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Small-Scale Question Sunday for November 26, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Do you have a method for ensuring or increasing your chances at getting a piece of hardware, let's say a GPU, from an online store when supply is short?

During the darkest crypto/pandemic/scalping days, it seemed that only those with scripts or some other method were able to get one directly.

I need a new one soon, might be able to wait for the 4000 Super series, and I'm expecting them to be torn off the digital shelves quickly at launch and then prices will rise.

I need a new one soon, might be able to wait for the 4000 Super series

Go to eBay, buy a 3090. Today. Honorable mention to the 3080 12GB (Ti or not), and if you only care about games, the 7900XT/XTX.

They're cheaper or the same price as new cards of equivalent compute power, EVGA ones still usually have a year's worth of warranty on them, and 24GB of VRAM means it's exactly as capable as a 4090 is for ML workloads (sure, it'll be half as fast for about 40% the price, but it can run models that the 4070 and 4080 will never be able to).

Anything else that isn't either a 4090 or a 100-dollar 1080 is a waste of your time and money. The 3060 and 4060 are barely outperforming 1080s for 3x the price, 3070s are just 2080Tis but with less VRAM, the 4070 and Ti are just a 3090 with half the VRAM, and the 4080 is just too expensive to not have 24GB of VRAM (the reason why it doesn't is because, if it did, it would cannibalize 4090 sales to prosumers who are buying them for ML workloads) and if you're only looking for gaming performance AMD's 7900 series is better in the gap between the 3090/4070Ti and 4090.

Price per FPS is not coming down significantly any time soon thanks to TSMC having a monopoly on all advanced nodes (which they will enjoy far into the decade)- sure, the Super series might result in the eBay 3080s dropping in price by 10%, but the days of faster silicon for the same price are definitively over.

I have a 3060 Ti currently. I want a solid upgrade on it, performance and vram-wise. I don't want to buy used, so 3090 is out. I don't want AMD because they suck at the 3d rendering I like to play with. It's a shame that the 4080 only has 16gb, and that the Super won't increase the vram. Would have been great with 20+ gb. Also it's pretty insanely expensive, but the 4090 costs +50% and gives only +27% performance, and would necessitate a new PSU too, so that's not very tempting either. That's why I'm eyeing the 4080 Super, depending on price.