Any prospects for acquiring 'low end' Gaming card?

[Tony habergham]

I've been after a replacement graphics card for well over a year now, ever since downgrading my 3GB GTX 1060 down to the previous 2GB GTX 750 ti, in order to let my son at least attempt to play 'Red Dead Redemption 2' at a reasonable frame rate at 1080p.

I'm a 'strategy' gamer rather than a FPS shooter player, the furthest I'd go is something like 'Empire of sin', or 'Surviving the aftermath', but increasingly the 750 is failing to meet the minimum specs for new games, and even some older titles.

I did have my requirements sorted - minimum 4GB, ray tracing not required and not wanted, and not a massive power draw - for green reasons as much as anything (I have a 650w PSU), and settled on a GTX 1650 super as the ideal, in my price range.

However, I've not seen hide not hair of one on sale, new, from a reputable outlet, just constant, unremitting 'coming shortly', even at the quoted priced approaching double RRP. All this to get a card which I used to think was 'mid range', but after reading this forum I now realize to be 'entry level'.

So - any advice? Are there such a thing as 'drops' for these low-end cards? Are there any alternatives (I'm not as up to speed with AMD models since I relied on CUDA for several years). Anything second hand that might do the job at under 150W? And what about this Intel card rumour, what kind of time scale are we looking at?

I'm beginning to think that by the time the market sorts it'self out, if ever, the only thing available will be £500+ cards with ray tracing that draw 3-400W. And console gaming is NOT for me, even with the few titles I'd want to play that are available.

 

[Aretak]

Nvidia are re-releasing the RTX 2060 next Tuesday, though that's going to be a 185W card, close to £300 even before scalping and will sell out instantly. There are also somewhat reliable sources saying that Nvidia will finally release a desktop RTX 3050 near the end of January. That would in theory be exactly the kind of thing you're looking for, but again you can likely expect pricing north of £200 for an x50-class card and hardly any availability. On the AMD side of things, the RX 6500 XT is also supposedly coming in January, but again that's likely to be at least £250. Nobody really knows when the Intel cards are launching. The latest talk I've seen suggests Q2 2022.

 

[Darujhistan]

I've been after a replacement graphics card for well over a year now, ever since downgrading my 3GB GTX 1060 down to the previous 2GB GTX 750 ti, in order to let my son at least attempt to play 'Red Dead Redemption 2' at a reasonable frame rate at 1080p.

I'm a 'strategy' gamer rather than a FPS shooter player, the furthest I'd go is something like 'Empire of sin', or 'Surviving the aftermath', but increasingly the 750 is failing to meet the minimum specs for new games, and even some older titles.

I did have my requirements sorted - minimum 4GB, ray tracing not required and not wanted, and not a massive power draw - for green reasons as much as anything (I have a 650w PSU), and settled on a GTX 1650 super as the ideal, in my price range.

However, I've not seen hide not hair of one on sale, new, from a reputable outlet, just constant, unremitting 'coming shortly', even at the quoted priced approaching double RRP. All this to get a card which I used to think was 'mid range', but after reading this forum I now realize to be 'entry level'.

So - any advice? Are there such a thing as 'drops' for these low-end cards? Are there any alternatives (I'm not as up to speed with AMD models since I relied on CUDA for several years). Anything second hand that might do the job at under 150W? And what about this Intel card rumour, what kind of time scale are we looking at?

I'm beginning to think that by the time the market sorts it'self out, if ever, the only thing available will be £500+ cards with ray tracing that draw 3-400W. And console gaming is NOT for me, even with the few titles I'd want to play that are available.

Keep your powder dry and see how the Crypto crash affects the 2nd hand market. Your PSU will handle anything you're going to buy to play strategy games with, and really worrying about a few watts here or there is a waste of time. I'd be looking for aan 8GB card as well if I were you, 4GB is really 2015 now.

 

[Harlequin]

Crypto crash lol, its the usual weekend dip. Rtx 3050 or rx 3500xt

 

[Axeboy]

1650's do pop up at some retailers, I seen some last week and they were for sale for a few days. OK pricing too. Just have a look every day and have a list of places to check

 

[Tony habergham]

Thanks for the responses so far, a few interesting things to keep an eye out for.

1650's do pop up at some retailers

Yes, I've seen the odd 1650, but it's the 'super' variant I'm after, given that it's supposed to be about 40% faster. The vanilla 1650 is about 20% slower than my old 1060 and would feel like a step backwards.

