right now in US many enthusiast gpus are getting ugly Xmas mark-ups on the Egg and Amazon. so beware if you're looking for a 6800xt or 6900xt. 6950xt's are a surprising deal with several going for less than the mark-up of 6800xts (esp. Asus) same deal with 3080ti's, 3080, and 3070ti there are some good deals but also crypto level scalping
Supply and demand. Scalpers aren't the reason for high GPU prices and they can only exist under certain conditions. These conditions are intentionally created by GPU makers who slowed down new GPU shipments to a trickle. I don't think Europe received any new 4090 shipments since launch stock was sold out, and it's probably the same in US. In fact, it looks like all higher end cards shipments are almost 0. Only the undesirable 4080 is in stock. This is why scalpers thrive. Now that GPU mining is dead and GPU vendors still want to keep price per unit high, their next logical step was to vastly cut down shipments. This also keeps FOMO high, people fighting for stock and keeps conversation going. It's the terrible reality of enthusiast GPU market and I don't know how long this can last, something major has to happen for this to change.
Sort of on that topic, beware of "sales". Most the notable Black Friday "deals" I saw were scams. I was considering buy a 42" LG C2 TV since it was on sale for $1300 at Canada Computer, so I waited to see if maybe it'll go down another $100 for Black Friday... their amazing "special Black Friday price" for it was $1400. Same thing with various other things I saw including directly (shipped/sold) from Amazon.
Plenty of 4080's in the UK, from £1280 up to £1500 but 4090s are pretty thin on the ground, only the £2000+ versions. Scan has the PNY Verto for £1830 though. I suspect many potential 4080 buyers are hanging back to see how the 7900xt/xtx performs.
It's like, at what period of time are people expecting to own these for? A year? Two? Seven? If I spent this amount of money on a 2nd car, I would expect it to last at least three years - yet these cards are gonna be out of date in less than 12 months, easily. Bad investment
They are only out of date when you want to play a game that has been designed for a future generation card. If a 3080gtx played a game at 100fps before the 4080 came out, it will play it at 100fps after the 4080 came out.
fair point. Also, you forgot scaling - I use a 3840x2160 desktop working space, yet, will just scale games up from 1080p/1440p and run the games @ 144Hz. using a 3060
And...do not forget consoles, because you got 3840x2160 BDXL output from the current crop of consoles, and, games which run the last gen entire catalogue with upscaling - this is really excellent, as I do like the fact my PS4 games 'just work' on my PS5.
Ive not tried any PS4 games on my PS5, then again i think ive given most away apart from UFC3. Ive only got two games on my PS5 FIFA23 and GT7 ha ha ha
Horizon Forbidden West is good, and if you have not played it: Horizon Zero Dawn is solid scifi open world adventure questing and 'dungeon' roaming, with big robots and truly awesome lens flares:
That's like...90% of games! That's Hitman, GTA, Horizon, Zelda, Tomb Raider, Mario - good lord sir, why u not like 3rd person?
Ive got all the TR games but never warmed to them, im flight sim, strategy or first person. So DCS or racing sims, COH2, RTW and Steal Division 2 or stuff like Far Cry, RE, Metro etc.