Gaming Cost and Electricity prices going up in the UK

[Harold lloyd]

Electricity prices just went up in the UK, my supplier has almost doubled the standing charge and the kwh rate has jumped quite a bit too.

Doesn't affect me much really as I'm using the rent money from the last remaining property to pay my bills, so you could say someone else pays my monthly bills. I hardly have any cash in the bank.
I don't game that much, but can program for hours at times testing new builds of commercial games that I've disassembled and other work, so the gpu can still get used a lot.

I'm not going to say I told you so even though I've been banging on for about a year about the UK entering a period of high inflation. We all know the score from the newspaper headlines and my $100 oil forecast has come true as well. (predicted on 14 feb 2022)

I know most of you work fulltime to pay bills, and a lot are enthusiasts who have higher powered GPUs.

1. Are you going to game less hours per week?
2. Are you going to game just as much hours?
3. Are you going to attempt to save Electricity in other areas? (if you're doing this then you're admitting to real inflation being present)

Regards, Harold

 

[Harold lloyd]

Welcome back Harold!!

Thanks dude.

 

[Harold lloyd]

The $100 oil barrel wasn't simply down to inflationary issues

When I predicted on 14 feb 2022 there was nothing in the news about that, none of us had a clue.

Yep been stuck indoors for months during winter, looking forward to the warm weather, lots of repair jobs needed on the old house (built 1960s) outside.

 

[Harold lloyd]

I am going to carry on having my PC on at least 16 hours a day, and a blind man could have seen oil at those prices and inflation coming next thing coming, is a massive market correction/crash, well overdue i'm afraid, imo, and with house price rises like we have just had, its a ticking time bomb, no advice given.

You're a trader, so should be making plenty like I was in my early day trading days, so none of this should affect you at all. Yes oil was a bit of a late prediction, but I also forecast increasing food prices on the same day which is already kicking in from the news headlines.

Yep I'm with you on the markets, housing crash coming up.

 

[Harold lloyd]

You seem to be declaring that you've won some big, important argument somewhere

I smell inflation Big Time appearing in the western reserve currencies.
I hope I am wrong but all signs are pointing to major inflation appearing in the west.

Here's the post on 24 june 2021, NO headline news of major inflation then like there is now.

 

[Harold lloyd]

What I gather from your posts is, a lot of you are not making any changes and some are using lower spec hardware to use less electricity.
Me I have set up a small low power pc for net browsing/shopping etc and turn on my main rig for gaming etc.

The problem we have is oil at $90+, now looking back over the past 50 years the big market crashes all had a spike in oil price/inflation at that time.
We have the same thing right now so unless oil retreats to $70 or whatever we will we looking at the next GFC (Global Financial Crisis), the longer WTI oil stays up there its a certainty.

This GFC will make the 2008 GFC look like a tea party! Think about how much will be printed, more inflation on top of our already inflating pound.

We have miners, a chip shortage, and also lots of inflation so what street price from the AIBs will the 4090 be? I think about £2000 maybe even 2.5k.
What's your estimate? I doubt it will be priced at £1500.

 

[Harold lloyd]

I'm not saying you were wrong Harold. I'm saying that you smelling an inflation issue was a full year after it was expected covid would send a lot of the European nations into a recession, which would also include the potential for huge inflationary rises.

You can be right, but not a soothsayer.

Being honest, I am glad you're able to keep doing what you love though. We're lucky enough to be in positions where the energy rises are painful, but not a food/warmth decision. Be mindful of those who aren't as fortunate.

This is major inflation, 50 years in the making, covid would have added some, but that oil price sitting at $90+
Food/warmth yes people lower down are having these problems, could be trouble ahead for the UK.

 

[Harold lloyd]

Was trading of sorts for around 35 years(but not serious) still had a normal job, but lost a lot of my money in 2008, so not traded since, Daytrader just my forum and gaming handle now.

Awful to hear about your losses, all the best for the future.

 

[Harold lloyd]

To be fair, the AIB 3090s didn't start at 1500. 2k is probably a TOUCH high, but only because they won't want to hit a 2k mark.

I'm talking about the future 4090 price not 3090.

 

[Harold lloyd]

As most folk by now already upgraded they will definitely not feel the need nor have the will to chuck money at it come September onwards

Yes not going to upgrade unless they pull something spectacular out of the bag, twice the horsepower of a 3090 so we can finally have soft reflections, cause real time RT is the Holy Grail!

 

[Harold lloyd]

since I started thinking about being self-sufficient overall

Good move, I think all of us need to do some prepping if say utilities start going down.

When I posted my first inflation warning June 2021 I didn't think we would get this much this fast and it was a YELLOW ALERT, just shows markets can turn
things upside down in just a few weeks or months.

The price cap is to rise again October 2022 by £500 or more. Now this can't keep going on in these large jumps or we'll have food/fuel/electricity rationing
at some point and that means unrest, looking at the last few days of Sri Lanka pics its a horror story. So I'm calling a AMBER ALERT for inflation now.
If we get rationing or the next GFC it will be raised to red alert, hope I don't need to do that but I did predict the GFC and all other predictions have come true.

