What's your latest tech purchase?

[Macro Device]

Not precisely a purchase. My m8 decided to gift me leftovers of his old PC.

i3-2120, H61M-S1 board from Gigabyte, 1+1 GB RAM sticks, and a copper-based box cooler. That HD 6870, keyboard, mouse, and a TV were already mine.

Spoiler: And it works

I have a couple ideas what I will do with this thing. Stay tuned.

 

[AusWolf]

Not precisely a purchase. My m8 decided to gift me leftovers of his old PC.

i3-2120, H61M-S1 board from Gigabyte, 1+1 GB RAM sticks, and a copper-based box cooler. That HD 6870, keyboard, mouse, and a TV were already mine.

Spoiler: And it works

View attachment 313770

I have a couple ideas what I will do with this thing. Stay tuned.

That's an awesome find, congrats! Some people would have killed for a system like this 12 years ago. Keep us posted.

 

[wNotyarD]

On 7800XT stock in the U.S.: The XFX came in stock at Newegg last nigh. I added it to cart because if you don't complete the order it will start telling you how many other people have it in their carts. It got up to a couple of hundred. Then it went OOS again.

Finally AMD was able to pull a winner. If not on a performance standpoint (doesn't smoke the 6800XT - it's predecessor by name - away), it trounces on price (where it's predecessor by MSRP was the 6700XT).
So much so that 4070's got a price cut.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

That's cool. Did you see any reference to the game code bundle in the listing? I read it somewhere that Amazon tends to make multiple listings with and without the game code.

It's on the page shipped and sold by Amazon and it's the first card on the promotion page https://www.amazon.com/promotion/ps...DER&ref=cxcw_psp_ACHKWB63YKPQJ&source=dp_cxcw

They email the code 2 days after the order ships. I will still have 3 weeks plus to redeem before it expires on October 28th.

 

[AusWolf]

Finally AMD was able to pull a winner. If not on a performance standpoint (doesn't smoke the 6800XT - it's predecessor by name - away), it trounces on price (where it's predecessor by MSRP was the 6700XT).
So much so that 4070's got a price cut.

I guess "there's no bad products, just bad prices" has a bit of truth in it sometimes.

 

[Macro Device]

Some people would have killed for a system like this 12 years ago.

But not me. 12 years ago, I spent a couple months working (I was a 16 y.o, nonsense back then) and got myself a similar rig (Pentium G620, H61 iCafe, 3 GB DDR3, HD 5770 1 GB).

 

[wNotyarD]

I guess "there's no bad products, just bad prices" has a bit of truth in it sometimes.

Double that for the 7900XT. After its price came down, it's a great proposition.

 

[AusWolf]

But not me. 12 years ago, I spent a couple months working (I was a 16 y.o, nonsense back then) and got myself a similar rig (Pentium G620, H61 iCafe, 3 GB DDR3, HD 5770 1 GB).

Not me, either. Back then, I got myself an FX-8150, 8 GB, HD 7970 system from my student loan. And to think that I couldn't even buy a mid-range PC from that money, not to mention high-end. Times change.

 

[Macro Device]

I guess "there's no bad products, just bad prices" has a bit of truth in it sometimes.

Yeah, that's why my RX 6700 XT for $1400 (sometimes $1800) they asked for it in late 2021 was a beyond all repair bad offer, and for $300 I paid for it in February it's a legitimate biz.

7800 XT was priced right where it should be right from the start being THE ONLY current gen GPU of such a trait. That's why it's so sold out.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

I guess "there's no bad products, just bad prices" has a bit of truth in it sometimes.

I honestly don't think the 7700XT price is all that bad if you only compare it to the 4060ti the problem is AMD made it look bad pricing the 7800XT at $499... Makes me think they where originally targeting $529/549 for the 7800XT. Even dropping it to $429 would make the 7700XT look much better. As if stands you end up with some 7700XT costing the same as the 7800XT. I don't understand Amd somtimes.

