Not a computer guy at all, apologies for my ignorance, but just looking for some advice. I believe my son’s gaming PC gpu was fried due to no image on the several screens we tried and while the PC is running fine. He has a cyber power pc and We’re trying to find a replacement, there’s a Best Buy deal for this pic I posted, his current GPU was a turbo-gtx1080ti-11g, it has 2 HDMI and 2 Display ports, while this one we’re looking to buy only has 1 of each. We don’t need multiple outputs so we figured we’re okay with trying to save money on that end of things, but Would this Best Buy GPU be a good idea for $230 or is there something else we should try, and/or is a refurbished GPU too risky also if we’re trying to be fiscal with the purchase? Any help would be appreciated greatly. TIA less
45 Comments
The 1080 ti was little bit better than a 3050, a 3060 ti or a 4060 ti go for cheap-ish used
Okay, I work with computers as my profession, switching out a 1080ti (the Highest-end card for its line) for a 3050 (the lowest-end card in its line) wouldn’t be the best idea. If it’s an upgrade you’re looking for and the pc is gonna be under constant use, you wanna find something that is similar in performance rather than price, otherwise you’ll be disappointed with your purchase.
My personal budget recommendation would be (at minimum) a 3070, second hand would save you money, but I’d personally look for a 4070 super – 4070 ti super, second hand they’re about $400-$500 and would serve you well for years before needing to switch out again
3050 8gb is definitely a downgrade from a 1080ti. If that’s all you can do at the moment, it’s not the worst deal, but I would look for the 3060 12gb at least.
Used or refurbished is a coin toss, the risks are very dependent on where you live for used and the trustworthiness of a seller for refurbished. Kinda do at your own risk.
In your case i would go for an rx 6700xt, its equivalent to a 3070, you will probably find it for cheap. maybe even an 5700xt, you can check benchmarks on fornite for those cards. if your son plays it on low graphics settings it will hit the 240 fps.
Get a 3060 12gb
I saw a post on r/buildapcsales today about Newegg refurbs.
Refurb or not, I’d be much happier with one of these cards under $300…. like a 2080 or 3060 TI, than a brand new RTX 3050.
[https://www.newegg.com/Newegg-Refreshed/EventSaleStore/ID-10007?N=100007709&Order=4](https://www.newegg.com/Newegg-Refreshed/EventSaleStore/ID-10007?N=100007709&Order=4)
please spend more and don’t buy 3050. 1080ti is still a monster. if budget is a concern, maybe go for RX6600? still a downgrade but way better than 3050. or buy any used 3070 ti or whatever can suit your budget.
nvidia soon gona be happy but don’t go lower then a XX60
OP I have a 3060 12gb I could sell for 200. Just let me know.
This is a significantly better card than the 3050.
Honestly nvidia is not the only gpu company, if you want you can look at amd instead, for gpus like the rx 6600 which outperforms the 3050 by about 20-25% while also being cheaper in the used marketplace ($200 vs $175 on ebay).
If youre low on budget honestly I would just recommend switching over to amd graphics cards, amd focuses on price to performance, which means that you can get alot of fps per dollar, nvidia is focusing more on the software side of things, so its better in dlss and ray tracing(or in fortnite settings, lumen)
Buy used 3060, 3060 ti
for $230 dollars, that’s a steal. in the sense that you’re getting stolen from. that’s an absolute shit card and is a significant downgrade from your current one. i’d maybe look at an rx 6700 xt or a 3060 ti
There are refurbed 1080tis in Amazon and you can buy 3 year warranties with it. About $300
DO NOT buy a 3050, id probably look in the used 3060 12GB or 3070 range unless you can find some good newer options form AMD or possibly intel
Honestly buying video cards at the moment sucks. With the inflated prices. What sounds reasonable and worth buying would be an AMD 9070 or 9070xt. The price to performance on these cards seem to only make sense. Again these cards that are 800$ but if budget is really sensitive, a 4060ti would be the second best option. I would rather buy new than pre owned, that way you have manufacturer warranty on it. Which I think in your case it would make sense if anything happens in the future. Also would like to add dlss would help achieve the 240hz. Although fornite is a competitive game and you would want dlss off, single player games or non competitive online games would benefit.
If you’re wanting to match or slightly outperform what he had, RX 7600 XT which is near $400 right now. At $500 you can get a performance uplift with the RX 6800 . . .
6700 XT might be an option though most listings are used/renewed.
I can’t answer what you’re risk tolerance is though, but I’d look into the performance and prices of those models.
to all thats saying its not an upgrade you are totally correct. But, if your playing a game where ray traycing is required, want to take advantage of dlss, want compatibility for a longer time or simply want a card thats newer. its still may be worthwhile. Especially for titles like the new doom or indiana jones which simply require ray traycing. Or even games like the oblivion remaster because dlss is basically a requirment if your card isn’t an absolute beast.
Don’t buy a 3050 you’re just downgrading your performance just keep the 1080 TI if you can’t afford something better
amd has better options, much better fps at a lower price
Is the pc running fine with image output on a different card or on motherboard graphics? I’d suggest, which you may have done, isolating it to a gpu problem. It’s also harder to verify a pc is running fine without visual output.
>Would this Best Buy GPU be a qood idea for $230
No. 3050s are trash. A lot of people are going to down vote this, but 3060s are trash too and should be avoided. 3060 Tis are a completely different product from Nvidia with MUCH better performance.
