Building a gaming pc? (1 Viewer)

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I'm contemplating selling my 2060 RTX with the prices I've been seeing on eBay. :p
 
Denzien said:
I found a few cards on FB marketplace that weren't too high over MSRP - but you have to remember to add the tax in to appreciate when someone is just looking to make back what they paid. I got my 3090 FE this way - it was priced $200 over MSRP, but ~70% of that was just what local tax added to the cost of the card. The rest was the value of not having to refresh Best Buy every morning to see if new stock arrived.

I found a Zotac 3070 for $700, which was just $7-8 over its $640 MSRP + local tax. I think people look at the 3070 and say "that's a $500 card, why is this $200 more?", but the $500 price is just for the FE cards - AIBs design their own PCBs and cooling solutions, buy the processor and design pretty boxes. So, it's $500 for the reference design or more for a partner card. Then add tax. Granted that the Zotac is among the worst 3070s, but it's still a 3070.
Click to expand...

Be careful with third party manufacturers with these cards. This video's from three months ago but no telling if these issues have been addressed or if you're looking at old stock where they haven't.

 
Denzien said:
I haven't heard about this issue in a long time, which makes me think that the driver updates NVidia released in September or October of last year fixed the issue.
I also seem to recall that this was only an issue for cards that were overclocked, whether that was from the manufacturer or otherwise.
This probably isn't an issue today, but if you're worried about it, make sure you have a warranty.
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If I recall correctly those updates effectively underclocked the cards so that they wouldn't be as likely to crash but it was just a band-aid fix. The problem is/was at the hardware level but it's only with some manufacturers that send their cards out overclocked out of the box. I haven't done any more research to find out if the hardware issue's actually been fixed, but if you happen across an older version then it definitely still exists and you won't be able to "max" your card if that's what you want.

Reference cards should be unaffected because they're obviously built exactly to specs. The problem was with third-party manufacturers cutting corners.
 
Denzien said:
I haven't heard about this issue in a long time, which makes me think that the driver updates NVidia released in September or October of last year fixed the issue.
I also seem to recall that this was only an issue for cards that were overclocked, whether that was from the manufacturer or otherwise.
This probably isn't an issue today, but if you're worried about it, make sure you have a warranty.
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The problem had to do with the capacitors on the backside of the chip. Cards with 6 of the larger POSCAPS can't handle frequencies above 2 GHZ. Cards with the smaller MLCC capacitors and cards that have a combination of POSCAP and MLCC capacitors do not have this issue. They released a new set of drivers which underclocked the cards to fix the issue and changed how they handled the capacitors on the back of the cards. There is a chart at the link below that lists which cards have which capacitor configuration. Not that it honestly matters, nobody can get any of these cards anyways.

www.techspot.com

Capacitor issues are causing RTX 3080/3090 crashes

Follow up: Get your driver fix: graphics card makers respond to RTX 30-series capacitor controversy
www.techspot.com www.techspot.com
.
 
Zardnok said:
The problem had to do with the capacitors on the backside of the chip. Cards with 6 of the larger POSCAPS can't handle frequencies above 2 GHZ. Cards with the smaller MLCC capacitors and cards that have a combination of POSCAP and MLCC capacitors do not have this issue. They released a new set of drivers which underclocked the cards to fix the issue and changed how they handled the capacitors on the back of the cards. There is a chart at the link below that lists which cards have which capacitor configuration. Not that it honestly matters, nobody can get any of these cards anyways.

www.techspot.com

Capacitor issues are causing RTX 3080/3090 crashes

Follow up: Get your driver fix: graphics card makers respond to RTX 30-series capacitor controversy
www.techspot.com www.techspot.com
.
Click to expand...

Much better explanation. I hadn't bothered to rewatch the video. I do remember though that even slight instabilities with your PSU or power coming into your home could trigger problems and it was the result of manufacturers not strictly following reference specs. But it was also only an issue if you were pushing for bleeding edge overclocking which is a selling point for some people.
 
Denzien said:
Yes, that sounds like the correct explanation. I don't hear about the issue any longer though, so I wouldn't be concerned about it from a system stability standpoint - but it's good for people to know why some cards won't perform like others. This is why I ponied up for the 3090 FE instead of rolling the dice on the Zotac 3070.

I wonder if the drivers have some kind of heuristic that monitors the electrical state to dial the settings back before it becomes unstable, or if it just does a blanket underclock unless the model is in a table with known good cards?
Click to expand...

I believe it was just a blanket underclock for those models. It wasn't specifically about voltage or amperage, at least not directly, it was an issue where the caps are so sensitive that higher frequencies were causing bleed over if they weren't up to reference specs. A fluctuation in voltage, even just the small wobble from a not quite top of the line PSU or from poor home wiring, would be enough of a spike to cause instability.

Assuming manufacturers have started pushing out cards with the right caps then it isn't an issue. I imagine a lot of people are still getting older versions of the cards through ebay and the like and those particular cards will never be able to reach top overclocking speeds. For someone who doesn't care about overclocking I'd figure it wouldn't make any real difference though.
 
Denzien said:
If people are worried about bots buying the cards faster than humans, a lottery system is a good way to combat that by randomizing the entrants. It also takes the strain off of the checkout system because registering for a lottery doesn't tie into the inventory system. Finally, optionally, it would allow them time to try to identify fake or duplicate customers - if they care.

My idea months ago was similar - randomize orders in 5 minute blocks before applying to inventory and notifying the customer that their order was complete or if they are on back order.
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Newegg's bundles to buy an AMD CPU, and an Nvidia GPU also require you to buy an, incompatible, Intel motherboard.

A more simple, but less profitable, solution would be the "I am not a bot" button.
 
Currently in the process of building a 2nd workstation. All I need is a gpu and cpu. You're going to have to join Stockdrop and Falcodrin discord and Download the bestbuy app.

Bestbuy and Amazon is way more dependable than Newegg. I wouldn't support Newegg.. They've been awful through this whole ordeal.
 
 
 

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