 

[Macro Device]

FX-8150, 8 GB, HD 7970 system

Even today, it's a capable build. You can play almost 99% games on low at 1080p and be fine. What you can do with i3-2120, 2 GB RAM, and an HD 6870 is strictly limited to very old games and very low demanding computing tasks.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Double that for the 7900XT. After its price came down, it's a great proposition.

I almost bought one when I saw a model for less than $750 but it's overkill for me. I spend 90% of my time gaming on a 1080 60 55" TV. Not ready to buy a 4k TV either. I have XFX MERC RX 6800 that does a great job already. I just want to play with the new AMD features as they come out, and with the game the 7800XT was too good to pass up.

The no bad card just bad prices is my mantra. I bought a A750 LE for $200 and the A380 for $100. That's what made them good cards. Can't play Starfield on them reliably yet, so if they were all I had I might still question the value. But I wanted to support player 3 and have some some fun with ARC.

 

[wNotyarD]

I honestly don't think the 7700XT price is all that bad if you only compare it to the 4060ti the problem is AMD made it look bad pricing the 7800XT at $499... Makes me think they where originally targeting $529/549 for the 7800XT. Even dropping it to $429 would make the 7700XT look much better. As if stands you end up with some 7700XT costing the same as the 7800XT. I don't understand Amd somtimes.

They do that to sell the more expensive model. Again, drawing parallels with the 7900's XT and XTX. When the 7700XT drops prices, and IT WILL earlier than the 7800XT, it'll sell in droves.

I almost bought one when I saw a model for less than $750 but it's overkill for me. I spend 90% of my time gaming on a 1080 60 55" TV. Not ready to buy a 4k TV either. I have XFX MERC RX 6800 that does a great job already. I just want to play with the new AMD features as they come out, and with the game the 7800XT was too good to pass up.

My monitor is 1440p165, but with FreeSync I always try to get at least some 100fps and let the sync work its magic, I'm not that sensitive over refresh provided it is fast enough. My 3070 still does a good job at that, even if sometimes I already have to lower some settings from ultra to high to achieve that. Not a single game made me go medium for anything yet, and I'm not sold on DLSS or FSR shenanigans (only time I tried it was F1 2020 and man I hated it). I also never go for RT when it effectively kills my framerates for unneeded eye candy which I may not always notice due to focusing on something else that's going on.
Actually, that applies to my rig as a whole. As much as the tech enthusiast in me wants to rebuild, the realist me wakes up and keeps finances green. Someday I'll move on from the 1.xx rig, but I'll guess it'll at least receive a 5800X3D to cap AM4 and possibly a RX 8800-series card (and I mention 8800 because I think the only performance gap which would make me replace the 3070 right now would be either 7900XT/4070Ti to higher).

 

[Macro Device]

Not ready to buy a 4k TV either

But they cost very little and RX 6800 + some settings below Ultra + FSR at Balanced = 4k60. I speak from my experience with RX 6700 XT and I genuinely lack very little to achieve 4k60 without major impact on image quality.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

They do that to sell the more expensive model. Again, drawing parallels with the 7900's XT and XTX. When the 7700XT drops prices, and IT WILL earlier than the 7800XT, it'll sell in droves.

Probably, although the 7700XT looks better in relation to it's competition than the 7900XT did being 100 usd more expensive than the 4070ti while still making no sense vs the 7900XTX.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Even today, it's a capable build. You can play almost 99% games on low at 1080p and be fine. What you can do with i3-2120, 2 GB RAM, and an HD 6870 is strictly limited to very old games and very low demanding computing tasks.

I have a FX 8350 on 990FX board in my collection. Only pushed to 4.6GHz using a Noctua D15 with 32GB of 2133 and a SATA SSD. Vishera brought 10-20% performance boost over Bulldozer too. That data was in Anand's article from the time. It's still a surprisingly capable PC all things considered. Some new games would be a nightmare though. I can't imagine waiting for Last of Us shader compiling to finish on it. Part 2 will be on PC by then.

 

[AusWolf]

Even today, it's a capable build. You can play almost 99% games on low at 1080p and be fine. What you can do with i3-2120, 2 GB RAM, and an HD 6870 is strictly limited to very old games and very low demanding computing tasks.