What if we get electricity rationing, say 5 or 10 hours off per day? How will you game, I'm looking to build a wind turbine as I live on the coast with plenty of wind all year, and do cooking with it too.
Of course I'm profiting a lot as the inflation sets in, but who wants more wealth if its scary to even go outside, so I'm thinking of upping the door/window security sometime this year so can sleep better at nights and I think you should too. The inflation is picking up faster than a speeding bullet.

 

[Harold lloyd]

rasterisation has to be there in abundance to begin with (not sure on your thoughts regarding this Harold?).

Yep raster can be handled well enough by todays high end cards at 2k and mostly at 4k with a few low fps games.
RT is still too simple as its been implemented so far in Directx, John Carmack did warn of this around 2013 when he said the early
RT cards would only be able to simple mirror like effects and it adds not much over raster gameplay. I think within 2 hardware generations
we will have the power to render proper glossy reflections (not just mirror effects), likely the 5000/8000 series so it will be a big step up from raster rendering. This is going to mean watts so think a 800w PC and higher!

Of course we won't have full bells/whistles vray but glossy reflections will make images look photo real and not like painted art work.
I must have waited for real time RT since I was a kid, however not long to go now.

I don’t think society will become crazy over energy prices. No need to change your windows. Save some money lol

Not just energy prices, I'm predicting increasing food prices this year and if people can't feed themselves properly then there are chemical changes in the brain and primitive instincts appear.
Wouldn't want to be outside when all these underfed zombie types are running about!

I'm keeping the windows but thinking of installing some steel security mesh etc on the inside to beef up security.

So was I,

Oops must have misread your post.

Be mindful of those who aren't as fortunate.

I've done a bit over the years, always offer £50 to £100 less than the lowest rent prices in the area to help out the renters and because I've been fortunate over the years.

Really? By the coast? Where are you, Liverpool, Glasgow docks?

I can't reveal the location but somewhere on the coast in Wales, I'm only so many metres from the sea, I can see the waves from the upstairs window. Windy all year through summer/winter.

Of course there wasn't. It's more important to know which footballer kicked a cat, or which brand of jeans teh latest
As for gaming - There are plenty of ways I could reduce 'leccy costs and still keep gaming as much as I currently do. All the usual saving tips, really.

Well we got inflation going upto around 2030 and likely a GFC in the near future.

Not planning to change my gaming hours at all. Using a low power PC for internet stuff.
I put the PC on sleep if I'm away for half an hour or more.

at least the PSU manufacturers will be rubbing their hands...

Electricity suppliers will be rubbing their hands too!

 

[Harold lloyd]

Sorry, but increasing food prices have been predicted by all the main outlets .

Tried undervolting got a lot of freeze/crashes so stuck with reducing the GPU clocks, no crashes so far.
What I mean is the body forces people to become aggressive if they are underfed sort of like a zombie, sri lanka last week and peru today, food and fuel shortages, will it happen here in the UK?

Yes I'm with those that forecast increasing food prices, my prediction was on 14 feb so before any clue of a war, but wheat shortage will certainly increase meat prices.

 

[Harold lloyd]

If Ada series is more of a guzzler we will have to see what 7000 cards compare at to see.

RT improvements will require more rays per pixel. If RT performance increases significantly on 4000/7000 cards then expect more power draw. RT maths/calculations cost in terms of watts. We're going to see some power hungry GPUs in the next few years with the industry trying to shift more to RT from raster.

 

[Harold lloyd]

Deffo! I'm looking forward to the red alert!

Throbbing red. We could see a red aubergine i reckon.

I don't think anyone wants to see a red alert situation, it won't be full on mad max like in the movies but you wouldn't want to go outside with the protests and such.

 

[Harold lloyd]

the claim that the prediction was before any sniff of war doesn't stack up..

Indeed food prices were increasing ages before. economic crash 'worse than 2008' was always rumbling on.

Also energy prices were shifting up for the past year too,

Yes its working well with the Gigabyte aorus software, I only adjust the GPU clocks though, most games running about 50+ fps at 4k with clocks at 75% or less and not a single crash so I'll stick with this thanks.

I didn't really notice the electricity prices until I got a letter just before april, but its quite a jump.

I have not used the effects of the war at all in my calculations but obviously its going to affect commodity prices now. Even without that happening I agree food prices have been increasing some due to covid supply chain disruptions, but economies have opened up from lockdown for some time so most of the disruptions should have sorted themselves out.

I think there could be quite a big jump in food prices this year just like electricity prices. Basically in just 1 year fertiliser prices doubled and I heard farmers in the USA were buying much less because of the cost so less food in the shops, and this year I expect the fertiliser problem to get worse.

This commodity cycle will be one for the record books, in fact I would go as far to say we may not see anything like this again in our lifetimes. I expect the British pound £ will be well trashed by 2030.
50 years of fairly stable pound and now new normals are being set.