As many of you guys already know, the crypto mining boom affected the GPU prices and giants like Newegg, Amazon and BestBuy were out of stock. On the contrary, GPU prices have already started to fall recently. Now it’s not the time to buy yet. However, it is the time to start thinking about what model we all need to target in the near future, especially most of the guys who have gone through this.
Since the start of 2017, as soon as the first Cryptocurrency took off and literally all the GPUs were sold out on not just the giant sellers but even the PC storefronts around the corner. As we all remember in the December of 2017 Bitcoin hit its then high of over $16,000 and that was just the beginning of an era of the cryptocurrencies. They have become household names since then. We have mentioned some of the best cheap Nvidia graphics cards list comprised on the best affordable GPUs ranked according to their performances, prices and proficiencies.
Table of Contents
- The Right Time to Buy GPUs
- Cheap Budget Friendly 1080p GPUs
- The 16 Super Series
- Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060
- Nvidia RTX 3060s
- Nvidia RTX 3060Ti
- Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 – One of the best graphics cards of all time
- 1080p vs 1440p and the gaming monitors
- Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080s – Best of all GPUs for Performance
- Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090, RTX 3080 or RTX 3080Ti
- Conclusion
However, in the next few months it proceeded to fall right off a cliff. You would see the gaming and PC storefronts near you which went from having literally zero GPUs on the shelves to within several months being full and the price returning to almost normal. Although we had a two year run through until mild-2020s. We all know what’s been going on for the last year with the price of Ethereum surging and then falling back off. Here the point for the whole discussion is, although we may have several opportunities to buy GPUs at reasonable prices, hopefully with better inventories coming up, more on that towards the end.
The Right Time to buy GPUs
Our last time-frame was about 2 years or even more just to buy relatively well priced GPUs and most of us did that. That’s why the stocks were out everywhere. However, crypto currencies are not going away and we all know that Ethereum is not the only currency that you can mine with the GPU. So we all need to know what we are targeting and when we see it at a reasonable price, buy it and don’t look back.
Cheap Budget Friendly 1080p GPUs
The first two GPUs that we have realized some folks are going to target are very basic but good GPUs and that’d be the 1050 Ti and the Radeon R9 380X. Those two cards are the cheapest graphics cards you can find these days. However, to some extent they are good to get done most of the jobs for video editing software, games and streaming etc.
Note: The Prices May Vary Overtime
They have 4 GBs of RAM on board. Any less than that, you’re not gonna be able to have a very good time with the modern gaming titles, especially the newer games that will inevitably come out this fall such as Battlefield. These cards are currently into the category of about $250 price ranges. However, the way prices are dropping, they should soon return to the $100-150 price ranges. Now keep in mind these cards are not without compromises.
They may include things like lowering your settings so you can have a playable frame rate and you may even have to lower your resolution. If you are playing harder to run games like War Zone or the new Battlefield that’ll come out this year in 2021 and other games releasing in 2022. Cards in this price range are for the gaming enthusiasts that are on a very limited budget. Or maybe they are just taking a first crack of building a PC and don’t want to get overly financially involved in it.
The 16 Super Series
Cheap 1080p 60 FPS GPUs For All Type of Games
The next graphics Card that we should give serious consideration to is GeForce 1660 Super. And the reason we brought about this GPU is really a basic graphics card because you are going to be able to play pretty much all your games at 1008p at minimum 60 frames per second.
Some games like Valorant, CSGO and other popular Esports titles, you will be able to do well above 60 FPS. However, it is very hard to run games like War Zone or the next Battlefield game. You may have to sacrifice some settings to keep your FPS in the reach that you want it to. We all saw this great GPU GeForce 1660 Super in stock everywhere on online stores for about $330. Now that’s being sold at about $100 over regular MSRP.
It looks like things are going to turn around a bit and this is going to be one of the first ones that’s going to return back to its original price range and hopefully very soon available everywhere. With this GeForce 16 Series you get a true entry level 1080p card for about $325 when we work our way up to 1080p mainstream.
Where to buy GTX 1660 Super Series
Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060
Affordable RTX 2060 GPU Options
We assume that the gaming folks are going to ask about once popular RTX 2060 graphics cards in general. Well, the thing to keep in mind is RTX 2060s cards in large quantities haven’t been made in over a year. They stopped production of Nividia turing to make way for the Ampere production.
While reading popular Nvidia review blogs it looks like Nvidia is cutting back the RTX 2060 production so they can get more Ampere cards made which might sound alarming to some ears. But for all those who are looking for affordable GPU options RTX2060s are worth trying.
eBay Options
Nvidia RTX 3060s
The affordable, efficient and ideal mining GPUs
Now, if they have the mining GPUs online, we really feel like the ideal affordable GPU card for 1080p up to 144 Hz are going to be the Nvidia RTX 3060 and that is also if you could find one the Nvidia GeForce 3060 Ti. Those are the graphics cards that are not going to break your bank account. However you are going to be able to really crack up FPS at 1080p at least all the way up to 144 Hertz. And you can also get to include a fair amount of details, to run your games at ultra settings to enjoy new and old games that require a tremendous amount of GPU power. .
So these are great cards for that mid-level efficiency which is still great in 1080p they probably never were $329 and you will probably never find one for $329 now but almost double the price at this moment. However, the new Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060’s just a few weeks ago were selling on eBay for over a thousand dollars, not just that but every other graphics card was over a thousand dollars. Now you’ll see the different picture, they are being sold around $600-700.
