The Video Card Dilemma

Updated an hour after the initial post!  

 I want a new video card.  I want one so bad! I wrote about 'readying' my computer for upgrades back in January and even then I'd been thinking about it for three months.  To be honest, when they announced the Nvidia RTX 3080 and 3090 video cards on September 1st I wanted it.  I just figured waiting until it was actually out and had reviews online from legit reviewers was worth it.  And then it happened.  Stock never met demand AND it was worth it.  

December is when I first thought about upgrading through the Origin system.  When I actually went to pull the trigger in late January though and found out that it would still be a wait, couldn't upgrade all the parts I wanted, and just wouldn't be worth it to upgrade the processor... well I signed up for every video card that EVGA made and started doing the NewEgg Shuffle.  

If you haven't heard about it, NewEgg has a... I don't know what to call it.  Service?  Ploy?... where on most days they offer up what they have in stock.  Certain video cards at barely marked up prices.  You sign up, agree to buy the parts, then if your lottery number is picked, your order completes.  So... if you 'order' every card that you'd want to buy AND you win each lottery, you have to buy all of them.  After NOT winning any shuffle for a few weeks (when I could even get in, since they started while I was at work!), I started signing up for all of them and figured it would be worht it to pay $3000 for a card!  Now they bundle everything with power supplies, motherboards, or monitors so it makes it even more difficult.  The prices for the combos is still reasonable, but I don't want those parts.  Even if I did want a new monitor, I don't want THAT monitor. 

I later heard that people who signed up for the EVGA video cards in December like I did in February still hadn't gotten any cards.  So I wasn't going to get it through EVGA, and NewEgg Shuffle was just too luck based and shady.  That left me with... nothing.  Just waiting for the whole scarcity and mining and overpricing issue to work itself out.  Or did it?  

About a month ago I read an article stating that one of the major buyers of video cards right now are boutique computer builders.  The Origins, Falcons, NZXTs, iBuyPowers, CyberPowers, Maingears, and CLXs of the world.   And more importantly, they aren't following the trend of marking up the components.  Oh sure, they do add a little extra to their pocket, but they got taken to task the last time a shortage happened.  many of them raised prices before in a similar situation and while they got some sales, their reputations took a big hit and they overall lost customers.  Now they'd rather lose out a bit on short term profit and gain loyal customers.  

Now obviously, I can't just go to them and buy a graphics card.  I have to put it into a system.  I could build a complete replacement for my system or I could built a minimum system and just pull the video card out.  Don't believe that's viable?  Well lets put some of this in perspective:

These are for an RTX 3090:

• $1,499 is the supposed MSRP
• No one has these cards listed at these prices.  NO ONE!
• $2,499 is the lowest Ebay listing for a new one
• $3,000 is the lowest Ebay listing for a used one
• They're probably all used, these are just the more honest ones
• $3,259 is the lowest price on Amazon
• This is through their Amazon Marketplace
• $3,546 is the lower price on Walmart
• I just now puked a little in my mouth from even searching at Walmart
• This too was through their marketplace
• $3,500 is the average from other stores

For comparison I went to the above system builders and priced out computers that included an RTX 3090 card.  I used two builds.  The first was as cheap as I could make it.  If they offered the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X, then I used that processor.  If they had the 3600X, then I went down to that.  16 Gigs of Ram?  How about 8?  The only things I went big on were the video card itself and anything needed to accomodate it.  Sometimes that was a different case but it almost always required a larger power supply (the RTX 3090 requires a 850 watt power supply).  The other build was a replacement for mine that included an RTX 3090.  This was generally an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X, 32 Gigs of fast ram, a good cooler, good fans, a good case, a 1 TB PCIE 4th gen M.2 drive, a 1 TB SSD storage drive, extra for good cables, and extra for a good case.  I also speced up the motherboard if I could but didn't go crazy as I don't plan on overclocking a modern Ryzen processor.  

The prices varied wildly on the 'replacement' system but averaged right around $4,200.  To be honest, that's not all that bad as I spent $3800 on a similar system two and a half years ago with a lesser processor and a lesser video card.  I could easily make a system that I would respect for $3,800 from some of the system makers.  