>or is there something else we should try
$250 Intel B580 was supposed to be the budget option for current generation cards, but if you cannot get one for that price maybe look at a used 6700 XT, 6750 XT, 2080 Ti, 3080, etc. What I would not do at this point is buy something with 8 GB or less of memory, unless the price is too good to be true, “throwing good money after bad”
>and/or is a refurbished GPU too risky also if we’re trying to be fiscal with the purchase?
Private sales from local sellers is now the ONLY budget option for PC gaming.
Second-hand is always a risk, but it should be good if you can pick it up and see it working. I have bought a 960 Second-hand and used it for about 4 years, and now have a second-hand 1070 that is still running well after 6+.. If you are looking to increase your performance, you would need to go for a 3070 or 4060 Ti. Either of these secondhand or even a 2080(super), could save some money.
I would look at used GPUs on eBay. You’ll get buyer protection from eBay, and there are much better value cards on the used market. Something like a 2070 super or 2080 would be good.
Get a 3070 over the 3050. You can probably still make a little off the card for someone who’s willing to risk repairing it.
Sell the 1080ti on eBay on auction as replacement parts, buy a used 3080 “12gb” (very important that is 12gb variant, not 10gb) for around $350. Prices for used cards can be negotiated down.
Wouldn’t the intel arc be a better choice and more of the same price with 4060 specs?
Do NOT buy the RTX 3050, get a RX 6700XT or RTX 3060 12GB instead. They should both be under $350 used, although you can also still find some new if you look around. Just make sure to wipe the drivers when you switch cards, so you can install the new ones.
Think used. Brand new lower tier gpu’s are terrible value these days. A 4060 for example is beaten by a 3060ti ….which is how old? Dark times.
Aim for 3060ti at a minimum, better yet a 3070 or there bouts.
3060 12gb minimum
I will be referencing the used market prices (Ebay) since that is where I generally shop for computers parts. I also have an bias of knowledge towards Nvidia GPUs
If you’re willing to save up some more, RTX 3070 cards seem to hang around $300. That is the card I personally use. However, it would most likely be overkill for the current use, assuming a 1080p, 240 hz monitor on Fortnite.
Around $230, I see some RTX 3060 12GB cards. This is significantly better than the 3050 you referenced.
If you need to save money (I work with a lot of extremely low budgets, so I always suggest a cheaper option), there are many cards that would run Fortnite at good framerates, but maybe not at 240 hz (depending on in-game settings). If reaching that framerate isn’t a concern, then something like a GTX 1070 goes for around $100. That is a worse card than the GTX 1080 TI, mind you.
This is all from a quick glance at the market, to qualify.
The new Intel ARC GPUs are great and are very cheap by comparison, definitely worth a look
Hey, Ik you probably wont see this but have you tried to update the bios manually? I had a rig 6 years ago when i was living with my dad that one day worked fine the next week wouldnt show anything on display but would boot up fine thought it was fried as well but after getting an entire new pc and having my friend come help me with temp issues on it he looked at my old one and found that a bios update fixed my no display issue. It’s worth a shot instead of spending the money on a whole new gpu. Just look up tutorial on flash bios if your motherboard has it
Just going to piggyback and say the market is destroyed. Aluminum has a tariff and Chinese (Taiwanese) silicon has a tariff and they amount to nearly 125%.
The market has upended itself, again.
A 6700xt/3070 would be good, to those saying a 3060ti, that’s a better card but it isn’t exponentially better. The list of cards you’d want to look at in your market that may be sub $500 would be:
For AMD: 6700, 6700xt, 6800, 6800xt, 7700xt, 7800xt.
For Nvidia: 2080ti, 3070, 3070ti, 3080 (probably your best bet and value as they go for about $400), 4070*-4070 super
For Intel: Arc B580 and nothing else, and frankly I may suggest avoiding it as it’s only Intels second GPU generation and they’re still working it out.
*if you can find a 4070 sub $500 grab it and run.
Ok you presuming the gpu is dead way to quick
Its probs either the cable or the monitor gpus dieing is pretty rare
Also the gpu you are gonna replace it with is infact worse then the 1080
get a new graphic card at least a 12 gb card
tell your son to wait a bit. you have the golden card.
essentially, there hasn’t been a huge architectural update for NVIDIA since the 10 series, unless you count FSR, which most people don’t prefer, or something AI related.
if you do upgrade, I would consider a 16gb model minimum, and perhaps wait until NVIDIA, AMD, and INTEL finish their product lineups for the year.
You’re a great dad either way.
its a downgrade, loads of people are dumping their old gpus for the new gen (as silly as it is), maybe look on the used marketplace or try and find bargains, theres loads out there, for GPUs id recomment something with 12gb+ of vram since almost every new game is munching on vram to the point where its a common bottleneck (aka, youll see huge performance boosts even with a 4gb increase), id recomment the 60ti of any generation 3000 and up, or a 70 if you can get a good deal on it (again, lots of people are just trying to get rid of their old cards)
Don’t just look at NVIDIA. Especially at lower price points Radeon is usually better price/performance
Don’t go to Best Buy. Call around to you local PC shops. They can get you a better setup, and they know what they are doing. You might get lucky, and they might have a replacement GPU for you, or they can build you a noce one for your price range.
How much is 5060?
May I introduce : rx7800xt
1080Ti is a tad slower than a 3070. 3050 that you wanna replace it with will be a very noticeable downgrade.
The 1080ti is much faster than the 3050.
Try to see if you can get a 6700XT. It’s an amazing card
Hey look on the bright side the good news is you have a 1080 TI right