So is building a PC off the cards this year?

vlad2009

I wanted to start building a PC for gaming, streaming, and editing. My old rig (i5-4690k + gtx970) Is struggling at this point. But I'm afraid I won't be able to do it anymore without paying the scalper prices.


From my understanding of what I read here, it's become impossible to get graphic cards and the new processors? Is the short supply and the new hype for crypto going to drive the prices up like crazy again?

JoyPad

Looks like the supply of AMD CPUs are improving.
See this article.

ShadowHearth

JoyPad wrote: »

Looks like the supply of AMD CPUs are improving.
See this article.

Cpus are not really issue. Yes, AMD is the cool kid right now, but there are pretty solid choices from Intel for mid range pc. Biggest issue is gpus. You can still build a solid base pc, even amd, but you are stuck with no gpu, 200% scalped gpu or your old gpu.

vlad2009

So should I go ahead and make my build, and use my gtx 970 in it or should I wait? I have a budget of about 2k that is including the gpu. Also I'm still only 1080p

Consonata

I'm half tempted to buy a prebuilt to be honest at this stage, since buying a GPU on its own seems nigh on impossible

ShadowHearth

vlad2009 wrote: »

So should I go ahead and make my build, and use my gtx 970 in it or should I wait? I have a budget of about 2k that is including the gpu. Also I'm still only 1080p

Honestly, if you can still live with your system, I would just wait, until it stabilises and build whole system. Thing is, we don't even know when it will stabilises and by that time, there could be better options for base pc components. New cpu will help, but you will spend a lot of money and won't really see big improvement over your old system, because it's still 970 in there.

If you really need amd want pc, I would just suggest prebuilt. Even then, it has its own drawbacks that you need to be aware off.

Prisoner6409

What is worse is there does not seem to be an end in sight regarding the shortage of Ampere GPU's, in fact Nvidia have ramped up production of older GPU's like the RTX 2060 and even the GTX 1050ti.

ShadowHearth

There is actually a big thread on Reddit now too. Which is basically: If you want to build a pc this year, buy GPU first, and if you have it in your hands, then work away on the rest of the system. Buying all the other parts is pretty much useless right now, if you don't have a decent gpu already.

vlad2009

That's a shame. I wish I just bought a card few months back when I first started toying with the idea.After doing more research, I think with the current crypto market, this could easily go on for the full year.

rhc2s4lj5p0xu9

http://blog.logicalincrements.com/2021/01/2020-2021-pc-hardware-availability-update/

ZeroThreat

Well tbh it seems the crypto bubble popped (once again) today, so expect a bearish market for the next few years so I'd imagine gpu prices will go drastically down now as interest in crypto dies.

vlad2009

I mean there was a huge downturn for crypto in January and yet it recovered, and is now even stronger. I wouldn't say one red day is the bubble popping. Just a correction after a bull run maybe?

TheValeyard

ZeroThreat wrote: »

Well tbh it seems the crypto bubble popped (once again) today, so expect a bearish market for the next few years so I'd imagine gpu prices will go drastically down now as interest in crypto dies.

Yeah this has happened before though. Crypto sank then rose higher again.

SeanW

It's a little early to say that the crypto bubble has popped. Even if it had, the attendant mining demand was just one part of the component supply problems of late. I would concur with the OPs suggestion that building a new PC this year is going to be an iffy prospect to say the least.

The supply of CPUs is not horrifying, even on the AMD 7nm side, but the GPU situation is so far beyond a joke at this stage, it's unreal. Plus a lot of people are having weird USB drop-out issues with AMD 500 series chipset boards. We'll have to wait to see how AMDs investigation into that unfolds, I wouldn't be building new PCs until there's been some resolution to that.

I would not recommend Intel CPUs. They have plenty to sell, but they're still playing silly buggers with their 14nm +++++++++ architecture which is (to put it gently) "very mature." On top of that, they also have a variety of artificial constraints on performance on both the CPU and motherboard chipset sides, which would be kind of crappy even if their products weren't already a pathetic joke based on obsolete manufacturing tech.

I'm toying with the idea of building a new PC myself, but will not do so until all the following conditions have been met:
1) AMD determines what's going on with USB on its 500 chipset boards.
2) New mid-range components have been released. Something like a Ryzen 5600 (non X), nVidia GeForce GTX/RTX 3050, Radeon RX6500 type products.
3) All modern-gen hardware is readily available in reputable stores like Scan, at or very near MSRP.