The prices varied quite a bit on the 'get the system just in order to get the video card' system too, but here I was only interested in someplace that could deliver the card in a reasonable amount of time (one month is my version of reasonable) and who had the lowest price.  It turns out it was NZXT's BLD service.  The price of that 'as low as they come' system that included an RTX 3090?  $2,643.91

If I could get these cards at anywhere near retail, it would be ridiculous to get a processor, motherboard, ram, hard drive, power supply, and everything else required even at $2600 just to get the video card.  But that's not the case.  As the pricing lays right now, unless I want to trust some sketchy Ebay listings, this option is the cheapest.  By HUNDREDS of dollars! 

Now, if you've followed me long enough to have read through my past grumblings about video cards, you might be wondering why I'm focusing on 3090s instead of 3080s.  Well, simply put 3090s can be found.  Most of the system builders either didn't list 3080s as an option or had them with an extra wait time varying from 6 to 12 weeks.  Amazon lists the 3080s around $2600 (same price as a 3090 with a computer around it!), and Ebay has them for around $2200.  

The system I build around the RTX 3090 at NZXT is... well it's not bad, but it's not good either.  My nephews could probably use some of the parts, but many of them would literally be trashed.  But it's still the cheapest (non sketchy) way to get an RTX 3090.  

The other option in all of this is do nothing.  Just don't upgrade.  An upgraded video card should go for under $1000, not $2600.  If the situation were normal there is no way I'd be considering an RTX 3090.  And it's not like my current RTX 2080 is a slouch.  It can still play everything... just not as good as I'd like it too.  The big drawback of doing nothing is that doing nothing soon means doing nothing until the next generation card comes out.  Rumor has it that the new cards will come out in June of 2022.  It would be stupid to buy an RTX 3080, even at regular price, months before the new ones come out.  And this pricing problem isn't likely to get fixed in 2021.  So, do nothing means do nothing for over a year. 

As I was writing this up, several things happened that made me re-think something.  First, I was talking with some D+X friends on Discord and we were talking about a lot of different options.  Then a nurse got sexually assaulted where I work.  I had to stop and deal with that.  Then Mom started a fire on the stove top (not her fault), and I had to stop and deal with that.  All told, I was expecting to have this written out, have a list of options, and have a decision made by 1100.  It's now 1316 and I've thought of another option.  

Why not merge the 'basic' setup I get from NZXT and my current system?  I'll probably have to use the case anyway since the video card will be too big for my Origin case.  In other words, I'll already be gutting the computers and Frankensteining them back together.  So what if I added a few extra bucks to get a decent motherboard and a current Ryzen processor?  

First, when I went to re-create the $2600 build I couldn't do it.  Maybe  I missed a sale, or had something missing, but it now is $2,853.91.  Sadly, even this price is so damned good that its not worth worrying about. 

Here's the minimal specs to get it down to the $2,853.91 :

• NZXT H510 Case (can be white or black)
• GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition
• AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
• NZXT Kraken M22 Cooler
• Gigabyte B450 Aorus Pro Wifi motherboard
• 16 GB of Team T-Force Delta RGB 3200MHz RAM
• Wester Digital Blue 3D SSD 500 GB boot/storage drive
• EVGA SuperNOVA 850W G5 Gold Power Supply

Now here's what I could do.  I could get the motherboard and processor.  The cooler would come with it, and I'd probably upgrade that a bit.  My hard drives are fine.  The power supply is a pain as I already have an EVGA power supply.  I could switch it and use the custom cables that I have, or for $10 more, upgrade it to an NZXT power supply.  

