The prices of Graphics cards were touching the sky because of their usage in crypto-mining in the recently passed trend of digital currencies. The AMD cards were the most affected ones because one of their flagship card of 2017 did not get to see itself inside a gaming PC, the mining affected the Nvidia cards the same way, but they did manage to have one or two pieces in the markets or at the e-commerce sites. The prices were 30-40% higher than they were in Q4 of 2017 right at the time when the cryptocurrency was rising.
The gaming community was so much affected by mining that forced Nvidia to give out some statements against this mining scenario, GPU mining continued for almost nine months and now at the end of Q2 2018 due to the downfall in the prices of the cryptocurrency mainly of Ethereum and Bitcoin. The prices are slightly going down due to a huge surplus in the market; it is expected that at the mid of Q3 2018 the prices will be equal to the prices before mining.
Since the prices of the Graphics cards are tamed to some extent nowadays; potential buyers would like to have some suggestions on which card they should buy? Or even should they buy Graphics card at this crucial time as Nvidia’s 11Th generation graphics are just on the verge of the announcement.
If you are that person, then look no further as this article will guide you through the struggle of thinking whether you should buy the card now or wait for a few weeks. We have compiled a list of cards that were most affected by the mining and now are most affected regarding the fall in the prices, depending on their performance and the fall in the price.
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti
The flagship 10th generation card from Nvidia that was designed to provide 4k gaming at its pinnacle was deeply affected by the mining,and due to a shortage of supply,it was retailing at around $1400 two months ago, although its MSRP is around $699 only. Before the start of the mining it was retailing at around $749, and now due to excess amount of used 1080Ti its prices have fallen tremendously, and it is retailing at around $879, the price drop is around 39% that could be a deal maker for some of the consumers.
Regarding performance, this card is the performance powerhouse with 11GB GDDR5X memory and 3,584 CUDA cores, that will ensure 4k gaming at the peak, it can run any recent AAA game with ease getting an average score of 27,317 in 3Dmark Graphics Score, that means if you are into 4k gaming than this card will ease your way through it. It is only second to the more expensive Nvidia Titan and Nvidia Titan XP that are not marketed towards “simple consumers” and gamers, so it is safe to say that this the best graphics card that you can own.
If you are looking for a high-end Graphics card that can run everything literally at the highest possible settings than the GTX 1080Ti should be the card in your list and if you are attracted to the new reduced price than you should wait for at least three to four weeks till the new cards are announced, following that the prices will reduce even further hopefully getting to the Q4 2017 mark at least. View Full Review!
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080
The defining feature of the pascal architecture at the lanch of the 10th generation of Nvidia’s graphics card was the GTX 1080, packed with 8GB GDDR5X memory and the “game mode” that boosts the clock speeds of the card upto 1898Mhz, unfortumately this card was also housed in the mining rigs for most of its life that caused its price to reach $769 mark that was very high compared to its MSRP that was only $549, this card was meant to provide best peroformance to price ratio but that could not happen, it is the best alternative to 1080Tiin terms of 4k gaming, with the 3DMark Graphics score of 21,756, that is enough if you want to test thing graphics card’s potential at 1440p or 4k on anny recent AAA title it will blast its way through the games with an average framerate of around 80 at 1440p and 30-40 at 4k, performing better than its direct competitor the AMD Vega 64 in all departments even in power consumption.
Its retail price is a bit lower than its MSRP, if you are looking for this card to occupy a two or three card slot in your gaming pc than it is the best time to buy it or you could wait a while since the next generation is bound to release and the prices are expected to fall even further.
AMD Radeon Vega 64
The card that was supposed to bring AMD out of the shadows with MSRP of only $499 and 8Gb of HBM 2 memory that is almost as good as GDDR5 with 4096 stream processors was marketed by the name of VEGA 64, it promised best visuals in price of a higher budget Nvidia cards, but due to lack of AMD’s popularity among gamers and greater compatibility with Ethereum mining caused this card to rot in one of the mining rigs making the AMD’s promises obsolete.It has an average score of 20,766 in 3DMark graphics, it can be used to play the recent games such as Fallout 4, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Forza Horizon 3 at 4k with decent framerates making it a cheaper substitute of the GTX 1080, but due to serious unavailability its price got up to $860 in Q2 of 2018, nowadays it is retailing at an average price of around $700.
If you are one of those 0.1% gamers that are looking for this card than you would have to pay a price that is almost double of its MSRP even after the mining has subsided. It is suggested that going for Nvidia GTX 1070 Ti would be a better bet, with no availability issues, performance is pretty much comparable, and the price is even lower. View Full Review!
AMD Radeon RX 570
If you are looking for a higher mid-end graphics card than look no further AMD Radeon RX 570 is one of the few graphics cards that was somewhat “saved” from mining rigs due to the lesser compute units. It was a slight update from the last gen version with higher clock speeds and it also comes in two VRAM dependent variant 4GB and 8GB; the 8GB model is a future proof one as the newer games require more and more VRAM as it scored 11,677 in our benchmark, that shows it is quite capable of running games at 1080p with ultra settings, but due to lesser compute units it struggles to hit that sweet 60fps spot in more demanding games.
