ty_gerThere are still 3 available on eBay directly from Audio Note. They seem to be selling super slow. They were selling 20 since September 2023.

www.ebay.com/itm/314779132640

These are probably the last 3 cards available BNIB to ever exist. It's understandable why though, USB DACs are cheaper and arguably can outperform this card. It'll be a sad day when I have to retire it, when it fails I will probably replace it with a Creative AE-9.

NoyandTheir Intel boards never received the update to support RPL refresh or APO. The latest bio are from last year

there is RPL refresh beta bios 1.17 for z790 Dark

TheinsanegamerNIt's a real shame EVGA couldnt pull themselves back together and make good AMD hardware. There's certainly a market for it.

It wasn't really on them. The marging for GPUs and boards is so thin now only the big names can stay profitable at it regardless of AMD, intel, or nvidia. Furthermore the customer service aspects that people loved about EVGA (service, RMA, step up) can't actually be done if you don't want to go bankrupt.

It doesn't matter if the market exists if there is no profit to be made unless you are an ASUS, Gigabyte, or MSI. PC gamers aren't willing to pay the prices that would allow a competitive market. That's the problem. Always has been. The PC gamers. So because they won't pay, vendors are exiting the market and have been for some time to where PC gamers are going to be stock with the few monopoly choices and have only themselves to blame.

Dr. DroThese are probably the last 3 cards available BNIB to ever exist. It's understandable why though, USB DACs are cheaper and arguably can outperform this card. It'll be a sad day when I have to retire it, when it fails I will probably replace it with a Creative AE-9.

USB DACs can cost into the five figure range they aren't cheaper.

The real issue is that desktops are sort of grandpa PC now. Most people are buying laptops. Even with desktops most people are buying vastly smaller form factors now. Not only that but wireless is now almost the default for headphones for most people. And gaming headsets are often such utter shit, because mUh G4m1nG PC!!!!, there's no point in bothering with a DAC. The built in POS DAC/AMP in the USB connector is overkill for a G4m1inG headset and the people buying wired headphones good enough to warrant a better audio solution are going to hurl a few hundred to a thousand bucks at it because those last decades.

A mid range USB DAC is like 600-1200 bucks.

SOAREVERSORIt wasn't really on them. The marging for GPUs and boards is so thin now only the big names can stay profitable at it regardless of AMD, intel, or nvidia. Furthermore the customer service aspects that people loved about EVGA (service, RMA, step up) can't actually be done if you don't want to go bankrupt.

It doesn't matter if the market exists if there is no profit to be made unless you are an ASUS, Gigabyte, or MSI. PC gamers aren't willing to pay the prices that would allow a competitive market. That's the problem. Always has been. The PC gamers. So because they won't pay, vendors are exiting the market and have been for some time to where PC gamers are going to be stock with the few monopoly choices and have only themselves to blame.


USB DACs can cost into the five figure range they aren't cheaper.

The real issue is that desktops are sort of grandpa PC now. Most people are buying laptops. Even with desktops most people are buying vastly smaller form factors now. Not only that but wireless is now almost the default for headphones for most people. And gaming headsets are often such utter shit, because mUh G4m1nG PC!!!!, there's no point in bothering with a DAC. The built in POS DAC/AMP in the USB connector is overkill for a G4m1inG headset and the people buying wired headphones good enough to warrant a better audio solution are going to hurl a few hundred to a thousand bucks at it because those last decades.

A mid range USB DAC is like 600-1200 bucks.

Not necessarily, Topping has a few quite decent options in the $150-250 range. Otherwise I agree though

EVGA where typically decent mobo makers I always had to import mine but well worth it.

Anyone familiar in which status EVGA currently is? HeavyMetalSteve from GN was there a year ago and he revisited Kingpin month or two back and that's it.

DarkholmAnyone familiar in which status EVGA currently is? HeavyMetalSteve from GN was there a year ago and he revisited Kingpin month or two back and that's it.

They seem to still be on the full wind-down, but they're taking their time with it. All indications are that they've abandoned any new product development, but they continued the couple existing power supply projects they had already contracted out. Right now they have a small support team handling RMAs and they do all sales through distribution partners (Newegg, Amazon, etc.). That seems to be about it. There's no more GPU or Motherboard teams. They did just hire someone (not Vince or the former motherboard team that no longer work for EVGA) to put out a Beta BIOS for the z790 series motherboards to boot with 14th gen CPUs, but they didn't fix any of the existing issues and it doesn't even look like they included the latest micro-codes. They just made the motherboards recognize the newer CPUs and boot (so V/F curves are likely not right...which was true of the 14900k before this beta BIOS came out too, as that one is similar enough to 13900k that you could boot it up but Vince even said it wasn't running right...just workable enough to manually put in settings and do some OC-runs. I wouldn't want to daily-drive it, especially with the intel issues lately).

So sad to read/hear this... once they let go all the staff who worked years on GPU/MBO projects, it is very hard to replace then overnight.

ty_gerThere are still 3 available on eBay directly from Audio Note. They seem to be selling super slow. They were selling 20 since September 2023.

www.ebay.com/itm/314779132640

Paid $50 for mine. It's "meh".

SOAREVERSORIt wasn't really on them. The marging for GPUs and boards is so thin now only the big names can stay profitable at it regardless of AMD, intel, or nvidia. Furthermore the customer service aspects that people loved about EVGA (service, RMA, step up) can't actually be done if you don't want to go bankrupt.

This has been covered before. If the margins are so thin, then why did EVGA decide to make half a dozen different boards, with different BIOSes, and different coolers, for the same low margin chip? The same "low margin" chips that EVGA was selling for double MSRP just like everyone else.