Here's what I came up with for $3,231.90:

• NZXT H510 Case (can be white or black)
• GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition
• AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
• NZXT Kraken Z63 Cooler
• MSI MPG X570 Gaming Edge Wifi Motherboard
• 16 GB of Team T-Force Delta RGB 3200MHz RAM
• Wester Digital Blue 3D SSD 500 GB boot/storage drive
• NZXT C1000 Gold Power Supply

I've highlighted the improved components.  Once I converted everything my system would be:

• NZXT H510 Case (can be white or black)
• GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition
• AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
• NZXT Kraken Z63 Cooler
• MSI MPG X570 Gaming Edge Wifi Motherboard
• 16 GB of Team T-Force Delta RGB 3200MHz RAM
• 500 GB Samsung 970 EVO NVMe M.2 SSD
• 1 TB Samsung 960 EVO SATA SSD

So, here are my options:

• Do nothing.  Accept that this crazy situation just means that I'll have to keep on keeping on with the RTX 2080.  Maybe in a year, they'll introduce the 4000 series cards and I can upgrade them.
• This is by far the smartest decision
• Buy the basic $2,853.91 system and swap out the GPU.  
• I get a 3090, my nephews celebrate me as they get a 2080 and maybe some other parts.  
• Buy the upgraded $3231.90 system.  
• I get a new processor that should be near what mine is in games and superior to mine in almost everything else.  That's in addition to getting the upgraded 3090. 
• That's a $377.99 premium.  
• Buy a new system from the ground up that's more of what I want.  Origin's configurator makes it about $4,600 with the Ryzen 7, the 3090, better hard drives than the ones above or the ones in my system.  I could then give my entire system to my nephews after formatting the drive.  
• Oh, and they list 3080 as an option without throwing a whole warning up about a 3 month wait.  It goes for $3,900.  
• The 3090 would be a $1,746.09 premium.  
• The 3080 a $1,046.09 premium. 

$2853.91.  Lets look at this financially.  I paid off some previous debts which opened up some credit, but not credit that I'd want to use for this.  I specifically chose this path so that it would limit me.  So liquid cash?  I probably have about $1500 I could throw at this.  That brings it down to $1,400 on the credit card.  To be honest, the extra $400 isn't a big deal.  I've upped my monthly credit card payment and that would be one more.  Financing $1800 means five months to return to where I am today.  

Buuuuuuuuuuut... that's not what I want.  Specifically, I don't like the NZXT cases.  Yeah yeah, I could buy another case, but then I'm just following the rabbit down the hole as then I could also buy some RGB bling, some faster RAM, and that goes on and on and on.  What I want, if I'm not getting just the card (then I'd have to buy a new case) is a new custom system.  If that's with the 3080, then that's $3,900.  

Financially lets remove the upfront cash.  $2,400 financed.  There's no way around it, that's a hit.  At my current credit card payments that's six full payments.  I'm not even with my current financial situation until November or December.  Then we're into Christmas, then it's tax season, then my 401k contribution goes up, then my raise generally kicks in... yeah, December through March is a weird time for financials.  

Ultimately that is a LOT of cash to put down for a system that, at its core (CPU), won't be much faster than mine at all and might even be slower in some circumstances.  So the new hottness isn't the answer.  

So if the full hotness isn't the answer and the basic isn't the answer, I guess I have to go with the smart decision.  Do nothing.  Just wait and see if anything changes before... July? 

I think my financial limit is $1500 on an RTX 3080 and $2000 on an RTX 3090.  If I can get either of those in a reasonable amount of time before July, I'll bite down on it.  IF not, c'est la vie.  

--------------

Update from a few hours later.  

I said in the above post that I didn't like the NZXT H510 case.  Well... that was before I saw this youtube video.  Which, by the way, went live AFTER I posted this!  

Anywho, it's not exactly what I would get from the NZXT BLD service, but it's roughly the same case and the same cooler.  The biggest difference is that the case I'd get would have a solid front and not the glass that his has.  The power supply is under the shroud, so you wouldn't see that and in my opinion the RTX 3090 is a much cleaner video card than those Gigabyte ones he has.  The Ram would be jus as colorful, but different.  

The motherboard though.  Yeah, that's the hotness right there! If they offered that motherboard in the BLD system, I'd just go ahead and buy it.  It looks so damned clean.  Black on black on black on black with the bronzed video card being highlighted.  Niiiiiiiice!  

Anywho, since I did a 180 on my previous decision, I figured it was worth an update.  Toodles!