And that is a big move so far since their price hike. Please keep in mind, we are not saying just go out and pay $700 for the RTX 3060 right now. If you know you have or you are going to buy 144 Hertz 1,080p monitor and you want to play your games, cranked up to that speed and run high details and ultra settings, you can go to buy them. This would be a terrific card for you to target when prices continue to come down pretty soon which we expected.
Where to buy Nvidia RTX 3060 GPUs
Nvidia RTX 3060Ti
Well, the reality is Nvidia is not making tons of 3060Tis lately. Right now, they use the same Ti in the 3060Ti that they use on the Nvidia RTX 3070, and they haven’t and they want to disable the cores on those Tis to go ahead and produce 3060 Tis. They have been taking almost all of them to produce Nvidia RTX 3070s which are better equipped with the modern techiness.
Where to buy RTX 3060Ti
eBay Options
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 – One of the best graphics cards of all time
Speaking of the Nvidia RTX3070, this is probably the highest value graphics card in the stack and gives best results, and by and large gets the best reviews for the dollar out there of any of the Ampere lineup.
Well, it’s got a price target of $500. Again, we may never get back to $500 at that’s how things were. We do think you are going to be able to get a nice overclock card for probably less than $700 in the months to-come. And what’s really special about these 3070s will do two things really well. If you take your 1080p gaming very seriously like the most of the streamers do, and you want your eSports titles cranked up to 240 Hertz, then this is definitely the graphics card to get. It will run 1080p at a very high refresh rate.
1080p vs 1440p and the gaming monitors
It will also let you crank up some of the settings in a lot of the games out there. The other thing that the RTX3070 does so well is 1440, 144 Hertz gaming and a lot of the mainstream games could be played properly with this. The RTX 3070 on the 144 Hertz 1440 monitor comes close to maxing out the monitor or in some cases max out the monitor. But provides a relatively good, stable FPS to play at that resolution. Like a lot of other GPUs, they’ve been sky high on the secondary market for quite some time which alarmed the whole gaming community especially due to the boom of GPU mining. However, now you are starting to see them come down to $900 on the pre-owned market.
And that’s why we have been saying pretty soon the saturation will dry out, we feel like you could pick up a GeForce RTX 3070 or somewhere in the $700 range. When we say $700 dollars range some folks probably went to say “ not paying over MSRP”. We don’t think we are ever going to get back to MSRP any soon or ever, but it’s not that big a deal to pay a little bit extra. Speaking specifically on the Nvidia RTX 3070, if your monitor upgrade is due and you haven’t decided on high refresh 1080 or 144 Hertz 1440, this is definitely the GPU to get because it’ll handle either one very well without staggering or as such.
Where to Buy RTX3070
eBay
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080s – Best of all GPUs for Performance
The demand, supply and price of RTX 3080 and 1440p/240Hz Vs 4K
Well, it was inevitable as we worked our way up the stack and we hit something like 144,240 Hz or 4K. There’s only a few options left for us to explore, and that brings us to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 or RTX 3080 Ti. These are really the only graphics cards that are going to be able to drive that many pixels that fast for gaming. Well, the problem is really going to be with the price on the RTX 3080 or with some of the ampere cards that are large.
It looks like they are all going to start to return to the normal pricing very soon. However, the biggest problem you are going to have on the RTX 3080 is going to be scarcity versus demand. It’s going to be a very in demand graphics card, perhaps the most in demand graphics card, as so many gamers are moving up to 1440p.
More and more we are going to get esports gamers that are used to that 240Hz or 360Hz Super flowy refresh rate. They are making the jump up to 1440p, and of course, they don’t want to play in 144Hz. So they need a RTX 3080 GPU, then there are people like the ones, who just enjoy the resolution of having a 1440p monitor. So they are going to want a RTX 3080 also. So the in demand ratio for the RTX 3080 is gonna be completely out of question.
Where to buy Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 GPUs
eBay
RTX 3090 The Most Powerful Graphics Card
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090, RTX 3080 or RTX 3080Ti
Well what about the 3090? Even if you can’t get a RTX 3080, they’re still going to be around. And Yes, they absolutely are going to be around. The RTX 3090 is probably the most powerful consumer driven GPU on the market right now, or at least in a very close tie with the 6 900 XT.
The problem, of course, with the RTX 3090 is even at regular pricing, we are still looking at almost a $2000 GPU. So Let’s say things return to normal pretty soon, and you have RTX 3080 selling for just under a thousand bucks or maybe the $800-900 range. But they are a little bit tight on supply.
So if you look at a RTX 3090, you are probably still looking at something close to $2000. And we are a little bit too soon to tell what kind of supply is going to be out there for the RTX 3080Ti. Remember, it’s using the same Ti as the RTX 3090, and it was a fill in between the RTX 3080 and the RTX 3090. Nvidia wouldn’t have to disable so many of the cords and sell it as cheap or RTX 3080.
Where to buy Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090
eBay
Conclusion
As we mentioned in the beginning, crypto currencies are not going anywhere any sooner and the GPU would be used to mine them. And whether it’s Ethereum or something else, there’s always going to be an up and coming that’s going to be mined by GPUs. This may be the new normal for the foreseeable future, or at least for quite some time. And why did we say paying a little bit more than MSRP is not a big deal? Well, first of all, we are not talking about cars, we are not talking about houses here. Just paying more than MSRP sucks.
It really does. But we’re not saying like, Hey, that’s a 200,000 dollar house, and it’s highly in demand. We are going to pay $250,000 for it. Maybe we are just talking about a $700 GPU, which is always going to be a little bit more expensive if it’s overclocked. So maybe normally that would be an $800 GPU, but in today’s times, you end up at $900 due to excessive crypto currency mining.
Last update on 2021-02-07. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