Something doesnt line up here. There are plenty of companies that exist in niche communities that dont do anywhere near the business of GPU vendors that offer great customer support. It doesnt require bankruptcy.

SOAREVERSORIt doesn't matter if the market exists if there is no profit to be made unless you are an ASUS, Gigabyte, or MSI. PC gamers aren't willing to pay the prices that would allow a competitive market. That's the problem. Always has been. The PC gamers. So because they won't pay, vendors are exiting the market and have been for some time to where PC gamers are going to be stock with the few monopoly choices and have only themselves to blame.

So, ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI can make profits selling these cards, but EVGA cannot, because reasons? Gamers have, repeatedly, shown they are willing to pay absurd prices for both hardware and software. Dont blame EVGA's utter failure on the consumer.

Dont forget, as well, that EVGA majorly screwed up ordering large quantities of GPUs shortly before a next gen chip released. They did this with pascal, they did this with turing, and likely did this with maxwell as well. Poor business decisions all around.

Ultimately, their terrible management systems cost them huge amounts of capital that ended up doing their business in, once the CEO decided to throw a tantrum about Nvidia's business practices (which he had abided by for over 15 years).

SOAREVERSORUSB DACs can cost into the five figure range they aren't cheaper.

CAN does not mean DO. There are plenty of USB DACs in the $1-200 range that the NuAudio card resided in.

SOAREVERSORThe real issue is that desktops are sort of grandpa PC now. Most people are buying laptops. Even with desktops most people are buying vastly smaller form factors now. Not only that but wireless is now almost the default for headphones for most people. And gaming headsets are often such utter shit, because mUh G4m1nG PC!!!!, there's no point in bothering with a DAC. The built in POS DAC/AMP in the USB connector is overkill for a G4m1inG headset and the people buying wired headphones good enough to warrant a better audio solution are going to hurl a few hundred to a thousand bucks at it because those last decades.

A mid range USB DAC is like 600-1200 bucks.

There's so much wrong with this sentence, all I can say is LMFAO give me some of what you are smoking.

BobaganooshThey seem to still be on the full wind-down, but they're taking their time with it. All indications are that they've abandoned any new product development, but they continued the couple existing power supply projects they had already contracted out. Right now they have a small support team handling RMAs and they do all sales through distribution partners (Newegg, Amazon, etc.). That seems to be about it. There's no more GPU or Motherboard teams. They did just hire someone (not Vince or the former motherboard team that no longer work for EVGA) to put out a Beta BIOS for the z790 series motherboards to boot with 14th gen CPUs, but they didn't fix any of the existing issues and it doesn't even look like they included the latest micro-codes. They just made the motherboards recognize the newer CPUs and boot (so V/F curves are likely not right...which was true of the 14900k before this beta BIOS came out too, as that one is similar enough to 13900k that you could boot it up but Vince even said it wasn't running right...just workable enough to manually put in settings and do some OC-runs. I wouldn't want to daily-drive it, especially with the intel issues lately).

I remember calling this when EVGA announced their exit from the GPU business. Everyone swore up and down they were just taking a break and they were TOTALLY not winding down the business in a painfully slow manner.

He should have just sold the company, or appointed a new CEO. Instead he destroyed his legacy with nothing to show for it but foolishness.

TheinsanegamerNI remember calling this when EVGA announced their exit from the GPU business. Everyone swore up and down they were just taking a break and they were TOTALLY not winding down the business in a painfully slow manner.

He should have just sold the company, or appointed a new CEO. Instead he destroyed his legacy with nothing to show for it but foolishness.

My thoughts exactly. In 2 years it will all be forgotten, just like "no one" remembers e.g OCZ, BFG or Abit, whom had also a great stuff in their portfolio. Yes, we remember them, but they are dead, done and dusted.

DarkholmMy thoughts exactly. In 2 years it will all be forgotten, just like "no one" remembers e.g OCZ, BFG or Abit, whom had also a great stuff in their portfolio. Yes, we remember them, but they are dead, done and dusted.

I have 3 EVGA GPUs that will stay on my shelf as showpieces forever (unless their value increases to around £1m, in which case, I'll sell them and retire right away).

Fun fact - EVGA was the only nVidia GPU that ever malfunctioned in one of my rigs. It was GTX 1080 Gaming FTW that died after approx. 80 days. There were Gigabyte 6600GT, 6800GT, 7900GS and 4070Ti; Asus GTX970; MSI GTX 660Ti, GTX 1070 and RTX 2080Ti; Palit/Xpertvision 8800GT, GTX 260 and GTX 560Ti (maybe forgot some) but neither died, just that EVGA.
But nevertheless, RMA procedure was a great experience so that was not a negative rant, just an observation :)

DarkholmFun fact - EVGA was the only nVidia GPU that ever malfunctioned in one of my rigs. It was GTX 1080 Gaming FTW that died after approx. 80 days. There were Gigabyte 6600GT, 6800GT, 7900GS and 4070Ti; Asus GTX970; MSI GTX 660Ti, GTX 1070 and RTX 2080Ti; Palit/Xpertvision 8800GT, GTX 260 and GTX 560Ti (maybe forgot some) but neither died, just that EVGA.
But nevertheless, RMA procedure was a great experience so that was not a negative rant, just an observation :)

Same with my 2070 Black. Unfortunately, EVGA was out of the GPU business by then, not to mention, I bought it second-hand, so there was no chance of RMA by then. Never mind, it looks cool on my shelf. :D