>

Still not viable. I've a 1080 and have to build a new PC (thanks ASrock for not having TPM on a 5 yearold MLB). While I'll just move the 1080, would rather have a 3080.  nVidia's site advertises GPUs in their driver installer, but visit their site and all sold out. 
Would not touch the 4000 series with a 10' pole as it draws way too much power for my needs, and wonky power cable design (yes, you need that positive seat click) causing issues... just seems like over priced greed to me.
Might move to AMD with MLB and GPU since I'm not really preferential. However, some pointed out the raytracing is better (thought that was with gaming, not rendering 3D) so all moot.
Because no one is going to pay $1200 for a $500 GPU. >

$1800 for a significant fire hazard. >

I had to look that up so I could worry about something else, lol. I’m seeing the GTX 4090 is catching fire and I guess for the rest keep them clean, well ventilated and pray. >

It's the cheaply-made angled power connector that is prone to failure (melting), not the thermal output of the card itself. >

Nah, Gamer's Nexus did some exceptional reporting on this, and the primary issue is user error (though NVIDIA shares some blame for making the 4090 so large and awkward with a weird power adapter). >

I'd personally say it goes beyond user error when the connector seemingly requires an obscene amount of force to be fully connected. That seems more of a design flaw to me. >

The way these things SHOULD be designed is that as it comes unplugged, the sense pins should always disconnect first, safely turning off the GPU. This new connector fails at this, causing the card to think it's fully connected, but really it's barely in the socket, resulting in high resistance and a melting connector.
Connection order is basically connector design 101, even for low power stuff... If you look at the inside of a USB A connector, you'll notice 2 contacts are longer, which guarantees power and ground are connected before data. Without that devices could potentially draw power over the data pins, and cause all sorts of havoc.
Even PCI-E cards, which most people wouldn't consider to be "hot pluggable"  have 2 shortened pins so that a card is guaranteed to be fully connected before the presence pins are connected (located on each end of the card, so it works even if the card is at an angle). >

So has my bank account... >

No kidding, wonder why? >

Prices are still high from the crypto craze days, NVIDIA is continuing to push high prices but once they have a glut of cards they'll have to lower prices by hundreds of dollars
NVIDIA probably thinks they need to have a high backlog of cards incase a crypto price increase causes cards to fly off the shelves again, but with the Ethereum switch to POS the demand for GPUs won't skyrocket if crypto moons again >


Prices are still high from the crypto craze days,

Only for new Nvidia GPUs because they have been artificially limiting supply to keep prices up (CEO straight up admitted it when speaking to investors). New AMD cards are constantly on sale, and you can get some great deals if you buy used. I suspect a huge contributing factor to low sales is more people going used/refurbished. >

As a Nvidia user I can definitely say that as of 2022, AMD cards are objectively the better value if you, like me, don't give a shit about RT. My experience with RT so far is "chopping my framerate in half to get nicer reflections" so I've turned it off in most games. >

But not demand, demand remains incredibly high... it's just people can't afford the ridiculous asking prices. >

Seems like every corporation has gone on this weird big money this quarter only tangent. 
Yeah we could sell 100 whatevers for $5 each Or we can just sell 1 unit for $500! And then exclusively plan all their products and marketing about appealing to that one guy that can afford 1 $500 whatever right now and push away the long term sales. >

The thing is - they still have to manufacture a set (large number) of units for them to be even marketable, price-wise. 
During the worst of it a card that I paid ~$300 USD for before prices went bonkers was selling for over $600.00. 
I haven't been paying super close attention, so I might have this wrong, but it looks like it was the 'gold rush' fever of crypto mining that sucked the market dry - and the manufacturers raised prices to even keep some inventory available. 
I guess if that's correct, we should be seeing a glut of cheap cards coming on the market (in what kind of condition - who knows?) very soon. 
I hope so, anyway.. because i'd like to refresh my GPU this year - or buy a PS5, whichever way is the path of least resistance when i'm ready to buy. >


in what kind of condition - who knows

Usually the only thing thing that's really at risk on a long term mining card are the fan bearings, which can be swapped out for like $25. >

Typically mining cards are undervolted and with a constant load they have less use than gaming titles >