Of course, there's also the possibility that by the time all the above occurs, todays 7nm (AMD Zen 2/3 CPUs and Radeon RX 5000/6000 GPUs) and 8nm (nVidia Ampere) products will (soon) be replaced by a whole slew of new hardware. In a nutshell, AMD and NVIDIA are both going to 5nm manufacturing for their next gen CPUs and GPUs, and Intel is going to outsource silicon manufacturing to TSMC, where they've made a big agreement for 3nm silicon.

In plain English this means that in the next year or so there's going to be a new generation of products that can offer considerably more performance per watt and/or more processing power in a given die. In the case of Intel, the gains in performance/efficiency from their 14nm++ products to 3nm could be absolutely unreal!

ZeroThreat

TheValeyard wrote: »

Yeah this has happened before though. Crypto sank then rose higher again.

I think young Master Musk has finally killed off the pesky crypto craze thingy now

ShadowHearth

ZeroThreat wrote: »

I think young Master Musk has finally killed off the pesky crypto craze thingy now

Not really. He just made a ton loads of money and will make even more later. He bought coins, then said how amazing they are and prices went up. He sold, made a lot of money and now said it's crap. Price goes down, he buys more, then later on He will say how amazing it is to shoot prices up. Rinse and repeat.

I am still amazed by people who defend crypto currency for not being a pyramid scheme ( very good one though ). To make it even worse, it takes just one person to say something on TV or social media to drasticly change its value.

The only people who defend it, are the ones that looking to make money out of it. Like stock market. The sad thing is, they don't even trade anything of value, in fact they trading a "wasted recourses", which has only the value as someone decides to give it.

The sooner this **** dies, the better. And better not only for gamers, but actual world.

imitation

There is a bit more at play than crypto here - even though its not helping. First of all Trumps policies caused a supply squeeze last year when huawei brought up loads of microprocessors before they were embargoed. Then we have covid which had a none too small impact both on production and demand. Finally TMSC which make most GPU's had to start making the M1 processors for apple as they are in the process of ditching intel. All this leads to shortages and no GPU's

Crypto is not going to stop any time soon, Ethereum will drop GPU mining at some stage in the next year, but its likely crypto prices will keep going up due to inflation etc etc.

ZeroThreat

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Not really. He just made a ton loads of money and will make even more later. He bought coins, then said how amazing they are and prices went up. He sold, made a lot of money and now said it's crap. Price goes down, he buys more, then later on He will say how amazing it is to shoot prices up. Rinse and repeat.

I am still amazed by people who defend crypto currency for not being a pyramid scheme ( very good one though ). To make it even worse, it takes just one person to say something on TV or social media to drasticly change its value.

The only people who defend it, are the ones that looking to make money out of it. Like stock market. The sad thing is, they don't even trade anything of value, in fact they trading a "wasted recourses", which has only the value as someone decides to give it.

The sooner this **** dies, the better. And better not only for gamers, but actual world.

Best way to kill it would be either making it illegal to own or 100% tax rate on unrealised gains.

Syferus

ZeroThreat wrote: »

I think young Master Musk has finally killed off the pesky crypto craze thingy now

Some of you lads are honestly completely detached from the reality of cryptocurrency. The market has already recovered 50% of that dip within about 36 hours. It's a bull market, deal with it. It's not even the biggest reason you can't get a GPU or console right now.

ZeroThreat

Syferus wrote: »

Some of you lads are honestly completely detached from the reality of cryptocurrency. The market has already recovered 50% of that dip within about 36 hours. It's a bull market, deal with it. It's not even the biggest reason you can't get a GPU or console right now.

Well I'm salty about the lack of GPUS as my current PC is ancient and I wanted to build a new one this year, but I'm aware the main factors in the shorage were 1. Silicon shortage caused by more people requiring devices for working from home 2. Reduced output from factories due to work restrictions caused by the pandemic and 3. Lingering effects from Trump's trade war with China.

lawred2

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Not really. He just made a ton loads of money and will make even more later. He bought coins, then said how amazing they are and prices went up. He sold, made a lot of money and now said it's crap. Price goes down, he buys more, then later on He will say how amazing it is to shoot prices up. Rinse and repeat.

I am still amazed by people who defend crypto currency for not being a pyramid scheme ( very good one though ). To make it even worse, it takes just one person to say something on TV or social media to drasticly change its value.

The only people who defend it, are the ones that looking to make money out of it. Like stock market. The sad thing is, they don't even trade anything of value, in fact they trading a "wasted recourses", which has only the value as someone decides to give it.

The sooner this **** dies, the better. And better not only for gamers, but actual world.

The environmental cost of all this bullshtt is obscene.