 

[Angilion]

I've been after a replacement graphics card for well over a year now, ever since downgrading my 3GB GTX 1060 down to the previous 2GB GTX 750 ti, in order to let my son at least attempt to play 'Red Dead Redemption 2' at a reasonable frame rate at 1080p.

I'm a 'strategy' gamer rather than a FPS shooter player, the furthest I'd go is something like 'Empire of sin', or 'Surviving the aftermath', but increasingly the 750 is failing to meet the minimum specs for new games, and even some older titles.

I did have my requirements sorted - minimum 4GB, ray tracing not required and not wanted, and not a massive power draw - for green reasons as much as anything (I have a 650w PSU), and settled on a GTX 1650 super as the ideal, in my price range.

However, I've not seen hide not hair of one on sale, new, from a reputable outlet, just constant, unremitting 'coming shortly', even at the quoted priced approaching double RRP. All this to get a card which I used to think was 'mid range', but after reading this forum I now realize to be 'entry level'.

So - any advice? Are there such a thing as 'drops' for these low-end cards? Are there any alternatives (I'm not as up to speed with AMD models since I relied on CUDA for several years). Anything second hand that might do the job at under 150W? And what about this Intel card rumour, what kind of time scale are we looking at?

I'm beginning to think that by the time the market sorts it'self out, if ever, the only thing available will be £500+ cards with ray tracing that draw 3-400W. And console gaming is NOT for me, even with the few titles I'd want to play that are available.

1650 is 2 generations old so it's probably barely manufactured at all and probably won't be in the near future if it still is now. Nvidia is intending to bring an unknown quantity of slightly modified 2060 cards to the market very soon, probably within a couple of weeks based on the fact that the latest nvidia drivers explicitly mention them and that's usually done very shortly before release. That would be bottom end entry level for a graphics card nowadays. The old standard drew 160W and the new one is pretty much the same but with 12GB instead of 6GB so it'll draw more but not much more. Maybe 180W. It's more powerful than a 1650 super, let alone a 3GB 1060. So maybe you could give the "new" model 2060 to your son so they can actually play RDR 2 at a reasonable frame rate and put the 3GB 1060 back in your machine. A 3050 might be coming out sometime in the next few months, maybe, but specs aren't certain yet. If it's ever released. AMD might release a 6500 in the same way that nvidia might release a 3050. Maybe.

Intel's cards are alleged to be released in Q2 2022. Maybe. At an unknown price. Performance isn't really known either, but they're definitely targeting low end to maybe as high as midrange (their top card is rumoured to be roughly on a par with a 3070 or 6700).

If you're very seriously concerned about reducing power consumption by a trivial amount of watts, your best bet would probably be to try undervolting. It can make a sizable reduction in power draw (and temps). It usually also increases performance. Win all round. There are plenty of guides on doing it because it's extremely popular amongst enthusiasts. It won't work on all cards, but it's worth trying. You might be able to get a nominally 180W card below 150W. Or you could underclock it to reduce power draw. That would definitely work, but it would also reduce performance.

But it's all a bit of a moot point because those cards will be no different to other graphics cards at the moment - only available on the open market in very small quantities and at vastly inflated prices.

The market isn't likely to sort itself out before 2023, if ever. Graphics cards businesses are making record profits with the current situation - why would they want it to change?

 

[Darujhistan]

Crypto crash lol, its the usual weekend dip. Rtx 3050 or rx 3500xt

Lol! Cope.

 

[Poneros]

You'll be able to early next year. They're actually perfect cards for your scenario.

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-radeon-rx-6500xt-coming-mid-january-2022-rx-6400-in-march

 

[Grim5]

Rtx3050 launchinnin January

 

[Cyber-Mav]

Thinking outside the box landed me with a T600 card. Games very well for 40w tdp. Rtx3050 should be ideal for me but may just skip and wait for rtx4050

 

[Hewligan]

T600 is a great little card. I was looking at those too for a PC a couple of weeks ago. In the end I went a different route, but good choice!!

 

[Cyber-Mav]

T600 is a great little card. I was looking at those too for a PC a couple of weeks ago. In the end I went a different route, but good choice!!

For 117 quid inc delivery im not surprised they sold out so quickly.

 

[Uriel]

Absolutely shocked to have won an RTX 2060 mini 6GB on the bay for a price I consider to not be utterly ludicrous today. Still, it's by far the most I've ever paid for a graphics card.

Should be a pleasant upgrade from my GTX 970.

 

[Cyber-Mav]

If its from the bay beware of faultyness