Yeah, the problem is that TeraScale 2 tanked when DX11 and/or Tessellation got involved. I remember, my brother had a HD 6750. Even a HD 7770 was a huge jump compared to it.

I honestly don't think the 7700XT price is all that bad if you only compare it to the 4060ti the problem is AMD made it look bad pricing the 7800XT at $499... Makes me think they where originally targeting $529/549 for the 7800XT. Even dropping it to $429 would make the 7700XT look much better. As if stands you end up with some 7700XT costing the same as the 7800XT. I don't understand Amd somtimes.

Depends where you look at it from, I guess. If you think about the 7700 XT as getting a slightly slower 7800 XT for 10% less, it's not a bad deal at all.

But I wanted to support player 3 and have some some fun with ARC.

I felt like that too, but after waiting for months for the A770 to be available after release for over 400 quid (which was the price of a 6700 XT back then), and then the A380 for 250, I gave up on the idea.

 

[Macro Device]

think about the 7700 XT as getting a slightly slower 7800 XT

This is RX 6900 XT which is slightly slower than 6950 XT. 7700 XT is considerably slower than 7800 XT, especially in higher resolutions, mucho gracias to much lower VRAM bandwidth in the weaker sibling. Today, 10% price difference is less than ~17% performance difference so in vacuum, 7800 XT is a no-brainer.

In reality, 7800 XT is out of stock and 7700 XT is still a very decent deal compared to what you have from RDNA2, Ampere and Ada.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

But they cost very little and RX 6800 + some settings below Ultra + FSR at Balanced = 4k60. I speak from my experience with RX 6700 XT and I genuinely lack very little to achieve 4k60 without major impact on image quality.

Money isn't an issue for me thank the flying spaghetti monster. Major IQ impact is also moot for my use case. I have been doing combat sports for over 40 yrs, if I sit in a chair for any length of times my knees (had surgery on the right one) will give me hell. I have a roccat lapboard and Steel series mouse with a Xbox BT controller. I sit in my power recliner with my feet up, very therapeutic, and game in the living room. At the distance I am sitting 4K is meaningless.

 

[Macro Device]

Money isn't an issue for me thank the flying spaghetti monster. Major IQ impact is also moot for my use case. I have been doing combat sports for over 40 yrs, if I sit in a chair for any length of times my knees (had surgery on the right one) will give me hell. I have a roccat lapboard and Steel series mouse with a Xbox BT controller. I sit in my power recliner with my feet up, very therapeutic, and game in the living room. At the distance I am sitting 4K is meaningless.

So you should've said "4K is meaningless in my case," not "I'm not ready for 4K" IMHO.

Wish your knee to stop punishing the punisher. xD

 

[AusWolf]

I have a FX 8350 on 990FX board in my collection. Only pushed to 4.6GHz using a Noctua D15 with 32GB of 2133 and a SATA SSD. Vishera brought 10-20% performance boost over Bulldozer too. That data was in Anand's article from the time. It's still a surprisingly capable PC all things considered. Some new games would be a nightmare though. I can't imagine waiting for Last of Us shader compiling to finish on it. Part 2 will be on PC by then.

I wish I had mine! Bulldozer and Vishera are still highly capable web surfing / HTPC parts, I guess. If you don't mind a "little" warmth in the room.

 

[Macro Device]

If you don't mind a "little" warmth in the room.

Of course I don't.

 

[wNotyarD]

I wish I had mine! Bulldozer and Vishera are still highly capable web surfing / HTPC parts, I guess. If you don't mind a "little" warmth in the room.

If you get a E-suffix Vishera, it doesn't heat as much. But I must say, upgrading from the FX-8320E to a R7-2700 (which itself was no speed demon) was life-changing.

 

[AusWolf]

Of course I don't.

View attachment 313773

At least the UK isn't the only place getting a shit summer this year.

 

[Macro Device]

shit summer

My brother in Christ, it's autumn already.