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Temp card

daveheath1888

daveheath1888

daveheath1888

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Joined
9 Sep 2025
Posts
13
Location
uk
Ok some people might not agree with me but thinking about getting a temporary card and backup in the future for my new pc build, have not really got the money to pay out £600-£800 for a graphics card and also dont want to spend that money yet till i have made sure my first pc build works properly and with some new cards coming out, so thoughts are to spend up to £100 on a second hard graphics card, can get a gtx 1080 for about £105, what are peoples thoughts is there a better second hand card option?

potentual build :

9800x3d
64 gb ram
1000w psu
5070ti/9700xt (in future)
 
I'd just use the integrated graphics. Although a 1080 for about £105 will probably not lose much value if you sell later.
 
Last edited:
daveheath1888 said:
is there a better second hand card option?
Click to expand...

Quickly checking the 'bay in the last 3 days has 2 2070's for £100 and a 1080ti also. Blower seems to be reason for the 1080ti. That price includes postage.

2070s £120
£160 has a 3060, a 6700xt and a couple of 2080ti blowers.
 
I have a low profile 1650 for a general use or testing systems as it doesn't use an external power connector and fits in ITX cases easily.

I have bought a few 2060 Supers in the past for budget PC and they down to ~£80 now on the Overclockers Members Market (you can't access that due to your low post count).

I've got to the point now that I won't buy any 8GB GPUs. 3060 12GB for as little as possible would be my choice.
 
Some very questionable decisions going on. If you can't afford a GPU then why not get a slightly slower CPU, cut the Ram back to 32GB, get a 850w PSU rather than 1000w, Get a single 2TB SSD instead of getting 2 drives etc.
 
What games are you looking to play and at what res? A cheap 1080ti may fit the bill for the mean time. Or as @Armageus suggested, some tweaks could be your enabler to a more balanced system.
 
Hi thanks for the replies, dont want to tweak my system too much as its not just for playing games as i will be multitasking as well and running other software.just want to build the system and make sure its reliable before spending £600-£800 more(in my mind the build might not work and i might have to recoup the cost and so the £600-£800 gpu is not necessary to make sure the build works first), so spending £100 for a temp card and then as a backup is not to bad in terms of cost.
 
daveheath1888 said:
Hi thanks for the replies, dont want to tweak my system too much as its not just for playing games as i will be multitasking as well and running other software.just want to build the system and make sure its reliable before spending £600-£800 more(in my mind the build might not work and i might have to recoup the cost and so the £600-£800 gpu is not necessary to make sure the build works first), so spending £100 for a temp card and then as a backup is not to bad in terms of cost.
Click to expand...
You don't need a graphics card to check it works, just use the integrated graphics.

If you must buy the 1080:
 
maybe i am just delaying myself from buying all the parts and building, very anxious about paying all the money out and building it and not working and not being able to find out why and then having to recoup the money back somehow.
 
daveheath1888 said:
maybe i am just delaying myself from buying all the parts and building, very anxious about paying all the money out and building it and not working and not being able to find out why and then having to recoup the money back somehow.
Click to expand...
If you're that worried about it, it sounds like you're overspending.

Perhaps you should send some of the parts back and get cheaper ones.

E.g.

My basket at OcUK:

Total: £723.91 (includes delivery: £7.99)​


Still great performance for 1080p/1440p from that and costs the same as you were planning to spend on the graphics card.
 
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Gigabyte B650 EAGLE AX (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard
MOT-GIG-03573
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Crucial Pro 48GB (2x24GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C46 5600MHz Dual Channel Kit
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XFX Swift 9060 XT Gaming OC Dual Fan 16GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card
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daveheath1888 said:
thanks for all the replies, yes i now dont know what to do.
Click to expand...
I mean, the crux of this thread is an outlay of £105 (on something that you could easily resell later and get most of that back). If that's a life-changing amount of money for you, I'd suggest that perhaps it's not the time to be buying a gaming PC at all. It really shouldn't be a huge decision.

There are also some absolutely terrible suggestions in this thread, like not spending £105 for a GTX 1080 that'd give you a perfectly decent gaming experience and still play just about anything at a reasonable framerate with some upscaling, but rather just use the integrated graphics which have all the power of a mouldy potato and will struggle to run 15 year old titles acceptably. Or downgrade everything in your build, going from a 9800X3D to a 7600 as if they're even remotely comparable, all so that you can have the awesome power of a 9060 XT (a card about twice as fast as a GTX 1080 for more than triple the outlay). You're far better off getting the base of your system sorted first time around. It's FAR more hassle and faff to go about upgrading your CPU/motherboard later compared to your graphics card. Buying a CPU that's already low-end for the platform along with the crappiest old B650 motherboard you can find is a terrible idea if you actually plan to keep this build for a good length of time (and there's really no reason that shouldn't be your plan). There's nothing wrong with budget builds IF that's what you want, but I doubt you'd be considering a 9800X3D in the first place if you wanted a budget build. Skimping on the bones of your system will only lead to unhappiness later if it's not what you want.

As for worrying about things not working, everything comes with a warranty and right to return. Just don't go buying parts months apart to make that more difficult. Buy the thing, build it, test it (you don't even need the graphics card for that part) and then you have returns windows and peace of mind.
 
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