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Another option if the system is pretty old is to invest in a new mobo, RAM and get one of the new AMD APUs like the 5600G or 5700G. The system would cost more in the short term but in the long run would have more longevity. Plus the iGPU in the 5600G is surprisingly good and probably on par with the 7970. certainly buys you time to wait out the GPU craziness
Ryzen 5 5600g apu stock settings playing Horizon Zero Dawn - YouTube
AMD no longer sell cards direct to the UK due to the B wordor keep playing the AMD website lottery until I get a chance to buy anything.
AMD no longer sell cards direct to the UK due to the B word
In that case best sign up for part alertI'm not in UK so not affected by that luckily... On the other side, any current gen card right now is north of 600€, which means chances of getting them close to a decent price are rather slim.
In that case best sign up for part alert
I'd wait till early 2022 if you can and see what happens, stock looks dismal atm. Intel, Nvidia and AMD will all have something to offer then, whether that's GPUs or news of new release is another question.
Anything that has more than 2GB of vram atm is just ludicrous in price, even the low end 2GB cards have gone back up in price.
If desperate a £450 6600xt is your best bet, a good card, just over costed.
(Just saw youre not UK, so hard to say other than AMD founders card direct for best value)
Yes, the issue for me is not waiting, problem is that my wife's card is crashing more and more often, so basically one day I will just have to fork the cash no matter what... Cheapest RX6000 card is at 656€, basically 2X MRSP.
Ironically, the 6900XT is a relative bargain, at "just" +40% over MSRP...
As your going to have to replace anyway, is it worth pulling off the cooler and giving the memory some new heat pads and thermal paste on the GPU, may well give you some breathing space, what happens if you drop the clocks by 100Mhz or increase the voltage slightly, could be ASIC degradation as well?
I'm too afraid to ruin the card. Lowering clocks with afterburner is something to consider tough.