As it was mentionedearlier, it was one of those graphics cards that were saved from the rage of the miners. As a result, it was not that overpriced at the peak times of mining; the price was around $350 at that time while the MSRP was $290. It is now retailing at an average price of around $300, if you are looking for this card than this should be the right time to buy. View Full Review!
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Ti
Nvidia GeForce® GTX was released to provide affordable QHD gaming with the MSRPof $449 that remained the same at the end of Q4 of 2017, but after that the prices were riding on a rollercoaster at the start of 2018 the prices were around $580 that was not that bad, but after that the prices rose even higher averaging around $600, the card that was meant to last at gaming rigs suffered the same fate as any other card of this generation.
The specifications of this card include 8GB GDDR5X memory with 2,432 CUDA cores clocked at 1683Mhz that will provide better performance than the GTX 1070 with the 3DMark score of 19,827, this card was marketed towards the community that plays at 1440p as the benchmark score suggests it can easily run almost every game at the afore-mentioned resolution even at ultra settings with frame rates averaging just about 60-70 for more demanding titles, while it’s Max-Q version is usually used in gaming laptops that offer 1080p gaming at higher refresh rates.
If you are looking for this card than this is the best time for you as it’s founder’s version is now retailing at its MSRP at Nvidia’s website, while its afterparty variants are retailing at an average price of $470 that is a bit higher than it MSRP, but theseprices are subject to change as the next generation will be released soon, it is expected that the prices will get even lower. View Full Review!
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
This card was designed for the 80% of the gaming community that is still playing games at 1080p according to Steam. It has 1,280 CUDA cores clocked at 1708Mhz and 6GB of GDDR5 memory that is enough to provide performance at 1080p resolution in almost every game that you throw towards this card. It got 12,765 points in 3DMark’s graphics benchmark, whichsolidifies the fact that it can run almost every game at 1080p with ease while the lesser demanding games can be run at 1440p at slightly lower settings making it one of the best contenders in 1080p gaming genre.
At the end of the Q4 2017 this card was retailing at $270, that became $340 at the start of Q2 2018 due to (you know it) mining, now as mining has subsided it is now retailing at around $300 that is slightly higher than its MSRP, but it could end up a better bargain than any other higher-mid end card. View Full Review!
AMD Radeon RX 560
The Radeon RX 560 was AMD’s low-end graphics card that aimed towards the low-end community that cannot even afford Nvidia’s budget lineup, this card comes with 2GB GDDR5 memory with memory interface of 128-bit, the card was specially optimized for the esports games like DOTA 2, FIFA and CS:Go sometime performing better than its rivals from Nvidia, with a score of 6,365 in 3DMark’s graphics test, such a low score indicates that it can only run less demanding and older games, as mentioned earlier it is marketed towards the esports gamers, It was also crowned to be the first AMD card that was less than $140 at the time of release.
It performed better than the expectations in the games giving the most efficient price to performance ratio, with framerates around the 50s in the esports titles and lower 30s in the AAA titles at low settings, it is now retailing at around $139, following the fall from $160, it’s a good deal if you happen to find one of these.
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 (4Gb, 3Gb and 2Gb)
Infuriated by the mining problem faced by the graphics cards Nvidia announced its budget SKUS at a very crucial time, GTX 1050 lineup were these cards retailing at only $139 for the 1050Ti model, $119 for 1050 2Gb model and the recently announced 3GB model the price of which is not announced yet, providing Nvidia’s best price to performance ratio. These cards were marketed as the budget 1080p cards that can run every game at slightly lower graphical setting, while for esports games are a piece of cakefor these cards.
These cards were the Nvidia’s answer to cryptocurrency. As a result, they were expected to be safeguarded from but the 1050Ti model was at the mercy of the miners for a long time due to its 4GB VRAM, it could be used in mining. However, the other models were not that affected, but they also suffered the increased price tags retailing at the start of Q2 2018 at $220 for 1050Ti and $170 for the 1050 2GB.
Now since the mining has subsided, the prices are now at a lot less level with GTX 1050Ti retailing around $190 while the 2GB version is retailing at $140. The prices are good if you want to make a low-end PC, as the low-end cards of the next generation will be announced a bit later. View Full Review!
Nvidia GeForce GT 1030
The only graphics card family from Nvidia that has never been affected by GPU mining is their GTlineupwhich provides gaming at such a low budget that it seems too good to be true. The 10th generation version GT 1030 has 2GB GDDR5 memory that has the 64-bit memory interface, with 384 CUDA cores clocked at 1468Mhz. This card can run a few games at 60FPS mostly the older ones, it can also play recent esports titles to some extent, although the experience would not be as good as you would expect, as it only scored 3,604 in the 3DMark’s graphics benchmark.
If you are looking for this card, you can get it around $90, although its MSRP was only $70, the price is still currently high but definitely not as high as it got during crypto-mining trend.
Verdict
To conclude, if you are looking for a high-end model like GTX 1080, GTX 1080Ti, Radeon VEGA 54 then waiting would be a viable option as the newer 11th generation cards are releasing soon that will cause the prices of these cards to fall even further. On the other hand, if you are looking for a low-end model than it is the right time to buy one as the prices are comparable with their MSRPs and they are subject to change anytime so, the sooner, the better.