good, not just good enough.

          but those were good, a few years ago. and they are still good. It’s not like performance doubles every 2 or so years, afaik not even near to that. there are a few games from the worst publishers that run garbage on any hardware or only run acceptably on topmost of top tier hardware, but I just ignore the mediocre products of them.

          • Stovetop@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            3 days ago

            You’re not wrong. I answered in a reply to someone else but I have a gaming laptop with a decent enough GPU to play newer games. Not well, in many cases, but good enough.

            It’s just that with prices of everything being so inflated again, I don’t want to pay more for older hardware than it’s worth, especially if it won’t be as significant a step up from what I’m using now.

    • CubitOom@infosec.pubEnglish
      0·
      6 days ago

      Consider buying a previous generation card. You can sometimes find good deals on used ones.

      • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
        0·
        6 days ago

        Yeah. I bought a 3060 on eBay for $240 a few weeks ago. Works great.

        • ramble81@lemm.eeEnglish
          0·
          6 days ago

          Brand new Intel ARC B580 puts up numbers in the 4060 range and only costs around $250

          • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
            0·
            6 days ago

            I usually buy AMD for their open-source support. I wanted nvidia this time around to fiddle with AI stuff, which is better-supported on nvidia right now.

            • ramble81@lemm.eeEnglish
              01·
              6 days ago

              fiddle with AI stuff

              I.e. one of the same things that causing gouging on GPUs and the market to be pushed out of gamers hands.

              • fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.comEnglish
                2·
                6 days ago

                This person is a consumer, just like you. Your gaming is no more important than their fiddling. Your angst is pointed in the wrong direction.

              • AngryMob@lemmy.oneEnglish
                1·
                6 days ago

                People at home using their gpus for a mix of gaming and local ai are not really the source of that issue