Predictions on when GPUs will be back at RRP.

[Percy1983]

I have finally fallen off the no purchase wagon.

RX6800 16Gb £317.91 brand new

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/404469790880

Voucher PAYAY20

Great price and not a mining thrashed card.

[cptwhite_uk]

RX 6800 is a great card for 1440p, enjoy

[Jonj1611]

Funnily enough due to having to sell my 4070 Super I got a 6800, while its not as fast as rendering in Blender its certainly great for gaming

[Percy1983]

For me the 16GB was a big factor, in short this card should run out of processing power before running out of vram generally which I find to be the lessor of the 2 evils.

The used 6700xts had got into my price range and I am not against used but due to mining I am more cautious and want to pay a bit less. As it was I had spotting the 6800 hundreds gap closing to the 6700xt pricing wise and then a new card at £318 pushed me over with of course a warranty etc.

To say I am still happy with my Vega 56 and the target was a 6700xt I am happy.

I did think about RDNA4 and if the performance and pricing is to be believed it could be good, but if you keep waiting for the next thing you never buy, that would be the end of the year and if its true I can imagine scalpers being all over it etc.

So hopefully this card will last me well into a future gpu price correction and hopefully by the time its had enough things will be reasonable again.

[Saracen999]

....

I did think about RDNA4 and if the performance and pricing is to be believed it could be good, but if you keep waiting for the next thing you never buy, ....

A very valid concern, IMHO. I'm .... ahem .... a bit guilty of that already.

Slightly more seriously, other factors have meant that PC planning has taken something of a back seat. When I was "ready", I was looking at a Ryzen 5800, and RTX-4000's didn't exist. I'm still looking, but have now regressed to "not quite ready", but next-gen are tempting. Ah, progress .... in the wrong direction.

As for graphics cards, personally, used doesn't appeal (except MAYBE from smeone I know). My perspective is that to get a decently balanced system at the end of the market I'm looking at, the whole thing is going to cost me somewhere in the regin of £2.5k to £3.5k depending on exactly what choices I make. If it ends up a few hundred quid more than I need to to get what I want, then the reassurace of warranties and consumer rights means I'd much rather go brand new and retail than take a punt on ebay. I consider I'm less likely to have problems that way, and it should e far easier to sort out if I do. And, my rights are way stronger if push comes to shove. Fortunately, at my age, the cost difference isn't much of a detrrent when it pays for the extra peace of mind.

And that peace of mind is my major reservation about next-Gen anything. All too often, the first few months (maybe a year) of actual relese of next-Gen seems to be for those who like sorting out probllems, waiting for patched drivers, etc. So if RDNA 4 is 24Q4, it's probably going to be at least 25Q3 before I want to go near it.

Mind you, by the time I make up my mind, at this rate, RDNA 4 will be a quaint antique.

[DanceswithUnix]

Mind you, by the time I make up my mind, at this rate, RDNA 4 will be a quaint antique.

Meanwhile, the Steamdeck show what modern integrated chips are capable of so mini PCs like this look increasingly tempting:

https://www.bee-link.com/catalog/product/index?id=545

though I'm more tempted down at the 5800H based ~£400 devices

[Rob_B]

The Steamdeck seems to be a great balance of performance, battery life and cost. I'd love to get an OLED and certainly would have if I didn't have an LCD.
I'm looking forward to seeing the next generation of handhelds, not the Claw/Legion etc which seem to be power hungry and sometimes half baked but ACTUAL well thought out next gen ones, Steamdeck 2 in a couple of years maybe...

[Percy1983]

Personally I have usually bought previous gen high end cards as prices fell.

I remember getting my 290x (£200) as the 390x came out, the RX580 (£208) was just a good price so bought early. Got a Vega56 (£206) as the 5700xt came out.

So an RX6800 is quite fitting, also it trades blows with the 7700xt and it was just the 16GB vs 12GB which pushed that, there may be some features only on the newer card but I have been a fan of Radeon ID drivers which unlock things, likewise I doubt AMD will drop the 6000 range any time soon.

I appears some of the AMD APUs have amazing gpu performance for such a small package and can suit a lot of people on the budget end and of course mobile applications.

I love the steamdeck and want one but also know I have limited use for one so don't let my geek/tech head dominate purchasing decisions.

[Saracen999]

Yup. Me too. But though I fabcy the OLED, when I think about what my current (the older 512MB one with anti-glare screen) won't do but the new OLED will ... I come up a bit short. I'm tempted, but think I can resist.

Meanwhile, the Steamdeck show what modern integrated chips are capable of so mini PCs like this look increasingly tempting:

https://www.bee-link.com/catalog/product/index?id=545

though I'm more tempted down at the 5800H based ~£400 devices

I've looked at a couple of these, includig BeeLinnk, and a Minisforum UM790 Pro, but a couple of things put me off. Well, three I guess but one is it doesn't quite match what I want/need, which is much better GPU performance. That said, for may purposes that just isn't necessary.

What does put me off is a rather too high a level of reporting of issues with things failing after a few months, and often, of dealing with a China-based company. I'd been looking at around the £700-ish level but it's just too much to feel like taking a punt on reliability.

Realistically, though I like the idea, they're just not right for what I want, which includes a strong video encoding engine (hence the GPU).