Well, yeah. High prices discouraging new buyers and recent buyers feeling burned by high prices and being unwilling to upgrade until they absolutely have to, of course sales are low. >

I’ve been running gtx 660 since like 2014(?) or something. I’m not much into the new games so I don’t need a strong pc, but I might upgrade to a second hand gtx 1060 for 100some euros now that it’s gotten very affordable. 
What I really wanna upgrade tho is my old fx8150 cpu, but it’s not that simple since I’d need a new motherboard with correct socket and PSU as well. >

Don't forget new ram, and possibly new copy of windows as well. Upgraded my own FX-8350 early pandemic and learned that. >

all that stuff can be managed easy. the GPU is the prohibitive part for most people, as you can find a decent MoBo, RAM, and even a processor for decent prices. The GPU often costs the same amount as all the other parts combined, and that's problematic for a PC gaming community that wants more involvement >

Wasn't talking easy or hard, was talking trying to upgrade a CPU then learning that you needed also upgrade your motherboard because FX to Ryzen socket change, then you've gotta switch to DDR4  because you were on DDR3 or possibly even DDR2? And then if you pull old windows tricks to pay less than a hundred dollars they won't transfer your license since there's a motherboard change. Just that it ends up being a more involved and costly process. >

You can transfer windows with a MB change... You just gotta know your key >

And if you don't know the key, there are programs you can use to find it >

Again, I keep having to mention this, people will buy grey market and OEM keys off the internet for cheap, then find our later that they can't be transfered. If you attempt to do the first Microsoft can block it, and the second they'll tell you to contact your OEM for support. They have special keys. >

Because you can buy a ps5 and also the psvr2 (when it’s released) for less than a single GPU alone. I would love a gaming PC to play titles I can’t on console. But I refuse to pay the prices right now. >

Yeah, im probably gonna stick with a PS5 this gen.
One of the selling points of PC gaming used to be that you could build a pretty decent machine for the price of a console, those days are long gone. >

It’s a real shame eh. Personally I only game sim racing titles, and the next step up will be VR. Currently it would cost me £2k for a PC and £700 for a VR headset, I can’t justify it so i’m sticking with PS4 until the psvr2 launches and if there’s good titles there for VR i’ll probably stick with console. Had my PS4 pro for 4 years now and it’s still playing the latest releases. PC’s have always been obsolete almost as soon as you finish building but i think that curve is slowing down. >

I am looking forward to the psvr2 too.  Sony did a great job with the psvr1. Lots of VR game support too, some games only available on the PlayStation, such as Resident Evil 7.  I am glad the psvr2 won't need a webcam to work. >

As someone who spent nearly $2000 on my last graphics card due to the past few years of high demand… imma run that thing till the fans fall off. >

Because of all the miners, we all fucking gave up on ever seeing a new graphics card again >

I tripled the price, lowered the quality and reduced the supply all at the same time, why is no one buying from me!?!?!? >

Did a new build in 2021, got very lucky and won a 3060 in the Newegg shuffle the first time I entered. Ended up paying around $140 over MSRP, and I've fully accepted I'm likely not upgrading it for 5 or more years. >

My 1070 is still going strong. I'm not buying laughably overpriced GPUs. >

Same, the only games that really push my card are AAA titles and very few of those have been worth buying. >

Good, the whole gpu market needs a reset. Let them squirm. >

At this point I really hate how much this stuff costs. Would be nice to have a GPU with 24GB VRAM, but no way for how much it costs.
Personally I could go with performance of 1080TI, just give me more VRAM. >

Honestly, I think I hit a sweet spot with my 2080 Ti having 11GB and being able to get it under $280 refurbished. I mostly set out to build a desktop under $1000 using workstation parts, and I'm getting acceptable results at 4k and solid, 1440p results for the few games/genres, where I care about fps, like fighting and sports games. >

My poor 1070 has really taken me places since 2016 but the ol' girl might need to be retired. Glad she didn't die during the cryptocraze. >

1070 will go down in my book as the most value card of all time. 
I bought it on release and it took me all the way to my 3080. It sells for close to as much as I paid for it still and it is just a monster.
12/10 >

I got my roommate a mined 1070 for $175 a few years ago, between the big crypto booms. Now that was a screaming deal